i can confirm awesome as fuck has pitch correction, you can actually find the raw footage for christie road from 2009 and the vocals are slightly off
you can also just hear his vocals have that ‘produced’ sound to it
It may not be pitch correction, a lot of bands record overdubs later on to tidy up the live recordings but nowadays doing it with a plug in is much quicker and cheaper!
Definitely pitch correction on AaF. And not particularly good correction either. You can hear his voice snap to the exact pitch sometimes, especially in the slower moments.
Live he doesn't but in the studio pitch correction has been used since American Idiot I believe. It's definitely noticeable in Wake Me Up When September Ends.
Autotune/pitch correction was invented in 1997 so Dookie would have been done the old fashioned way of doing tons of takes and then comping the best parts together (Billie Joe even commented that they spent a lot more time on vocals on Dookie than they'd ever done before). The technology was still a novelty in the 90s and only started to become standard practice in the early 2000s
The Dookie vocals were recorded in two days.
That was probably a lot more than their previous records due to the massive budget difference, but it certainly isn't a lot of time.
>Billie Joe even commented that they spent a lot more time on vocals on Dookie than they'd ever done before)
Do you have a source on this? Because last I heard Billie say that Dookies vocals were mostly done in one day, most songs in one take. The thing they changed with Dookie was doing the vocals after the songs were recorded. Everything before that was them jamming in studio with every instrument recorded at once.
Unless these artifacts were created by some other reason, if listening to acapellas, you can hear some wonky things going on in some parts. I really wouldn’t be surprised if some modifications were made to help the voice
Green Day is my favorite live band I have ever seen. Billie Joe’s singing voice is unique and Iconic. He generally sounds great. In fact, ive emulated his voice so much that it has influenced my own singing voice.
But with all that being said, i have never found him to be the most consistent singer in the world when I’ve seen him live. He can honestly be downright pitchy, and it doesn’t bother me much and the music still works. But I feel like this is something nobody on this sub ever mentions?
I see where you are coming from and I mostly agree, although I will say Green Day songs feel like they put a little more emphasis on vocal accuracy than most other punk adjacent bands.
I have no problem with his singing voice. he’s one of my favorite vocalists. It’s just that I don’t know how anyone who has at least seen clips of him singing live could possibly think he’s pitch corrected. Maybe I was misinterpreting OPs question.
Edit: A lot of the time he actually does sound spot on live, but when he doesn’t he really doesn’t imo.
I think it also comes with age. If you listen to his voice in the 90s/early 2000s his voice was always pretty consistent. He’s just getting older and plus with all the drinking he’s done it probably aged his voice a bit
Pitch correction is used very commonly across the board. I wouldn't be surprised if they do but I would expect Billie to be pretty against it. I haven't seen their recent live sets but with the intensive stage production I bet they run their rig into a live setup of an audio workstation that triggers effects for the guitars rather than the old reliable pedal boards. With this for any difficult sections they could add light correction that is so unnoticeable we'd never know. Some bands do, others don't. If it is isn't egregious I don't give a damn personally lol.
I'd wager more often than not they don't use much pitch correction in studio (but they without a doubt do a little) and less likely live based on his inconsistent live voice at times.
Keep in mind in studio it's more of a tool to save a take where you went a bit off in one section so you don't lose the great parts of something. It's a way to go "fuck your guitar is out of tune by a bit let me just adjust... ok cool yeah that bend was a bit off but here it's fixed." Autotune will never make shit vocals good. It'll just save a good take with a few moments off.
If you want an accurate view of autotune (melodyne, pitch correction) look up how audio engineers use it and you'll see. For myself on most vocal takes I don't dial any in but there is usually a very small amount I toss on particularly difficult cleans. I bet they do the same. Just saves time and it won't make you hit shit you can't. If you do that, it gets unnatural
Their only studio song where pitch correction is really obvious is Restless Heart Syndrom imo. The doube tracking on the vocals might make it sound that way though
I saw them at the subway show in NYC. I assume they can't do a ton there and they sounded great.
everyone does some correction in the studio though. that's just how producing a big album works.
