Just a quick post to let you know that the recording has gone ahead of the single that will be released for this year’s X Factor protest.
Pete Doherty, Billy Bragg, the Kooks, Imogen Heap and Orbital are just some of the artists that have assembled to record the ‘silent piece’ that will be released as direct competition to the X Factor single, competing for Christmas number one.
For those of you who don’t already know; in 1952 the extraordinarily popular experimental composer and wild mushroom expert John Cage composed a piece of music that was to be performed by any combination of instruments, none of which play a single note.
Many have dismissed the piece as being silly, which is a shame as anyone who has studied Cage will understand why this was entirely valid composition and a natural eventuality considering his research and findings on music.
The piece has been interpreted many ways by many people, and although I feel that the core message of the piece is being lost somewhat in this campaign, I also believe that John would have been delighted by this campaign, and that’s reason enough for me to get behind it.
In my days as a composition undergraduate I was fortunate enough to be lectured by someone who had known John Cage, and although this is a rather populist campaign, I strongly urge you to join in and help make this a Christmas number one (I can’t believe I’m saying these words).
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I’ve only just been made aware of the story circulating the British press at the moment, that the X-Factor bosses have admitted to using post production vocal processors to alter the pitch of the notes that contestants were singing. This process is called “auto-tuning”.
Auto-tuning has been around for years and is now a very common part of music production. Most high end vocal processors come equipped with an auto-tuning unit. Anyone who has used any kind of auto-tuner would tell you that whilst they are a useful tool, the job they do is extremely subtle and it’s not really possible for an auto-tuner to make a bad singer sound like a good singer.
If someone is very far off the notes that they are trying to hit, auto-tune will not make them all of a sudden sound amazing. It will make them sound like some kind of absurd robot, as the video below should show you.
I dare say that the show’s producers didn’t even deliberately use this effect and simply had it on as part of their standard vocal processing, as is practice in a lot of post production for vocal work.
The press reaction to this has been completely mental and ludicrously misguided. I’ve not seen one newspaper that has consulted an audio expert thus far, and I doubt that any willl.
If you have spouted some uninformed toss on this subject then please take a moment to watch the videos below. One is of a girl who can sing with a bit of auto-tune assistance, the other is of a man who can’t. You should soon understand how quickly a bad singer is exposed, even with the miracle of auto-tune.
Birmingham, England rock band Editors achieved their second consecutive No. 1 debut on the new U.K. album chart yesterday, while pop vocalist Alexandra Burke scored a new singles bestseller.
“In This Light and On This Evening” (Kitchenware), Editors’ third album, entered at the summit, just as “An End Has A Start” did in July 2007. U.K. rapper Chipmunk, who had last week’s No. 1 single with “Oopsy Daisy” (Jive/Sony Music Entertainment), followed up with a No. 2 start for the album “I Am Chipmunk.” With Madonna’s “Celebration” (Warner Bros.) down 2-3, there was also a new entry at No. 4 for Shakira’s “She Wolf” (Epic/Sony Music Entertainment).
Last week’s No. 1, Barbra Streisand’s “Love Is The Answer” (Columbia/Sony Music Entertainment), fell to No. 7. Female pop band the Saturdays opened at No. 9 with “Wordshaker” (Fascination/Polydor/Universal), while British R&B star Taio Cruz, recently No. 1 for three weeks in the singles chart with “Break Your Heart” (4th & Broadway/Universal Island), came in at No. 14 with his second album “Rokstarr.”
On the other hand Alexandra Burke who had the Christmas No. 1 last year with “Hallelujah” only days after winning the 2008 series of “The X Factor”, made it two chart-toppers from two singles as “Bad Boys” (Syco Music/Sony Music Entertainment), featuring Flo Rida, went straight to the chart peak with sales of 185,000 units, according to the Official Charts Company – the biggest weekly sale for a single this year. Burke’s debut album “Overcome” is released in the U.K. today (Oct. 19).
Just a quick post to let you know that the recording has gone ahead of the single that will be released for this year’s X Factor protest.
