funkyhead said:

Crazy messages on here about this auto-tune lark..why? He has often 'treated' his voice in the studio from the 'mommy...' in 1999, through to all the Camille tracks, it's been slowed down, sped up etc for years! IMHO Auto-tune is used in these new releases as a bit of fun & to add another variation on his vocal BUT in no way to enhance / disguise his still exquisite voice.

So, the Q...what's the problem?

Prince using the "Camille" voice was creative, using out 'o tune is for lame cunts who can't sing plus it's an annoying effect that has zero creative merit...
Nails on a chalkboard make me cringe even less than out 'o tune...

Neversin.

[Edited 9/9/14 5:38am]

Pretty simple...Prince created Camille, and was HIM singing. Auto Tune is simply a trend that many older artists think they can score a hit if they follow it. George Michael has abused it, and George is one of the greatest singers ever...a voice that was not heard as much as it should have as his internal demons killed his career. Sad that an innovator like Prince is following copycat trends.

Rebeljuice said:

Of course he isnt using it to improve his singing voice. It is an effect used all too much in the industry as a whole, and it creates a vibe that I just don't like. Never have. It just comes accross as a production trick often used in mainstream pop/rnb nonsense which, unfortunately, has become a bit of trend. A trend I would have preferred Prince stayed away from because I think it just sounds awful.

I do like U Know, as I also like Colonised Mind and Incense & Candles. I just dont like the sound of the auto tune trend contained within them. Each to their own. The youngsters probably like it because it makes a song sound modern and new and not something their parents would like. It identifies a song as being theirs and not the old people's. And to a teenager that is probably quite important.

Prince is just trying to capture a younger generation which is bound to irritate a few of us parents. Thats what new pop music does. It makes the parents say "back in the day music used to be good", and it gives the kids their own identity and an era they can call their own.

If I play 80's Prince to my daughter she is like "Dad, turn that old stuff off, its embarrasing". If I play her U Know she is like "Wow Dad, this is a good song, why on earth do you like it?".

how old is your daughter?

Usually be the teen years when they are finding their own, they discover the classics are best lol

Neversin said:

funkyhead said:

Crazy messages on here about this auto-tune lark..why? He has often 'treated' his voice in the studio from the 'mommy...' in 1999, through to all the Camille tracks, it's been slowed down, sped up etc for years! IMHO Auto-tune is used in these new releases as a bit of fun & to add another variation on his vocal BUT in no way to enhance / disguise his still exquisite voice.

So, the Q...what's the problem?

Prince using the "Camille" voice was creative, using out 'o tune is for lame cunts who can't sing plus it's an annoying effect that has zero creative merit...
Nails on a chalkboard make me cringe even less than out 'o tune...

Neversin.

[Edited 9/9/14 5:38am]

I take you like NIN from your tag, I am almost positive that Trent using auto-tune. People who can sing great use auto-tune, so you may want to rethink that statement. It's purpose is for pitch correction (initially), but you can use it as a vocal effect and make it sound computerized. I have to keep saying it's just like any other effect (reverb, delay, chorus, etc). Also I bet if you got your hands on auto-tune and see it's capabilities you would actually notice that a lot of people can get creative with it.

He is using a vocal effect to give his voice a futuristic sound - it may not even be autotune at all (hard to tell). And if you listen to the second half of the song, he just seems to be in normal voice with some harmonies.

Everyone is way overreacting to this - he uses effects on his voice all the time to keep things interesting - he does not use them because he cannot sing (because we all know he can).

[Edited 9/9/14 11:23am]

[Edited 9/9/14 11:24am]

Because Camille tracks were GREAT. Better than great, classic. I would pit Camille against Autopilot P any. day.

Neversin said:

funkyhead said:

Crazy messages on here about this auto-tune lark..why? He has often 'treated' his voice in the studio from the 'mommy...' in 1999, through to all the Camille tracks, it's been slowed down, sped up etc for years! IMHO Auto-tune is used in these new releases as a bit of fun & to add another variation on his vocal BUT in no way to enhance / disguise his still exquisite voice.

So, the Q...what's the problem?

Prince using the "Camille" voice was creative, using out 'o tune is for lame cunts who can't sing plus it's an annoying effect that has zero creative merit...
Nails on a chalkboard make me cringe even less than out 'o tune...

Neversin.

[Edited 9/9/14 5:38am]

Hmmm, wasn't it initially an accident?