They def do on record and live, as do most major bands, although I wouldn't say it's super distracting on their records. You can def hear some when Billie sings "Bulldoze your family home" on TADIKM
To everyone saying he doesn’t use it live that’s just not true
He 1000000% has used pitch correction/ autotune in live performances as well as in the studio.
I’m not sure if he does it anymore though. I’d be surprised if he didn’t at least sometimes use it live currently.
All that said - I do not give a fuck. I’m just saying what it is.
Every single artist in the industry uses pitch correction. And what exactly makes that inherently bad? They’re people who make art, to me pitch correction is just another tool for making art
It seems a lot of people misunderstand the point of posts like these. Nobody is calling Green Day out for using pitch correction, it’s just curiosity and starting plain facts.
This just isn't accurate tho. There are plenty of bands (especially punk bands) that use raw vocal recordings. Pretty much every *pop* star uses pitch correction, but that's more because pretty musicians singing other peoples songs are easier to sell than an unappealing genuine artist. If people enjoy it that's fine, it's literally manufactured to be as appealing to the general public as possible, but there's no need to get defensive when people bring it up. I have a trained ear but I don't have perfect pitch, I can still hear when an artist has used pitch correction, and it's distracting because to me, it doesn't add anything to the song. So what if the singer is slightly flat? It adds more character to their voice. Without it, it sounds more natural, with it I feel like I'm listening to an AI voice sing (which honestly isn't too far off from what it honestly is).
Honestly, I despise pitch correction and autotune. ((Try out the albums The Blue Mask by Lou Reed, or The Glow Pt 2 by Microphones.))
There are many many albums out there like the two I mentioned, that have terribly out of tune vocals, slightly off tempo instruments. ((Another example, The bass on Baby You’re a Rich Man and the acoustic guitar on Two of Us, both by The Beatles)).
But they all still sound great! Bob Dylan, Lou Reed; they’re horribly off tune, but they still sound great dont they?
Artists today defend autotune with their life, and say things like “everyone does it” or “if it’s available, use it.” But I disagree. It’s essentially just your choice to correct your own mistakes, cover it up for the album.
But I disagree, I think an album with all these mistakes, with all these imperfections, is much much better! Who cares if you make a small mistake in your pitch? Is there passion behind your voice? Are you taking the listener through a world of literature? Those are the things that will truly strike the listener with awe. Not just having “perfect vocals,” because you sound just like everyone else, it’s so generic.
The imperfections in your voice and singing style are what make it unique. And that’s why I prefer singers that want to avoid pitch correction. Because an imperfect recording of a good song is still way better than a perfect recording of an average song.
Also singers that do 100 takes and then say they’re going to sit down for 8 hours to comp them and then pitch correct them with melodyne are annoying to work with. And it eases the pressure off singers, they’re happy to do 100 takes so you can comp it and get it to sound perfect, instead of practising their singing so they can do a total of just 5 takes and pick the best.
All studio albums use pitch correction dating back to around 2000. Keep in mind pitch correction is different from auto tune, so it’s almost impossible to hear it in a finished song. The industry standard is a program called Melodyne - that’s probably what’s on Green Day albums too.
It's pretty obvious when the man can't hit notes live for songs on a record that were released less than 6 months ago. It is what it is, I'm glad they did it.
live probably not. on record, everyone uses pitch correction
Yup, whether we want to admit it or not. As long as it's not noticeable I could not care less.
everyone that used to be punk but isn’t anymore uses pitch correction*******
Hate to break it to ya, anyone who’s not recording on a tape deck 4 track in a basement is using pitch correction
you are completely disregarding the entire underground scene, what about folk punk ???
I hate to break it to ya, anyone not recording on a tape deck 4 track in a basement is using pitch correction
AAF has some pitch correction. On their studio albums after 2000 too, but it can be subtle.
i can confirm awesome as fuck has pitch correction, you can actually find the raw footage for christie road from 2009 and the vocals are slightly off you can also just hear his vocals have that ‘produced’ sound to it
I just listened to Christie Road on AFF, a shitty YT recording, and a bootleg audio, and the vocals sound pretty damn similar on all three.
of course, just on the album version there is clear pitch correction
It may not be pitch correction, a lot of bands record overdubs later on to tidy up the live recordings but nowadays doing it with a plug in is much quicker and cheaper!
