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Charli XCX

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yeah that all makes more sense than "the effect comes from being wayyy out of tune and that's why charli sucks live". Charli still has to be close to the note for autotune to register it, right? On her don't delete the kisses cover, there were still notes that were off pitch even though they were autotuned. Is it possible to sort of "iron out" vocals and make the tone really smooth? The studio vocals on Focus sound really great and I want to believe that it was because she finessed them but I don't know much about vocal processing. How was the whistling at the end of lucky pulled off?

yeah, autotune comes with a "target pitch" function where you can enter what specific pitch to move a voice to whatever note in any range. on focus, it seems to be used a lot because there's absolutely no vibrato on anything and it's super tuned. at the end of lucky, basically AG probably had charli sing one sustained note that he then basically used target pitch to "play" like a keyboard solo. did the same thing on "make believe" with the vocal guitar solo


X----into me, into you----X

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I just feel like, for some reason, sooner or later Queen Charles is going to release everything... obviously there have been limitations set by the label. But she knows what her fans want. Like, she knows... It's why she always plays these little PC music bangers at small shows...

 

Maybe she goes independent and just drops stuff constantly, all within her full control, or maybe Vroom Vroom Records will be utilized further in the future like told that fan recently... and if it's truly a matter of her just moving on from certain ideas, she maybe shouldn't doubt herself or her creations so much, because obviously a lot of fans appreciate her work.

 

Idk, all of this fan outcry ultimately stems from simply enjoying the music she's created, and yes, it's frustrating... Yes, some fans cross the line and take it too far maybe, but people just want to hear her music and support her at the end of the day, and Atlantic has really made that difficult because you can't purchase or stream what physically isn't put to market. It's relatively expensive to upload a few tracks to digital music store like iTunes, or streaming sites... with an artist like Charli, they'd make that money back in a matter of minutes.

 

The question is how much the costs of having *X* producer(s) onboard/general production and studio time plays into everything but ehh, a few hundred thousand streams later and a few thousand digital purchases on iTunes? Man... you're profiting. You're not even pressing or shipping CD's anymore, this day and age... But instead, these labels are like, dumping millions into pushing the top trending artists... over-the-top video production and effects... Idk it's ridiculous. I just don't see how physically releasing a few songs on the regular is such a huge problem.

 

Charli could be a money making machine with her hooks and how quickly she works... and that's the TEA... lol

I feel like the labels don't see it as simple as "release it and get money". There's probably some sort of strategy involved. And yeah I understand that the outcry is from enjoying the music she's created, but if she hasn't seen the music as fitting for her official discography (I don't see why not, if she's willing to put so many strange collabs on pop 2), that's just it. It could very well be that she just doesn't vibe with those songs anymore and would hate to be stuck performing them the same way she does with fancy or i love it or boom clap (even tho BC is a bop but I'm sure it gets super annoying after performing it like 200 times). Btw what do you mean "physically"? Are you talking about putting songs up on streaming sites? Wouldn't physical = hard copies? Releasing songs on the regular seems to be the plan - doesn't seem like a huge problem at all. Maybe you hadn't come across the "single every month" posts yet.

 

someone in Charli’s Instagram comments said the featured artists on the Bitches remix are Charli, Alma, Icona Pop and Elliphant and they provided a lengthy explanation as to why they think that

 

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I think it makes a lot of sense

I'm scared, impressed, and weirded out all at once.

 

wtf??? where is the pink one omg Rita dont fuck it up

I want to see the alternate cover omg I can't find it, was it official or fanmade?

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maybe the reason she doesn’t want to release taxi is because it doesn’t reflect how she wants to be seen as an artist. it’s like that Complex article that came after Pop 2....obviously to her fans we don’t see taxi, etc. as “juvenile,” but they don’t fit her current direction at all. same with CTMP (which i love) and Good Girls (which i also love)...she knows everyone’s obsessed with those three year old songs, even though she’s moved on a LONG ass time ago. if she wanted them out, they would be. lmao.

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yeah, autotune comes with a "target pitch" function where you can enter what specific pitch to move a voice to whatever note in any range. on focus, it seems to be used a lot because there's absolutely no vibrato on anything and it's super tuned. at the end of lucky, basically AG probably had charli sing one sustained note that he then basically used target pitch to "play" like a keyboard solo. did the same thing on "make believe" with the vocal guitar solo

I'm can't tell if I don't trust you, or if I just don't want to believe this. So she didn't actually sing focus?? It was all done on a computer??? What if it was just sang straight, without vibrato? About the tone, I meant like, for example - Boys. The vocal is super smooth, and her tone is really consistent. It's almost as if it was sung nearly perfect before being retouched. Can they sort of "copy and paste" the best part of a note (best in terms of tonality) to the rest of the note to make up for any imperfections? Ugh now I wanna hear the raw vocals. Can you explain the "target pitch" function a bit more? I'm actually really confused by a lot of what you said. 

