Damned auto-tune

Live miming has been going on for donkey’s years and one who was caught out was Betty Boo at a concert downunder when she dropped her mic in the early 90s, was booed offstage (sorry about the pun) and nearly ended her career.

That’s not what this post is about - this is about auto-tuning.  Post production, the voice is tampered with to make it pitch perfect and iron out inconsistencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune

I need to confess that in my recording days in Russia, sound forge and other programmes did that to my voice-overs which were for banks and other corporations as their English language versions.  I do see why it was needed there and in fact, having a home version, I produced my own recordings of music from sampling, before getting into blogging and giving it away.

It took me some time to understand what was going on on youtube with ‘remastered’ songs and why they never sounded as good - one of our readers pointed it out and yes - the whole thing was attenuated, strangely mixed overall ... but that’s a bit different to voice auto-tuning.  One of the more egregious examples was Rebecca Black’s Friday.

I suppose it made voices sound the same and even artificial, which characterises artists after the mid 90s in my humble opinion.  In fact, at this blog, 1997 was singled out as probably the watershed year, after which the music died.  Check that link above and see which year auto-tune started.

One man doing many reaction videos is ‘Fil from Wings of Pegasus’ who I think does mainly metal - strange for someone who appreciates so many genres.  He usually smiles sweetly but in this one:

... he suddenly launched into a rant against auto-tune.  Rightly so.  For reasons stated by so many in the music social media. Echoing his thoughts, it really is awful.

Coupled with that is that the ipad does not allow ‘i frame’ html loading of youtubes and so I must go through ggl’s own process, which means various readers won’t be able to watch.  Url is here:

https://youtu.be/YoyJgSKTozU

Friday [12-14]

14.  Gillian McKeith

Do not soften your stance on vaccine passports or access papers or whatever you want to call them in order to "make life easy".....That will not set you free. Such a move will imprison you more in the end. Now is the time to get tough not become soft.

13.  Go for it, boy, take em for everything

Ripper:  O'Keefe responds:

https://www.projectveritas.com/news/james-okeefe-responds-to-twitter-account-suspension-following-bombshell-cnn/

“I am suing Twitter for defamation because they said I, James O’Keefe, ‘operated fake accounts.’ This is false, this is defamatory, and they will pay. Section 230 may have protected them before, but it will not protect them from me. The complaint will be filed Monday.”

Just thinking he might adopt the motto "nemo me impune lacessit".

12.  KB

These should be the two defining questions of 2021:

1] How do we revoke the Emergency Health legislation currently destroying the very fabric of our society?

2] What mechanism can be put in place to ensure this type of legislation can never see the light of day again?

Kiki Byrne

Times:

A rival of Mary Quant and a member of the Chelsea set, the designer Kiki Byrne was a leading influence in the new wave of fashion that swept across Britain in the 1960s. Her refreshing designs chimed with the spirit of the time, appealing to young women keen to develop a look of their own instead of conforming to the styles favoured by their mothers and aunts.

Live and breathing

Intriguing things keep happening.  What are the chances someone with a youtube playlist has things such as Al Bowlly, Adrian Rollini, Langhorne Slim, early 90s noise pop, Sandy Denny, Modern Lovers, Tuba Skinny, l'Arpeggiata, Wire - I mean such a bizarre range of music with no connection - and yet it's the same bizarre range as mine? 

Either I've been copying him or else ... name of the subscription is:

https://www.youtube.com/user/LiveandBreathing

Then I saw his blurb - independent and intimate live - the word 'intimate' here meaning interwoven construction where they're thinking, trying things which soar, plummet, drone on, whatever, and that's one reason I'm not crazy for big orchestras but more for chamber music, can't stand Big Band swing, love ensembles.

Without further ado - three numbers:

Friday [7 to 11]

11.  Lockdown and vaxx zealots

10.  Breaking911

'Science American' magazine says they have coordinated with the mainstream media to start using the term 'climate emergency' instead of 'climate change.' The organization says the issue deserves the same coverage as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Temple Mount and other joys

The vlogger I disparaged on the topic of Christianity is on far firmer ground here on the topic of Solomon’s Temple, which there have been a few posts on at N.O. Plus I included, long ago in the long book, various materials I had on file - sadly, that has now gone, I was in Russia at the time and no usb stick large enough.

Before going any further, it’s wise to explore for yourself the whole business of the Red Heifer.  And you might also consider this, seeing as we're getting biblical:

https://akhaart.blogspot.com/2021/04/people-next.html

And so to this video:

https://youtu.be/Vg7yRnDCAho

One thing he is very good at is showing geographic overview and it’s worth it, if only for that.  But the issues he raises are also interesting, even if he makes biased, pratty comments he's picked up for by his interviewees.  

He quotes a Muslim at one stage who said the Temple was not where the Jews claim it is.  The Muslims say it’s ‘elsewhere’.  Strangely, I had material on that.

What is 'elsewhere' or 'not here' anywhere?  Well, if you can wade through the novel’s dialogue to get to the meat, that latter is to the point.  I warn though that this is very, very long and not arranged by topic, only chronologically: