I am a Taylor Swift fan. I would prefer imperfections on the live songs then to be paying to hear auto tune. It is still an enjoyable concert and I really enjoyed it but this is disappointing
I understand.. but she's not just singing she is also entertaining.. she is running around on stage.. she is dancing.. she's playing an instrument.. she's connecting with the crowd.. she has to keep her hair and makeup looking good... sweating and dehydrating...etc. Janet Jackson runs on a treadmill and sings at the same time just to practice' singing live on stage and dancing... cos it's that exhausting.. the performance would look terrible if was singing live . for 2 hours...😮.. hope that helps you understand things a bit better
@@thill4854 Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣 P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
@@kathrynB261 Again, did you go to Taylor’s concert? NO! All you know is just making up stories by using trash videos from a FLOP TH-camr who uses Taylor’s name for some clout! There are so many Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour Reviews on The Internet including on TH-cam which gave The Eras Tour best reviews from musicians, music critics, journalists, concertgoers, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Billie Joe Amstrong, etc.
Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣 P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
Maybe you are the one getting fooled. Fil is doing it for TH-cam views and hatred towards Taylor Swift. Why would he mention about her wealth when you are talking about her music?
I wonder how Taylor Swift would feel if everybody in the crowd, instead of cheering and clapping, just stood there and played a recording from their phones of them cheering and clapping ? LOL.
You should do a video comparing 2 performances by an artist who is actually singing. That would help your audience understand how much difference there should actually be.
Yes, Mr. Croakey is to be admired for giving us the honest goods. Love Paul, and would always rather have his voice as-is, even if it is not what it used to be (age and smoking put paid to that). And let's not even talk about Bob Dylan.
As a sound engineer, I often kill the fx at the end of the song when the singer wants to address the audience, then flip it back on when they start singing. Same thing can be done with autotune which is effectively, another fx being applied to the vocal channel. So, yes, you are right. The engineer can turn it off on cue because speaking with autotune would be weird 😄
I don't regard autotune as an effect, an effect adds something to a performance while autotuine changes the performance. Reverb, for example, is an effect but autotune is a cheat.
@@davidwells184 I agree that autotune is a cheat, but it still alters the audio content like reverb or compression. How it alters the audio doesn't matter, whether adding something like space as in reverb, or changing the pitch as in autotune. I think we are just being picky here. Any modification to the original audio is an effect. Basically, they are all plugins of some sort.
I believe what is happening is Fil is looking at a compressed audio signal that gives the same affect as auto-tune. It's a new codec for saving space on your device and transmission. It focuses on the human speaking voice but when used on singing voices it creates these long drawn out tones.
@@davidroach1567But compression as you described wouldn't allow every note to align perfectly night after night. Even playing to click track to get an exact tempo, there would be variances in vocal phrasing, breath control, plosives, late entries and early exits on some lines. Fil's analysis shows cookie-cutter precision that's impossible to produce naturally even if the best singer ever were to sing the song 10 times in a row.
The thing is, she's an entertainer, and she's entertaining. I don't think her fans will care 1 way or the other. People bought tickets to see Elvis Presley movies, when he couldn't act, and his singing was right from a studio recording booth, and they knew it. But they still bought tickets to the show because it was Elvis Presley. This is Taylor Swift. She will pack her shows, entertain her fans, make a lot of money, then do it again next week. And no one will leave her shows feeling like they were ripped off.
I really doubt if Swifties will care either way. They know what they like, and they like Swift. I don't think she has ever made any claims about her shows one way or another. They simply are what they are, and people beg to get tickets to them.
Fil.. the reason some of those short notes slip past the tuner is because theyve set a slow retune speed (attack)... this removes the T pain effect and makes it sound more natural. The problem is that on some of her very short words/notes, they occur before the retune speed actually tunes the note. For example, you set the retune speed to 250 ms, this will create a natural sounding tuned sound (you observed this when you saw how at the start of some notes, shes out of tune but then snaps into tune)... but if you have a single stacatto word that comes out around 250ms long... then the tuner doesnt actually have time to retune the input to the pitch its aiming at
Good comment. You seem to know a lot about auto-tune. Are you a sound technician or a musician that has access to these mics and technology? I'm hoping Fil can get an interview with someone that is an expert in the field of auto-tune capabilities and use in the studio and during a "live" performance.
@@diamonddavemusic It's not like Autotune is a military secret or anything. Its capabilities are well known - and mostly obvious. You can set attack time, intervention range and a bunch of other parameters; the output can be very subtle (like, slowly correcting notes which are over 50 cents off) all the way to "T-Pain" (who doesn't use "autotune", it's a vocoder). Like you can use a subtle reverb/slap delay to mimic a live recording or a different room, or as an over-the-top effect to sound like you're singing in the Grand Canyon. I only used the first (Antares) AutoTune plugin around 2000, but most current voice effect boxes offer some kind of real-time correction, often with a randomized level of intervention to make the output sound more natural.
@diamonddavemusic i am a studio mix engineer and post production engineer for film and television. While I'm not a live sound engineer per se, I have done quite a bit of FOH mixing for musical artists over the last 15 years. We started with Antares AVP-1 and Antares ATR hardware units, and now everything is plugins over a Dante network, usually something like Waves Tune. Long story short, everybody and their grandma uses live pitch correction these days and it's very subtle. It takes a good ear and digital analysis like good sir Fil is providing to pull back the curtain.
The people who say they can't hear autotune/pitch correction probably can hear it, but they have no idea it's not a natural sound. They may well have heard very little in the way of natural voices singing.
Ironically Most people think that Synthesized Pianos, Hammond Organs and Brass is what these things actually sound like. Same with Drums Most people think a Drum Machine is real drums.
Your last line is it. This has been going on for so long, there are adults in their 20's and maybe even 30's that grew up with the "robot voices" (as I call them) and have no idea. I stopped listening to radio completely in the '90's because my ears can't take the robot.
*Many of her fans have grown up hearing nothing but auto-tuned vocals in pop music.* *There's a good chance they know (consciously or unconsciously) her voice ia enhanced.* *That being said, they'll still pay hundreds (if not thousands) to see her in real life.*
I'm old enough to remember the Milli Vanilli fiasco and its dramatic effect on live performances. In the 80s, before MV, it was not uncommon for performers to lip sync when doing "live" TV performances or concerts. Almost immediately after MV, no performer would be caught dead lipsyncing a performance. Everyone was hyperaware and hypersensitive about it. But as time passed and the impact of MV faded, performers gradually began lipsyncing again. Maybe videos like these can encourage performers to get back to live performances.
The two Pavarotti scandals were deemed just as bad. One scandal was his voice cracked on one note and people wanted their money back and the second he was lipsyncing at shows that cost about $850 per ticket in the 1980s.
They were very different though. It was never their voices. It was a session guy, who sang the songs on the album, and I think they just used the actual studio tracks, for live shows. It was when they were asked, snd could barely speak English, and they couldn’t sing either. It was a total con, that someone came up with, that got them Grammies, and sold millions of albums, doing. One of them wouldn’t admit it for a long time, even after it was all exposed and folks had admitted to it.
I hope all your videos popularize a trend back towards organic real music. My wife and I go to many live concerts a year that are not auto tuned, usually smaller venues featuring jazz, blues, singer-songwriter, folk, bluegrass etc. Hearing a truly genuine unprocessed human voice is such an emotional experience at times, something we live for. Sadly I couldn't believe my ears, we saw a show at Prospect Park in Brooklyn and they were using live auto tune. I thought folk music was sacred but it was clearly being done (no analysis needed, my ears can hear it).
You can't get any more unprocessed than true a cappella. Check out some international champion barbershop quartet performances, I bet you'll love them!
Yeah like I don't think we'll ever get to the point again or we're rooting auto-tune or similar software tricks and mining for that matter out of popular music. But I hope at least encourages a counter movement of more and more live pop acts. Well rock too I obviously should specify as even a lot of them are now relying more and more on this stuff
When Taylor 1st started, I saw her sing in downtown Nashville. She couldn’t sing! Amazing what a rich father can do when he holds shares in a record company!❤🙏
I came here to say the same thing. I heard her sing live years ago in a venue where there couldn’t be any audio processing. And while I liked her songwriting back then, she was pitchy and hard to listen to. Good songwriter (at that time), but simply not a good singer.
Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣 P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
Swift has 14 Grammy awards. In their life times Joplin and Hendrix combined have ... 0. So much for the Grammy holding any credibility or significance.
To be fair, Janis and Jimi had relatively short careers. Maybe their Grammys were just around the corner. But I'm pretty sure neither of them ever lip-synced.
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 No, that wording has been used before by Fil in any number of contexts. The way it was used in the comment I replied to was in denigration of a singer. My point was that Fil would never do that.
as a vocal coach i wanna thank you for doing the work and showing the facts. i once tried to point out i heard the editing on a so called live performance on a Dutch tv show called De Beste Zangers from Floor Jansen and the stanbase was brutal. I only had like 15k views, but that was a lot for me and i could not handle the comments. i once auditioned for Hollands Got Talent and got humiliated over my outfit, so this made me decide that one day i was gonna record my album myself and release it.
I imagine most tv shows have significant editing, especially competition and showcase shows. Its a bit disappointing if true in Floor's case, I know how talented she is and it brings up all kinds of questions regarding if an artist knows its going to happen and if they have a choice. And I can imagine the knee-jerk reaction from the Nightwish "army" that would come without people really sitting down and thinking about the issue. It doesn't really reflect on Floor for me, but a reflection on the industry and its approach to "live" tv content. If there was evidence of her using Autotune or miming during concerts then that would be very disappointing.
It sounded mechanical to me, so I believe it was auto tuned. I saw the proof on the monitor, so how can anyone dispute it? Thank you, Fil, for another excellent analysis! Rock!
No reason to dispute it. She has never claimed to be performing live and unaltered. She just sells tickets and puts on a show, and sells them out, packing the venues, something she will continue to do.
I think lots of people can't tell when vocals are autotuned simply because it is so common it has become the sound of modern pop vocals. I used to really notice it when it started but now I find I really can't tell anymore apart from the really obvious corrections, it has just become what I'm used to hearing now.
Lawyers can only come after him if he isn’t telling the truth . Last thing they want is opening a can of worms if she is actually miming. if he’s stating fact he is fine there is zero they can do if he is stating fact.
You kind of have a point . And if they tell him to stop it, I think he would if it were legal action. But so far TH-cam hasn't said anything and no lawyers have sent letters
I remember listening to The Night Comes Down when I first bought the album in the 80s when I first became a fan. I thought his vocals were painfully (not just slightly) out of tune at the time. So actually they did need a fix. The trouble is, they went too far and 'over fixed' everything all over the shop where it wasn't necessary.
Well, I am, as none of it surprises me. As for her fans, I imagine they will be split between those who say they already knew this and it's irrelevant, to those who will send you angry messages, and some will manage to be both. As I've said before, fans who are that invested in believing it's all live are not viewing Taylor Swift through any kind of objective lens, to put it mildly.
I agree. A friend of mine told me about several rock concerts she had recently attended, and I told her that I no longer want to pay top dollar to see a "performer" mime to backing tracks, and she told me the shows she went to were all live singing and playing. I suggested she watch this channel, but I didn't have the heart to tell her the bands were likely not playing or singing live at all. At least not to all of the songs, but maybe some of the songs. It all feels like a huge scam to me.
This makes sense. I was there last weekend for the last night in New Orleans. As a career guitar player and singer for the last 30 years (give or take), it was very apparent she wasn't miming the whole show. The acoustic/guitar/piano parts were clearly live ; that being said, she was VERY bang on ; it makes sense, as auto tune has come a long way over the last few years, and someone triggering it makes the most sense, as to Fil's points, she does improv and change things from night to night, so having that safety net of someone manually kicking in the auto tune when needed makes the most sense. I imagine when you have a BILLION dollar tour, they take NO chances. NO ONE is singing 3 nights in a row for 3 1/2 hours. I assumed it was common knowledge, but you make a good point. They want it to sound flawless, night in, night out. The only way for that to happen is what they are doing ; mime some, auto tune on command. You get some moments of her signing and talking (auto tune when someone deems is necessary), and mime the big set pieces. Thanks, fort the work you put into these videos.