 

This all just seems like a lot of trickery 

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omg why do i feel like this inspired someone to make the vroom vroom/crank dat mashup... like they went to listen to the OG crank dat and realized it would fit with vroom vroom

No lol. The crank that/vv mashup came out on SoundCloud waaay before that. I just remember watching the pop 2 ny stream and I immediately thought of this from my MySpace days once ag started screaming his chorus.

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maybe the reason she doesn’t want to release taxi is because it doesn’t reflect how she wants to be seen as an artist. it’s like that Complex article that came after Pop 2....obviously to her fans we don’t see taxi, etc. as “juvenile,” but they don’t fit her current direction at all. same with CTMP (which i love) and Good Girls (which i also love)...she knows everyone’s obsessed with those three year old songs, even though she’s moved on a LONG ass time ago. if she wanted them out, they would be. lmao.

what complex article? what did she say? 

 

It's just so weird to me that her current direction is all about being "the future of pop" just because the instrumentals are strange and the vocals sound inhuman. She strayed so far from traditional pop, which she had just reached the peak of. About the xcx3 songs/outtakes being "juvenile,' I remember her saying something about playing with the idea of being "vapid" 

 

“I used to really care about my validity as a writer or as someone who’s going to be received well,” Charli says. “And now I don’t. The more I’ve grown up and the more I’ve become secure with myself, I’ve become comfortable with being questioned. I don’t mind if people think I’m a fake. I kind of like that more. It’s like, ‘Oh she doesn’t do anything, she’s vapid, she’s a projection of other people’s ideas.’ I’m playing with that now more than ever. Sometimes it’s like, I would rather talk about my boobs and the outfits that I just bought.”

 
the "fake" part is so PC music, and I feel like this excerpt really shows why she was so attracted to it. The "outfits that I just bought" bit in particular reminds me of Taxi (nightclub on a friday got my gucci on). It was unapologetically pop, and it was fun. It's such a contrast from now, where the soundscape is moody and sorta lifeless.

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yeah, autotune comes with a "target pitch" function where you can enter what specific pitch to move a voice to whatever note in any range. on focus, it seems to be used a lot because there's absolutely no vibrato on anything and it's super tuned. at the end of lucky, basically AG probably had charli sing one sustained note that he then basically used target pitch to "play" like a keyboard solo. did the same thing on "make believe" with the vocal guitar solo

yeah that's another part of it, there's no lenience for vibrato or being slightly over or under the note, it's immediately correcting to a defined frequency that whatever note is being told to be sung from wherever it is before. makes for jarring and unnatural movement

also AG really likes to distort super-autotuned vocals when he produces, like in his song superstar or "make believe" by hannah diamond, so that may also be contributing to the jaggedness and unpleasant sound

So what you're saying is that you can set autotune to stay within a certain scale, and it'll only stick to those notes and correct your voice to the closest note within the scale? Sort of like a "painting by numbers" approach? 

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So what you're saying is that you can set autotune to stay within a certain scale, and it'll only stick to those notes and correct your voice to the closest note within the scale? Sort of like a "painting by numbers" approach? 

yes

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yeah that all makes more sense than "the effect comes from being wayyy out of tune and that's why charli sucks live". Charli still has to be close to the note for autotune to register it, right? On her don't delete the kisses cover, there were still notes that were off pitch even though they were autotuned. Is it possible to sort of "iron out" vocals and make the tone really smooth? The studio vocals on Focus sound really great and I want to believe that it was because she finessed them but I don't know much about vocal processing. How was the whistling at the end of lucky pulled off?

the whistle was melodyned. she probably did a "similar" note and then ag changed it on melodyne

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you can do almost anything to voices with technology nowadays, it's not really shocking, you can sing one thing and make it sound like another entirely different thing

Of course you can, but it doesn't always sound good, or else everyone would be able to have flawless studio vocals. Bebe Rexha sounds annoying in almost all her songs except Take Me Home, and that's the one song she can't quite pull off live. It makes me wonder if Charli's vocals aren't amazing because it's Charli, but because of a good vocal engineer. 

 

https://twitter.com/fckyeahcharli/status/805217727233204224

 

like here when she says "can I get the vocal up" does that mean they're pitching it up? So the vocal has that signature bright tone without actually having to sing in that pitch?

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Of course you can, but it doesn't always sound good, or else everyone would be able to have flawless studio vocals. Bebe Rexha sounds annoying in almost all her songs except Take Me Home, and that's the one song she can't quite pull off live. It makes me wonder if Charli's vocals aren't amazing because it's Charli, but because of a good vocal engineer. 

 

https://twitter.com/fckyeahcharli/status/805217727233204224

 

like here when she says "can I get the vocal up" does that mean they're pitching it up? So the vocal has that signature bright tone without actually having to sing in that pitch?

i think she couldn't hear herself through her headphones

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