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Jazz vocalists which may not be as real as we think/imagine

Sure we could include all genres of vocalists,  but lets focus on jazz performers,,for instance , take Diana Krall. 
I have a  pile of cds that i do not listen to, old rock,,, 2 are my wife's she picked up as gifts, and never listened.
So I figured maybe I can use DK's as a  test reference recording.
Her 1999 and 2001, both seem to my ears her voice is somehow ~~tweeked~~ laid out with modern aids such as EQ's and such.
My Q is , can we really consider DK's voice to be The Real Deal,,, or a  perhaps a toch of  ~ The Fake if not perhaps, bordering on, fraud. 
I really can not use her cds in my testing of new tweeks, mods, , Her voice comes across wayyyy too warm = Colored = a nono for my ears. 
I am after pure cold frigid, icy clean mountain spring water. 
Anyway, justa  random thought,, what say ye? Have you noticed this quirk among other jazz performers such as Sophie Milman, which btw , i do use in  my YT vid uploads of testing reference on tweeks/mods/upgrades. 
Her voice is at least somewhat more~~ a  natural~, Just barely,,had her engineers gonea  tad too far in tweeking, I may have to  also disreagrd her cds. 
Sure you might object and claim all recordings post 1985, have these intrusions of tweeking /EQing the voice, as a  makeover. 
I don't know, maybe in the past 20 yrs things have gotten out of hand. 
So cast your vote, is DK's voice real deal,, or a  tad fake?
Can she perform unpluged as she does on high tech studio records?
mozartfan
mozartfan OP
2,143 posts
 
As several have pointed out, microphones, venue, electronics, the sound engineer influence what we hear. If you dont like diana krall, just say so


Yeah I admit, some of my words might have been cheap shots at Diana Krall's talents , which is not right. Diana has beena  super talent for many jazz/music fans world over. 
AS I got to thinking , my gripe has more to do with studio tech geeks taking liberties with new high tech gadgets. 
I mean , no doubt starting in the early 80's (according to my tech guy who says thats really when these mods/tweaks really began) , the tweaking on voice has gonea  bit too far.
Many of you here know what I am talking about. 
So aside from Diana Krall (Completely, taking Diana off the discussion) 
are the studio tech geeks guilty of something here.. 
Thats my Q.
Should all voice manipulation gadets be banned, outlawed from any/every record, no matter what genre, Well rap is not music anyway, so  that group is allowed freely to make whatever noise they wish.
We are only concerned with real muisc, pop, jazz, folk.
It is my belief we need to get back to pre electronic tweaks, and start all over.
Unplugged. 
Yeah I know , how dull, boring. 
And btw the RS had onlya  few good songs, all written by the creative  and talented Brian Jones, , then again , drugs didn't hurt that process.
To me drug induced music should be canceled.  I never listen to rock any longer.  
So yeah, thats my beef, studio tech geeks gone wild with modern gadgets, giving us what is not really The Real Deal.
I feel this is fair and balanced, and hard to argue against. 
I have no hidden agenda, the tech geeks are exposed. The studios have The Agenda, what sells, financial gains over art for art's sake. 
We need to get back to pure folk music, unfiltered,/ unplugged. 
coltrane1's avatar
coltrane1
845 posts
 
I have 9 or 10 of her albums. I don’t listen to them as I once did. She can sing, and plays very good piano. Her best work was the 2001 blu ray of the Live In Paris concert. Great music, great musicians. I don’t get your beef against her. And she has been a top seller, while her concerts still sellout. What could be the problem with that?
gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
Eric Bibb - Friends




mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,785 posts
 
I dont even know if it is music.... It is only extraordinary powerful...

Is it music? is it voice?

I dont give a dam...

Is it Billie Holiday? No....

But the power to convey emotions cannot be a mechanical process nor only talent....

 Embodied genius perhaps?
:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2XUrySbdUE
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@mozartfan,

’And btw the RS had onlya few good songs, all written by the creative and talented Brian Jones, , then again , drugs didn’t hurt that process.
To me drug induced music should be canceled. I never listen to rock any longer.’

Agree with you about Brian Jones. Once he was kicked out the Stones lost a lot of texture to their sound and gradually became a good Rolling Stones tribute band.

Can’t agree about the drugs though. Without pot and LSD the 1960s would have sounded entirely different. Lord knows what drugs the kids are all using today.


’Should all voice manipulation gadets be banned, outlawed from any/every record, no matter what genre,’

’So yeah, thats my beef, studio tech geeks gone wild with modern gadgets, giving us what is not really The Real Deal.’


Partially agree. It would be nice to have more recordings with natural life-like recordings. However I’ve read that it’s the absolute norm to avoid flat recordings.

At the very least a dose of compression is considered mandatory to any recording/radio TV broadcast. Cinema trailers often tend to overdose on it.

It would appear also that many vocalists are insecure of their talents and specifically choose studios, producers, effects etc to get an idealised sounding version of themselves. One that they hope the public will buy into.

In any case we’re now in the high speed social media age where the wish to improve upon nature is at its greatest. This human desire was probably was always there but now we have many means of enabling it.

Image enhancement seems to be incredibly important today and thus the natural look / sound seems unsophisticated and decidedly out of fashion.
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