@@KYRIE_eleison2 some day most who care about this will all be dead. And tik tok heads will make the decisions on “music.” Life itself is degrading in many ways.
Yes, it's sacrilege! But get over it. The industry and owners of the works will do what they will with what they own. And all industries need product even if it's fake. Take food, clothes, and social media for instance. Grow your own music! 😂
I agree, the recording industry needs to stop messing up already perfect recordings. The music industry standard doesn't include, "if it isn't broken don't fix it." Its delusional message is that auto tune and pitch correction are the Mr. Fix Its and all of music is horribly broken. But as Fil has pointed out time and time again, the industry is obsessed with being directly over the line and not with how music sounds. Hence, the music industry is now a wrecking ball.
@@glamgal7106 This is illogical to say "the industry". The industry is made up of lots of mix-engineers with varying Melodyne skills! 😂 And I've witnessed the chopping and tuning and tempo changing chaos of top ten vocals happen after the talent has walked out of the studio, as far back as 2001. Usually it's done well though. But it's just how it is for the last 27 years. I'd be more worried that fake food was created in the 1950s and governs all our problems now.
@@thekeysman6760 I worked on this album and "A celebration in song". Your comment is accurate. The music industry is complete chaos. The idea that there is any coordinated effort to change people's voices is ridiculous. You do the best you can with what you have. Everyone is very paranoid about putting out a single and having some douche radio programmer give you the "the vocal isn't in to tune" excuse for not playing it. That started happening because the existence of auto tune suddenly made people pay an inordinate amount of attention to the temperment of the vocal performance rather than just deciding whether it moved them or not.
I'm Horrified 😮 This is aweful and annoying. Keep bringing this to light, Fil. I love your musical, sound and pitch sensitivity and your analytical brain. Your knowledge is much appreciated!
It used to be a misguided choice to do all this, but today it is obvious they are grooming a new generation to accept AI music instead of paying artists. Shameful.
honestly I think (or hope really) it will backfire. I never really had a good ear for hearing autotune before, but since AI voices are everywhere now it's actually trained me to hear the more unnatural sounding voices. I've noticed autotune/pitch correction so much more recently
@@_Angry_Potato_, I think it already backfired. A teenager killed himself over a “relationship” with a chat bot. That’s going to lead to new laws regarding AI. It’s a shame that kids are out of touch with real humans, and put their trust in an AI bot.
@@SuziQ.It's crazy I was messing around with a AI app that any kid could use and it was straight getting into sexual talk lol and I mean dirty talk lol it was blowing my mind
That only works while it is still possible to identify with the naked ear/eye, which is already impossible to do for a lot of people who aren't musicians/audio engineers/artists etc. I think the unfortunate reality is that there won't be enough people who can tell the difference, and as the use of AI becomes more normalised with the upcoming generations, not enough people who will even care.
Betting the music industry doesn’t care and is moving forward with blinders on. Somehow, what they have done and will, has financial benefits and the common masses have only speculation of their motives.
@@5meoand… I believe, one of the ways that the new generations is being led down this path and AI being normalised is by auto tuning real vocalists. … it would be harder to tell the difference between an AI vocal and an auto tuned real vocal… groom and normalise
Singing used to be an art form. Now it seems to be just technology. I wish they would leave the older music alone. Alas, wishing doesn't make it so. An old saying that is still relevant. Thank you for this comparative analysis.
All I can think is they are trying to make us forget what human voice sounds like all together so that they don't have to pay artists at all. This is horrid.
Music is being dehumanised by those who run this World, to strip it of its healing properties and its magic. We have to fight against that by not listening to or even buying crap like this!
Everything is being dehumanized. Not just music. All the arts. Grooming people to be emotionless. It's sick but unfortunately it's unstoppable until the next renaissance.
@@davidplubell1869 If anything, it is the opposite - monitoring the brain to see what gives subjects "the feelz" and engineering the musical context around what does that for the average consumer in a given demographic. Like with boy bands, make sure 80% of teen girls will obsess over at least one member, so try to have enough different looks/sounds to hit as many marks while keeping some semblance of an organic band. Simon Cowell did it by insticnt, maurice Starr as well - now the process is more data driven.
Bravo, Fil on providing a great music analysis that had my ears prickling and my mind going--lots of sensitivity was happening here. Olivia Newton-John (may she rest in peace) was among the legendary singers whose vocals DID NOT need pitch correction. As you pointed out, the mechanical sound due to applying pitch correction robbed the natural abilities and most importantly, the CONNECTION created from her natural voice to her listeners. From one musician to another musician, I appreciate your integrity and sharing your knowledge. Thanks for reminding and teaching me, Fil!
Thanks for another informative analysis. Her natural voice would have been lovely enough for my ears. Bummer that even 2007 was pitch-edited. I find it a bit creepy to do new releases by people who have passed on.
I'm sure there will be some performers left "pristine" - so long as there is a demand for such a product there will be inventory maintained to fill it.
From a long time ONJ fan (since childhood) That ain’t her voice. They stole her soul right out of the song. I will stick with my vinyls of her ❤ The music industry need to stop this. We all eventually find out that their new promoted talent has none. And everything we’ve heard came out of a can.
You brought it to the point right there with what's going on with today's music! It's being dehumanised and robbed of its soul and magic by those who run this World, in order to spread darkness across the latter.
10:52 Saddest thing is that nowadays the audience are listening on their phone speaker or through the supermarket PA and they really don’t care what it sounds like.
I’m a DJ Fil, Drum n Bass, UK Jungle and techno (although I am also a massive metal/rock fan too). To record my mixes I use a program called Ableton Live. It’s used for music production (MIDI) although I only use it to record analogue mixes using my extensive vinyl collection. The latest version of this program (Live 12.1) now has pitch correction within the program. So if you want to record vocals, you can pitch correct them without having to use a plug in. You’re right, pitch correction is now sadly, pretty much the industry standard. Love the channel mate, kindest regards from not so sunny Herne Bay.
@@SuziQ. This is not the orignal recording, but she had just recovered from cancer. Puking your guts out from chemo tends to make your voice sound weird.
@@SuziQ. You mean she doesn't sound like she did in the 1970's? The rasp that you hear was there on the raw takes. As I said. She had gone through chemotherapy in the year leading up to this. It was put out independently and I believe she thought she better just do it because she just might not get to again.
