Quote:

I have noticed that a growing trend in pop music is the unabashed use of vocal processing, where the vocals are treated as an instrument, and purposefully contrived to sound mechanical and synthesized. To do this is a highly artistic and personal choice, and not everyone likes the way it sounds. But, suffice to say, it appears to be a growing trend, especially in the cutting edge genres.





I should probably add that there is another trend in the direction of singing off key. This is more noticeable among home recording enthusiasts in places like Song Ramp. You don't hear it nearly as much on professional recordings, where they tend to weigh in on the heavily processed paradigm. Bob Dylan and Sonny Bono are two examples of professional artists whose singing is neither pitch perfect nor pitch corrected. But Cher Bono is a good example of a bad example of somebody whose singing IS pitch corrected and canned.

Many of these people would rather err on the side of sounding natural even if it offends the musical sensibilities of the listener. But then, over-processing also offends a different sensibility.

I think there is value in both approaches. My own preference is in the direction of moderately processed music that sounds natural, but doesn't contain bad notes or overly misaligned phrasing. I set that as a goal, not as a claim of having already achieved it.

On my recent submissions, I purposefully skipped the vocal processor with the assumption that some misalignment sounds natural and desirable. But many of the observations revealed that I had allowed too much variation, and it left the listener feeling uncomfortable. Interesting stuff.

As we analyze, the sweet spot becomes visible. It's like looking for ghosts in a smoky room with strobe lights

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0