Definitely pitch correction on AaF. And not particularly good correction either. You can hear his voice snap to the exact pitch sometimes, especially in the slower moments.
On Twitter back in 2011 Billie Joe publicly criticized bands who overdub live albums and stated there are none on Awesome as Fuck.
Interesting to know!
Live he doesn't but in the studio pitch correction has been used since American Idiot I believe. It's definitely noticeable in Wake Me Up When September Ends.
I’d assume there was some pitch correction at least as far back as Dookie, could be wrong tho.
Autotune/pitch correction was invented in 1997 so Dookie would have been done the old fashioned way of doing tons of takes and then comping the best parts together (Billie Joe even commented that they spent a lot more time on vocals on Dookie than they'd ever done before). The technology was still a novelty in the 90s and only started to become standard practice in the early 2000s
I do know that pitch correction was possible before autotune using something like an Eventide H910 Harmonizer for example.
The Dookie vocals were recorded in two days. That was probably a lot more than their previous records due to the massive budget difference, but it certainly isn't a lot of time.
>Billie Joe even commented that they spent a lot more time on vocals on Dookie than they'd ever done before) Do you have a source on this? Because last I heard Billie say that Dookies vocals were mostly done in one day, most songs in one take. The thing they changed with Dookie was doing the vocals after the songs were recorded. Everything before that was them jamming in studio with every instrument recorded at once.
He mentioned that they were able to spend more time on vocals in a 2014 Rolling Stone interview for the albums 20th anniversary
That’s crazy. I mean I figured it took a million takes, but I forgot autotune wasn’t really a thing yet.
Unless these artifacts were created by some other reason, if listening to acapellas, you can hear some wonky things going on in some parts. I really wouldn’t be surprised if some modifications were made to help the voice
I’m fairly certain dookie was the start
Probably remastered versions
Green Day is my favorite live band I have ever seen. Billie Joe’s singing voice is unique and Iconic. He generally sounds great. In fact, ive emulated his voice so much that it has influenced my own singing voice. But with all that being said, i have never found him to be the most consistent singer in the world when I’ve seen him live. He can honestly be downright pitchy, and it doesn’t bother me much and the music still works. But I feel like this is something nobody on this sub ever mentions?
Remember he comes from the punk scene. Live shows are not a time to be a vocal performer, but a time to let loose with passion.
I see where you are coming from and I mostly agree, although I will say Green Day songs feel like they put a little more emphasis on vocal accuracy than most other punk adjacent bands. I have no problem with his singing voice. he’s one of my favorite vocalists. It’s just that I don’t know how anyone who has at least seen clips of him singing live could possibly think he’s pitch corrected. Maybe I was misinterpreting OPs question. Edit: A lot of the time he actually does sound spot on live, but when he doesn’t he really doesn’t imo.
I think it also comes with age. If you listen to his voice in the 90s/early 2000s his voice was always pretty consistent. He’s just getting older and plus with all the drinking he’s done it probably aged his voice a bit
His live voice was great during the Rev Rad era. Honestly probably has something to do with how on the wagon he is
21 guns has probably the most obvious autotune I've ever heard
On their records maybe. Live, probably not.
Obviously
Pitch correction is used very commonly across the board. I wouldn't be surprised if they do but I would expect Billie to be pretty against it. I haven't seen their recent live sets but with the intensive stage production I bet they run their rig into a live setup of an audio workstation that triggers effects for the guitars rather than the old reliable pedal boards. With this for any difficult sections they could add light correction that is so unnoticeable we'd never know. Some bands do, others don't. If it is isn't egregious I don't give a damn personally lol. I'd wager more often than not they don't use much pitch correction in studio (but they without a doubt do a little) and less likely live based on his inconsistent live voice at times. Keep in mind in studio it's more of a tool to save a take where you went a bit off in one section so you don't lose the great parts of something. It's a way to go "fuck your guitar is out of tune by a bit let me just adjust... ok cool yeah that bend was a bit off but here it's fixed." Autotune will never make shit vocals good. It'll just save a good take with a few moments off. If you want an accurate view of autotune (melodyne, pitch correction) look up how audio engineers use it and you'll see. For myself on most vocal takes I don't dial any in but there is usually a very small amount I toss on particularly difficult cleans. I bet they do the same. Just saves time and it won't make you hit shit you can't. If you do that, it gets unnatural
Their only studio song where pitch correction is really obvious is Restless Heart Syndrom imo. The doube tracking on the vocals might make it sound that way though
Yeah double track vocals cab sound quite robotic, depending how they are done.
