In the 80’s people routinely taped up snare drums to make them as dead as possible when recording. Then they gated out all of the tone, ran the attack through huge reverbs, and ended up with that 80’s snare sound. In some cases it was appropriate and sounded cool, but more often it was a matter of fashion. It was the sound of the time. Now we laugh when we hear it and say “oh boy…. 80’s.” It and some other dated things ruined some otherwise good recordings. Now we’ve got the tuner. Most recordings have a lead vocal track which has been completely tuned. People don’t listen and use the tuner when something is out, they just tune everything as a default. I think the tuner is a great tool. You get a great take with a few pitchy words which could have ruined the take, maybe you don’t have a second take to pull them from because that was “the take.” So you tune those few words and then you have an awesome performance. This is using the tool appropriately. I think that like the gated, verbed snare drum a fully-tuned lead vocal will someday be a little sign saying “2000- ?” or whatever. We will hear it and say “oh boy… 2000’s.” Let’s not use a hammer to screw in a screw, ok folks? Use a screw driver… Please. This tuner really sounds weird. I know you think it is subtle, but it isn’t usually. Really. Trust your ears!

Monday, April 25th 2011