Ugggh...they have seriously destroyed her original vocals! I cannot stand AI-fake vocals. Last night, I was watching 'The Voice,' here in the US, and they actually put AI autotune over Sting's vocals...insane!!!
@@trekkiejunk I’ve been producing for decades and there’s no way that degree of destructive artifacts is caused by a simple tempo change. Something else is going on, maybe with how the vox were isolated from the music.
This album has gone down like a chocolate fireguard with fans - and rightly so. This isn’t even the worst-affected song on the set! She deserves better than this treatment.
Forgetting ONJ being the singer, the producers of this have created a sound that I would refuse to listen to even to the point of leaving the theater or TV area to get away from it. Now when I consider that it is now twice removed from ONJ’s voice I heard for decades…I am at the point of losing any respect for music producers and sound engineers working today. This is a travesty that is disrespectful to the vocalist, original production staff and of course the fans of an artist known the world over. I do not applaud this trend that debases the recorded art even if it has been pitch corrected already. For me, this is a disgrace. Unions, guilds, etc., for the industry should excommunicate from their membership such producers that pervert recording artists’ creations in this manner. Unacceptable.
I've been watching your videos and admiring your work for over a year now but have never commented (to my knowledge). I'm so glad you have done this. I've been a fan and have been listening to Olivia for 50 years now, since I was a little boy and my dad played her 8-tracks in the car, so I know what she sounds like--and I know that she doesn't sound like a robot (as with the new release). We live in an artificial world now and it truly sucks. We want real voices with real talent and real instruments and not this AI alt-reality. God help us.
@@corybarnes2341, On tape. Speeding up a tape doesn’t leave robotic sounding artifacts, echoes, and note flips. Those methods should not be deemed equivalent.
Along with Karen Carpenter, Olivia Newton John is another one of my top favorite female singers! She also had a very beautiful voice as Karen did. I really do wish that the music industry would leave great singers voices alone! Auto tune and pitch correction do not do their voices justice! Thank you, Fil, for another amazing analysis! Keep on rockin'!
I am reminded of this lyric from Rush's "Natural Science" Computerized clinic for superior cynics Who dance to a synthetic band In their own image their world is fashioned No wonder they don't understand
Hi Phil, great channel and eye opener. I was going through some Radiohead videos and came across an acoustic recording of Street Spirit. It was for a Japanese TV show. I have never heard Thom perform so well. I would love to hear your take in this amazing performance.
Sounds like she's singing from under water. What's amazing to me is that producers actually think that this sounds better than the original. Or maybe, the listening public actually likes this. Either way, it's discouraging.
My theory is abuse nostalgia and rerelease something by just modifying it so more moneys. Maybe the money goes to he foundation or something but it just doesn’t sound good
@@5IveNDlme, “They” can release anniversary issues without messing up the sound. Whoever owns the publishing rights gets paid either way. It’s cheaper *not* to hire another engineer.
@ they may have purchased full rights to do whatever they want with it. As well, they will be doing it going forward to resell the same product to new generations who down want an anniversary release - as it dates it. Will be doing it with all music. Wait and see. Once ppl die off who care about these things the Tik tok generation will be the main “buyers.” They could care less much about any of this. Sad state of music as it’s been known dying off. Will become a more outlier to make old style real music some day.
Fil, thank you so much for taking on my suggestion to analyze. As noted in the other comments here, I am not the only one appalled. To others, see the comments on the original video - loads of people are disgusted by this.
For me the issue is that they are capitalizing on her name! This song could have been redone by many others and there would be no issue! So I'm all for boycotting this but only as it uses her name in what I consider an abusive way and is not a true representation of her works!
They keep doing this! I can't stress enough that they did a re-recording of "Your Love is My Love" by Whitney Houston, and they COMPLETELY ruined her voice! It didn't even sound like her!
@@Tinuvielthefair What a shame. Personally i also like the new jolly instrumentation of 'Angels in the snow" as well as the original one....but that voice should have been left there as it was.Human.I find it rather disrespectful if not kinda blasphemous to 'throw' the voice of someome who has passed in a "proccesssed machinery"...As for Whitney...no i don't even want to listen to any 're-recording".I insist to her original,her supreme purity.Period.
@alexioverdo5225 it's a sped up techno version, much like this version, I'm guessing, I wouldn't be apprised if they sped up her vocals as well, but it's HEAVILY processed, which no one should ever do to her voice. It's really a shame. I almost didn't recognize the voice it was that processed.
Olivia’s magnificent voice needed no correction in the first place. That said, I would sure be interested in seeing a side-by-side comparison of a re-release/remaster where the original pre-dated pitch correction
The pitch correction software has difficulty if it has to perform tempo change and pitch correction of a very variable vocal! This results in 'sonic artifacts' hence the odd sounds!
Anyone else just want to cry? That they even did pitch correction to her while she was alive is so disturbing. I grew up with Olivia, Karen, Linda et al. That this was done so recently is so sad. I mean the 2007 pitch correction on top the sped it up also. Just wow. From the current lot, and a bit of a switch. Anyone here listen to Silent Night by the Thomas sisters? Am I the only one hearing robotic voices, I mean like crazy? So many positive reactions it’s so sad. I can’t say this anywhere else, I’ll get my hear handed to me. I’ve asked Fil to look/listen. I know he looked in the beginning of the year. You’d think they’d stop, but no.
Speeding up the tempo of a recording also requires pitch correction, in order to maintain the original pitch. You can think of it as "global" pitch correction, rather than the targeted, note-specific pitch correction used in auto-tune, but it uses the same technological principles.
Yes! If you speed up a recording by simply playing it faster it will rise in pitch and vocals will sound chipmunky. Speeding up the tempo at constant pitch means cutting out minuscule bits from the original sound to make it shorter without going sharper. And this is what makes the smooth vibrato turn into an edgy, tremulous bleat - if you snip out small bits from a smooth curve you cannot but end up with stepwise changes and spurious "corners" that sound like a mix of yodelling and vocal fry or hoarseness. Happens with any vocal track when you play it at 1.5x speed in TH-cam (where a very simple but typical "global speed-change" algorithm is used).
It’s sad that even the 2007 version was pitch corrected (she didn’t need it), but that at least sounded like her! This dreadful new cd is truly a disaster! She have never sounded so bad in her lifetime!
