Norah Jones SACD

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Originally posted by Minky:
I made the distinction between old and new CD's because I would have thought that with todays technology it would be harder to get things wrong. Surely when a bunch of musicians record their respective parts they are in tune so when you stick them together they are in tune, so why the need to speed up/slow down the finished product ?

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There are a few common reasons. As Fred already mentioned, sometimes various parts from different sources are put together, and they need to be tweaked to match. I've also encountered situations where two digital tuners didn't agree. The most common for me, though, is the "reference" instrument.

For example, with humidity changes, pianos change their intonation throughout the year. Although you could tune them monthly (or more) to get them to stay "correct", that gets a little expensive. Therefore, most will get their pianos tuned twice a year. Even so, they won't necessarily be perfectly pitched after the tuning. Let me explain:

I had my piano tuned last week. I asked the technician whether he could get the piano closer to my studio gear. He commented that the piano changes pitch throughout the year, with the lowest pitch occurring during the dry winter months of January and February. He stated that a piano sounds worse flat versus sharp, so he tunes it to be properly pitched in those two dry months, resulting in it being a bit sharp through the rest of the year. (IIRC, the maximum is about 10 cents sharp.)

If I want to record that piano, I'll do one of two things:

• If the rest of the instruments are tunable, then I'll tune them to match the piano (resulting in imperfect absolute pitch, but proper relative pitch).
  
• If the piano has a "small" part in a big electronic affair, then I'll pitch bend the piano digitally to match the rest of the gear. (This is a very rare occurrence, as the result usually bugs me, so I usually use my digital piano instead.)
  

We don't live in a perfect world.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

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Originally posted by herm:
The lovely Ms Jones did a couple of shows in Europe last year, and the reviews were generally bad, in that she was a mediocre singer.

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Oh, well, in that case, she must be.

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Originally posted by Minky:
Fred,

Thanks for an interesting conversation. No hard feelings about Norah?

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Of course not.

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I'll send you a message when I have my anechoic chamber sorted and you can let me know what note you want me to whistle

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You know the story about John Cage in the anechoic chamber? In such a chamber there is theoretical silence; it absorbs all sound waves and reflections. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear nothing, but as he wrote later, he "heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."

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In the meantime I am going to get a copy of your album. Of course if I don't like it we can blame my cloth ears, but what if I _do_ like it ?

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Blame it on Norah.

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Originally posted by Mike Hanson:
For example, with humidity changes, pianos change their intonation throughout the year. Although you could tune them monthly (or more) to get them to stay "correct", that gets a little expensive.

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Yes, more expensive, but necessary for best results. In general I have my own piano tuned twice a year but then will also tune it for a specific recording project. For a commercially released album project, I require a tuning every day, and even more than once a day if the piano is slipping at all. The best of all possible situations, if allowed by budget, is to hire a tuner to be on call for the duration of the session.

In my experience, it is not uncommon for a small amount ( 2%) of vari-speed to be added to the whole finished mix at the mastering stage. It can tighten and brighten everything up slightly. Apparently Abba were big fans of using vari-speed in not very subtle amounts, which explains how they got the vocal sound.

Maybe this explains how a track can be in tune with itself, but out with anything tuned to concert pitch, such as an acoustic guitar tuned to 440Hz.

As for Nora's pitching ability, I haven't heard the album, but from what is being said here, at least the Antares Auto-Tune plug in hasn't been applied. This gadget might put a vocal performance 100% in tune, but it adds it's own sonic signature which is not particularly nice. I'd rather hear the "human element" of the odd slightly flat note than a computerised perfectly pitched bastardised version of the event which took place in the studio.

Best,

Mickey

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Originally posted by Michael Dale:
In my experience, it is not uncommon for a small amount ( 2%) of vari-speed to be added to the whole finished mix at the mastering stage. It can tighten and brighten everything up slightly.

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I just listened to Ed Harcourt's "from every sphere". The first three tracks are flat as a pancake. Tracks 4 onwards are OK. This is also a copy protected disk. Coincidence ?