Most concert goers do not care about "flawless, night in, night out". They want to hear singers sing LIVE, dancers dance LIVE, and theatre actors act LIVE. For millions of dollars, a person should be able to sing LIVE and then just be themselves. We don't need slick, phony, and massively produced entertainment.
To be honest, I think unfortunately many live performances have been pitch corrected to be released on YT and elsewhere. I wonder if they're doing this to big bands like Metallica, for example. I didn't find any recent analysis video on them, so I'll request it to Fil! 😅
As far as I know, Bruce sings the entire 3 or 4 hours of his concerts, and if he can't do it he stops the entire tour until he can. I'm no fan of his politics or ticket prices but he has a lot of good songs and some I don't care about. All of the concerts I've seen recordings from show him singing all the same songs differently, as is all any human can do at best. So I detect no miming. Are they pitch corrected or auto-tuned? They don't sound that way to me but maybe Fil could run a check and let us know for sure.
I don't think anyone is surprised, any more than they would be surprised that Elvis Presley's singing in movies was actually done in the recording studio mot on the movie set. They knew, and they all bought tickets, and no one asked for their money back.
@johnwest7993 Right, no question you know what you're getting with her. A very well packaged pop singer who won't be of any relevance 5 years from now.
I took my granddaughter to the Eros concert and I thought that her voice sounded strange. I thought that it was just the microphone. I knew nothing about auto tune or pitch correction before watching Fil's videos. Now I understand and feel like I was taken advantage of by paying to watch someone lipsynch.
I'm a product design engineer by education, profession, and personality, so I completely agree with your technique of analysis of data. Human senses are SOOOOO easily fooled. One suggestion for future videos: You refer to the pitch grid lines and the data traces as (just) 'lines', which may confuse the less technical members of your audience. I suggest saying something like pitch grid lines (or just pitch lines) and vocal data traces (or just vocal traces) to make it clear which lines you are referring to. Keep up the good work! Respect!
My big concern is when studios start pitch-correcting old studio albums. I know they are starting to do it to old live performances, and i'm just dreading the day they start doing it to old studio albums, too. Can you imagine a pitch-corrected Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or Born to Run?
I asked Fil about this very thing on Patreon. He said that a simple remaster doesn’t imply autotune, etc. however, he also said in another video that they are indeed ‘fixing’ recordings by the likes of Freddie mercury (seriously….probably Ken Tamperin’s idea to fix Freddie’s flaws).
FYI my buddy is a systems engineer (tunes the PA) for tours of this level. Basically, other than a handful of artists, all these pop stars are using "live" pre-tour rehearsal recordings through the same signal chain and recorded at the playback engineer's desk, then forwarded to front of house. At front of house, the engineer has often 20-40 tracks for the vocal including the raw/tuned versions of the pre-recorded and live vocals, a bunch of backing tracks, etc. While FOH *can* blend in the live vocal, it is RARELY done; the vast, vast majority of the time the FOH engineer is playing back the pre-recorded tuned vocal with everything else buried. For any stage banter the engineer is riding the fader for the live vocal. It is what it is. For frame of reference he said he is 99% that P!nk is using majority or all live vocal so try using one of her tours for a comparison?
Absolutely. No production of such scale and budget is going to run without multiple levels of redundancy. There will always be prerecorded backing tracks running in a typical pop concert because there are simply not enough musicians on stage to execute every tiny thing the audience expects to hear from the original album. If nothing else, these tracks are used to keep everyone on stage in sync. There will be count-ins for the musicians, a click track for the drummer, cues for the dancers and backup singers, and audible callouts for each verse, chorus and bridge, so nobody loses their place in a complex arrangement. Because playback is literally holding the show together, there will be redundant playback systems with automatic change-over if the primary machine fails. The FOH engineer will have access to both the live and recorded tracks. Bass player's pickup shorts midway through the song? Swap in the prerecorded bass track while a stage tech sorts it out. Flute player came down with COVID? Audience will still hear that flute part. Backup singer lost her voice yesterday? No problem, at least she can still dance. Obviously, Taylor is likely to mime some songs where the choreography is too demanding for proper breathing. Other songs may have been planned as live, but something went wrong: wireless mic cut out and they can't swap it until the song's over. That's why the rehearsal vocal is running parallel. It's all under control of the FOH mixer and, at any given moment, Taylor may not even know what the audience is actually hearing.
@@lucakat9262 But obviously, he has a real big issue w/ live vocal tuning, not just lip-syncing. Sure, I expect *some* live vocals at least at concerts, but live vocal tuning is fine by me. Singing is a lot about the pitch but not just about that. If Taylor Swift were that terrible, even Auto-Tune Live would not make her sound any good.
@@lucakat9262The hell if he doesn't. He breads his butter by tearing people down. He selectively chooses performances and he probably even tweaks the software to make it say what he wants it to say.
Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣 P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
I'm a Taylor fan but also been in the industry in one respect or another for over 40 years and I can tell you that using a voice track with or without auto tune is also very common for many of not most pop artists and touring bands today. And in way it's justified for Taylor especially for an artist that does a 200 minute concert vs the average concert length is 90 minutes (and most have vocal breaks such as drum or guitar solos etc so the vocalist can get a break). Any vocalist would thrash his/her voice in days with such a schedule. I think her voicetrack is justified and areas where auto tune is used is also justified. Just do the fans right by announcing on the video screen that "this concert my use a backing vocal and intrumental track in order to enhanse the concert experiance and ensure a consistant performance at every show" (or similar). Another great video...but nothing new...this is pretty common practice in today's day and age (even with classic rock bands that still tour like Def Leppard, Kiss etc). Rock On!
It’s the truth and facts though. Taylor does put on a great show but not a live singing performance. It’s basically a show/event. 3 hours 45 mins 3 nights on the bounce every week. It’s a backing track and auto tune no doubt. Although she does sing live but can get away with missing words & mistakes while dancing and running around . Nobody could do those shows like that live while dancing and singing live night after night for hours. The only live part every show is the acoustic sessions she calls it and that’s the part where Taylor plays 2 guitar songs & 2 on the piano. It’s the only part that is different each show also.✌️
I’ve enjoyed Taylor’s music for a long time. I have also suspected for a long time that she was not singing everything live. I haven’t seen her concerts, but the social media videos were inescapable last year, and I watched the Era’s Tour concert movie on Disney+. Anyway, thanks for sharing this interesting analysis showing how some parts can be live and some mimed, with both using Autotune. I really wasn’t sure just how it all could work. The show is obviously a technological marvel, but knowing more about how the vocals are consistently manipulated makes me no longer feel disappointed that I didn’t get to see it myself.
What Fil is trying to explain about Autotune is that it can be set from 0%-100% with a human variation setting, and it can either be programmed for each song based on the key of the song or use the audio feed from a guitar or keyboard to match the key of the song. To me, it sounds like the Autotune is set to about 20-40% based on the song, so it doesn’t kick in until it notices that much variation from the key. Edit: Later in the video, it sounds like it’s set to a 100%.
Good comment. You seem to know a lot about auto-tune. Are you a sound technician or a musician that has access to these mics and technology? I'm hoping Fil can get an interview with someone that is an expert in the field of auto-tune capabilities and use in the studio and during a "live" performance.
@diamonddavemusic you don't even need to be a sound engineer or anything now, the most basic autotune software now has the humanise function which you can set to varying degrees, I got it on a free one, it's already that common.
I believe what the case is that people don’t want to hear that their favorite musical artist is miming or that their voice is going through something like auto tune and/or pitch correction. To be fair, yes, I’d feel disappointed if my favorite artists were doing this. But some people are ever so faithful to the point that they believe that their favorite artists walk on water. From Fil’s previous and current analyses on Taylor Swift, this is what I’m reading in the comments.
The problem now is that most of our modern singers and musical artists in what we would call popular music are not talented artists who achieved their notoriety through their music. They are manufactured products, created to make money and sell stuff through visualisation and social media output. You only have to look at the charts and say where are all the bands with artists that play instruments. Now I’ve done 35 years as a sound engineer and the change and advancement in technology over that time is massive from the old analog tape and splice recordings through midi to our modern manufactured digital music and im sure in the future A.I. Generated material. Back in the old days we bought music and liked bands for the music that they produced unfortunately now they are generally a marketing tool and the music talent and ability is very much a secondary thing.
Jazz, blues and classical/neoclassical albums each have a 1% share in the market. People claim to want more "authentic" music, but they aren't paying for it.
@@orlock20 Most of the classical and jazz albums I want to buy are out of print and purchased used. Of the over 200 CDs I bought this year only one was new - it was by a friend playing a coffee house (and I never expect to bother listening to it).
Today I watched a video taped, live Linda Ronstadt concert taped in California in 1980. There was just a singer, a band and a small stage. It was an awesome concert in every way. Linda is a highly talented songstress of the highest order. Also, she is a gorgeous lady, both inside and out. What was missing was a stage the size of a football field, a cable zip line, a catapult, scores of backup singers and dancers, numerous wardrobe changes, pyrotechnics, auto tune and miming. I don't begrudge Taylor Swift's success, This is America and she can rise as high as her success elevates her. However, if she tried holding an audience's attention the same way Linda did, by just singing, she would not have reached the heights she has attained. Taylor's voice lacks emotion and pitch so she uses other means to hold the audience's attention.
Tyvm for the longer, time-consuming video on such a major world-wide musical artist as Taylor Swift! Even though I’m an amateur old grandpa singer/songwriter, this confirms what my ears are hearing. But it doesn’t upset me because some highly ambitious people will use any technology to sound “better”, whereas others couldn’t do it in good conscience. Keep up the excellent work!
I can imagine that using automation must be lifeless. What you get out of your own live performance is very rewarding. As a musician, I only go to see LIVE talent. ( therefore, Ill probably never be at another arena concert )
@ Maybe checking live concert videos on TH-cam before attending? I’ve seen Tool live a couple of times with my son (he’s a big fan but I enjoy them, too).
The problem is that concerts are not about the MUSIC anymore. Fans will pay tons of cash to see visual effects, coreographed dancers, lasers, projectors, and a pretty face. The music itself is just not important.
Millions of fans treating her like she’s a goddess is mainly because parents fail to emphasize to their kids what’s truly important in life. The draw of people made famous by popular culture is an empty pursuit which will soon be forgotten. TS is a phenomenon, but not for the long haul. Of course she doesn’t care. She’s raking in the money that foolish people spend on low talented, pretty faces who know how to put on a show. Don’t know the average age of concert attendees, but I would guess it’s very young. In many, maybe most, cases, moms and dads are paying for the tickets. She’s destined to flame out sooner or later, but being a billionaire, again, she doesn’t care.
i am a swiftie and i thank you. never doubted that she lip-synced sometimes, or auto-tuned during songs. but your other video made it seem like it was all lip-syncing. so i respect you for making this follow-up!
Hopefully Mina will watch and understand what FIL does. He's just honest, no matter what group/vocalist he does an analysis on. She seemed quite angry yesterday! I wonder what the ticket prices are for the chance to watch her dance? LOL!!!
@@nobodygnomes she was commenting a lot on the chat yesterday. In one comment she was expecting FIL to address her frustrations on the spot, so I "told" her that if she wanted him to definitely see her question, she'd need to send it in like everybody else. And he actually DID because somebody let him know she was in the chat. So he went through her long list of questions.
