How to handle bad singing

[Larry Waisner]

Hi Gary,

There are several "vocal pitch proccessor's" on the market. Some even have harmonizers along with the pitch correction. Anteres sell's a software package for 99 bucks. Digitech, TC Helicon, Boss, Korg and many more. I played in a band where the lead singer would start the night out okay and by the time we got to the third set he was way off key.
He bought the Digitech vocal correction proccessor and sang the whole night every night on key. It actually helped his vocal chords to stay in pitch that after about a year of using one he didn't need it any longer. His voice became stronger.
Best Regards,
Larry Waisner
From the Mountains of Northern New Mexico.

[Gary Shepherd]

Yeah I have AutoTune and Melodyne Studio 3. I use them sometimes on my tracks but it's a lot of work to go in and edit every single note. Of course, you can turn on the AutoTune plugin and just run it with the standard settings as a plugin with no fine tuning but that sometimes leads to unexpected and undesired results.

[Richard Sinkler]

If he is just recording his songs for his enjoyment, family or ??, just go ahead and record him and tough it out. If it is a demo for the band, you have real problems. I wouldn't try too much pitch correction on a demo as it will become obvious to someone that hires the band that they got "lied to" by the demo and you probably will get a real bad reputation and not hired again, unless you have some real time pitch correction while playing live. If he is doing demos to try get his songs picked up by a publisher or record company/artist, I vote for hiring a good singer to do the demos. If I was a publisher/artist/record exec and I heard off key terrible vocals, I may not make it through the song and toss it in the garbage. So, I think your approach depends on the target audience of the recording.

[Ron Page]

He should buy his own studio. It worked for Roy Acuff. LOL

[Bill Howard]

You do at a JAM session
"CAN you ALL" Play you AINT WUMUN enuf ta take my MAE-un"?. Of course the same chord Hal and Loretta done it in right?. Or I know rocky Top in C??
Anybody hate that song any worse than me?.
I played it SIX sets SIX nights a week in this bar I played in about 1978..
I went to play a session in 1990 this Girl(who was nearly TONE deaf had one of those ATOMIZERS Spraying her throat with it. My little brother (one who died in 2006). WHo played a lot like Brent Mason was laughing so hard he had to leave a few minutes.
THis Girl was also doing the Mee mee mee thing ROFLMAO....She sort of resembled Mister ED Oh Wilbur...

[Bill C. Buntin]

I mean I've played in places and been told straight up what I was doing wasn't what they wanted.

So sometimes I think some people need to hear the painfully harsh message that they cannot sing or play whatever the case.

One of the nice things about not getting paid sometimes is that it promotes honesty.

If you are getting paid as a sideman, you must grin and bear it.

I used to go to any and every open jam I could find when I was first learning. There used to be this singer who would show up and he had basic chord shapes taped to his acoustic guitar. Nobody ever told him that he was terrible and I always thought how sad. Because it was flat out embarrassing. So much so that lots of times some of the more decent players would go take a break and this poor chap was often left with only one or two to enjoy the pain with him.

Watch the Andy Griffith show episodes "Barney and the Choir" and "Rafe Hollister Sings".

Barney captures the tuneless, music less person in both of these episodes.

What I've never been able to figure out is why some of these people just plain don't get it?

[Clyde Mattocks]

I was visiting a bass player friend on his gig at a bar on "talent night". I was sitting over at the side of the stage while they backed the "talent"(?). This girl came up and sang(?) in a straight monotone. They got to the place where the song modulated up a half-step and she just kept on at the same pitch(?). My friend looked at me and said "What was the point?"

[Bill Howard]

In my over 40 years playing on stages a BAD singer? awww come on... Seriously I thought they were ALL in Indiana...Here's Tilly Mae singing You ain't Wumun enuff ta take muh man...followed by Rocky Top in C
Here is Cowboy Jim Phelps with a song he wrote called
"She Broke my heart... I broke her jaw..".

Here's Jim Bob Riley with "I was down in the dumps so I got you a hat"
Here's a newcomer Alton Mc Kinny's new country song.
Oh Mama ran away with the Schwans Man she left in his big ford truck...my hound dog got runned over- now my life is in a muck...daddy got drunk last night...o wo wo
Then I wrecked in muh pick up truck. on the way to the barn dance....yeah yeah yeah.... (SCREAMING Guitar solo Distortion WIDE open)...(remember name since all new ones sound ALIKE)

[Joe Naylor]

I am an Okie and know where Fox is located - two solutions (1) take the money and smile (2) pack heat and eliminate the problem - oops number 2 comes with a place to stay for a while and food

Now I am kiddin - so I do not want hate mail

Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com

[John Peay]

How to handle bad singing? My wife usually just tells me to "shut up" !

[Tony Prior]

Gary, maybe you can call in sick the day of recording ?

[Keith Davidson]

My wife won't even let me sing in the shower lol

[Peter den Hartogh]

"Accidentally" email him the link to this topic.

[Len Amaral]

I tried out a Boss vocal processor and it was very complicated. Is there a plug and play unit that can double your voice and make me sound like a pro? Or semi-pro? or half *^# pro? Any improvement at all is appreciated. I sound like dylan when I sing Sinatra.....

[Butch Mullen]

They don't even let me sing in church.

[James Quillian]

For a terrible singer, try using a forgiving dynamic mic like a a shure sm 57.

An expensive condenser mic can exaggerate bad things and make them sound worse than they really are.

[Alan Brookes]

Bad singers ?
That's what multi-channel recorders are for. You make sure that the vocalist has his/her own channel, preferably in their own booth, and then you bring in a competent singer to overdub the vocal part after the event.

[Carl Mesrobian]

Well... he's a nice guy and he knows he's not a great singer...

... I'm not a great steel player either and I'm the new guy...

Is he talking about you on some singers forum? LOL

[Larry Bressington]

A 'Pitch Correction Machine'??? Gimme a break... Just sing in tune baaaby, just like we are asked to PLAY in tune, that's the ART-FORM we choose!! Many a Sour tuned Steel player have been corrected on stage, but it wasen't with Software, it was with skill's and Knowledge that was hard to come by.

We can't let the 'Superficial' world take over and i don't believe that Mediocracy should be excepted in a Live situation...Sure we are not all perfect, but there is a Line that we follow, and being 'ON PITCH' has to be one of them, a great Voice? Not always but... IN TUNE for sure.
Just stop the recording every time he drift's and say 'RE-CUT' Off pitch!!

As Steel guitar players, we are too sometimes asked to play in tune.

[Carl Mesrobian]

I was visiting a bass player friend on his gig at a bar on "talent night". I was sitting over at the side of the stage while they backed the "talent"(?). This girl came up and sang(?) in a straight monotone. They got to the place where the song modulated up a half-step and she just kept on at the same pitch(?). My friend looked at me and said "What was the point?"

I watched a jazz group back a female singer in the key of A on a song that the rest of the players in Boston and most of the world play in Bb. So after the guitar solo the guitarist modulated to Bb. No harm no foul. She modulated, but seemed to never notice what happened