Fill in the blank

[koganbot]

I don't have a poll function, but if I did, these would be the choices:

1) If Heidi Montag's singing didn't sound like she was forcing salt water out through her nose, "No More" would be one of the best singles of the year.

2) Despite her sounding like she's forcing salt water out through her nose, Heidi Montag's "No More" is one of the best singles of the year.

3) Heidi Montag's "No More" is one of the best singles of the year, and one of the reasons for this is that she sounds like she's forcing salt water out through her nose.

(I am wavering between choices 1 and 2. If I were ever to shift to choice 3, this would probably mean that I have entered a new psychosocial life stage, such as _______.)

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

WHOA, that's some serious autotune they've had to put on her there. Which is a bit of a shame cus when she's in monotone she sounds more normal.

However, she does sound a bit like a robot, which is a bonus, if you think of it like that. And it is one of the best songs of the year, on reflection. Does this mean I fall into category 3? :/

[koganbot]

As I said to datura800, I've never had the slightest clue when autotune is being used - I simply can't tell; he says it's difficult to explain, but it adds a certain sound to the voice. Someone would probably have to sit down with me and show me.

I like Heidi's first leaked track, "Body Language," even more. A great bit of girl-twirl synth pop, and the affectless high vocals were quite nice riding atop the music, if basically characterless. Second leaked track, "Touch Me," was OK, basic '80s postdisco, was too spare for her, as it put too much weight on her singing. And then "Higher" was her first actual release, was a total blank, a holiday song that lacked all fizz, really really bad.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Ah... I dunno, that salt-water noise is where the autotune is on this, I think. Although I'm not so great at hearing those things myself so maybe it's not.

I shall look up Body Language... I hadn't heard anything by her until just now, apart from 'Higher,' which as you said, is basically excreable.

[koganbot]

Well, there's definitely something going on with the sound of Heidi's voice on that track, but I think that's owing to some sort of treatment, some minivocoder kind of effect or something. If that's the sign of autotune then autotune is a lot rarer than people say it is and it's also a lot more primitive a technology than I would have thought. But I really don't know anything about it.

Update nine months later

[koganbot]

Ha! Didn't know my technology, did I?* (Didn't know that people used Autotune for timbre as well as pitch - more accurately, that manipulating pitch is one way to play w/ timbre. I'd just assumed that T-Pain was using some gizmo, my never knowing what it was.)

*Not that I do now, mind you, but I finally did get the message about how people if they want to are using Autotune for timbre and symbol and such, rather than just for pitch correction - I assume that they can totally disguise the latter, if they want.

[koganbot]

This did turn out to be one of my favorite singles of the year, so now I am torn between choices two and three.