ITT: Release_Me talks about the vocals on Lightning Bolt

[evenslow]

For Ed in his sweet spot, you need to look no further than the Ten songs. Release, Black, Jeremy, Porch, Garden all are good examples. All have choruses or outros where Ed sounds very full, resonant and just generally awesome.

Is there one from, say, the last 10 years or so that achieves something in the ballpark?

[Release_Me]

Thing is, from S/T onwards, Ed's been using a gritty tone for virtually all of his high-ish notes. He hasn't sung clean from the chest too often. LBC on Riot Act is probably a good example of Ed's clean fourth octave belts. I can't remember anything off hand from S/T in that vein. It was mostly gritty stuff. Same notes but different approach. Maybe Amongst The Waves and Unthought Known from Backspacer fits in. On LB, there's a lot of it in Infallible, Swallowed Whole, Lightning Bolt, Sirens, etc.

[Release_Me]

The highs and lows of Lightning Bolt:


Highs:
C#5 ("Lightning Bolt")
C5 ("Infallible")
B4 ("Mind Your Manners")
Bb4 ("Infallible", "My Father's Son", "Sirens")
A4 ("Lightning Bolt", "Mind Your Manners", "Getaway")

Lows:
Bb2 ("Sirens", "Future Days", "Yellow Moon")
A2 ("Lightning Bolt", "Pendulum")
G2 ("Lightning Bolt")
F#2 ("Future Days")
F2 ("Future Days")
E2 ("Lightning Bolt")

[mastaflatch]

The highs and lows of Lightning Bolt:


Highs:
C#5 ("Lightning Bolt")
C5 ("Infallible")
B4 ("Mind Your Manners")
Bb4 ("Infallible", "My Father's Son", "Sirens")
A4 ("Lightning Bolt", "Mind Your Manners", "Getaway")

Lows:
Bb2 ("Sirens", "Future Days", "Yellow Moon")
A2 ("Lightning Bolt", "Pendulum")
G2 ("Lightning Bolt")
F#2 ("Future Days")
F2 ("Future Days")
E2 ("Lightning Bolt")

does this include falsetto?

[evenslow]

Looking at that it appears LB would be the most difficult and varied.

[iceagecoming]

There's a huge improvement from S/T to Backspacer to Lightning Bolt.

Compare Getaway to Gonna See My Friend and Life Wasted. His voice on S/T was thin and scratchy at times, and it's become much fuller and cleaner since then.

[Release_Me]

The highs and lows of Lightning Bolt:


Highs:
C#5 ("Lightning Bolt")
C5 ("Infallible")
B4 ("Mind Your Manners")
Bb4 ("Infallible", "My Father's Son", "Sirens")
A4 ("Lightning Bolt", "Mind Your Manners", "Getaway")

Lows:
Bb2 ("Sirens", "Future Days", "Yellow Moon")
A2 ("Lightning Bolt", "Pendulum")
G2 ("Lightning Bolt")
F#2 ("Future Days")
F2 ("Future Days")
E2 ("Lightning Bolt")

does this include falsetto?

These are all full voice notes, so no. Falsetto isn't included. I seem to remember high-ish falsetto screams on MFS and LTRP.

[Mine]

The highs and lows of Lightning Bolt:


Highs:
C#5 ("Lightning Bolt")
C5 ("Infallible")
B4 ("Mind Your Manners")
Bb4 ("Infallible", "My Father's Son", "Sirens")
A4 ("Lightning Bolt", "Mind Your Manners", "Getaway")

Lows:
Bb2 ("Sirens", "Future Days", "Yellow Moon")
A2 ("Lightning Bolt", "Pendulum")
G2 ("Lightning Bolt")
F#2 ("Future Days")
F2 ("Future Days")
E2 ("Lightning Bolt")

does this include falsetto?

These are all full voice notes, so no. Falsetto isn't included. I seem to remember high-ish falsetto screams on MFS and LTRP.