I think you may find this interesting… I’m watching the new release on Netflix called “Maria” about Maria Callas the opera singer. In a scene one of her records is being played and she tells the man to “turn it off”. She never listens to her own records. The man asks her why. She replies “ because it’s perfect, , and a song should never be perfect , it should be performed in that moment differently to every other time” I heard that and thought how brilliant. That’s EXACTLY what we miss as a result of all the AI, auto tune and falseness that pervades the music we now listen to.
As I've posted before- They're trying to make AI the "standard tuning" everyone hears as "normal", in order to put out the artists THEY control, and who will carry a narrative/agenda to "We The People", of THEIR choosing, and not have to worry they'll go off the rails, and lose control. It's not only costing fans the joy of TRUE music, it's EVIL, meant to manipulate and deceive.
One thing I'd like to point out if it hasn't been mentioned is that they are using digital means to speed up the vocal, not simply increasing the sample rate (the digital equivalent of varispeed on analog equipment) otherwise the pitch wouldn't be the same in both versions (as they are). So using an algorithm to digitally speed up as opposed to adjusting the sample speed to speed it up certainly makes it sound more robotic. Thank you, Fil, for continually pointing out this terrible practice of mixing with the eyes, rather than the ears. Who in their right mind would have thought that the re-release sounded good? It's not an improvement by any means.
That gated delay also makes it sound more modern and fake. The original has lush reverb with a moderate large room size but the new one has a small room reverb and gated delay. Plus they probably have a send to a track that is blending in a touch of distortion or fuzz making it sound more gritty and rough. It’s just crappy modern production to a T.
I'm 32 and I really don't listen to much music from the 2000s and on, to me it became pretty clear when they started running everything through pitch correction. I just got really heavy into Steely Dan this year and Donald Fagen's voice has so much character, could you imagine if they would have dulled it by putting it through pitch correction? It would ruin it! Lol. There are some great modern bands though. Fleet Foxes, Tame Impala, Thundercat, they do exist thankfully, just with pitch correction which I can handle in those cases
Sad what they did to Olivia’s voice. Sounds so echoey! Just like you said Fil, sounds like it’s coming from a loud speaker. Not an improvement, for sure.
Good analysis. I’ve never heard this. And yes it’s not very good. I don’t think Olivia would like it either. That’s one of many reasons why I don’t listen to remake of songs. From Olivia or anyone else.Glad that I missed this song. I’m not missing anything.If I want to hear Olivia I just listen to her songs from the past.😕Hopefully these fools stop doing things like that. Especially from Olivia fans.And maybe her friends and family.👎
That new version sounds so not human. If I came up with something in audacity that ended up like that I'd bin it. Who'd think it's a good idea to release it as something?
This sounded so weird, and I don't think I would have realized it was from speeding it up, but you're right, the vibrato sounds odd. So, they sped up the vocals, and then pitch corrected everything back down to the previous pitch corrected level, because the speeding up would have raised the pitch, right? That seems like a lot of work, but maybe it isn't. But WHY?? Why even do it? It makes no sense.
I'd like to see you analyze Maria Callas singing the 'Queen of the Night' aria from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' because some of her singing in it was almost inhuman in its accuracy. Other opera singers also performed the aria flawlessly but Callas is the one I remember the best. Maybe a comparison of different singers doing it. Maybe add in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra 'Queen of the Winter Night' version. Might be interesting. Though as good as some of the TSO singers were it isn't not really fair to compare them to professional opera singers when it comes to vocal technique.
What I want to know is when will Fil do an analysis of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits & Leonard Cohen to see if they were using auto tune or pitch correction? And what about Tiny Tim & Yoko Ono? I smell a cover up here.
"Sadly, nowadays it's an industry standard to put everything through a pitch correction." Yes, it is very sad. This remind me of how it's become common practice to put just about every photo you see online through one of those auto enhancing filter apps. They alter facial features at times and make people look plastic.
Question, did you mention speeding up a vocal is not a good practice as it disconnects the audience from the singer? Well, what about Strawberry Fields? Weren't parts Of John Lennon's vocals sped up? It was an artistic choice, and you can hear it on the record too. Anyway, good video as usual.
Just cannot win. In the old days, out of tune used to drive me crazy. Then once autotune started, the artifacting was obvious to my ears. I find now any tuning issues from the old recordings is preferable to this remastered AT garbage today.
My conspiracy theory is that they are conditioning listeners to get used to pitch correction until it seems natural to them. And THEN, soon enough, not only will songs almost exclusively be written by AI, but so will AI be doing all the performances. Same goes for movies. Has anyone ever seen the Albert Finney movie Looker?
I haven’t seen Looker. I’ll (see myself out) look for it. There’s an ad that drives me crazy angry, and I finally figured out why- the actors are fake.
I read recently that even in the 60s and 70s, some songs that were released as singles on the radio had the speed increased to make the song feel more "exciting" or ear catching. That's why the album versions, or even the 45 versions you could buy did not sound like what you might have remembered. I don't think people realize that tech has been used since recording music started. Of course an artist wants to sound the best they can sound, and they take many takes to create that. But even the most talented, perfect vocalists have the final product having been altered in some way post production. I think my problem is I don't like digital correction, recordings or "remastering". But since so many of the actual masters of songs have been burned in a fire, something is better than nothing. I guess. In this case it has sapped the warmth out of Olivia Newton John's voice, and that's pretty hard to do. Not many toastier voices out there.
Once even one copy of a record has left the factory and survived, nobody cares a rat's *ss if the master has been destroyed. Records sounded decent well back into the 1950s, and technology is available to deal with mechanical problems like noisy grooves and scratches very effectively. Result if done properly: The identical sound that customers bought on vinyl back then, in pristine condition. And that's all we need for the old recordings. Not even Gen-Z brains are (or should be) so narrowly one-tracked to not be able to enjoy the sound that Hi-Fidelity equipment was capable of 50 or 70 years ago!
Phil Spector actually had an AM transmitter built into his studio and would get into people's cars in the lot to listen before making his final tweaks. Yes, speeding up a recording will drift it sharp, but the effect is much more thrilling when it is a soloist playing slightly sharp over an accompaniment that is playing to the line.
