maybe the singer had Autotune implaned inside his throat, because he couldn't really sing :)
but seriously: I'm assuming you double checked your equipment, sample rates, buffer sizes, mic and preamp; if everything's cool, maybe he stood too close to the mic, producing a distortion which might have sounded weird. Maybe his voice resonated with something in the recording space, or even with the mic. Did you try a different mic/preamp?

Maybe he needed a shot of Jack to kinda soften it up a bit :c:

Good old Jack to the Rescue ;) too late to try that. But I didnt double check everything. But at the same time I did hear him sing in the room and his voice did sound that way. So I'm pretty sure I just camptuered what was there. weirdest thing. just sounds warbly like the "cheer" effect. The way he goes from one on to the other is so FAST and crazy. oh well it didnt turn out too terrible. Funny thing is the places that I tuned sound less tuned than his untuned voice in some places. :w:

Haha, first we have guitars with in-build chorus and OD, then we have singers with in-built autotune.

Next week: A snare with an XLR output with it's own in-built impulse response reverb.

Oh! and cymbals with two XLRs - one output, and one input for an in-built compressor's side chain.

Believe it or not, I find this quite frequently now-adays! And after a lot of thought, what I have learned is this.... basically, we've allowed ourselves, and our ears, to go into "hyper-sensitive" mode about tuning and vocal "character/ discrepencies." I'd bet dollars to donuts that if you go back to older recordings from 10 years ago, perhaps even longer, you'd begin to hear vocals that you'd swear were auto-tuned. Back then, it would have been the characteristics of the singer, but now that we can compare everything to a "tuned" vocal, and have learned what that should sound like (or at least how the process sounds), now we hear things we didn't before! When I'm comping vocals, there are times on almost every single vocal that has been tracked on every single project where I think "that's been tuned incorrectly....wait.....I TRACKED THE VOCAL!!!!!" And I KNOW that I haven't tuned it! I think we've begun the micro-management of artistic endeavors! :D

Doug, can you link to an example of the vocal? You got me intrigued with this topic

I've been working with a vocalist from a local band here. Their style is in the vein of POD and when their singer "screams" his voice modulates at the end of the scream like the sound you hear in "The Matrix" when Neo exits the matrix.. It's weird as hell and I was freaking when I was recording him. I thought that something was going on with the equipment, but it's his voice and it's his characteristic sound. I tend to agree with an earlier post, that perhaps we are becoming more sensitive in regards to hearing things...
Or someone is implanting digital stuff in us. LOL

Yes ! A female artist that I´ve worked with a lot and done many sessions with sounds auto-tuned. She knows it, and hates it and sometimes we might even redo something that was great but sounded too tuned, go figure. It´s just something about the way she goes from one note to another that does it. I have also from time to time made her sound less tuned by tuning her... And yes, I´m very, very sure that I´m recording her "clean".

Conciously or (even more likely) Subconciously much of the tone we produce vocally is a product of what we are hearing regularly and what we "try" to sound like. Quick... imitate an operatic singer... suddenly you'll create a wide space in your mouth, lots of vibrato and big wide vowels. That's not YOUR tone but you can create it. Pop singers didn't sound like Madonna until everyone suffered from Madonna overload via radio, clubs and MTV.
This is not a new phenomenon. The "tone" of language, laughter, and most certainly singing where it is expanded over time was passed down through generations. The lilt of Scotland and Ireland, the nasality of Asian cultures, the extreme relaxation of Native American are all examples of this cultural phenomenon.
Recording has sped up this process, and (as you're finding) Autotune has become a "tone" that we are hearing everyday. Singers especially (unlike instrumentalists) learn their "tone" from hearing and singing along with the radio and CDs.
Get used to that tone - it'll be bigger than Brittany.

Phil

Wow, how true. Very good point pmolsonmus. I guess that means I really don't have the natural John Lennon vocal sound I've always thought I was born with...

Genetics and anatomy certainly come into play AG,
but a lot is what you hear and what you want to come out. The ear dictates vocal production at extremely discrete levels. Your vocal chords adjust the instant your brain thinks a pitch, before you ever make a sound I know, I've had a pharyngoscope? down my throat as pitches were played and I could see the vocal chords expanding/contracting. That said,James Earl Jones is never gonna sound like John Lennon, but.. Tone is a product and is "created" by the mind. That is what truly scares me about Autotune! Maybe my choirs will sing with better pitch (????) but I'm definitely gonna be battling that tone in the future.

Peace
Phil

I just recorded my own song, and I sounded autotuned! I think it's because I don't sing very well, so I tried to compensate by perfecting my pitch when I hear it in the headphones.

I've run into this several times!!!!!

what I have learned is this.... basically, we've allowed ourselves, and our ears, to go into "hyper-sensitive" mode about tuning and vocal "character/ discrepencies." I'd bet dollars to donuts that if you go back to older recordings from 10 years ago, perhaps even longer, you'd begin to hear vocals that you'd swear were auto-tuned.

I think your essentially dead on and I also think young singers are emulating what was so rampantly widespread during their "impressionable years" 2-5 years ago.
Remember how quickly the "Eddie Vedder Sound" caught on? It wasn' a matter of "finally, we of the goat-voiced down-trodden multitudes can finally express ourselves vocally and musically without fear of oppression and with great hopes of financial reward." It was more like teenagers respond to all things popular and trendy like a sponge responds to H2O.
To break it down, singers are being very sub-consciously conscious about their pitch, using very little vibrato, holding notes dead-on purposefully for long values, and jumping from note to note quickly with either quick precise bends or no transition whatsoever.
Very strange.....what ever happened to organic and natural??? Feel??? Now we are trying to SOUND LIKE COMPUTERS!!!!!!
Life imitating art vs art imitating life.... Sounds like the latter is winning out!

Hi ,

I record more and more singers that sound "autotuned" but they're mostly Rn'B singers . I have a simpler explanation : they listen a lot to American RnB and want to mimic the singers and those are autotuned . They are just impersonating what they are hearing on the radio or the records even if they don't know it's autotune .

So do we wait for the first release of Antares AutoDetune??

:D :D

Paul

No, Antares Detune Deluxe Version 3.14... beta TDM HD Accel probably won't do the trick. We need a universal reboot. Actually more like a shutdown after a system crash were you even pull the AC cord for a few minutes just to make sure all the "demons" get out of the system. I'm talking an Ice Age here, baby. Meteorites and earthquakes. Total devastation. No one who can understand binary language is left alive. Then we start over with cave paintings and drum circles. Ahhh one can only dream.