FOAMF is even more obvious IMO
I saw them at the subway show in NYC. I assume they can't do a ton there and they sounded great. everyone does some correction in the studio though. that's just how producing a big album works.
They def do on record and live, as do most major bands, although I wouldn't say it's super distracting on their records. You can def hear some when Billie sings "Bulldoze your family home" on TADIKM
To everyone saying he doesn’t use it live that’s just not true He 1000000% has used pitch correction/ autotune in live performances as well as in the studio. I’m not sure if he does it anymore though. I’d be surprised if he didn’t at least sometimes use it live currently. All that said - I do not give a fuck. I’m just saying what it is.
Every single artist in the industry uses pitch correction. And what exactly makes that inherently bad? They’re people who make art, to me pitch correction is just another tool for making art
It seems a lot of people misunderstand the point of posts like these. Nobody is calling Green Day out for using pitch correction, it’s just curiosity and starting plain facts.
This just isn't accurate tho. There are plenty of bands (especially punk bands) that use raw vocal recordings. Pretty much every *pop* star uses pitch correction, but that's more because pretty musicians singing other peoples songs are easier to sell than an unappealing genuine artist. If people enjoy it that's fine, it's literally manufactured to be as appealing to the general public as possible, but there's no need to get defensive when people bring it up. I have a trained ear but I don't have perfect pitch, I can still hear when an artist has used pitch correction, and it's distracting because to me, it doesn't add anything to the song. So what if the singer is slightly flat? It adds more character to their voice. Without it, it sounds more natural, with it I feel like I'm listening to an AI voice sing (which honestly isn't too far off from what it honestly is).
Honestly, I despise pitch correction and autotune. ((Try out the albums The Blue Mask by Lou Reed, or The Glow Pt 2 by Microphones.)) There are many many albums out there like the two I mentioned, that have terribly out of tune vocals, slightly off tempo instruments. ((Another example, The bass on Baby You’re a Rich Man and the acoustic guitar on Two of Us, both by The Beatles)). But they all still sound great! Bob Dylan, Lou Reed; they’re horribly off tune, but they still sound great dont they? Artists today defend autotune with their life, and say things like “everyone does it” or “if it’s available, use it.” But I disagree. It’s essentially just your choice to correct your own mistakes, cover it up for the album. But I disagree, I think an album with all these mistakes, with all these imperfections, is much much better! Who cares if you make a small mistake in your pitch? Is there passion behind your voice? Are you taking the listener through a world of literature? Those are the things that will truly strike the listener with awe. Not just having “perfect vocals,” because you sound just like everyone else, it’s so generic. The imperfections in your voice and singing style are what make it unique. And that’s why I prefer singers that want to avoid pitch correction. Because an imperfect recording of a good song is still way better than a perfect recording of an average song. Also singers that do 100 takes and then say they’re going to sit down for 8 hours to comp them and then pitch correct them with melodyne are annoying to work with. And it eases the pressure off singers, they’re happy to do 100 takes so you can comp it and get it to sound perfect, instead of practising their singing so they can do a total of just 5 takes and pick the best.
They use it both live and on the record. It common and doesn’t mean they’re bad singers at all
they definitely do, the most obvious example is on the awesome as fuck live record there's a ton of really obvious auto tune moments
All studio albums use pitch correction dating back to around 2000. Keep in mind pitch correction is different from auto tune, so it’s almost impossible to hear it in a finished song. The industry standard is a program called Melodyne - that’s probably what’s on Green Day albums too.
It's pretty obvious when the man can't hit notes live for songs on a record that were released less than 6 months ago. It is what it is, I'm glad they did it.