[Ardour-Users] click free editing and zero crossings?

[Ralf Mardorf]

Al Thompson wrote:
> Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>   
>> Btw. goof is part of a composition. Does AutoTune make vocals more
>> pleasant, because they are perfectly tuned? Stop editing, keep
>> mistakes or play it again!
>>     
>
> I agree with this 100%!  I hear too many modern recordings that have had
> the life edited out of them.  They are technically "perfect."  There is
> not one flub, one level change when a guitarist attacks differently on
> one chord, one timing issue with anything.  There is never ANY variation
> in vocal pitch, or noise in an instrument channel between notes.
>
> It sounds like the whole thing was done via MIDI, with no live mics, and
> no musicians.  It can be entertaining to listen to once, but it is never
> going to register as something you want to hear again and again, and
> it's not going to get your heart rate up because of the inspiring
> performance.
>
> Most of the longest-lasting hits have had technical issues - either
> recording, or with the performance.  Todd Rundgren, who released several
> albums where EVERY song hit the Top 10, used to have a contest for
> people to try to find the flaws (bad punches usually).  A lot of his
> earlier recordings were done on 1" 8 track in his living room.
>   

It's pathetic! There are a lot of really good compositions in the 
charts, but the recordings are unbearable. When using Linux I'm missing 
a lot of features I'm accustomed by the analog audio world, but I don't 
miss super-editing and super-automation supported by Mac and Windows 
apps. We shouldn't waste our time by editing music, instead we should 
use it to play music.

Btw. I like the word 'play' instead of 'work' on German we also say 
'spielen' = 'play' ... Nobody would encourage children to use toy blocks 
in a perfect architectonic way and we should 'handle' music the same 
way, we are playing + living and we are NOT working stiff as a poker.

It's hard for me to go to the supermarket, because of the music. They do 
play very good compositions, that are killed by the recordings. OT: 
Beatles' 'Yesterday' played with a koto sample (a Japanese instrument) 
as background music for Chinese restaurants; there are a lot of ways we 
could rape music. Too much editing is one way to do it.

It's wonderful to read, that I'm not the only one who loves music that 
has it's own life, because it isn't perfect.