As a touring singer( who gets paid only 350 euros per gig), I often sing 3 x 45 minute sets per show 6 nights per week and sometimes I’m required to do 2 shows per day , plus I dance in my show. All eyes are on me and my audience is right up close. There’s no room for faking it. No auto tune and no miming. After my show, audience members always come up to me and tell me I should be on the world stage and often they hug and thank me for a fantastic performance. I’m grateful to be able to sing to a high standard each time live and to be able to bring real joy for those moments. I’ve never wanted fame, just to be genuine with my audience and live without worrying about the roof over over my head. I only found this channel recently and it’s actually quite sad to know that so many singers on the world stage are actually mainly poor vocalists and mime artists. Thank you for the insight and knowledge.
@@safespacebear see her? You don't see anything you can't see online. She only cares about your money. She isn't a true performer. She's a fraudulent wannabe artist.
A NOTE ABOUT AUTOTUNE: AutoTune HAS HAD (for YEARS) the ability to: 1. Correct to a particular KEY -- you can even create a custom scale (or just use default chromatic scale) 2. Correct to a particular PERCENTAGE (i.e., it doesn't HAVE TO snap to the exact pitch. When set at 50% for example, it will snap to halfway between the actual pitch and the exact pitch). Using less than 100% correction (along with slowing the correction speed) goes a long way to making it more natural sounding. 3. Adjust the correction/reaction SPEED -- so that it doesn't have to snap to pitch INSTANTLY (the Cher "Believe" effect) but can slide over a few milliseconds up or down to pitch. The reason AT has "come such a long way" is that more and more FOH engineers are actually taking the time to ADJUST these parameters for the most natural-sounding result, whereas many in the past would just pull up a preset and go. I've heard AT done REALLY WELL even decades ago. But more often, I've heard just the lazy set-it-and-go mechanical-sounding version 'cuz "optimizing the AutoTune" is a low priority compared to the hundred other things a mix engineer has to worry about.
Another important detail that might not be apparent to most people is that you can also automate any effect. So you could have passages where the autotune effect is inactive, and then have it automatically start at a certain point of a song. You could even have several different auto tuners with different settings activate and deactivate completely automatically during a performance.
That is true. And also resources. For someone with the kind of resources like Taylor, she could afford the top engineers with personalized customization of the AT on her performances.
Same here, it's a whole new world to me. I'm in my 40's and since i was very young my musical love was essentially guitar based music. Whether rock and metal as a nipper, punk rock, indie rock etc. So the notion of not actually playing instruments live, or using auto-tune live, or pitch correcting vocals after the fact is foreign to me. As is the sentence that gets mentioned when a pop singer/songwriter is famous "AND... she writes her OWN SONGS!" to which my response is.... "And? Is that's what you're kinda supposed to do?" I dunno, it seems this lady has very little confidence in her own ability and her own material which probably explains why she wears next to nothing when she performs. That'll distract 'em!
It sounds like 1) there's some lipsyncing, such as on the faster songs where she's moving around and dancing, 2) there are some live vocals, such as on the acoustic and piano songs and maybe some others, and 3) she's using a live auto-tune/pitch correction software throughout the concert when she is singing live (and the prerecorded vocals are obviously pitch corrected in the studio). Maybe I'm getting too sympathetic, but I sort of expected it would be like that and I don't think it'll bother most actual Swift fans very much, but I'm sure it would bother some of them.
Same here. I think she's mostly celebrated for being a songwriter and performer, so however she chooses to showcase her songs live is her business, as long as the people buying the tickets know the truth. Almost all music is autotuned these days which is why I'm not crazy about any of it, none of it sounds raw or original.
@@lisandra5330 Yes, I agree that it's important they ticket purchases know the truth and it's likely that most of her fans would accept a certain % of lip-syncing each night because it allows for more dancing theatrics, etc., but the trick is how to disclose that without ruining the fun. But I think she's got a really great voice. Top notch. It's just that she's known more for her songwriting than say Celine Dion or Mariah Carey who are first and foremost vocalists.
I think you’re on the money. Except for some delusional crazies, this is exactly what everyone expected to varying degrees when it comes to the exact amount of live pitch correction used. I think the main issue with the first video Fil released was the accusation of a 100% sterile audio show straight from the can. That was a bit insulting to the Swifties, who know that there’s more individualism to the experiences they enjoyed. This video, however, is a much more level handed analysis, and I for one appreciate the integrity he showed by taking the time and digging a bit deeper, even if it might have seemed like a waste of time to him. I understand, that we ultimately might be looking for different things. But it’s 2024 and this isn’t a crazy weird thing to happen in the industry. she’s also a songwriter rather than a singer, and the whole phenomenon has never been about her vocal prowess. I think we’re good at this point. If Fil doesn’t like this standard, that’s cool, if some of his followers see that as cause to deride everything Swift stands for, whatever… But for the community around Taylor Swift, this is good enough, even if some of you don’t understand it. It’s fine. Live and let live. 🫶
@@alexanderlyonI like TS but she is just moderately good as a singer and nowhere near as gifted as Celine Dion, not even close. But she doesn't have to be, very few singers are that good.
It's interesting because part of her gimic is to always have a part where the mic isn't working or she needs to start over or she messes up a lyric and starts over on acoustic or piano songs. It seems obvious it's to show she's live not auto tuned or corrected, but she is.
Hmmm. Fil has some bad news for you. If it’s on TH-cam (particularly if it’s on the official TH-cam channel of the respective artist), there’s absolutely no guarantee it hasn’t been digitally pitch corrected. See 70s “live” concert performances of Fleetwood Mac and Eagles as just two examples that Fil has analysed.
Auto-tune has 'flex tune' and 'humanize' knobs. Humanize will allow you to slide between notes once you have hit the note initially. Not exactly sure what flex tune does, but it does make it sound more natural. Also can detect natural vibrato and let it through. Its pretty advanced these days.
Thank you for confirming what many of us have already knew for a long time. Auto-tune/miming is everywhere and 90% of mainstream artists are simply scamming people without remorse. On the other hand, 90% of average listeners have no idea they are being scammed or they don't give a f....
She puts on a show. She doesn't sit on a stage with a guitar and a mic and a big sign that says "This is absolutely live and unaltered music." Nope. She makes no claims. She puts on a show, and sells tickets and packs venues, and no one asks for their money back. She will continue to do just that, not because she is the world's greatest singer, but because she understands her fans, and she works hard and gives them what they want.
@ I’m not doubting that she works hard. It just obvious what type of artist she is. If you’re into that then whatever but basically she is charging her fans hundreds if not thousands to come look at her pretend and dance for 3hrs. How many people know that she is literally manipulating her voice to entirely sound like the studio album? It’s not live music. It’s not a concert.
Seen her twice at Anfield. Im a fan. There were definitely sections that she wasn't 100% live. As you said, it's 3.5 hours and extremely high energy. I'd be shocked if she didn't make some parts easier for herself. Again, the pace of the show was intense. She's always been a pitchy singer. Again, not surprised she'd smooth that out during such a massive show. Even during this show, she missed a few notes and was off pitch. Guess that's just the background dynamics of it.
It's the wind tunnel effect with making cars. You send them all through the wind tunnel they all begin to look the same. Exactly the same with autotune, eventually it all sounds/looks the same.
You did a really good analysis, i think we can all see and hear what you mean. It is also encouraging that she does a couple of live songs during her tour, even if there's autotune, at least she is singing. Also, i think it would be a good idea to see an analysis of live vocals with no autotune, that sounds great. It would help to understand what it's supposed to sound like. It would be interesting to see multiple example of this. Thank you and Keep up the good work.
You should do this analysis on Castles Crumbling with Hayley Williams - mid performance Taylor stopped singing because she was so in awe of Hayley Williamsˋ voice. I wonder if and to what extent AutoTune was used there, on both Taylor and Hayley (which would blow my mind)
Autotune corrects sustained musical pitches, which usually don't occur during casual speech. The engineer is paying close attention as well, and can turn it off after she gets out only two or three words. Then a few pitches can go wild when they start singing again before it's turned back on.
anyone who has sung live for over 1.5 hours will understand how hard it can be. I sang in a rock band (Original songs) but imagine ac/dc to rainbow . that's damn hard. especially on a tour . i know Swifts songs aren't hard, (natural unforced female voice) but fair play.. her gigs are endless and she has the cash to doctor it . She's there to be perfect and she does her job brilliantly My heart goes out to the real singers grinding it out truly live
Great analysis, as a Swiftie I really appreciate it. And I would still go to her concert to see the show and I think that's the same for a lot of people. We know that not everything is live, which is disappointing, but if it was, she would lose her voice after 10 concert played back to back 3 days a week for over 3 hours every week. It's the same with K-pop. They have backing vocals, but it's all about the show. Also, has anyone else who's been to her concert experienced this thing - her voice live (when you hear it with your ears) sounds very different from any recording of her live performance (even the same concert I recorded)? I've been to over 20 concerts in my life (and 3rd in the same stadium) and this was the first time it happened, it was quite shocking.
Taylor Swift is so rich she can run a tour exactly how she wants at this point. Like Ed Sheeran. Her choice, as is miming and live autotune, which doesn't rest your voice btw.
@@thegood9 you’re right. My daughter watches streams from virtually every night of the tour and she can tell you exactly when she is going to wink , pause, what she’s going to say between songs . Every night is the exact same.
You can prove it soooooo easily. There are countless videos of errors happening that prove she’s singing live. Literally 2 days ago, her IEM pack died. While they were changing it, she goes off pitch, off beat, and adlibs a whole run that’s not normally there. Yes, she has a backing track. But she also has a phenomenal live band, 4 incredible backing vocalists, and yes. Her own live vocals.
I've been watching you a long time and one thing I know for sure is that you would not misrepresent or fabricate any of your analysis. If there's one thing you know is music inside and out and a great musician yourself and I trust your opinion 100%.
Ashley Simpson's entire career ended overnight when she got caught lip syncing. Meanwhile everyone can plainly see that taylor doesnt play or sing live, but she's one of the biggest artists in the world. Sad
Yeah it's strange. And it's one thing for like that 75-year-old touring to rely on that stuff. But people in their prime. Even someone like Post Malone. .... I don't know about the country tour but on his other tour he just sang over his album. But they didn't remove the voice from the album. Just like what's the point? When he fell over one time and got hurt so you could tell the whole regular track just kept playing with his voice on it. The microphone was on but apparently it's just acceptable not to sing over your album.. And not just the refrains either this was pretty much the entire performance every song verse et. . with the exception of maybe when he pulls out the acoustic guitar and there is no like trap music
This must have taken a lot of time to put together. Thanks for making this video in response to TS fans. Sadly, the audience is not getting to hear her voice. They are hearing the output of a calibrated computer program, autotune, instead of her own voice. Some songs are mimed and some are not, but the processed sound is always present. Fans are enjoying the show however, and are conditioned to this sound, so it seems like her natural vocal to them.
I'm someone who loves to hear real, live music from real, live musicians. I want it real, off key, stutters, everything real, something I can relate to. But having said that, I don't actually mind if Swift's audio is processed. I don't mind whatever is done to any aspect of her shows to make them more entertaining. I see her shows as 'happenings', a pure show, not pure music, sort of like a DJ spinning records back and forth. No one does that to classical music, but this isn't classical music. It's intended to be pure entertainment, and it entertains. It's like the light-show at a Pink Floyd concert. The lights were all just show, and they were intended to be. In Taylor's shows I see everything as just a part of the show, from the costumes to the voice. It was intended to be entertainment, not serious, and it's entertaining. It's the equivalent of professional wrestling, as opposed to Olympic wrestling. It's a different gig. More people watch professional wrestling than Olympic wrestling. More people bought Kiss albums than Segovia albums. And more people go to Taylor Swift shows than pretty much anything or anyone else, and they feel like they got their money's worth. I wouldn't buy a ticket to the show, but I understand where her fans are coming from. She puts on a magic show for them and they like it.
I 100% agree with @ that this is exactly what is happening! I am a Swiftie, but I'm old (54) & came to her later in life. I appreciate her lyricism more than anything else.🤷🏻♀️ Am I disappointed to learn that she mimes to some songs? Sure, but I honestly thought she probably did in a 3 1/2 hour performance. However, I'm more disappointed finding out that she's using 'autotune' in a *live* concert.🥺
Thank you for showing that she does not lip sync the whole thing. I was one who commented that she went "back and forth" but I personally didn't mean literally every other song.
Fil has a vid reacting to America live in 1975 , he even left in them tuning up , they are singing I Need You , Gerry Beckley lead vocal and on piano , it’s fabulous. Those guys were the real deal .
@@Resgerr I've heard of the bootlegs of Oingo Boingo's live shows during the 80s and 90s and they performed live and it's very good because of how raw they perform.
Fil, I am a great fan of music from the 1970's. Since this is an era that precedes AUTOTUNE, I think that it would be fascinating to see how some of my favorite singers from that era's vocals look on your magical software. Some examples of artists that I would LOVE ♥to see you analyze are: "Mama" Cass Elliot, Barry Manilow, The Beach Boys, Karen Carpenter, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Tony Bennet, etc. Thanks! 🤗
Fil, I knew immediately that all of these examples were auto tuned! You have taught me well! You said it sounded mechanical, I say it sounds like a robot! The sound actually presented was so overprocessed that it actually was difficult to listen to! It's such a shame that this is what we are getting as music these days! This was an easy to understand analysis video. However, I am not sure the Swifties are open-minded enough to be objective in their thought patterns! Excellent analysis and purely objective data! 💜
The Paris performance is just the whole full song of LOML as it was the first time she performed it. The second time she did a Mashup of LOML with another song as she has been doing with both the Guitar and Piano Acoustic set songs. So every acoustic portion of the show is always a different set of mashups.
Music production has only asked if it can be fixed, but not should it be fixed. I think fans would be happy with the imperfections. When I was a child in the 70's, fans would always talk about what imperfections and differences they would notice between what they saw live and records that people listened to at home. Production believes that fans expect perfect consistency.
I can just imagine a team of 5 guys backstage on laptops trying to create or manage Taylor's "voice" in real time for 3 hours straight. What a job. I'm sure everyone is required to sign nondisclosure agreements. Is this what music has come to?
I worked with a famous rock singer years ago and had to sign a NDA. A few months ago I was commenting on another channel about his voice and got an email from them. I was so surprised after all this time and had to delete my comment.
What you're hearing on the sustained autotuned note is phase shifting as the processor stretches or compacts the waveform in order to place the zero crossings on the corrected points in time. Especially where there is reverb or delay, this phasing becomes apparent. It is the sound of autotune.
Most of the "phasey" sound, though, comes from the software that separates the vocals from the other sounds. The exact same record played in two different rooms would give different results; live recordings are particularly taxing on the software because of the crowd singing along.
@@TheAntibozo "Perhaps"? Do you know or do you "think"? Because I know. It's not like I'm using Fisher-Price tools for my job, and even the pro standard for stem separation leaves artifacts (and that "phasey" sound), moreso if there are more voices or a crowd.
Is it even about the sound quality of the music when it’s thousands of fans singing along to every word at the top of their voices? Sounds more like worship than appreciation.
What fans don't want to understand is that an analysis doesn't mean that the singer is bad or that the show wasn't good, but that she is using technology to correct her voice or relieve it. Good job Fil !👍
Really appreciate Fil having the patience and dedication to answer people's questions on his channel. I guess I can understand the industry's penchant for "perfection" with a billion dollar tour, and certainly understand no one can necessarily be up to par or have the stamina to perform and sing for three hours in a lavishly produced tour, understandable. But I wonder if a shorter show would be easier to use less production gimmicks? One fan said Swift's career is "too long" to shorten the show, but maybe it would've been cool to have the shorter show, say an hour and a half or two hours, and mix it up a bit in each city/ or each performance? And rely less on auto tune and miming? I prefer the imperfections of a truly live performance, it's what makes it special and memorable.
I'm massive Taylor fan,and l thought just objectively, a three and a half show 3 or 4 times a week with not only singing,but dancing and playing some miming would be involved.l think it's fine she has "rests" from singing. I had worked it out for myself watching various videos from the tour myself l could clearly see episodes where she was singing but a little out of sync with with the music. I find your analysis fascinating by the way!
Oooo... the swifties are out in force and whilst reading the comments I have noticed so many of them defending the use of the lip-syncing and auto-tuning. Goes to show that you can give people the truth, but they'll still be mad at you for pointing out, and proving the truth of the situation.
I am a Taylor Swift fan. I would prefer imperfections on the live songs then to be paying to hear auto tune. It is still an enjoyable concert and I really enjoyed it but this is disappointing
It's not a concert if you aren't singing. It's an act - mime show
I understand.. but she's not just singing she is also entertaining.. she is running around on stage.. she is dancing.. she's playing an instrument.. she's connecting with the crowd.. she has to keep her hair and makeup looking good... sweating and dehydrating...etc. Janet Jackson runs on a treadmill and sings at the same time just to practice' singing live on stage and dancing... cos it's that exhausting.. the performance would look terrible if was singing live . for 2 hours...😮.. hope that helps you understand things a bit better
to Taylor Swift fan: I enjoyed your nuanced response. Thank you. It's also true, it's time to differentiate between 'concert' and 'performance'.
@@thill4854 Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣
P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
@@kathrynB261 Again, did you go to Taylor’s concert? NO! All you know is just making up stories by using trash videos from a FLOP TH-camr who uses Taylor’s name for some clout! There are so many Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour Reviews on The Internet including on TH-cam which gave The Eras Tour best reviews from musicians, music critics, journalists, concertgoers, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Billie Joe Amstrong, etc.
It's far far easier to fool people than it is to convince them that they've been fooled.
Keep up the good work Fil.
👍😎
That goes both ways.
Saying Swift is trying to fool her fans is like saying Johnny Depp is trying to fool people into believing he is actually Captain Jack Sparrow.
Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣
P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
@@johnwest7993umm no
Maybe you are the one getting fooled. Fil is doing it for TH-cam views and hatred towards Taylor Swift. Why would he mention about her wealth when you are talking about her music?
I wonder how Taylor Swift would feel if everybody in the crowd, instead of cheering and clapping, just stood there and played a recording from their phones of them cheering and clapping ? LOL.
😅
lol you made me giggle!
I don’t know whether to laugh or be concerned that I could imagine a concert crowd doing that
as long as she gets her millions she'll be alright 😉
@@rodrigofonseca6241 Yes, that's the important part. 🤣
The proof is in the objective analysis. Fil is an honest and respectful music analyst. Just proving the truth. Good job Fil. They asked, they got. 👍🏻
You should do a video comparing 2 performances by an artist who is actually singing. That would help your audience understand how much difference there should actually be.
Yes. Do Band Maid
I think the video Fil posted on 30 Oct-DOUBTERS - You HAVE to watch THIS video-goes along the lines of what you have in mind.
I suspect that this information is far too complicated for their minds.
Do Queen. They could sing. All of them.
@@jdhlsc169 they keep their throats well lubed
And to think people criticize McCartneys voice but I give the man great credit for not miming or using autotune!
True artist!
I love his voice!
Exactly. I would much prefer a genuine live voice with imperfections than a “perfect” auto tuned performance.
He can probably play a song in a lower key if necessary......
Yes, Mr. Croakey is to be admired for giving us the honest goods. Love Paul, and would always rather have his voice as-is, even if it is not what it used to be (age and smoking put paid to that).
And let's not even talk about Bob Dylan.
As a sound engineer, I often kill the fx at the end of the song when the singer wants to address the audience, then flip it back on when they start singing. Same thing can be done with autotune which is effectively, another fx being applied to the vocal channel. So, yes, you are right. The engineer can turn it off on cue because speaking with autotune would be weird 😄
I don't regard autotune as an effect, an effect adds something to a performance while autotuine changes the performance. Reverb, for example, is an effect but autotune is a cheat.
@@davidwells184 I agree that autotune is a cheat, but it still alters the audio content like reverb or compression. How it alters the audio doesn't matter, whether adding something like space as in reverb, or changing the pitch as in autotune. I think we are just being picky here. Any modification to the original audio is an effect. Basically, they are all plugins of some sort.
I believe what is happening is Fil is looking at a compressed audio signal that gives the same affect as auto-tune. It's a new codec for saving space on your device and transmission. It focuses on the human speaking voice but when used on singing voices it creates these long drawn out tones.
@@davidroach1567But compression as you described wouldn't allow every note to align perfectly night after night. Even playing to click track to get an exact tempo, there would be variances in vocal phrasing, breath control, plosives, late entries and early exits on some lines.
Fil's analysis shows cookie-cutter precision that's impossible to produce naturally even if the best singer ever were to sing the song 10 times in a row.
@@davidroach1567 More or less like a sustain pedal?
If she's faking her performance, can I just buy tickets with Monopoly money then? Or does the money still have to be real?
🤣
Good one.😂😂
Guess you could probably get by with just drawing a ticket? Make it nice though, they like nice.
😂😂😅
The thing is, she's an entertainer, and she's entertaining. I don't think her fans will care 1 way or the other. People bought tickets to see Elvis Presley movies, when he couldn't act, and his singing was right from a studio recording booth, and they knew it. But they still bought tickets to the show because it was Elvis Presley. This is Taylor Swift. She will pack her shows, entertain her fans, make a lot of money, then do it again next week. And no one will leave her shows feeling like they were ripped off.
This is the most I've ever listened to TS watching this video....that was enough for me.
Yep
HaHa, me too.
Ive heard cats fckng more on pitch that her howling....😢
Thought the same thing.
Same...
Fil You deserve a medal for services to the industry and the buying public.
I bet you the modern Mu$ic Indu$try would rather lock up Fil vs a medal.
I really doubt if Swifties will care either way. They know what they like, and they like Swift. I don't think she has ever made any claims about her shows one way or another. They simply are what they are, and people beg to get tickets to them.
I wouldn’t say services to the industry. The industry is complicit in letting this happen.
@@johnwest7993Nope. We don't give a fk. We already know she can sing. We want a show. We don't want to be bored to tears.
"Swifties" demand less reality than people who are actual music fans.
Fil.. the reason some of those short notes slip past the tuner is because theyve set a slow retune speed (attack)... this removes the T pain effect and makes it sound more natural. The problem is that on some of her very short words/notes, they occur before the retune speed actually tunes the note.
For example, you set the retune speed to 250 ms, this will create a natural sounding tuned sound (you observed this when you saw how at the start of some notes, shes out of tune but then snaps into tune)... but if you have a single stacatto word that comes out around 250ms long... then the tuner doesnt actually have time to retune the input to the pitch its aiming at
PM LES’T DISCUSS PRIVATELY….
Thank you for adding info. Autotune used to be extremely obvious in the 2000s; now no wonder people are being fooled.
Good comment. You seem to know a lot about auto-tune. Are you a sound technician or a musician that has access to these mics and technology? I'm hoping Fil can get an interview with someone that is an expert in the field of auto-tune capabilities and use in the studio and during a "live" performance.
@@diamonddavemusic It's not like Autotune is a military secret or anything. Its capabilities are well known - and mostly obvious. You can set attack time, intervention range and a bunch of other parameters; the output can be very subtle (like, slowly correcting notes which are over 50 cents off) all the way to "T-Pain" (who doesn't use "autotune", it's a vocoder). Like you can use a subtle reverb/slap delay to mimic a live recording or a different room, or as an over-the-top effect to sound like you're singing in the Grand Canyon.
I only used the first (Antares) AutoTune plugin around 2000, but most current voice effect boxes offer some kind of real-time correction, often with a randomized level of intervention to make the output sound more natural.
@diamonddavemusic i am a studio mix engineer and post production engineer for film and television. While I'm not a live sound engineer per se, I have done quite a bit of FOH mixing for musical artists over the last 15 years. We started with Antares AVP-1 and Antares ATR hardware units, and now everything is plugins over a Dante network, usually something like Waves Tune. Long story short, everybody and their grandma uses live pitch correction these days and it's very subtle.
It takes a good ear and digital analysis like good sir Fil is providing to pull back the curtain.
whatsinmy AI fixes this (AI Video Analysis) (AI Video Analysis). Taylor Swift song performance analysis.
The people who say they can't hear autotune/pitch correction probably can hear it, but they have no idea it's not a natural sound. They may well have heard very little in the way of natural voices singing.
Ironically Most people think that Synthesized Pianos, Hammond Organs and Brass is what these things actually sound like. Same with Drums Most people think a Drum Machine is real drums.
Your last line is it. This has been going on for so long, there are adults in their 20's and maybe even 30's that grew up with the "robot voices" (as I call them) and have no idea. I stopped listening to radio completely in the '90's because my ears can't take the robot.
Good point!
*Many of her fans have grown up hearing nothing but auto-tuned vocals in pop music.*
*There's a good chance they know (consciously or unconsciously) her voice ia enhanced.*
*That being said, they'll still pay hundreds (if not thousands) to see her in real life.*
@@Lamster66😂😂Hammond organs. Too true
I'm old enough to remember the Milli Vanilli fiasco and its dramatic effect on live performances. In the 80s, before MV, it was not uncommon for performers to lip sync when doing "live" TV performances or concerts. Almost immediately after MV, no performer would be caught dead lipsyncing a performance. Everyone was hyperaware and hypersensitive about it. But as time passed and the impact of MV faded, performers gradually began lipsyncing again. Maybe videos like these can encourage performers to get back to live performances.
Tragic
At least they had audio quality issues to use as an excuse back then. Nowadays its just blatant cheating.
The two Pavarotti scandals were deemed just as bad. One scandal was his voice cracked on one note and people wanted their money back and the second he was lipsyncing at shows that cost about $850 per ticket in the 1980s.
I think one key difference here is that Milli Vanilli also did not sing on the albums.
They were very different though.
It was never their voices.
It was a session guy, who sang the songs on the album, and I think they just used the actual studio tracks, for live shows.
It was when they were asked, snd could barely speak English, and they couldn’t sing either.
It was a total con, that someone came up with, that got them Grammies, and sold millions of albums, doing.
One of them wouldn’t admit it for a long time, even after it was all exposed and folks had admitted to it.
I hope all your videos popularize a trend back towards organic real music. My wife and I go to many live concerts a year that are not auto tuned, usually smaller venues featuring jazz, blues, singer-songwriter, folk, bluegrass etc. Hearing a truly genuine unprocessed human voice is such an emotional experience at times, something we live for. Sadly I couldn't believe my ears, we saw a show at Prospect Park in Brooklyn and they were using live auto tune. I thought folk music was sacred but it was clearly being done (no analysis needed, my ears can hear it).
You can't get any more unprocessed than true a cappella. Check out some international champion barbershop quartet performances, I bet you'll love them!
Yeah like I don't think we'll ever get to the point again or we're rooting auto-tune or similar software tricks and mining for that matter out of popular music. But I hope at least encourages a counter movement of more and more live pop acts. Well rock too I obviously should specify as even a lot of them are now relying more and more on this stuff
When Taylor 1st started, I saw her sing in downtown Nashville. She couldn’t sing! Amazing what a rich father can do when he holds shares in a record company!❤🙏
She was always a songwriter first
I came here to say the same thing. I heard her sing live years ago in a venue where there couldn’t be any audio processing. And while I liked her songwriting back then, she was pitchy and hard to listen to. Good songwriter (at that time), but simply not a good singer.
@@jhvdwalt2874 if she is a songwriter, why does she sing? She can write songs and sell them to people who actually can sing
@@fakedevgirlShe can certainly make more money that way.
@@fakedevgirlif
Thanks for being honest, Fil. There isn’t much honesty available nowadays.
Fanbases can be delusional about Taylor's abilities.😂😂😂
Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣
P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
Taylor is not being dishonest. It is HER singing, though digitally enhanced.
LOL. This guy is the biggest fraud out there except Trump. And you believing him is embarrassing for you.
honesty is such a lonely word. everybody is so untrue. don't google it but i came up with that. you're welcome.
Swift has 14 Grammy awards. In their life times Joplin and Hendrix combined have ... 0. So much for the Grammy holding any credibility or significance.
She's a fake corporate "product."
Sorry you had to find out this way.
@@cornfilledscreamer614
Exactly, Taylor Swift and most modern pop stars are fake and manufactured.
Katy Perry having 0 Grammy's makes sense but Joplin and Hendrix? That's crazy! 😮😮😮
It's generally understood that if an 'artist' has grammys don't bother wasting your money or hearing on them.
To be fair, Janis and Jimi had relatively short careers. Maybe their Grammys were just around the corner. But I'm pretty sure neither of them ever lip-synced.
From now on, before I go to a concert, I’m asking Phil to vet the artist.
Or Fil???
Before i pay significant amounts of money to hear "Famous Artist", I will search for them on this channel. 😁
@ all spelling complaints should be addressed to autocorrect.
@@thegood9 I am sure Mr Collins could provide some good advice, as well.
@DainnBrighteye Or, go see Nightwish and Floor Jansen.
"She is making the noise" couldnt have said it better myself!
He would have said the same about any great singer, just so you know ... even your favourite singer.
@@elizabethmiller7291 ...if he or she was using Autotune live. That is the point of this wording.
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 No, that wording has been used before by Fil in any number of contexts. The way it was used in the comment I replied to was in denigration of a singer. My point was that Fil would never do that.
@@elizabethmiller7291no he wouldn’t. That’s the point of this video. The shame is she has a great voice. They ought to let her sing.
@@iangelling He wouldn't what and who is the he you refer to? But, we agree on that last bit!
I’ve never had the endurance to listen to a complete song of hers. Great analysis!
as a vocal coach i wanna thank you for doing the work and showing the facts. i once tried to point out i heard the editing on a so called live performance on a Dutch tv show called De Beste Zangers from Floor Jansen and the stanbase was brutal. I only had like 15k views, but that was a lot for me and i could not handle the comments. i once auditioned for Hollands Got Talent and got humiliated over my outfit, so this made me decide that one day i was gonna record my album myself and release it.
Fil is a great template for how to do your music, your way. Glad you’re still singing.
Since you bring up Floor you should check out Fil's analysis of Floor Jansen and Nightwish, you will stand corrected lol
I imagine most tv shows have significant editing, especially competition and showcase shows. Its a bit disappointing if true in Floor's case, I know how talented she is and it brings up all kinds of questions regarding if an artist knows its going to happen and if they have a choice. And I can imagine the knee-jerk reaction from the Nightwish "army" that would come without people really sitting down and thinking about the issue. It doesn't really reflect on Floor for me, but a reflection on the industry and its approach to "live" tv content. If there was evidence of her using Autotune or miming during concerts then that would be very disappointing.
@@myrathjanssen1938 But you're not saying that Floor Jansen never uses autotune live, are you? Because how would you know?
@@myrathjanssen1938Fil analyzes Floor…and he’s very impressed.
It sounded mechanical to me, so I believe it was auto tuned. I saw the proof on the monitor, so how can anyone dispute it? Thank you, Fil, for another excellent analysis! Rock!
Those 13 years don't care either way.
That inhale was very robotic. It would be hard for somebody to explain that was her natural breath.
No reason to dispute it. She has never claimed to be performing live and unaltered. She just sells tickets and puts on a show, and sells them out, packing the venues, something she will continue to do.
A friend saw Rihanna. He said Nuno Bettencourt was about the only live performance on that stage.
You cover everything Fil. Any longer and we would be in 2025. Lol
I think lots of people can't tell when vocals are autotuned simply because it is so common it has become the sound of modern pop vocals. I used to really notice it when it started but now I find I really can't tell anymore apart from the really obvious corrections, it has just become what I'm used to hearing now.
Yep. And people who sing without it and are incredibly talented now sound awful to people 😢
Now I'm scared the music industry execs are going to come for you. We need to start a bodyguard and lawyer fund!
Lawyers can only come after him if he isn’t telling the truth . Last thing they want is opening a can of worms if she is actually miming. if he’s stating fact he is fine there is zero they can do if he is stating fact.
And a safe house 🤣👍 These are Swift fans after all.
By now, this channel has 433k subscribers, if everyone clicks the "thanks" button, it is a good amount to help the channel.
Edit: I go first 🤗
You kind of have a point . And if they tell him to stop it, I think he would if it were legal action. But so far TH-cam hasn't said anything and no lawyers have sent letters
If Fil's channel gets taken down..or even worse?...ends up with concrete underpants in the bottom of a lake...we all will know why...
EVEN Freddie Mercury's vocals were pitch corrected on the new remaster of Queen 1...... shameful, as they were perfectly imperfect originally.
Yes, even Michael Bublé has his voice atutotuned on his records, and his pitch is almost perfect
And that's an absolute CRIME!
exactly. It's an industry standard, now.
It’s vandalizing the vox of a universally loved singer. Leave Freddie’s voice alone.
I remember listening to The Night Comes Down when I first bought the album in the 80s when I first became a fan. I thought his vocals were painfully (not just slightly) out of tune at the time. So actually they did need a fix. The trouble is, they went too far and 'over fixed' everything all over the shop where it wasn't necessary.
Thank you for following up with more data when we all asked for it and patiently presenting it!
Well, I am, as none of it surprises me. As for her fans, I imagine they will be split between those who say they already knew this and it's irrelevant, to those who will send you angry messages, and some will manage to be both. As I've said before, fans who are that invested in believing it's all live are not viewing Taylor Swift through any kind of objective lens, to put it mildly.
hmm. that's called a cult, I believe.
I agree. A friend of mine told me about several rock concerts she had recently attended, and I told her that I no longer want to pay top dollar to see a "performer" mime to backing tracks, and she told me the shows she went to were all live singing and playing. I suggested she watch this channel, but I didn't have the heart to tell her the bands were likely not playing or singing live at all. At least not to all of the songs, but maybe some of the songs. It all feels like a huge scam to me.
This makes sense. I was there last weekend for the last night in New Orleans. As a career guitar player and singer for the last 30 years (give or take), it was very apparent she wasn't miming the whole show. The acoustic/guitar/piano parts were clearly live ; that being said, she was VERY bang on ; it makes sense, as auto tune has come a long way over the last few years, and someone triggering it makes the most sense, as to Fil's points, she does improv and change things from night to night, so having that safety net of someone manually kicking in the auto tune when needed makes the most sense. I imagine when you have a BILLION dollar tour, they take NO chances. NO ONE is singing 3 nights in a row for 3 1/2 hours. I assumed it was common knowledge, but you make a good point. They want it to sound flawless, night in, night out. The only way for that to happen is what they are doing ; mime some, auto tune on command. You get some moments of her signing and talking (auto tune when someone deems is necessary), and mime the big set pieces. Thanks, fort the work you put into these videos.
Did anyone ever ask the ticket-buying music lover if they prefer fake and flawless over real without a safety net?
um musical theatre performers do 8 shows a week and don't mime.
Most concert goers do not care about "flawless, night in, night out". They want to hear singers sing LIVE, dancers dance LIVE, and theatre actors act LIVE. For millions of dollars, a person should be able to sing LIVE and then just be themselves. We don't need slick, phony, and massively produced entertainment.
Tina Turner and hundreds of other artists did that and do that regularly. And no it’s not common knowledge at all and shouldn’t be! It’s a disgrace.
@@hopeysmoke What are you saying is a disgrace?
I'm beginning to think Taylor Swift is actually one long special Black Mirror episode!!!
Taylor Swift has become her first tribute performer.
