Pop Danthology – and non-“pro” editing.

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Harlan] “There’s a lot of added Auto-Tune, pitch-shifting and time remapping. In fact, you can hear Auto-Tune on Auto-Tune. I run/workout to some of the Usher tracks and they are clearly shifted. “Call Me” is in a slightly different pitch, too. And I believe a different speed.”

I got that, but the mix level of the drums was so consistent throughout that I have to figure he was adding his own drum mix on top. Either that or every pop producer is now mixing their drums at the same level. Whichever, it was very well done.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Chris Harlan]

[Herb Sevush] “I got that, but the mix level of the drums was so consistent throughout that I have to figure he was adding his own drum mix on top. Either that or every pop producer is now mixing their drums at the same level. Whichever, it was very well done.
“

Ah. These days, a lot of pop music is highly compressed to bring everything right up to the threshold. If you look at the waveforms for many modern songs they look like straight lines that just about kiss zero. That probably accounts for the consistency you are noticing. I don’t hear an added percussion track, but I do hear time-shifting to keep the rhythm relatively regular.

[Bill Davis]

I’ll just note that if you followed the “making of” link – he specifically notes that one of his precepts is that he tries not to speed shift anything more than a percent or so – relying instead on relentless categorization of his raw material so that he chooses from clips that are “close” organically.

That’s not to say he didn’t shift and auto tune – but he did think through the issue prior to making his mix and started out with a “LESS pitch shift and autotune MORE quality preparation” – as his standard.

Something everyone here can certainly respect.

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