someone told me that JLo and Shania Twain use a pitch device to stay on key ....

I have seen this one used in studios, works very well but i feel it is cheating.

http://www.antarestech.com/

With drum machines and this crap and sampling, where is the real music. My kids are tired of me telling them that a dude rapping about whos pants he is getting into over a drum machine with a sampled bit of a classic song is not music. i hate that crap, unfortunately that's all my kids listen to. Well, my son does listen to some stuff that is real musicians and music but is still mostly crap.

And I want to agree to disagree with you, I believe it was the begining, no longer was it what was able to be laid down on the track at the time of recording but what they were able to enhance. A technicality yes, but a begining to an end. You are correct it was still the original performers but not what could be reproduced without enhancement.

Jim

Did you know that producer Alan Douglas got hold of some unfinished Hendrix multitrack tapes in the early '70's and proceeded to WIPE the original bass and drum tracks, replacing them with vastly different tracks cut long after Jimi's death by various LA slickateers?
The resulting albums, Midnight Lightning and Crash Landing, were so unbelievably horrid that some reviews at that time - i think it was Rolling Stone mag - deemed them " blasphemy unto the Lord".

Are these the albums you're talking about?

I think I know what you mean, used as an instrument, moog sythesizer and such could be ok, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes all excellent performers, but when the performers simply can't sing and or play any type of instrument and use technology to become a performer because they happen to fit the clothes some marketing person picked out it is unacceptable.

Originally overdubbing was to get harmony's and other sounds (more instruments) without bringing in other performers.

Jim

Even today's rock bands like The Smashing Pumpkins use to overdubbing - more than ten times - their guitar sound to have a distortion with more rich, fat and wider harmonics.

Ever hear the 1980 'live at Knebworth' ?, all the boys where together for the last time and they nailed it !!!. It is still one of my favs and I'll be opening off the RMAF show tomorrow with it.

Digital studio toys are fun, lots of great writers or composers aren't so great at performing, lot's can't afford a great band in the studio and lot's of studio engineers are frustrated or untalented musicians , me included and these toys become part of their artisitic impression.

All this still came available in the mid-80's and has used on a good high percentage of music making since. The studio and engineer has been a member of many great bands.

Multitracking is a great tool, for bands that write in the studio, it is amazing to see how a riff can become a great song that way and how a harmony doubled just makes the chorus jump out for example.

That said multi-tracking becomes like work and after a few years of it I would go on a 2 channel live off the floor recording to get my head clear.

If topics like this interest you, I really suggest grabbing some books about Les Paul's career, inventions and methods. I build my favourite studio based in Les's methods, no control room, that was fun and musical.

Ian

So we can blame all this on rye cooter, right. he started the revolution into digital, so down with ry.

elroy

Don't blame on Rye, mate.
I'm not against digital, don't get me wrong. We can do amazing things with digital data.

Try listen to a cd mastered and printed in the '80's or early '90's and compared it to another one of 2000....
Something changed for worth much much worth and not because of the digital format...

As anyone tried it?

I know, I was just kidding, that was one of those language nuances, but you are true, I do enjoy a mastered disc from the 80's and 90's.

elroy

I know you were kidding ) , but yesterday i was at my sister's house at a birthday party and one of the conversations at the party was exactly the differences between 80's-90's cd's compared to nowadays masterings and we all found huge differences. Even the younger guys - kids of 20 to 25 - felt exactly the same, and i know it wasn't from the beer...