I wonder what analyzing Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel concerts would tell us.
My guess the analysis would show that Bruce and Billy are brilliant musicians with integrity.
Now THAT is funny!
To be honest, I think unfortunately many live performances have been pitch corrected to be released on YT and elsewhere. I wonder if they're doing this to big bands like Metallica, for example. I didn't find any recent analysis video on them, so I'll request it to Fil! 😅
As far as I know, Bruce sings the entire 3 or 4 hours of his concerts, and if he can't do it he stops the entire tour until he can. I'm no fan of his politics or ticket prices but he has a lot of good songs and some I don't care about. All of the concerts I've seen recordings from show him singing all the same songs differently, as is all any human can do at best. So I detect no miming. Are they pitch corrected or auto-tuned? They don't sound that way to me but maybe Fil could run a check and let us know for sure.
@@Micas099 Bruce is far from brilliant. He’s mediocre and boring.
Billy Joel is a genuine talent.
The surprise for me is that anyone is surprised. If this is an example of her original music I haven't been missing anything.
1989 is the greatest pop album of the 2010's
she's a mediocre song writer and a mediocre singer 🤷♀️ you aren't missing anything
@@Alix777. Go listen to some Led Zeppelin and get back to me.
I don't think anyone is surprised, any more than they would be surprised that Elvis Presley's singing in movies was actually done in the recording studio mot on the movie set. They knew, and they all bought tickets, and no one asked for their money back.
@johnwest7993 Right, no question you know what you're getting with her. A very well packaged pop singer who won't be of any relevance 5 years from now.
I took my granddaughter to the Eros concert and I thought that her voice sounded strange. I thought that it was just the microphone. I knew nothing about auto tune or pitch correction before watching Fil's videos. Now I understand and feel like I was taken advantage of by paying to watch someone lipsynch.
I'm a product design engineer by education, profession, and personality, so I completely agree with your technique of analysis of data. Human senses are SOOOOO easily fooled. One suggestion for future videos: You refer to the pitch grid lines and the data traces as (just) 'lines', which may confuse the less technical members of your audience. I suggest saying something like pitch grid lines (or just pitch lines) and vocal data traces (or just vocal traces) to make it clear which lines you are referring to. Keep up the good work! Respect!
My big concern is when studios start pitch-correcting old studio albums. I know they are starting to do it to old live performances, and i'm just dreading the day they start doing it to old studio albums, too. Can you imagine a pitch-corrected Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or Born to Run?
Remixes of older albums have been going on since probably the 1990s. I'm sure that is part of the process.
Fil did a video on that.
I asked Fil about this very thing on Patreon. He said that a simple remaster doesn’t imply autotune, etc. however, he also said in another video that they are indeed ‘fixing’ recordings by the likes of Freddie mercury (seriously….probably Ken Tamperin’s idea to fix Freddie’s flaws).
Ship already sailed, sorry
I'm genuinely afraid to check if they pitch corrected Ann Wilson and Geoff Tate.
FYI my buddy is a systems engineer (tunes the PA) for tours of this level. Basically, other than a handful of artists, all these pop stars are using "live" pre-tour rehearsal recordings through the same signal chain and recorded at the playback engineer's desk, then forwarded to front of house. At front of house, the engineer has often 20-40 tracks for the vocal including the raw/tuned versions of the pre-recorded and live vocals, a bunch of backing tracks, etc. While FOH *can* blend in the live vocal, it is RARELY done; the vast, vast majority of the time the FOH engineer is playing back the pre-recorded tuned vocal with everything else buried. For any stage banter the engineer is riding the fader for the live vocal. It is what it is. For frame of reference he said he is 99% that P!nk is using majority or all live vocal so try using one of her tours for a comparison?
Absolutely. No production of such scale and budget is going to run without multiple levels of redundancy. There will always be prerecorded backing tracks running in a typical pop concert because there are simply not enough musicians on stage to execute every tiny thing the audience expects to hear from the original album. If nothing else, these tracks are used to keep everyone on stage in sync. There will be count-ins for the musicians, a click track for the drummer, cues for the dancers and backup singers, and audible callouts for each verse, chorus and bridge, so nobody loses their place in a complex arrangement. Because playback is literally holding the show together, there will be redundant playback systems with automatic change-over if the primary machine fails. The FOH engineer will have access to both the live and recorded tracks. Bass player's pickup shorts midway through the song? Swap in the prerecorded bass track while a stage tech sorts it out. Flute player came down with COVID? Audience will still hear that flute part. Backup singer lost her voice yesterday? No problem, at least she can still dance.
Obviously, Taylor is likely to mime some songs where the choreography is too demanding for proper breathing. Other songs may have been planned as live, but something went wrong: wireless mic cut out and they can't swap it until the song's over. That's why the rehearsal vocal is running parallel. It's all under control of the FOH mixer and, at any given moment, Taylor may not even know what the audience is actually hearing.
Let’s go, Fil. Tell them…
OMG. Taylor Swift is exposed by some random youtuber. Now I will never listen to her music. Thankyou so much Fil. 🙄
@@akashvalsan6609it's not that deep. You are making this something it doesn't have to be. Fil means no ill will. But whatever.
@@lucakat9262 But obviously, he has a real big issue w/ live vocal tuning, not just lip-syncing. Sure, I expect *some* live vocals at least at concerts, but live vocal tuning is fine by me. Singing is a lot about the pitch but not just about that. If Taylor Swift were that terrible, even Auto-Tune Live would not make her sound any good.
Nobody gives a flying fk. Swift doesn't have to prove anything to anyone.
@@lucakat9262The hell if he doesn't. He breads his butter by tearing people down. He selectively chooses performances and he probably even tweaks the software to make it say what he wants it to say.
miming and auto-tune, the Swifties will like you 8-)
It's not about "you" [Fil]. It's about the truth.
Nah, we demand y’all to go to The Eras Tour (If you have some money since y’all need Taylor Swift for clout!) then you’ll realize this dumb TH-camr used edited audio and edited video made by an unknown (not a reputable source) and to make look like Taylor Swift didn't sing LIVE the whole time (almost 4 hours long) is the dumbest thing! Again his videos are trash and don’t forget, karma will hunt y’all and y’all whole family down 🤭🤣
P.S. Whether y’all like Taylor Swift or not Taylor Swift still holds the record for The Greatest Live performer in Music, The Highest Grossing Tour Of All Time, and The First Artist to have grossing tour > $1 billion and $2 billion! (Source: Forbes, Billboard, Polstar, etc.)
I'm a Taylor fan but also been in the industry in one respect or another for over 40 years and I can tell you that using a voice track with or without auto tune is also very common for many of not most pop artists and touring bands today. And in way it's justified for Taylor especially for an artist that does a 200 minute concert vs the average concert length is 90 minutes (and most have vocal breaks such as drum or guitar solos etc so the vocalist can get a break). Any vocalist would thrash his/her voice in days with such a schedule. I think her voicetrack is justified and areas where auto tune is used is also justified. Just do the fans right by announcing on the video screen that "this concert my use a backing vocal and intrumental track in order to enhanse the concert experiance and ensure a consistant performance at every show" (or similar).
Another great video...but nothing new...this is pretty common practice in today's day and age (even with classic rock bands that still tour like Def Leppard, Kiss etc). Rock On!
It’s the truth and facts though. Taylor does put on a great show but not a live singing performance. It’s basically a show/event. 3 hours 45 mins 3 nights on the bounce every week. It’s a backing track and auto tune no doubt. Although she does sing live but can get away with missing words & mistakes while dancing and running around . Nobody could do those shows like that live while dancing and singing live night after night for hours. The only live part every show is the acoustic sessions she calls it and that’s the part where Taylor plays 2 guitar songs & 2 on the piano. It’s the only part that is different each show also.✌️
It is Fil who needs a state sponsored entourage of police protecting him - from outraged swifties. Not multimillionaire Swift.
I’ve enjoyed Taylor’s music for a long time. I have also suspected for a long time that she was not singing everything live. I haven’t seen her concerts, but the social media videos were inescapable last year, and I watched the Era’s Tour concert movie on Disney+. Anyway, thanks for sharing this interesting analysis showing how some parts can be live and some mimed, with both using Autotune. I really wasn’t sure just how it all could work. The show is obviously a technological marvel, but knowing more about how the vocals are consistently manipulated makes me no longer feel disappointed that I didn’t get to see it myself.
Let's face it, in live situations, Taylor Swift is an entertainer, not a performer.
I don't find her entertaining at all. 🤷
I don’t know what that means.
She calls herself a singer and ticket paying fans expect to see AND HEAR a live performance.
No, she’s a performer but not a singer….lol
yeah, that shows how low the bar is set, especially for younger generations 😢
You are indeed a daredevil. You keep poking Godzilla's eye. 🦖 Fil, the fearless anti-miming, anti-autotune, anti-pitch correction warrior. 🙇🏻♂️
The terror of a tech mishap alone would keep me from miming. They have incredible trust in their audio engineers and the technology.
Good point. No doubt though that they’d have second and likely third setups just in case
Swift, Inc. has enough money to hire people and gear that will never, ever, fail for any reason. Backup after backup after backup.
What Fil is trying to explain about Autotune is that it can be set from 0%-100% with a human variation setting, and it can either be programmed for each song based on the key of the song or use the audio feed from a guitar or keyboard to match the key of the song. To me, it sounds like the Autotune is set to about 20-40% based on the song, so it doesn’t kick in until it notices that much variation from the key.
Edit: Later in the video, it sounds like it’s set to a 100%.
It seems like it gave a bit of leeway if the notes were sharp, but none if they were flat.
Good comment. You seem to know a lot about auto-tune. Are you a sound technician or a musician that has access to these mics and technology? I'm hoping Fil can get an interview with someone that is an expert in the field of auto-tune capabilities and use in the studio and during a "live" performance.
@diamonddavemusic you don't even need to be a sound engineer or anything now, the most basic autotune software now has the humanise function which you can set to varying degrees, I got it on a free one, it's already that common.
I believe what the case is that people don’t want to hear that their favorite musical artist is miming or that their voice is going through something like auto tune and/or pitch correction. To be fair, yes, I’d feel disappointed if my favorite artists were doing this. But some people are ever so faithful to the point that they believe that their favorite artists walk on water. From Fil’s previous and current analyses on Taylor Swift, this is what I’m reading in the comments.
The problem now is that most of our modern singers and musical artists in what we would call popular music are not talented artists who achieved their notoriety through their music. They are manufactured products, created to make money and sell stuff through visualisation and social media output. You only have to look at the charts and say where are all the bands with artists that play instruments.
Now I’ve done 35 years as a sound engineer and the change and advancement in technology over that time is massive from the old analog tape and splice recordings through midi to our modern manufactured digital music and im sure in the future A.I. Generated material. Back in the old days we bought music and liked bands for the music that they produced unfortunately now they are generally a marketing tool and the music talent and ability is very much a secondary thing.
Jazz, blues and classical/neoclassical albums each have a 1% share in the market. People claim to want more "authentic" music, but they aren't paying for it.
@@orlock20 Most of the classical and jazz albums I want to buy are out of print and purchased used. Of the over 200 CDs I bought this year only one was new - it was by a friend playing a coffee house (and I never expect to bother listening to it).
Swift is the epitome of manufactured.
You are 100% spot on.
You sure were spot on. Thank you for saying the quiet part out loud !
Today I watched a video taped, live Linda Ronstadt concert taped in California in 1980. There was just a singer, a band and a small stage. It was an awesome concert in every way. Linda is a highly talented songstress of the highest order. Also, she is a gorgeous lady, both inside and out. What was missing was a stage the size of a football field, a cable zip line, a catapult, scores of backup singers and dancers, numerous wardrobe changes, pyrotechnics, auto tune and miming. I don't begrudge Taylor Swift's success, This is America and she can rise as high as her success elevates her. However, if she tried holding an audience's attention the same way Linda did, by just singing, she would not have reached the heights she has attained. Taylor's voice lacks emotion and pitch so she uses other means to hold the audience's attention.
