PJ & AI

[stip]

Hold On also got a new vocal and the original had not yet seen the light of day at all (Brother was circulating), but it sounded like Riot Act/Lost Dogs era Ed. So if they wanted a new take I can see how they would have processed it to sound like 10 era

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Buby]

those opposed to PJ + AI, how do you feel about a bunch of warehouse videos where Ed is hitting every note perfectly?

You mean the new ones?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Monkey_Driven]

those opposed to PJ + AI, how do you feel about a bunch of warehouse videos where Ed is hitting every note perfectly?

Why are you this way?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Buby]

those opposed to PJ + AI, how do you feel about a bunch of warehouse videos where Ed is hitting every note perfectly?

Why are you this way?

i'm just saying, it's a slippery slope

Oh yeah, I agree it's slippery.
I wouldn't be too quick lumping auto-tune and studio editing in the same bucket as AI, but I totally see what you're saying.

Rank all the tinkering!

[Kevin Davis]

those opposed to PJ + AI, how do you feel about a bunch of warehouse videos where Ed is hitting every note perfectly?

Why are you this way?

i'm just saying, it's a slippery slope

I am not questioning whether Autotune was used, but he still sounded super pitchy to me on that performance of “Scared of Fear.” Maybe that’s just how Ed sounds now.

But to answer your question, not really a huge fan of them using pitch correction on live performances.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[spike]

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Farmer John]

Mike and Stone are both playing rare five string guitars

Stupid AI doesn't even know how many strings a guitar has. And we're letting this dum dum autotune our singers?

[joostone]

those opposed to PJ + AI, how do you feel about a bunch of warehouse videos where Ed is hitting every note perfectly?

Why are you this way?

i'm just saying, it's a slippery slope

Oh yeah, I agree it's slippery.
I wouldn't be too quick lumping auto-tune and studio editing in the same bucket as AI, but I totally see what you're saying.

Rank all the tinkering!

I sure is a slippery slope. Autotune is everywhere now. Even your local riot girls punk rockers use it on their first EP's. Even when you think it's not being used, it's there. Same with automation.

AI is different, it's new. And it has endless posibilities. I'm ok with using AI on cleaning stems (as with that Beatles tune). Im even ok with using AI to modify vocals a bit (like with autotume). But I definately dont want AI to be used as a songwriting tool orso.

[stip]

I don't worry about the authenticity of it as much as the impact it has on the ecosystem of creative work. I don't like that this technology will make it that much harder for artists to make a living when bland mediocre AI generated slop will do. Artists incorporating AI into their work are just utilizing a new tool

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

i suppose its a continuium. but for me the distinction is whether an artist is using AI as a tool vs the tool replacing the need for artists. there is a point that crosses over, but its far beyond autotune

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

yes, I imagine that you would think so.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Kevin Davis]

Yeah, I’d fundamentally disagree on that last point. For a band that made their career on amazing live shows fronted by a talented singer, the hard lean into Autotune to cover the effects of that singer’s aging — rather than writing and performing songs more suited to his current vocal limitations (or at the very least, publishing live material WITHOUT the use of Autotune) — is decidedly on the inauthentic end of the spectrum.

Hard agree. Autotune came up in one of the Dark Matter song threads earlier this year, where it was theorized that Eddie was using (or could someday use, I don't remember) it to keep his voice from going off-key in concert. This is what I had to say about it then:

I don’t oppose Autotune on principle, but I would not want to see PJ’s live shows move the direction of artificially “fixing” their performances in real time. I expect some sweetening on a studio record, but in concert, the fact that the band is onstage playing with live ammo is part of what makes the performances exciting — knowing that they are humans working within the realm of human limitations is what makes it feel amazing when they occasionally do things that seem superhuman. To me having an autotune pedal (or whatever) on standby would feel a bit like an MLB hitter using steroids — sure, it “improves” performance, but it would strip the thing I am watching of some of what excites me about it to begin with.

I would argue that the same is true tenfold of AI. So much of what makes art impressive, expressive, and emotionally resonant hinges upon how human beings navigate human limits. I realize that technology is one of the ways we do that, and that some artists more seamlessly incorporate that technology into their work than others. But Pearl Jam have never been that band, and I do not think anything about their work will be well-served by moving further into that space.