Many artists, some very talented ones included, have trouble easily telling the difference between a perfectly pitched tone and an "imperfect" one. You can often hear records where the singer (or a guitarist) performs certain parts just a "wee bit" under or over pitch, just here and there. Most listeners aren't able to tell the difference in a conscious way. But they are most certainly able to detect this anyway. We're all born with solid relative pitch. When something's just slightly out of tune, we will typically perceive it as a bit "weird" or slightly "boring" (without knowing why), depending on whether the performance is over- or under-pitched. In some cases, this may actually help give the song an edge, but in most others, for some unknown, mysterious reason, we very quickly tire of listening and forget the track soon thereafter. Very often, this is caused by imperfect pitching on part of the vocal (or any of the instruments in the band).
Among the producer's most valuable assets is the ability to hear everything perfectly well. And this certainly includes the ability to discern the accurate pitch of any performance, vocal or instrumental. You don't need to have the so-called "perfect pitch" for this. A finely-tuned ability to hear "relative pitch" is more than adequate for this job. But how do you develop it? And what does "finely-tuned" really mean?
We're not talking about "obvious" bum notes here. Only those very subtle ones. Something in the range between 5% and 15% off a semitone...! That's where a lot of the magic lies. Most of us can tell a "bum" note when it's about 25-50% of a semitone off. But what about when it's finer than that..?
Because this "tiny detune" is so subtle, it's easily missed if you don't know what you're looking for. But it's absolutely critical to a great performance to get this right, and as a producer of your own music, you owe it to yourself to do so.
But how? Can you hear the difference between, say, a "perfect" C and a C detuned 20% of a semi-tone down for example? And how about 5%? Well, that's exactly how close you need to be to perfect pitch in order for a performance to always come across as pleasing to our harmonically-sensitized ears! And you need to be able to hear this in real time and help your performer reach "true pitch." The good news is: you can learn this, and quite quickly too!
So, without further ado, here's a little tip which I bet will help you develop your ear in no time. You just need to do this a few times during your recording sessions. And after a while, you won't need this tool any more. You'll be able to pitch tones perfectly by ear.
Most studio musicians these days have or can easily borrow a digital tuning plugin, such as Antares Autotune. Some artists have used Autotune as a "robot-like" effect when rapidly re-tuning vocals. This is, arguably, a pretty cool effect first heard in Cher's "Believe" and is today regularly heard in many pop, R&B and hip-hop tracks. Many "traditionalist" musicians shun this tool, however, believing that it will only "corrupt" their music.
Don't fall for it, please. It won't - if you don't let it! But it can teach you a whole lot about pitching!
Put your (recorded) vocal part through Autotune and watch it correct the pitch. You'll instantly hear the "correct" pitch, even if you might not like the sound of your voice after this kind of processing. Don't worry about that. It's about developing your ears! Now loop a small part, perhaps just a word. Play it with Autotune enabled, then without. Can you hear the difference? Now get your singer to sing it again, this time as close to perfect pitch as possible.
Very soon, sometimes after just one session, you'll be able to identify how far off-pitch a given performance is. Autotune can show you the amount of detune in percentages, so your ear gets that additional visual reinforcement.
And next time when you hear a bum note, you won't just say "it's flat." You'll be able to say "it's 15% of a semitone under-pitch."
This is more than just a cool party trick. This is the difference between producing solid performances and ones that will turn your audience off.
LISTEN TO: 223-Q/Wednesday May 21, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment