Friday, December 09, 2011

Auto-tune for Opera

I went to a party last night where it was discussed that the famous DVD of Netrebko and Villazon in La Traviata had the pitches corrected with auto-tune over 200 times.  This completely ignores my claim that pitch modification (highly polite term for singing flat or sharp) is part of the singer's expressive tool kit.  It's just your opinion that they are not supposed to be doing this.

Maybe that's why the recording sounds so bland.

Footnote please see Opera Chic for news on James Levine.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

2 comments:

Bruce said...

I was thinking during that phase of the conversation about all the truly great recordings that were made before studio technology really advanced. Obviously, I'm more familiar with jazz example than "classical" ones--but I think of Count Basie's 1935 recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good," which was made with one microphone in a room so small that the drummer could use only his hi-hat and a snare...and Lester Young's playing in those 3:30 transformed tenor sax playing forever; while Jo Jones's drumming did the same for guys playing on the kit...no "fixes," no "punch-ins," no Autotune (TM)...one take, a masterpiece...and let's not talk about "East St. Louis Toodeloo" or the Hot 5's and Hot 7's....

2:06 PM
Dr.B said...

The music and the mistakes cannot be separated.

9:07 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)