Sunday, December 09, 2012

A few years back, a couple of guys had other people sing for them while they lip synched (moved their mouths but were not actually singing). This became a huge scandal They dropped out of the music business even though a valiant effort was made to save them. The most famous vocal coach, Seth Riggs, worked with them and made public statements that they were, in fact, able to sing. This was too little, too late. Perhaps they could sing, but were they good? The whole mess was considered a fraud, a sham. TODAY Today, when you hear an album of a singer, they may have put a thousand hours into the vocals. The vocals have been altered electronically in many cases. Having done some recording engineering, I have experience with pitch correction and a nearly infinite number of possible tweaks, which can be done to enhance the sound of vocals. Many, if not all, of the same effects are available for live performance. What are we actually hearing in performances? If the singer sounded great on the original CD or download and then he/she sounds worse or terrible, is that less of a sham than Milli Vanilli? If it is less, not by much. YEARS AGO Years ago a singer had to have developed the art to a level of near perfection and without the aid of equipment beyond the singer. There are still some great singers around, but in the past, there was no assisting an amateur level singer into sounding as if the time was put in to be great.