Okay this doesn't really belong in this thread because it's really in regard to several releases, not just this one.. but a guy in charge said so, so here we go.
To the person pitch-correcting LaBrie's Voice-AT LEAST TUNE HIM TO THE RIGHT NOTEThought he was flat on that C#? That's because he's singing a C natural. If you tune him to a C#, you are literally making the listener hear a wrong note that the singer originally performed correctly. Not to mention that it will suddenly make it sound like we're listening to a singing robot leprechaun.
This happened at least 7 or 8 times on this Blu-Ray. Usually during the most climactic and high vocal parts of the song.
Thank you for being literally the only problem with what is otherwise a perfect live release of the greatest band in the world.
I didn't notice that at all, point out where it happens?
Happily.
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"Boston I'm all alone" (Lie) : the word "Boston" should have been A4 then Ab4. It was tuned to two A4s.
--"Never come near me again" (SDV) : should be A, Bb, G, A, Bb, G, A (respectively per each syllable) but was instead tuned to G, A, G, A, A, G, A.
--RIDICULOUS- "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" (the first chorus): "Dream" was tuned to A4 instead of F#4. NOT EVEN CLOSE. He does this F# with his signature breathy wide vibrato, which is supposed to give it the effect of sliding to a higher note, so whoever did this crap job misinterpreted and tuned it to the 5th of the chord rather than the 3rd. It's not musically wrong, just not what he sang, or what is actually in the song.
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"I'll never trust you again" (Mirror) : should be Bb for "I'll never" and A for "trust you again", but was just made into an A the whole time. This mistake was made both choruses (the other one being "Living life so pretend"), probably because whoever was tuning this didn't know what the note was supposed to be.
--Another really bad one, very easy to hear-
"Living in fear" (Second chorus of Mirror) should be a Bb for "Living" but it was tuned to a B natural. This is exactly what I mean when I say "Thought he was flat on that C#? That's because he's singing a C natural", but in this case it's a B and a Bb.
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"And I'll smile and I'll learn to pretend" and
"And I'll have no more dreams to defend" (SDV) Were both tuned to end on an F4, when they should both be E4. (It is possible that this one was done purposely, but it doesn't sound like it)
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"Not with in his eyes to see, open up, open up / Not much better than the man you hate" (ToT) : "eyes", both "op"s, and "man" were all tuned to C#5, whereas some of them should be C5 natural, or somewhere in between C and C# for the bluesy effect. (On the studio album they are NOT strait C#'s, nor was he ever going for that. It is common for to slide between the 4 and 5 on a pentatonic scale)
--a lot of small things such as
"With my thoughts wrapped around me" (ToT) : thoughts was tuned to F# when it should have been an F natural. Even if he was originally slightly sharp on that F, it's still incorrect to tune it to an F# if you are going to tune it in the first place.
--GLARINGLY OBVIOUS-
"People in prayer for me, everyone there for me" (Scarred) Should be F# on both "people in prayer" and "everyone there", but the latter was tuned to G. This is an example of something he might have been slightly sharp on, but I guarantee whatever he sang was a hell of a lot closer to an F# than the G you hear in this recording. (Meaning that even if you want them to pitch-correct it to hear a perfect recording, they could have tuned it to an F# and at least it would have been correct)
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"Wash your hands of regret" (the first one) (Scarred) : hands was tuned up to F#4 when it should have been an F4 (a prime example of a note he probably actually nailed live)
Haven't watched the blu-ray yet, but just curious...you're sure you are saying he actually sang the correct note and that an editor changed it to an incorrect note?
How do you know he didn't just sing an incorrect note and do you really think the band hired and approved the changes of someone that incompetent?
Absolutely sure. Because if you look at the examples, they are all notes that he hits a certain way every night of the tour. Even if he hit them all flat or sharp the night of the DVD, it probably wouldn't be enough to make it a different note, or even if it was enough, it would not make it closer to the note that they chose to tune it to. Such as "Hands" in that last example- even if he was sharp or flat on that F, it would not make it better to tune it to an F# because it is outside of the chord they are playing. Whoever was tuning his voice probably thought that note was supposed to stay on an F# because the chord they are playing is not a natural chord in the key (F# is the natural note in the key, but they use an F natural in the song when they go to the out-of-scale chord on that line). PLUS, you know that he didn't accidentally hit an F# because if you listen close enough, you can usually tell exactly which notes were tampered with due the unnatural sound of pitch correction, and I can hear it on these specific notes.
Those two things combined make me absolutely sure.
However, there are also examples of what you're talking about too, where he would hit something not quite on any note, so they would find one near by. I personally don't ever think that sounds good, but that's just personal preference. As opposed to the thing I am talking about in this thread, which is purely objective.
You can bring this into the main thread for the release given you can actually provide some sort of evidence for your underlying claim that there is pitch correction going on.
The evidence of the statement I am making: written right up there^.
The evidence that there's pitch correction (you've got to be kidding me): Listen to any high vocal part on the DVD for 10 seconds. If you don't hear pitch correction, you don't know what pitch correction sounds like. That's not an insult, I'm not calling anyone stupid for not knowing what pitch correction sounds like! But if you don't hear it here, you are clearly unaware.
Pitch correction- listening school, for those who are curiousIf you want to know what it sounds like when it isn't done smoothly, listen to Another Day on the Happy Holidays release. Notice how you'll hear every word snap from one pitch to another without ever sliding between them, unlike any other song on that release. This even applies to the end a word like "here" in that song where a singer might naturally say "heeeree-aaahh", and with pitch correction, you'll notice that the "uuh" snaps to pitches in the scale as well, rather than just naturally sliding down atonally. You also know for a fact that that is pitch corrected because there was a recording of that song from that very night posted on youtube and shared on this website months before that was ever released officially.
Now, apply that same concept and listening exercise to this DVD, and you'll hear the same thing, just done much more carefully and smoothly, as it is generally not applied to the "uuh"s at the end of words, and it is done manually so that there is some sliding time between the notes. However, it is still there throughout the course of each word. You can also listen to every other recording of Trial of Tears from this tour and notice how you will not find one single recording where James hits a C#5 on all four "eyes", "op","op", and "man", if any at all. However his mouth clearly matches what you are hearing on this DVD at this section, so you can know it was tuned, and not overdubbed (re-recorded).