@@truesoundchris You are missing the money aspect. Vinyl is being remade today off of vinyl recordings and the quality is horrendous and the prices do not reflect that. "Digital remastering" sounds pretty bad when corners are cut. I think I will stick with a quote from Danny Elfman who, when asked if he planned on "remastering" his catalogue off music just said "No, I hadn't really considered it, I think they were mastered correctly in the fist place?". Paraphrasing, but yeah. Depends on who'd doing the recording, how, and on what. .I personally can tell the difference between my original album of Pink Floyd and "digital remasters" of it, and even with a band as talented and professional as PF, the difference is there, it's not subtle, and the 1970s album sounds far better. JMO.
Phil, If the audio is speeded up, it's pitch rises consistently throughout. So its pitch needs to be artificially lowered throughout to get back into tune. No need for 'manual' pitch correction, but the pitch of the whole piece needs dropping consistently. Merry Christmas, and Happy, Peaceful new year. 🎅🎉 ☮
@@dmacnet Thank you for replying. I don't doubt that. However, it's an extra piece of processing operating within that step. Simply speeding up the vocals alone doesn't give the entire result we hear and see. The original has also had pitch adjustment applied as part of creating the new release. So pitch adjustment was not restricted to the original. Merry Christmas. ☮
The original sounds so much better. Who is making these horrible decisions? Ultimately it is a handful of producers who are making these decisions. Pretty d*mned arrogant of them to think they know better!
Thanks, Fil.❤🇦🇺 How can we protest about these butchers? Send emails, letters, carry placards, refuse to buy anything etc...? They're turning a body of work into a corpse. And, changing our history! It's a crime. What can we do? 😡😢
Imagine one of the most magical voices since decades before pitch correction sounding almost robotic because technology is awesome, so disrespectful and sad.
I suspect that this kind of nonsense will continue to happen as long as there are listeners/consumers who are fine with it. Only when there's no demand can there be no supply!
I went to see the Young'uns in Sunderland last night. If you don't know them then you should! Three blokes from Teesside singing mainly acapella - though David Eagle, who is blind is an amazing piano player - singing sea shanties, wassail songs and their own beautiful songs. No gimmicks, no pitch correction or autotune - totally amazing and a wonderful night. This is now very very rare but there are still groups like the Young'uns out there - thank goodness!!
I watched the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree show on TV last week and Backstreet Boys performed. They sounded pretty good, but I heard autotune on some notes. It wasn't super obvious, which is why I think they didn't really need it at all, but when I mentioned it to people that I wish they weren't using autotune, everyone told me they weren't. Only one person agreed with me and said there was vocal processing and autotune. But then I started wondering if maybe I was wrong since so many other people said they weren't using autotune. I don't get why so many people don't hear it. I always notice it because it sounds so unnatural like a beeping sound rather than a voice.
Changing a vocal of someone posthumous is a disgusting practice and a greed grab... Shameful. 😡
I agree. This is horrible.
@@KYRIE_eleison2 some day most who care about this will all be dead. And tik tok heads will make the decisions on “music.” Life itself is degrading in many ways.
voicerape
@ 😂
@@5IveNDlme When the fanbase dies off, the legacy of a performer falls into the hands of the historians, for whom the critics write the first draft.
The recording industry needs to stop messing up recordings that are perfect as they are!!😢
No chance. Same with movies and redoing classics. To paraphrase Dire Straits "Get your mew music for nothin', get your new flicks for free".
Yes, it's sacrilege! But get over it. The industry and owners of the works will do what they will with what they own. And all industries need product even if it's fake. Take food, clothes, and social media for instance. Grow your own music! 😂
I agree, the recording industry needs to stop messing up already perfect recordings. The music industry standard doesn't include, "if it isn't broken don't fix it." Its delusional message is that auto tune and pitch correction are the Mr. Fix Its and all of music is horribly broken. But as Fil has pointed out time and time again, the industry is obsessed with being directly over the line and not with how music sounds. Hence, the music industry is now a wrecking ball.
@@glamgal7106 This is illogical to say "the industry". The industry is made up of lots of mix-engineers with varying Melodyne skills! 😂 And I've witnessed the chopping and tuning and tempo changing chaos of top ten vocals happen after the talent has walked out of the studio, as far back as 2001. Usually it's done well though. But it's just how it is for the last 27 years. I'd be more worried that fake food was created in the 1950s and governs all our problems now.
@@thekeysman6760 I worked on this album and "A celebration in song". Your comment is accurate. The music industry is complete chaos. The idea that there is any coordinated effort to change people's voices is ridiculous. You do the best you can with what you have. Everyone is very paranoid about putting out a single and having some douche radio programmer give you the "the vocal isn't in to tune" excuse for not playing it. That started happening because the existence of auto tune suddenly made people pay an inordinate amount of attention to the temperment of the vocal performance rather than just deciding whether it moved them or not.
I'm Horrified 😮 This is aweful and annoying. Keep bringing this to light, Fil. I love your musical, sound and pitch sensitivity and your analytical brain. Your knowledge is much appreciated!
Leave our classic vocalists alone. Olivia does not require any correction.
She had just recovered from cancer when this album was recorded.
@@corybarnes2341,
She didn’t have throat cancer, and this sounds like crap. The engineer should be ashamed for ruining her voice.
@@SuziQ. Yes Suzi 💖❤️
She isn't being "corrected", merely repackaged for a contemporary audience.
@@corybarnes2341 She had been autotuned in 2007.
It used to be a misguided choice to do all this, but today it is obvious they are grooming a new generation to accept AI music instead of paying artists. Shameful.
honestly I think (or hope really) it will backfire. I never really had a good ear for hearing autotune before, but since AI voices are everywhere now it's actually trained me to hear the more unnatural sounding voices. I've noticed autotune/pitch correction so much more recently
@@_Angry_Potato_,
I think it already backfired. A teenager killed himself over a “relationship” with a chat bot. That’s going to lead to new laws regarding AI. It’s a shame that kids are out of touch with real humans, and put their trust in an AI bot.
Music streaming platforms are (mostly) welcoming AI music on their platforms. We need to have human only platforms.
Yeah I can only imagine music in 20 years it'll be disgusting
@@SuziQ.It's crazy I was messing around with a AI app that any kid could use and it was straight getting into sexual talk lol and I mean dirty talk lol it was blowing my mind
Who. THE F. Thought that this was needed?!
Mass rejection of AI manipulation of art and music is the way forward.