We all know Linda Ronstadt used AutoTune. LOL!
Wow, now compare her to Karen Carpenter or Olivia Newton-John lol There were so many wonderful women singers in the 70s it just wasn't fair.
Linda is a true giant. She wasn't a writer though. She just had the very best pipes. This is not a fair comparison.
@@boffo63 There are still many great singers today. Just not super famous .Try Beth Hart, Haley Reinhart, Morgan James.
@@DAVID-io9nj I'd add Chinchilla. Fingers Live is phenomenal.
Tyvm for the longer, time-consuming video on such a major world-wide musical artist as Taylor Swift! Even though I’m an amateur old grandpa singer/songwriter, this confirms what my ears are hearing. But it doesn’t upset me because some highly ambitious people will use any technology to sound “better”, whereas others couldn’t do it in good conscience.
Keep up the excellent work!
I can imagine that using automation must be lifeless. What you get out of your own live performance is very rewarding. As a musician, I only go to see LIVE talent. ( therefore, Ill probably never be at another arena concert )
@ Maybe checking live concert videos on TH-cam before attending? I’ve seen Tool live a couple of times with my son (he’s a big fan but I enjoy them, too).
The problem is that concerts are not about the MUSIC anymore. Fans will pay tons of cash to see visual effects, coreographed dancers, lasers, projectors, and a pretty face. The music itself is just not important.
True and it's also about the occultism and rituals. Young kids saying they feel possessed during a concert is not normal. 😢
She needs to work on the face part
Our culture, our government, our people.... We are all about images and words, propaganda and lies, FAKE. One day that will catch up with us.
Millions of fans treating her like she’s a goddess is mainly because parents fail to emphasize to their kids what’s truly important in life. The draw of people made famous by popular culture is an empty pursuit which will soon be forgotten. TS is a phenomenon, but not for the long haul. Of course she doesn’t care. She’s raking in the money that foolish people spend on low talented, pretty faces who know how to put on a show. Don’t know the average age of concert attendees, but I would guess it’s very young. In many, maybe most, cases, moms and dads are paying for the tickets. She’s destined to flame out sooner or later, but being a billionaire, again, she doesn’t care.
Yes and I'd add that a big part of it is wanting to be in the same "room" as the artist because they worship the artist
i am a swiftie and i thank you. never doubted that she lip-synced sometimes, or auto-tuned during songs. but your other video made it seem like it was all lip-syncing. so i respect you for making this follow-up!
Are we going to get a Taylor Swift song about Fil?
It was called “Shake it off”
😂😂😂
I'm never ever ever ever .. going to subscribe to Fil
Or maybe, ‘Let me stick your auto-tune where the sun don’t shine”
OK, that was funny.
Hopefully Mina will watch and understand what FIL does. He's just honest, no matter what group/vocalist he does an analysis on. She seemed quite angry yesterday!
I wonder what the ticket prices are for the chance to watch her dance? LOL!!!
Mina may decide to stay away... 😂
Sorry, who’s Mina?
$1k and up
@@nobodygnomes She is a Swift fan who asked Fil to analyze more of Swift's songs.
@@nobodygnomes she was commenting a lot on the chat yesterday. In one comment she was expecting FIL to address her frustrations on the spot, so I "told" her that if she wanted him to definitely see her question, she'd need to send it in like everybody else.
And he actually DID because somebody let him know she was in the chat. So he went through her long list of questions.
As a touring singer( who gets paid only 350 euros per gig), I often sing 3 x 45 minute sets per show 6 nights per week and sometimes I’m required to do 2 shows per day , plus I dance in my show. All eyes are on me and my audience is right up close. There’s no room for faking it. No auto tune and no miming. After my show, audience members always come up to me and tell me I should be on the world stage and often they hug and thank me for a fantastic performance. I’m grateful to be able to sing to a high standard each time live and to be able to bring real joy for those moments. I’ve never wanted fame, just to be genuine with my audience and live without worrying about the roof over over my head.
I only found this channel recently and it’s actually quite sad to know that so many singers on the world stage are actually mainly poor vocalists and mime artists. Thank you for the insight and knowledge.
I'm not sure Tay is a poor vocalist
With her music it isnt important if she is singing naturally or not. Her fans just want to see her. Its a pop concert, fast food of music.
PM LES’T DISCUSS PRIVATELY..
@@safespacebear see her? You don't see anything you can't see online. She only cares about your money. She isn't a true performer. She's a fraudulent wannabe artist.
Yeah, something like this. Her fans don't pretend or care to be connoisseurs of musicianship. That's fine.
Your analysis is so interesting
A NOTE ABOUT AUTOTUNE: AutoTune HAS HAD (for YEARS) the ability to:
1. Correct to a particular KEY -- you can even create a custom scale (or just use default chromatic scale)
2. Correct to a particular PERCENTAGE (i.e., it doesn't HAVE TO snap to the exact pitch. When set at 50% for example, it will snap to halfway between the actual pitch and the exact pitch). Using less than 100% correction (along with slowing the correction speed) goes a long way to making it more natural sounding.
3. Adjust the correction/reaction SPEED -- so that it doesn't have to snap to pitch INSTANTLY (the Cher "Believe" effect) but can slide over a few milliseconds up or down to pitch.
The reason AT has "come such a long way" is that more and more FOH engineers are actually taking the time to ADJUST these parameters for the most natural-sounding result, whereas many in the past would just pull up a preset and go.
I've heard AT done REALLY WELL even decades ago. But more often, I've heard just the lazy set-it-and-go mechanical-sounding version 'cuz "optimizing the AutoTune" is a low priority compared to the hundred other things a mix engineer has to worry about.
Another important detail that might not be apparent to most people is that you can also automate any effect. So you could have passages where the autotune effect is inactive, and then have it automatically start at a certain point of a song. You could even have several different auto tuners with different settings activate and deactivate completely automatically during a performance.
That is true. And also resources. For someone with the kind of resources like Taylor, she could afford the top engineers with personalized customization of the AT on her performances.
Since the mix engineer is so busy he might consider not using the autotune at all? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
This is more Swift for me than my sum total up till now.
Same.
I didn't watch the video. I came for the education in the comments. Still holding at 0 hours of listening to her.
Same here, it's a whole new world to me. I'm in my 40's and since i was very young my musical love was essentially guitar based music. Whether rock and metal as a nipper, punk rock, indie rock etc. So the notion of not actually playing instruments live, or using auto-tune live, or pitch correcting vocals after the fact is foreign to me. As is the sentence that gets mentioned when a pop singer/songwriter is famous "AND... she writes her OWN SONGS!" to which my response is.... "And? Is that's what you're kinda supposed to do?" I dunno, it seems this lady has very little confidence in her own ability and her own material which probably explains why she wears next to nothing when she performs. That'll distract 'em!
@@twinnedwitherlangen I go to see musical talent, not what you were born with.
It sounds like 1) there's some lipsyncing, such as on the faster songs where she's moving around and dancing, 2) there are some live vocals, such as on the acoustic and piano songs and maybe some others, and 3) she's using a live auto-tune/pitch correction software throughout the concert when she is singing live (and the prerecorded vocals are obviously pitch corrected in the studio). Maybe I'm getting too sympathetic, but I sort of expected it would be like that and I don't think it'll bother most actual Swift fans very much, but I'm sure it would bother some of them.
Same here. I think she's mostly celebrated for being a songwriter and performer, so however she chooses to showcase her songs live is her business, as long as the people buying the tickets know the truth. Almost all music is autotuned these days which is why I'm not crazy about any of it, none of it sounds raw or original.
@@lisandra5330 Yes, I agree that it's important they ticket purchases know the truth and it's likely that most of her fans would accept a certain % of lip-syncing each night because it allows for more dancing theatrics, etc., but the trick is how to disclose that without ruining the fun. But I think she's got a really great voice. Top notch. It's just that she's known more for her songwriting than say Celine Dion or Mariah Carey who are first and foremost vocalists.
I think you’re on the money. Except for some delusional crazies, this is exactly what everyone expected to varying degrees when it comes to the exact amount of live pitch correction used. I think the main issue with the first video Fil released was the accusation of a 100% sterile audio show straight from the can. That was a bit insulting to the Swifties, who know that there’s more individualism to the experiences they enjoyed.
This video, however, is a much more level handed analysis, and I for one appreciate the integrity he showed by taking the time and digging a bit deeper, even if it might have seemed like a waste of time to him. I understand, that we ultimately might be looking for different things. But it’s 2024 and this isn’t a crazy weird thing to happen in the industry. she’s also a songwriter rather than a singer, and the whole phenomenon has never been about her vocal prowess. I think we’re good at this point. If Fil doesn’t like this standard, that’s cool, if some of his followers see that as cause to deride everything Swift stands for, whatever… But for the community around Taylor Swift, this is good enough, even if some of you don’t understand it. It’s fine. Live and let live. 🫶
@@alexanderlyonI like TS but she is just moderately good as a singer and nowhere near as gifted as Celine Dion, not even close. But she doesn't have to be, very few singers are that good.
@@SanSan-gl6zd question is do you want your idol to be a person or a machine? Live or not live lmfao.
It's interesting because part of her gimic is to always have a part where the mic isn't working or she needs to start over or she messes up a lyric and starts over on acoustic or piano songs. It seems obvious it's to show she's live not auto tuned or corrected, but she is.
Oh my. So glad that TH-cam is the source of all my original concert material from the 70s and 80s.
Hmmm. Fil has some bad news for you. If it’s on TH-cam (particularly if it’s on the official TH-cam channel of the respective artist), there’s absolutely no guarantee it hasn’t been digitally pitch corrected. See 70s “live” concert performances of Fleetwood Mac and Eagles as just two examples that Fil has analysed.
@@fromchomleystreetyeah. Tragic. Broke my heart. 😢
Thanks for this longer more detailed video fil, i really enjoy your analysis and videos 😊
Auto-tune has 'flex tune' and 'humanize' knobs. Humanize will allow you to slide between notes once you have hit the note initially. Not exactly sure what flex tune does, but it does make it sound more natural. Also can detect natural vibrato and let it through. Its pretty advanced these days.
Thank you for confirming what many of us have already knew for a long time. Auto-tune/miming is everywhere and 90% of mainstream artists are simply scamming people without remorse.
On the other hand, 90% of average listeners have no idea they are being scammed or they don't give a f....
Imagine charging your fans 700 dollars to play Spotify in a large arena lol! What a clown…zero integrity.
@ okay how?
$700 isn’t her highest ticket price. I’ve seen them for over $2,000.
C'era bisogno di finanziare le elezioni!
She puts on a show. She doesn't sit on a stage with a guitar and a mic and a big sign that says "This is absolutely live and unaltered music." Nope. She makes no claims. She puts on a show, and sells tickets and packs venues, and no one asks for their money back. She will continue to do just that, not because she is the world's greatest singer, but because she understands her fans, and she works hard and gives them what they want.
@ I’m not doubting that she works hard. It just obvious what type of artist she is. If you’re into that then whatever but basically she is charging her fans hundreds if not thousands to come look at her pretend and dance for 3hrs. How many people know that she is literally manipulating her voice to entirely sound like the studio album? It’s not live music. It’s not a concert.
Seen her twice at Anfield. Im a fan. There were definitely sections that she wasn't 100% live. As you said, it's 3.5 hours and extremely high energy. I'd be shocked if she didn't make some parts easier for herself. Again, the pace of the show was intense. She's always been a pitchy singer. Again, not surprised she'd smooth that out during such a massive show. Even during this show, she missed a few notes and was off pitch. Guess that's just the background dynamics of it.
It's the wind tunnel effect with making cars. You send them all through the wind tunnel they all begin to look the same. Exactly the same with autotune, eventually it all sounds/looks the same.