I think it's a huge disappointed for PJ fans that LB is a nearly 3 octave song/album not counting falsetto notes. He's supposed to be a nearly voiceless singer with a limited range. I guy doesn't know what to believe any more.

[Release_Me]

Looking at that it appears LB would be the most difficult and varied.

Considering the extremes, yes. The C#5 is in one of the screams at the end ("like you") if I remember correctly, while the E2s are in the lowest part of the initial verse. The highest note isn't sustained for too long but there are several powerful screamed A4s which would add to the difficulty. Ed doesn't really have a problem singing low but it still takes some skill.

Still think Infallible takes Ed more out of his comfort zone with the clean belted highs which require really good technique over a more sustained stretch of singing. Getaway is pretty difficult too because it's all sung quite high (plenty of G4s littered throughout and then powerful A4s in the chorus). LB is up there, though. Definitely the most varied. Sirens is also quite a varied performance.

[Release_Me]

The highs and lows of Lightning Bolt:


Highs:
C#5 ("Lightning Bolt")
C5 ("Infallible")
B4 ("Mind Your Manners")
Bb4 ("Infallible", "My Father's Son", "Sirens")
A4 ("Lightning Bolt", "Mind Your Manners", "Getaway")

Lows:
Bb2 ("Sirens", "Future Days", "Yellow Moon")
A2 ("Lightning Bolt", "Pendulum")
G2 ("Lightning Bolt")
F#2 ("Future Days")
F2 ("Future Days")
E2 ("Lightning Bolt")

does this include falsetto?

These are all full voice notes, so no. Falsetto isn't included. I seem to remember high-ish falsetto screams on MFS and LTRP.

I think it's a huge disappointed for PJ fans that LB is a nearly 3 octave song/album not counting falsetto notes. He's supposed to be a nearly voiceless singer with a limited range. I guy doesn't know what to believe any more.

[guitar_davey]

Like I said before, the people paid to apply autotune (or to use Melodyne, or whatever they might use for pitch correction) on singers' performances (not to robotize hiphop, mind you) can make tens of thousands of dollars per project, depending on the artist, and they are good. No artifacts you'll ever pick up on. It's impossible to know.

However, for whatever reason even singers who are incredibly talented and have solid pitch often feel the need to have autotuners perfect the end product. From what I've heard from engineers in Nashville, it's standard practice in country music now no matter what...as in, it's just a scheduled part of the process. A check mark on the clipboard. It doesn't matter who you think you are, we're using it, and everybody gets their record checked and fixed before getting the stamp. Norah Jones has acknowledged it being used, too. U2. Bon Iver. John Parish copped to using it "very, very lightly" on a PJ Harvey record. I actually read an interview once where another engineer quipped that "everybody I've ever worked with used it except for Neko Case and Nelly Furtado."

Since then, Nelly has clearly started using it.

It's not always used in ways you think it might be, either. Sometimes a stray sharp discrepancy might be fixed to make it slightly more sharp, because sharp errors can add to the feeling of urgency in a vocal. Sometimes a note is "fixed" but left slightly pitchy to disguise the fix. Dodgy notes don't prove a lack of autotune (Wayne Coyne), and neither does seemingly perfect pitch. Craig Street (producer, kd lang) has said that pretty much every producer he knows uses it "as a time saver. It takes a tenth as long to fix an emotional but error-filled vocal as it does to do the necessary number of takes to get a really great lead."

Side note: wasn't this album finished in two week long sessions or something? Hint hint.

I vote that it'd be naive to think they weren't using it, here. It fits in too well with the mechanical, digital exactness of the album's musical aesthetic. But I'd place both my balls on the side of the line that says it is being used delicately, selectively, and imperceptibly.

Meanwhile, in a far more awesome world...

Spoiler: show

I never saw this post before. This is a fantastic explanation of the ins and outs of pitch correction.