That only works while it is still possible to identify with the naked ear/eye, which is already impossible to do for a lot of people who aren't musicians/audio engineers/artists etc. I think the unfortunate reality is that there won't be enough people who can tell the difference, and as the use of AI becomes more normalised with the upcoming generations, not enough people who will even care.
Betting the music industry doesn’t care and is moving forward with blinders on. Somehow, what they have done and will, has financial benefits and the common masses have only speculation of their motives.
@@5meoand… I believe, one of the ways that the new generations is being led down this path and AI being normalised is by auto tuning real vocalists. … it would be harder to tell the difference between an AI vocal and an auto tuned real vocal… groom and normalise
It would be, but it won't happen. 😔
Wont they get better and better with tech , and will become better at correction ?
Singing used to be an art form. Now it seems to be just technology. I wish they would leave the older music alone. Alas, wishing doesn't make it so. An old saying that is still relevant. Thank you for this comparative analysis.
You can always buy the old media though. I’d highly recommend it. Modern producers enjoy ruining more than just the vocal track.
All I can think is they are trying to make us forget what human voice sounds like all together so that they don't have to pay artists at all. This is horrid.
Music is being dehumanised by those who run this World, to strip it of its healing properties and its magic.
We have to fight against that by not listening to or even buying crap like this!
Everything is being dehumanized. Not just music. All the arts. Grooming people to be emotionless. It's sick but unfortunately it's unstoppable until the next renaissance.
@@davidplubell1869 If anything, it is the opposite - monitoring the brain to see what gives subjects "the feelz" and engineering the musical context around what does that for the average consumer in a given demographic. Like with boy bands, make sure 80% of teen girls will obsess over at least one member, so try to have enough different looks/sounds to hit as many marks while keeping some semblance of an organic band. Simon Cowell did it by insticnt, maurice Starr as well - now the process is more data driven.
Not to forget but to prefer the computerized voice over the human voice (with it's imperfections).
it is a massive shame what the music industry is doing with the natural singers voice, I prefer to hear the unfiltered version songs
Bravo, Fil on providing a great music analysis that had my ears prickling and my mind going--lots of sensitivity was happening here. Olivia Newton-John (may she rest in peace) was among the legendary singers whose vocals DID NOT need pitch correction. As you pointed out, the mechanical sound due to applying pitch correction robbed the natural abilities and most importantly, the CONNECTION created from her natural voice to her listeners. From one musician to another musician, I appreciate your integrity and sharing your knowledge. Thanks for reminding and teaching me, Fil!
Thanks!
Thank you!
@ you deserve it Pil. That was aweful.
Thanks for another informative analysis. Her natural voice would have been lovely enough for my ears. Bummer that even 2007 was pitch-edited. I find it a bit creepy to do new releases by people who have passed on.
One of the nicest groups of subscribers I've ever encountered in my life. Merry Christmas Fil and his peps keep up the great work 🎸
I seriously hope they don't start messing with Karen Carpenter, if they haven't already!
I'm sure her brother Richard won't let them do it. Richard was so strict about Carpenters' material use.
I'm sure there will be some performers left "pristine" - so long as there is a demand for such a product there will be inventory maintained to fill it.
From a long time ONJ fan (since childhood) That ain’t her voice. They stole her soul right out of the song.
I will stick with my vinyls of her ❤ The music industry need to stop this. We all eventually find out that their new promoted talent has none. And everything we’ve heard came out of a can.
You brought it to the point right there with what's going on with today's music! It's being dehumanised and robbed of its soul and magic by those who run this World, in order to spread darkness across the latter.
10:52
Saddest thing is that nowadays the audience are listening on their phone speaker or through the supermarket PA and they really don’t care what it sounds like.
I’m a DJ Fil, Drum n Bass, UK Jungle and techno (although I am also a massive metal/rock fan too). To record my mixes I use a program called Ableton Live. It’s used for music production (MIDI) although I only use it to record analogue mixes using my extensive vinyl collection. The latest version of this program (Live 12.1) now has pitch correction within the program. So if you want to record vocals, you can pitch correct them without having to use a plug in. You’re right, pitch correction is now sadly, pretty much the industry standard. Love the channel mate, kindest regards from not so sunny Herne Bay.
Producer : "Can we pitch correct the vocals ?"
Engineer : "They already have been."
Producer : "Oh. Well, what else can we do to the vocals ?"
Not at all what happens. Amy Sky, the producer of this album is a great singer in her own right.
@@corybarnes2341,
Yet, ONJ doesn’t sound like ONJ here. She sounds like a computer. My Siri (Australian) sounds more authentic than this.
@@SuziQ. This is not the orignal recording, but she had just recovered from cancer. Puking your guts out from chemo tends to make your voice sound weird.
@@SuziQ. Also many of these artifacts you are hearing are not in the tracks. That's Fil's software creating those.
@@SuziQ. You mean she doesn't sound like she did in the 1970's? The rasp that you hear was there on the raw takes. As I said. She had gone through chemotherapy in the year leading up to this. It was put out independently and I believe she thought she better just do it because she just might not get to again.
Ugggh...they have seriously destroyed her original vocals! I cannot stand AI-fake vocals. Last night, I was watching 'The Voice,' here in the US, and they actually put AI autotune over Sting's vocals...insane!!!
Eventually all of us who care will die off and they can run their AI to the masses who do not care and get that cash...this is life.
It's not AI. It's ONJ's recording. They just changed the speed;
@@trekkiejunk Thanks...I had to pause the video and haven't finished watching it yet. Too many distractions today. 😀
@@trekkiejunk
I’ve been producing for decades and there’s no way that degree of destructive artifacts is caused by a simple tempo change.
Something else is going on, maybe with how the vox were isolated from the music.
Oh No! They have ruined her voice! She sounds like she is singing underwater or gurgling! What a shame! Wow Fil! Thanks for showing us this one!💜
This album has gone down like a chocolate fireguard with fans - and rightly so. This isn’t even the worst-affected song on the set! She deserves better than this treatment.
Forgetting ONJ being the singer, the producers of this have created a sound that I would refuse to listen to even to the point of leaving the theater or TV area to get away from it. Now when I consider that it is now twice removed from ONJ’s voice I heard for decades…I am at the point of losing any respect for music producers and sound engineers working today. This is a travesty that is disrespectful to the vocalist, original production staff and of course the fans of an artist known the world over. I do not applaud this trend that debases the recorded art even if it has been pitch corrected already. For me, this is a disgrace. Unions, guilds, etc., for the industry should excommunicate from their membership such producers that pervert recording artists’ creations in this manner. Unacceptable.
I've been watching your videos and admiring your work for over a year now but have never commented (to my knowledge). I'm so glad you have done this. I've been a fan and have been listening to Olivia for 50 years now, since I was a little boy and my dad played her 8-tracks in the car, so I know what she sounds like--and I know that she doesn't sound like a robot (as with the new release). We live in an artificial world now and it truly sucks. We want real voices with real talent and real instruments and not this AI alt-reality. God help us.
🎵"hopelessly devoted to" reality. 🎵
the new recording is bleeding awful. thanks Fil. 2x👍
That's the song I was trying to remember! Thanks.
Absolutely shameful....this is pathetic...
As always, thanks for calling it out...✌️
The Beatles early singles were sped up. No other version is available.
@@corybarnes2341,
On tape. Speeding up a tape doesn’t leave robotic sounding artifacts, echoes, and note flips.
Those methods should not be deemed equivalent.
Along with Karen Carpenter, Olivia Newton John is another one of my top favorite female singers! She also had a very beautiful voice as Karen did. I really do wish that the music industry would leave great singers voices alone! Auto tune and pitch correction do not do their voices justice! Thank you, Fil, for another amazing analysis! Keep on rockin'!
Apparently they were best friends when ONJ lived in LA.
Great update as always Fil
I am reminded of this lyric from Rush's "Natural Science"
Computerized clinic for superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band
In their own image their world is fashioned
No wonder they don't understand
Hi Phil, great channel and eye opener. I was going through some Radiohead videos and came across an acoustic recording of Street Spirit. It was for a Japanese TV show. I have never heard Thom perform so well. I would love to hear your take in this amazing performance.
Sounds like she's singing from under water. What's amazing to me is that producers actually think that this sounds better than the original. Or maybe, the listening public actually likes this. Either way, it's discouraging.
My theory is abuse nostalgia and rerelease something by just modifying it so more moneys. Maybe the money goes to he foundation or something but it just doesn’t sound good
I would think it just allows them to sell it again, and give her very little if anything.
@@5IveNDlme,
“They” can release anniversary issues without messing up the sound. Whoever owns the publishing rights gets paid either way. It’s cheaper *not* to hire another engineer.
@ they may have purchased full rights to do whatever they want with it. As well, they will be doing it going forward to resell the same product to new generations who down want an anniversary release - as it dates it. Will be doing it with all music. Wait and see. Once ppl die off who care about these things the Tik tok generation will be the main “buyers.” They could care less much about any of this. Sad state of music as it’s been known dying off. Will become a more outlier to make old style real music some day.
I agree that is so obviously "mechanical" and it doesn't even sound like Olivia. The recording industry is going too far and this should be stopped.
It just sounds awful. How could anybody in their right mind think this is an improvement!
That flattening of that long note on the original sounds AWFUL too
Fil, thank you so much for taking on my suggestion to analyze. As noted in the other comments here, I am not the only one appalled. To others, see the comments on the original video - loads of people are disgusted by this.
Both painful and grotesque, isn't it? A pitch-corrected Olivia is an Olivia that I do not wish to know. This is unpleasant. This is not okay.
Oh no 😒 unbelievable. How do people think this is ok. SMH.
Olivia was a good friend of the Gibb brothers. All brilliant voices. All now being processed into tin canned production. It's heart breaking.
I wonder what the original, original sounded like? I guess we'll never know. ONJ deserves better.
For me the issue is that they are capitalizing on her name! This song could have been redone by many others and there would be no issue! So I'm all for boycotting this but only as it uses her name in what I consider an abusive way and is not a true representation of her works!
They keep doing this! I can't stress enough that they did a re-recording of "Your Love is My Love" by Whitney Houston, and they COMPLETELY ruined her voice! It didn't even sound like her!
Oh they did such a thing?!Oh my!...voices like Whitney,Olivia,Karen etc are part of a legacy nobody should even dare to touch.
@alexioverdo5225 it was so bad.
@@Tinuvielthefair What a shame.
Personally i also like the new jolly instrumentation of 'Angels in the snow" as well as the original one....but that voice should have been left there as it was.Human.I find it rather disrespectful if not kinda blasphemous to 'throw' the voice of someome who has passed in a "proccesssed machinery"...As for Whitney...no i don't even want to listen to any 're-recording".I insist to her original,her supreme purity.Period.
@alexioverdo5225 it's a sped up techno version, much like this version, I'm guessing, I wouldn't be apprised if they sped up her vocals as well, but it's HEAVILY processed, which no one should ever do to her voice. It's really a shame. I almost didn't recognize the voice it was that processed.
Olivia’s magnificent voice needed no correction in the first place. That said, I would sure be interested in seeing a side-by-side comparison of a re-release/remaster where the original pre-dated pitch correction
The pitch correction software has difficulty if it has to perform tempo change and pitch correction of a very variable vocal! This results in 'sonic artifacts' hence the odd sounds!
Yes. We’ve noticed.
This practice needs to stop! I’ve heard Olivia’s voice for over 45 years!This new recording is manmade and electronic. Terrible!
Speechless!😢Thanks Fil great analysis
Another brilliant video Phil! Subscribed!
Anyone else just want to cry? That they even did pitch correction to her while she was alive is so disturbing. I grew up with Olivia, Karen, Linda et al. That this was done so recently is so sad. I mean the 2007 pitch correction on top the sped it up also. Just wow.
From the current lot, and a bit of a switch. Anyone here listen to Silent Night by the Thomas sisters? Am I the only one hearing robotic voices, I mean like crazy? So many positive reactions it’s so sad. I can’t say this anywhere else, I’ll get my hear handed to me. I’ve asked Fil to look/listen. I know he looked in the beginning of the year. You’d think they’d stop, but no.
Her natural voice is PERFECTION!
Speeding up the tempo of a recording also requires pitch correction, in order to maintain the original pitch. You can think of it as "global" pitch correction, rather than the targeted, note-specific pitch correction used in auto-tune, but it uses the same technological principles.
Yes! If you speed up a recording by simply playing it faster it will rise in pitch and vocals will sound chipmunky. Speeding up the tempo at constant pitch means cutting out minuscule bits from the original sound to make it shorter without going sharper. And this is what makes the smooth vibrato turn into an edgy, tremulous bleat - if you snip out small bits from a smooth curve you cannot but end up with stepwise changes and spurious "corners" that sound like a mix of yodelling and vocal fry or hoarseness. Happens with any vocal track when you play it at 1.5x speed in TH-cam (where a very simple but typical "global speed-change" algorithm is used).
It’s sad that even the 2007 version was pitch corrected (she didn’t need it), but that at least sounded like her!
This dreadful new cd is truly a disaster! She have never sounded so bad in her lifetime!
I think you may find this interesting…
I’m watching the new release on Netflix called “Maria” about Maria Callas the opera singer.
In a scene one of her records is being played and she tells the man to “turn it off”. She never listens to her own records. The man asks her why. She replies “ because it’s perfect, , and a song should never be perfect , it should be performed in that moment differently to every other time”
I heard that and thought how brilliant. That’s EXACTLY what we miss as a result of all the AI, auto tune and falseness that pervades the music we now listen to.
Thanks for the clear explanation. Now I just wish I understood why someone thinks this is an improvement
That sounds absolutely awful.
As I've posted before- They're trying to make AI the "standard tuning" everyone hears as "normal", in order to put out the artists THEY control, and who will carry a narrative/agenda to "We The People", of THEIR choosing, and not have to worry they'll go off the rails, and lose control. It's not only costing fans the joy of TRUE music, it's EVIL, meant to manipulate and deceive.
One thing I'd like to point out if it hasn't been mentioned is that they are using digital means to speed up the vocal, not simply increasing the sample rate (the digital equivalent of varispeed on analog equipment) otherwise the pitch wouldn't be the same in both versions (as they are). So using an algorithm to digitally speed up as opposed to adjusting the sample speed to speed it up certainly makes it sound more robotic. Thank you, Fil, for continually pointing out this terrible practice of mixing with the eyes, rather than the ears. Who in their right mind would have thought that the re-release sounded good? It's not an improvement by any means.
It’s like Queen 1, but worse. There’s a massive thread about the new Queen boxed set. No one loves it.
The new recording sounds crazy!
That gated delay also makes it sound more modern and fake. The original has lush reverb with a moderate large room size but the new one has a small room reverb and gated delay. Plus they probably have a send to a track that is blending in a touch of distortion or fuzz making it sound more gritty and rough. It’s just crappy modern production to a T.
I’m most offended by how poorly eq’d the new version is.
I'm 32 and I really don't listen to much music from the 2000s and on, to me it became pretty clear when they started running everything through pitch correction. I just got really heavy into Steely Dan this year and Donald Fagen's voice has so much character, could you imagine if they would have dulled it by putting it through pitch correction? It would ruin it! Lol. There are some great modern bands though. Fleet Foxes, Tame Impala, Thundercat, they do exist thankfully, just with pitch correction which I can handle in those cases
Sad what they did to Olivia’s voice. Sounds so echoey! Just like you said Fil, sounds like it’s coming from a loud speaker. Not an improvement, for sure.
So it's a remix or 'treatment' & they own it so they're allowed to do whatever with it. And maybe they've stretched it to a strict bpm too.
Good analysis. I’ve never heard this. And yes it’s not very good. I don’t think Olivia would like it either. That’s one of many reasons why I don’t listen to remake of songs. From Olivia or anyone else.Glad that I missed this song. I’m not missing anything.If I want to hear Olivia I just listen to her songs from the past.😕Hopefully these fools stop doing things like that. Especially from Olivia fans.And maybe her friends and family.👎
That new version sounds so not human. If I came up with something in audacity that ended up like that I'd bin it. Who'd think it's a good idea to release it as something?
Some bellend commenting on this video. He’s an engineer (and probably deaf, because it’s clearly tuned visually).
Wish producers would not mess with vocals!
Wishing does what
Sign Fil’s petition.
This sounded so weird, and I don't think I would have realized it was from speeding it up, but you're right, the vibrato sounds odd. So, they sped up the vocals, and then pitch corrected everything back down to the previous pitch corrected level, because the speeding up would have raised the pitch, right? That seems like a lot of work, but maybe it isn't. But WHY?? Why even do it? It makes no sense.
Because some knob named Cory thinks his job is more important than preserving beautiful music.
I'd like to see you analyze Maria Callas singing the 'Queen of the Night' aria from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' because some of her singing in it was almost inhuman in its accuracy. Other opera singers also performed the aria flawlessly but Callas is the one I remember the best. Maybe a comparison of different singers doing it. Maybe add in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra 'Queen of the Winter Night' version. Might be interesting. Though as good as some of the TSO singers were it isn't not really fair to compare them to professional opera singers when it comes to vocal technique.
Although not Maria Callas, he does have a video of that same area featuring Cristina Deutekom. Check it out; I'm sure you'll enjoy it!! 🥰🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Strawberry Fields Forever was edited together from two different versions in different keys and they varisped the tape to make them match (sort of).
What I want to know is when will Fil do an analysis of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits & Leonard Cohen to see if they were using auto tune or pitch correction? And what about Tiny Tim & Yoko Ono? I smell a cover up here.
"Sadly, nowadays it's an industry standard to put everything through a pitch correction." Yes, it is very sad. This remind me of how it's become common practice to put just about every photo you see online through one of those auto enhancing filter apps. They alter facial features at times and make people look plastic.
You can tell, though. I keep spotting ads with AI “actors”. Their voices are grating, too.
What in the actual blazes did they do to my beautiful Olivia?! Who thinks this sounds good?!
Merci beaucoup FIL ! 😊 Magnifique analyse comme toujours ! Admiration, NELLY, BELGIQUE. 😊❤
Question, did you mention speeding up a vocal is not a good practice as it disconnects the audience from the singer? Well, what about Strawberry Fields? Weren't parts Of John Lennon's vocals sped up? It was an artistic choice, and you can hear it on the record too. Anyway, good video as usual.
the recording industry was always filled with weasels. now, the weasels have taken over completely
The word you're looking for is "bleaty". Florence Welch & Stevie Nicks have made careers of it.
Many Many Many Elvis AI out there sounds horrfible!!!!! and them singing music with Elvis AI He'd never recorded - disrespectful -------
how they have the audacity to release a track with such terrible and unlistenable audio quality? Ugh
It is an isolated vocal, so it may sound much different in context.