TheEnglishGent said:

Neversin said:

Prince using the "Camille" voice was creative, using out 'o tune is for lame cunts who can't sing plus it's an annoying effect that has zero creative merit...
Nails on a chalkboard make me cringe even less than out 'o tune...

Neversin.

[Edited 9/9/14 5:38am]

Hmmm, wasn't it initially an accident?

Of course not.

paulludvig said:

TheEnglishGent said:

Hmmm, wasn't it initially an accident?

Of course not.

i thought that Susan Rogers has said it was during the recording of If I Was Your Girlfriend that the vocals were recorded distorted by mistake but Prince liked it so much that he kept it

bigd74 said:

paulludvig said:

Of course not.

i thought that Susan Rogers has said it was during the recording of If I Was Your Girlfriend that the vocals were recorded distorted by mistake but Prince liked it so much that he kept it

He used the camille voice way before that in erotic city and in some parts of automatic.Susan was talking about the distorted sound levels.

ok

dbpdexter said:

bigd74 said:

i thought that Susan Rogers has said it was during the recording of If I Was Your Girlfriend that the vocals were recorded distorted by mistake but Prince liked it so much that he kept it

He used the camille voice way before that in erotic city and in some parts of automatic.Susan was talking about the distorted sound levels.

He certainly used the voice before, but if bigd74 is recollecting accurately wouldn't that make If I Was Your Girlfriend the debut of the Camille "concept"?

dbpdexter said:

bigd74 said:

i thought that Susan Rogers has said it was during the recording of If I Was Your Girlfriend that the vocals were recorded distorted by mistake but Prince liked it so much that he kept it

He used the camille voice way before that in erotic city and in some parts of automatic.Susan was talking about the distorted sound levels.

I thought the mistakes were in 'The Ballad of Dorothy Parker', (giving it that awesome flat sound) and 'Forever in My Life', with the predecessing backing vocals. There was an error with 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' too?

[Edited 9/9/14 15:59pm]

The Breakdown clearly shows his vocals are as good as ever, so he doesn't have to use autotune to sing. He uses it in U Know to get a vocal effect. I don't really see it as any differen than any of the other vocal effects he's done speeding up and slowing down his vocals.

bigd74 said:

paulludvig said:

Of course not.

i thought that Susan Rogers has said it was during the recording of If I Was Your Girlfriend that the vocals were recorded distorted by mistake but Prince liked it so much that he kept it

Funny how people are still confused about this.

Distortion is not the same thing as pitch shifting. It has nothing to do with it. The vocals on a track like "If I Was Your Girlfriend" use the pitchshifting effect intentionally and any amount of distortion that may have ended up on Prince's vocal take additionally is something else altogether.

[edit - sorry, you had already been corrected and replied "Ok" to the response]

[Edited 9/10/14 0:34am]

larksanders said:

Neversin said:

Prince using the "Camille" voice was creative, using out 'o tune is for lame cunts who can't sing plus it's an annoying effect that has zero creative merit...
Nails on a chalkboard make me cringe even less than out 'o tune...

Neversin.

[Edited 9/9/14 5:38am]

I take you like NIN from your tag, I am almost positive that Trent using auto-tune. People who can sing great use auto-tune, so you may want to rethink that statement. It's purpose is for pitch correction (initially), but you can use it as a vocal effect and make it sound computerized. I have to keep saying it's just like any other effect (reverb, delay, chorus, etc). Also I bet if you got your hands on auto-tune and see it's capabilities you would actually notice that a lot of people can get creative with it.

Yes, I like NIN but like Prince and any other artist I like I don't like every single piece of shit they release (don't like the last NIN album specifically for the use of out o' tune, too fucking distracting...)
And (ab)using out o' tune is still not creative, I've played with it some 10 years ago and wasn't impressed and since its (ab)use music has become even more crap than it already was...
I guess the only "creative" use of it could be to correct a shitty played demo, using it as an effect to enhance a song is just fucking retarded (see that lil wanker Lil Wayne...)

Neversin.

novabrkr said:

bigd74 said:

i thought that Susan Rogers has said it was during the recording of If I Was Your Girlfriend that the vocals were recorded distorted by mistake but Prince liked it so much that he kept it

Funny how people are still confused about this.



[edit - sorry, you had already been corrected and replied "Ok" to the response]

[Edited 9/10/14 0:34am]

seems when it comes to the tools used to make music, people on this forum are confused about a lot of things