I'm actually a pretty decent fan of the Black Eyed Peas. I like their studio stuff and a few of their videos - and I like the "Concept" of the band - and how they each have a unique personality and make that all work together as a whole. It's sad that they haven't really had more hits - but welcome the music business.
HOWEVER, I'm sorry to say that LAST NIGHT'S performance was well - JUST AWFUL! In fact, it was a reminder of how the proliferation of software DAW's like Pro Tools and Post-Editing tools for Video that are now so cheap that almost anyone can get in on the action with very little money- and if you get REALLY good at these APPS you really don't have to have MUCH TALENT AT ALL! In fact, PRO TOOLS has on their main adverts that you don't need any music talent at all - just ONE FINGER and with a LOT of practice, forethought and about 1000 hours of studio time and YOU TOO can be a STAR!
Well it was pretty obvious after seeing the LIVE - that they are USING all the studio tricks that are necessary to make them come off like they can actually BRING IT - and they surely didn't BRING IT LIVE - as least not IMHO. One would think that since they used the OBVIOUS Auto-Tune sound which has gotten to be SO OVERUSED that it's a JOKE that they could have used a BANK of Auto-Tunes and other pitch correction HW devices (like so many if not ALL of the major acts out there are using) that they could have come off like they indeed have some concept of PITCH Control.
Granted it was ALL LIVE and I'm sure SUPER, SUPER hard to pull off the set up in a short time - as that was obvious when they had MIC issues and Mix issues as their voices were not mixed well at least not during the first few minutes. But when I started to hear pure PITCH issues - I thought they had more command over their voices than I heard last night. Sure FERGIE can sing - but she's NOT even close to as good as some of the "other" singers of her time that have come before her - whether from IDOL or from the YouTube phenom or those that has risen through the ranks to get Major Deals and have created careers the OLD FASHIONED WAY – but you can’t deny, she’s certainly easy on the eyes and very talented, but I was SHOCKED at the notes she missed. And again, it was obvious they were using Auto-Tune in the OVERDONE way as per many other artists but couldn’t they have put some signal processing to correct some of those blatant bad notes? Who knows, I’m sure they were being mixed from somewhere WAY far away from the stadium – and I’m sure there was a MS (millisecond) or so of time delay to allow for the sync up of Video and Audio – but again, I’m sure that it was a massive undertaking for all involved – but with today’s technology, why couldn’t they PULL IT OFF? After all it’s the SUPER BOWL! But in my humble opinion, playing that gig is probably going to HURT the BEP’s More that it helped their careers – and the fact that it was done so POORLY from an Audio and PITCH point of view just PROVES that they are better off in the studio and hence, I don’t think I’d EVER buy a ticket to see them live. But what do I know? Not much – but I know what “I LIKE” and I did NOT like that performance. Get back to the studio and create a hit song - if you want to revive your career - as last nights performance did more harm than good!
DD & MSO
HOWEVER, I'm sorry to say that LAST NIGHT'S performance was well - JUST AWFUL! In fact, it was a reminder of how the proliferation of software DAW's like Pro Tools and Post-Editing tools for Video that are now so cheap that almost anyone can get in on the action with very little money- and if you get REALLY good at these APPS you really don't have to have MUCH TALENT AT ALL! In fact, PRO TOOLS has on their main adverts that you don't need any music talent at all - just ONE FINGER and with a LOT of practice, forethought and about 1000 hours of studio time and YOU TOO can be a STAR!
Well it was pretty obvious after seeing the LIVE - that they are USING all the studio tricks that are necessary to make them come off like they can actually BRING IT - and they surely didn't BRING IT LIVE - as least not IMHO. One would think that since they used the OBVIOUS Auto-Tune sound which has gotten to be SO OVERUSED that it's a JOKE that they could have used a BANK of Auto-Tunes and other pitch correction HW devices (like so many if not ALL of the major acts out there are using) that they could have come off like they indeed have some concept of PITCH Control.
Granted it was ALL LIVE and I'm sure SUPER, SUPER hard to pull off the set up in a short time - as that was obvious when they had MIC issues and Mix issues as their voices were not mixed well at least not during the first few minutes. But when I started to hear pure PITCH issues - I thought they had more command over their voices than I heard last night. Sure FERGIE can sing - but she's NOT even close to as good as some of the "other" singers of her time that have come before her - whether from IDOL or from the YouTube phenom or those that has risen through the ranks to get Major Deals and have created careers the OLD FASHIONED WAY – but you can’t deny, she’s certainly easy on the eyes and very talented, but I was SHOCKED at the notes she missed. And again, it was obvious they were using Auto-Tune in the OVERDONE way as per many other artists but couldn’t they have put some signal processing to correct some of those blatant bad notes? Who knows, I’m sure they were being mixed from somewhere WAY far away from the stadium – and I’m sure there was a MS (millisecond) or so of time delay to allow for the sync up of Video and Audio – but again, I’m sure that it was a massive undertaking for all involved – but with today’s technology, why couldn’t they PULL IT OFF? After all it’s the SUPER BOWL! But in my humble opinion, playing that gig is probably going to HURT the BEP’s More that it helped their careers – and the fact that it was done so POORLY from an Audio and PITCH point of view just PROVES that they are better off in the studio and hence, I don’t think I’d EVER buy a ticket to see them live. But what do I know? Not much – but I know what “I LIKE” and I did NOT like that performance. Get back to the studio and create a hit song - if you want to revive your career - as last nights performance did more harm than good!
DD & MSO