@Spo-Dee-O-Dee look at the difference between the original audio and the new release
You can hear the auto-tune. For some reason it makes me nauseated and always has even when used obviously to gain an effect like in some 90's songs.
Tori Holub and Dan Wesleys prduction of ONJ and Cliff Richards is so good just like your Karen Carpenter video
Just cannot win. In the old days, out of tune used to drive me crazy. Then once autotune started, the artifacting was obvious to my ears. I find now any tuning issues from the old recordings is preferable to this remastered AT garbage today.
My conspiracy theory is that they are conditioning listeners to get used to pitch correction until it seems natural to them. And THEN, soon enough, not only will songs almost exclusively be written by AI, but so will AI be doing all the performances. Same goes for movies. Has anyone ever seen the Albert Finney movie Looker?
I haven’t seen Looker. I’ll (see myself out) look for it.
There’s an ad that drives me crazy angry, and I finally figured out why- the actors are fake.
I read recently that even in the 60s and 70s, some songs that were released as singles on the radio had the speed increased to make the song feel more "exciting" or ear catching. That's why the album versions, or even the 45 versions you could buy did not sound like what you might have remembered. I don't think people realize that tech has been used since recording music started. Of course an artist wants to sound the best they can sound, and they take many takes to create that. But even the most talented, perfect vocalists have the final product having been altered in some way post production. I think my problem is I don't like digital correction, recordings or "remastering". But since so many of the actual masters of songs have been burned in a fire, something is better than nothing. I guess. In this case it has sapped the warmth out of Olivia Newton John's voice, and that's pretty hard to do. Not many toastier voices out there.
Once even one copy of a record has left the factory and survived, nobody cares a rat's *ss if the master has been destroyed. Records sounded decent well back into the 1950s, and technology is available to deal with mechanical problems like noisy grooves and scratches very effectively. Result if done properly: The identical sound that customers bought on vinyl back then, in pristine condition. And that's all we need for the old recordings. Not even Gen-Z brains are (or should be) so narrowly one-tracked to not be able to enjoy the sound that Hi-Fidelity equipment was capable of 50 or 70 years ago!
Phil Spector actually had an AM transmitter built into his studio and would get into people's cars in the lot to listen before making his final tweaks. Yes, speeding up a recording will drift it sharp, but the effect is much more thrilling when it is a soloist playing slightly sharp over an accompaniment that is playing to the line.
@@truesoundchris You are missing the money aspect. Vinyl is being remade today off of vinyl recordings and the quality is horrendous and the prices do not reflect that. "Digital remastering" sounds pretty bad when corners are cut. I think I will stick with a quote from Danny Elfman who, when asked if he planned on "remastering" his catalogue off music just said "No, I hadn't really considered it, I think they were mastered correctly in the fist place?". Paraphrasing, but yeah. Depends on who'd doing the recording, how, and on what. .I personally can tell the difference between my original album of Pink Floyd and "digital remasters" of it, and even with a band as talented and professional as PF, the difference is there, it's not subtle, and the 1970s album sounds far better. JMO.
Something is missing…her soul!
Much of these is because viewers are sending in links to videos. Kudos to those who do.
Phil, If the audio is speeded up, it's pitch rises consistently throughout. So its pitch needs to be artificially lowered throughout to get back into tune. No need for 'manual' pitch correction, but the pitch of the whole piece needs dropping consistently.
Merry Christmas, and Happy, Peaceful new year. 🎅🎉 ☮
Programs like Melodyne and Pro Tools can time stretch audio without changing the pitch, in one step. That’s been easy for 20 years.
@@dmacnet Thank you for replying. I don't doubt that. However, it's an extra piece of processing operating within that step. Simply speeding up the vocals alone doesn't give the entire result we hear and see. The original has also had pitch adjustment applied as part of creating the new release. So pitch adjustment was not restricted to the original.
Merry Christmas. ☮
The original sounds so much better. Who is making these horrible decisions? Ultimately it is a handful of producers who are making these decisions. Pretty d*mned arrogant of them to think they know better!
YAY...I love Olivia!!! 💗💗💗
@@StargirlMusicChannel me too!!💖💖💖
Always a hoot with Fil….thank you!
Sounds like the old "Chipmunks" voices. Don't the producers even listen to the end results?
She had such a precious voice
Good job Fil 🎸
Thanks Pil. You saved me a lot of money!
Is this pitch corrected? Sadly yes the originals are no longer what we hear! It is the beginning of the end? Now we have A1 to really mess things up!
It should have been left alone. The original was perfect and beautiful.
Seeing the comments, I'm not sure people got the message, which was the producers are blamed because of the wrong reason.
Great analysis again!
ONJ now sounds like she had had vocal cord surgery and it didn't go well.
We have resumed control...we have resumed control.....
Thanks, Fil.❤🇦🇺 How can we protest about these butchers? Send emails, letters, carry placards, refuse to buy anything etc...? They're turning a body of work into a corpse. And, changing our history! It's a crime. What can we do? 😡😢
Imagine one of the most magical voices since decades before pitch correction sounding almost robotic because technology is awesome, so disrespectful and sad.
Almost?
@@SuziQ. Ok robotic as hell, there.
I suspect that this kind of nonsense will continue to happen as long as there are listeners/consumers who are fine with it.
Only when there's no demand can there be no supply!
Ughh.....this is just getting too hard to bare 😔
I went to see the Young'uns in Sunderland last night. If you don't know them then you should! Three blokes from Teesside singing mainly acapella - though David Eagle, who is blind is an amazing piano player - singing sea shanties, wassail songs and their own beautiful songs. No gimmicks, no pitch correction or autotune - totally amazing and a wonderful night. This is now very very rare but there are still groups like the Young'uns out there - thank goodness!!
Why do they mess around with a perfectly preformed audio ?
I watched the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree show on TV last week and Backstreet Boys performed. They sounded pretty good, but I heard autotune on some notes. It wasn't super obvious, which is why I think they didn't really need it at all, but when I mentioned it to people that I wish they weren't using autotune, everyone told me they weren't. Only one person agreed with me and said there was vocal processing and autotune. But then I started wondering if maybe I was wrong since so many other people said they weren't using autotune. I don't get why so many people don't hear it. I always notice it because it sounds so unnatural like a beeping sound rather than a voice.
That's because they have all forgotten how a real human sound like. Btw BSB are not known for their vocals anyway