Same with plastic surgery and make-up trends. Look the same, sound the same etc.
I can't wait for Fil to kick the Beyhive!
Yeah curious about her too. She does have a much better voice overall than Taylor tbh though.
@@pjones6749A better voice overall or a better grasp of autotune technologies overall? *suspenseful music*
She sings live
Leave the Bey alone. Her and Z are knee deep with the Diddy mess. They aren't answering what they knew about Sean Combs.
@@juicyfruit6311 that's they're own fault
You did a really good analysis, i think we can all see and hear what you mean. It is also encouraging that she does a couple of live songs during her tour, even if there's autotune, at least she is singing. Also, i think it would be a good idea to see an analysis of live vocals with no autotune, that sounds great. It would help to understand what it's supposed to sound like. It would be interesting to see multiple example of this. Thank you and Keep up the good work.
Thanks!
The beauty of a live show is that anything could go wrong at any moment..
that's a cool way of seeing it. like a play
You should do this analysis on Castles Crumbling with Hayley Williams - mid performance Taylor stopped singing because she was so in awe of Hayley Williamsˋ voice. I wonder if and to what extent AutoTune was used there, on both Taylor and Hayley (which would blow my mind)
Autotune corrects sustained musical pitches, which usually don't occur during casual speech. The engineer is paying close attention as well, and can turn it off after she gets out only two or three words. Then a few pitches can go wild when they start singing again before it's turned back on.
"blank space, I think that's what it's called" -- nice burn, rofl
What's the burn?
anyone who has sung live for over 1.5 hours will understand how hard it can be. I sang in a rock band (Original songs) but imagine ac/dc to rainbow . that's damn hard. especially on a tour . i know Swifts songs aren't hard, (natural unforced female voice) but fair play.. her gigs are endless and she has the cash to doctor it . She's there to be perfect and she does her job brilliantly
My heart goes out to the real singers grinding it out truly live
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Great analysis, as a Swiftie I really appreciate it. And I would still go to her concert to see the show and I think that's the same for a lot of people. We know that not everything is live, which is disappointing, but if it was, she would lose her voice after 10 concert played back to back 3 days a week for over 3 hours every week. It's the same with K-pop. They have backing vocals, but it's all about the show. Also, has anyone else who's been to her concert experienced this thing - her voice live (when you hear it with your ears) sounds very different from any recording of her live performance (even the same concert I recorded)? I've been to over 20 concerts in my life (and 3rd in the same stadium) and this was the first time it happened, it was quite shocking.
Taylor Swift is so rich she can run a tour exactly how she wants at this point. Like Ed Sheeran.
Her choice, as is miming and live autotune, which doesn't rest your voice btw.
I LOVE when people say, "But on MY night, when WE were there, she was NOT miming, and we KNOW it...." That's some funny shite.
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@@thegood9 you’re right. My daughter watches streams from virtually every night of the tour and she can tell you exactly when she is going to wink , pause, what she’s going to say between songs . Every night is the exact same.
@@dvp36 Soon, she can just project her hologram and she won't have to even pretend anymore.
@@thefirst9500How do we know she doesn’t already?
You can prove it soooooo easily. There are countless videos of errors happening that prove she’s singing live. Literally 2 days ago, her IEM pack died. While they were changing it, she goes off pitch, off beat, and adlibs a whole run that’s not normally there. Yes, she has a backing track. But she also has a phenomenal live band, 4 incredible backing vocalists, and yes. Her own live vocals.
I've been watching you a long time and one thing I know for sure is that you would not misrepresent or fabricate any of your analysis. If there's one thing you know is music inside and out and a great musician yourself and I trust your opinion 100%.
Ashley Simpson's entire career ended overnight when she got caught lip syncing. Meanwhile everyone can plainly see that taylor doesnt play or sing live, but she's one of the biggest artists in the world. Sad
Yeah it's strange. And it's one thing for like that 75-year-old touring to rely on that stuff. But people in their prime. Even someone like Post Malone. .... I don't know about the country tour but on his other tour he just sang over his album. But they didn't remove the voice from the album. Just like what's the point?
When he fell over one time and got hurt so you could tell the whole regular track just kept playing with his voice on it. The microphone was on but apparently it's just acceptable not to sing over your album..
And not just the refrains either this was pretty much the entire performance every song verse et. . with the exception of maybe when he pulls out the acoustic guitar and there is no like trap music
This must have taken a lot of time to put together. Thanks for making this video in response to TS fans. Sadly, the audience is not getting to hear her voice. They are hearing the output of a calibrated computer program, autotune, instead of her own voice. Some songs are mimed and some are not, but the processed sound is always present. Fans are enjoying the show however, and are conditioned to this sound, so it seems like her natural vocal to them.
I'm someone who loves to hear real, live music from real, live musicians. I want it real, off key, stutters, everything real, something I can relate to. But having said that, I don't actually mind if Swift's audio is processed. I don't mind whatever is done to any aspect of her shows to make them more entertaining. I see her shows as 'happenings', a pure show, not pure music, sort of like a DJ spinning records back and forth. No one does that to classical music, but this isn't classical music. It's intended to be pure entertainment, and it entertains. It's like the light-show at a Pink Floyd concert. The lights were all just show, and they were intended to be. In Taylor's shows I see everything as just a part of the show, from the costumes to the voice. It was intended to be entertainment, not serious, and it's entertaining. It's the equivalent of professional wrestling, as opposed to Olympic wrestling. It's a different gig. More people watch professional wrestling than Olympic wrestling. More people bought Kiss albums than Segovia albums. And more people go to Taylor Swift shows than pretty much anything or anyone else, and they feel like they got their money's worth. I wouldn't buy a ticket to the show, but I understand where her fans are coming from. She puts on a magic show for them and they like it.
I 100% agree with @ that this is exactly what is happening!
I am a Swiftie, but I'm old (54) & came to her later in life. I appreciate her lyricism more than anything else.🤷🏻♀️
Am I disappointed to learn that she mimes to some songs? Sure, but I honestly thought she probably did in a 3 1/2 hour performance. However, I'm more disappointed finding out that she's using 'autotune' in a *live* concert.🥺
Excellent point well made. 👍🏼
Thank you for the investigation. It really makes you appreciate the vocals on Take it to the limit by Meisner
Hats off. Taking on the Swifties.
Was that the goal?
Hello, wanted to thank you for reviewing the Greatful Dead. Watching you smile made my day. Please review any dead music!
Thank you for showing that she does not lip sync the whole thing. I was one who commented that she went "back and forth" but I personally didn't mean literally every other song.
Just listen to the Righteous Brothers and Elvis for more authenticity.
Fil has a vid reacting to America live in 1975 , he even left in them tuning up , they are singing I Need You , Gerry Beckley lead vocal and on piano , it’s fabulous. Those guys were the real deal .
And The Beatles- who can still manage to sing in tune with all the screaming fans.
@@Resgerr I've heard of the bootlegs of Oingo Boingo's live shows during the 80s and 90s and they performed live and it's very good because of how raw they perform.
Fil,
I am a great fan of music from the 1970's. Since this is an era that precedes AUTOTUNE, I think that it would be fascinating to see how some of my favorite singers from that era's vocals look on your magical software. Some examples of artists that I would LOVE ♥to see you analyze are: "Mama" Cass Elliot, Barry Manilow, The Beach Boys, Karen Carpenter, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Tony Bennet, etc.
Thanks! 🤗
Fil has done the analysis on some of them. Karen Carpenter, for sure. Just look at his video library. He does a lot of the “greats.”
Deception on two levels - 1) miming to a recording which is 2) _pitch corrected_ (hence IMV not even miming to her own voice).
Fil, I knew immediately that all of these examples were auto tuned! You have taught me well! You said it sounded mechanical, I say it sounds like a robot! The sound actually presented was so overprocessed that it actually was difficult to listen to! It's such a shame that this is what we are getting as music these days! This was an easy to understand analysis video. However, I am not sure the Swifties are open-minded enough to be objective in their thought patterns! Excellent analysis and purely objective data! 💜
I've just watched Paul Weller live, and for the last 45 years, his voice has gotten better. True musicians.
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He sounds best with the auto-processor set to “Down in the tube station at night”.
I really hope this video blows up, Swifty needs to be seriously exposed!!
The Paris performance is just the whole full song of LOML as it was the first time she performed it. The second time she did a Mashup of LOML with another song as she has been doing with both the Guitar and Piano Acoustic set songs. So every acoustic portion of the show is always a different set of mashups.
Thank you, it was frustrating me for some reason that he called the mashup an experimental extra chorus, lol. Love his analysis though.
Music production has only asked if it can be fixed, but not should it be fixed. I think fans would be happy with the imperfections. When I was a child in the 70's, fans would always talk about what imperfections and differences they would notice between what they saw live and records that people listened to at home. Production believes that fans expect perfect consistency.
Swifty fans after watching this damning video, "But why didn't you listen to the last song she did? She definitely sang that live!!"
I can just imagine a team of 5 guys backstage on laptops trying to create or manage Taylor's "voice" in real time for 3 hours straight. What a job. I'm sure everyone is required to sign nondisclosure agreements. Is this what music has come to?
I worked with a famous rock singer years ago and had to sign a NDA. A few months ago I was commenting on another channel about his voice and got an email from them. I was so surprised after all this time and had to delete my comment.
Dont worry. She still takes your real money.
Thank you Fil. I hope everybody is satisfied.
What you're hearing on the sustained autotuned note is phase shifting as the processor stretches or compacts the waveform in order to place the zero crossings on the corrected points in time. Especially where there is reverb or delay, this phasing becomes apparent. It is the sound of autotune.
Thanks, I thought I heard some "phasey" stuff going on😅..
Most of the "phasey" sound, though, comes from the software that separates the vocals from the other sounds. The exact same record played in two different rooms would give different results; live recordings are particularly taxing on the software because of the crowd singing along.
@@IlBiggo Most? No. A little, perhaps.
@@TheAntibozo "Perhaps"? Do you know or do you "think"?
Because I know. It's not like I'm using Fisher-Price tools for my job, and even the pro standard for stem separation leaves artifacts (and that "phasey" sound), moreso if there are more voices or a crowd.
@@IlBiggo I know.
Is it even about the sound quality of the music when it’s thousands of fans singing along to every word at the top of their voices? Sounds more like worship than appreciation.
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Bunch of leftist cultists.
What fans don't want to understand is that an analysis doesn't mean that the singer is bad or that the show wasn't good, but that she is using technology to correct her voice or relieve it. Good job Fil !👍
Really appreciate Fil having the patience and dedication to answer people's questions on his channel. I guess I can understand the industry's penchant for "perfection" with a billion dollar tour, and certainly understand no one can necessarily be up to par or have the stamina to perform and sing for three hours in a lavishly produced tour, understandable. But I wonder if a shorter show would be easier to use less production gimmicks? One fan said Swift's career is "too long" to shorten the show, but maybe it would've been cool to have the shorter show, say an hour and a half or two hours, and mix it up a bit in each city/ or each performance? And rely less on auto tune and miming? I prefer the imperfections of a truly live performance, it's what makes it special and memorable.
It's really helpful to see how different the vocal lines look when two live performances are plotted together.
I'm massive Taylor fan,and l thought just objectively, a three and a half show 3 or 4 times a week with not only singing,but dancing and playing some miming would be involved.l think it's fine she has "rests" from singing.
I had worked it out for myself watching various videos from the tour myself l could clearly see episodes where she was singing but a little out of sync with with the music.
I find your analysis fascinating by the way!
She is rich enough not to choose such a busy schedule. It's her choice.
As is miming and using autotune.
Oooo... the swifties are out in force and whilst reading the comments I have noticed so many of them defending the use of the lip-syncing and auto-tuning. Goes to show that you can give people the truth, but they'll still be mad at you for pointing out, and proving the truth of the situation.