Listening to the new(ish) track, 'Wish You The Best' (no, the video did not make me cry. Nope! Nope! Not ... cry ... at ... all. Sniff ...)
It's very similar to his biggest hit (Someone You Loved) in structure (if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess?).

Does anyone take issue with and/or appreciate the hyper-processing his vocal gets via saturation, riding/levelling, compression etc.? Is this the new normal for lead vocal tracks and do you like what you hear? How do you feel this compares with vocal tracks from other eras/decades?

I'll reserve comment after everyone weighs in. Just curious to know what's resonating with all ages here.

 

I like the song but I really hate the vocal processing. Tooooo much distortion on the upper mids for my taste. Maybe they're trying to set a new standard like it was done with Auto Tune? If everyone starts doing this we can finally get rid of the Auto Tune voices but get another irritating effect to replace it!

I still wonder why you'd want to produce a song like this? The piano sounds great, the strings sound lush...but the voice sounds like distorted cheap shit! It seems like producers nowadays are only looking for ways to set them self's apart from others in the hopes to invent some new 'cheap' trent like Auto Tune?

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2023

Very interesting sir! Looking for a few comments to follow and see what the consensus is! Thanks for participating!

 

reminds me of this parody

 

I'm not going to listen to the shite vocal processing by adding to it's watched count, the few who have listened to it in this thread informed me of it's content and I appreciate the warning.

 

I don't really have a problem with the compression and saturation, but it has that weird artificial high frequency breathy thing that i personally hate (which could be product of saturation, or a number of things really). It's the kind of thing you would expect to hear in urban music where it kind of fits well, but here it doesn't.

It reminded me of my now deceased dog (on my profile picture). It's a good thing the vocals were so piercing and distracting, otherwise i'd be crying on the floor.

 

I don't mind the distortion in the release phase, but the clipping of plosives and the hard crunch on attack are annoying and as mentioned already give it a very amateur vibe. The overdone proximity effect make it seem like he really wants to know the microphone, in the biblical sense. It is a bit too much.

This is the result of wanting a voice on top all the time and loving sausage too much.

At the end of the day though it doesn't matter much.

Pop is disposable by nature and even if does moderately well there will an army of emulators working hard to take wonderfully sung and expressive music and attempt to recreate it in this style.

Give it time, someone will more likely than not query here or an other forum about how to achieve this effect and praise it as the most honest sounding and natural sound they have ever heard.

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P.S.


It's not new, it is present on some of his other tracks as well. It seems he likes to get close to the microphone.

Also, props to the Scots for putting a big man in a speedo and just going with it.

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2023

Thanks for the input and thoughts.
Yeah, so it was over the phone (Samsung S21 Ultra) that I first cottoned on to the over-saturation. The vocal certainly sits atop of the piano, and maybe a bit too much at that. But it's the - as someone noted - the breaths and syllabance issues that the saturation really doubles down on and steals from the performance. The compression is very high - something I would reserve for backing vocals maybe?

I just figure this is the new normal. Some saturation is 'naturalifying' but this went way above and beyond IMHO.

Thanks again!

 

I prefer him as Doctor Who! No wait, that's not him is it?

Oh well at least they're related and Peter DOES play lead guitar so..I'm gonna stick with my original answer!

 

Well done Cardamon for highlighting the fact that what could have been a brilliant listening experience is drawn into the games played to be a bit clever/different. Spent the first few tracks thinking my speakers/amp/DAC were struggling with some new encoding/setup. If he couldn't sing or had trouble being "different" or able to hit highs/lows...he doesn't, he is magnificent ....instead all I can hear is the process, not the song mastery. Sad. Let's hope he re-records this lot. Getting close to the Mic is not a real challenge for a recording studio to deal with, or the power element when he dominates the song/music track. just feel they have a missed or messed up a brilliant singer laying down some great songs.

 

what is this tingling feelings behind my neck

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I think I like the male vocals processed this way in this song without those ridiculous excessive artificial air.

Didn't like the male singer (I generally dislike this type of male singing) but really like Anne-Marie vocals in this song. Better than the original.

Spoiler: The type of male singer I like...

lulz

 

Last edited: Jan 3, 2024