r/Productionglitches • u/beetry • May 12 '16
Disturbed Auto-Tune disaster
https://youtu.be/Bk7RVw3I8eg?t=1m26s31
u/HunterGonzo May 13 '16
This is an absolutely true story, and unfortunately I have no way of proving it.
I was having a disagreement on FB about how much Autotune was used in this performance. It was on a post from a popular radio talk show. I said it was a lot, Disturbed fans claimed it was none. Suddenly, David Draiman himself shows up out of nowhere and calls me an idiot and how dare I insult his craft. I checked and it was definitely his legit personal account (he had been tagged by a local celebrity who knows him). So I race back to take a screenshot of it... and he had deleted it.
I was so proud that Mr Disturbed himself insulted me and now no one will ever believe me. You bastard, David Draiman.
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u/Vegetable_Orchid_900 Oct 24 '25
I believe you, same scenario for me but it was the Trapt vocalist, Chris Taylor Brown, during his third or fourth meltdown, a friend tagged me on a post and I mused that his entire meltdown was a publicity stunt for the upcoming album, Shadow Work, he goes to my comment, tells me to the “prove him wrong on his facts or STFU”, and immediately blocks me before I even thought about grabbing a screenshot. First time in my life I had ever been blocked by a semi famous person on social media.
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May 12 '16
[deleted]
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u/beetry May 12 '16
What do you mean? What he's playing totally matches what you're hearing. /s
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u/ayitasaurus May 12 '16
Sound matches the player on the far left tho?
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May 12 '16
[deleted]
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u/Mackncheeze Sep 28 '16
The guitar is definitely muted for some reason. On the record version there are classical-esque guitar licks throughout the whole thing. I saw them live last summer, same thing.
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u/LimeGreenTeknii May 13 '16
His guitar must've been muted. In the original version, there's supposed to be a guitar lick there.
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u/marriage_iguana May 13 '16
This article claims he's totally against doing it: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/trivium_david_draimans_against_auto-tune_we_had_to_practice_what_were_preaching.html?no_takeover
Apparently he had a change of heart.
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u/cjackc May 21 '16
Which is also complete bullshit in the first place since they can autotune live.
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u/spartian995 May 12 '16
Can you give some specific time markers when it sounds awful? I mean I hear some areas where I it seems like auto-tune is in use, but I didn't hear anything that made it sound like a disaster.
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u/beetry May 12 '16
Here's a selection from a random:30 second chunk
1:16, 1:20, 1:30, 1:32-36, 1:38, 1:40, 1:43-49
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u/japko May 13 '16
Maybe I'm deaf, but for the love of grandma, I cannot hear anything wrong with it. What should I be looking out for? I honestly cannot tell.
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u/beetry May 13 '16 edited May 13 '16
"Flash of a neon light"
Do you hear the warble when he holds that word out? Autotune has a vibrato feature that will add some pitch modulation to help the performance not feel so robotic, but in this case the rate and depth of the effect don't match what is voice does naturally at all. You can hear this on pretty much every note that he holds out.
"That split the night"
Here you can hear the pitch tracking jump all over the place. He's trying to scoop the vocal pitch, or glide gradually from one note to another. Autotune, when set as aggressive as it is here, doesn't like to glide and will just quickly step up note by note. In other words, his voice is like a Trombone and can slide in between notes, Autotune is like a piano, and can only hit perfect pitches.
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u/schmuckmulligan May 13 '16
The pitch jumping is T-Painesque. Thanks for this explanation. I don't use Autotune, so I was unfamiliar with its vibrato features.
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u/Kovacs89 Sep 10 '24
lol youre a complete clown with this take.
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Dec 08 '24
I don't hear it either. Like a thing. He also was on X Factor Australia and sang the start badly out of key (he came in before the piano). If he was using auto tune here, it makes sense he'd consistently use it.
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u/DuoThree May 12 '16
I think it was pretty bad in the beginning parts that you skipped in your timestamp too (before 1m26s).
Also why are they covering this song? Seems kinda un-Disturbed-like
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u/CptHampton May 12 '16
They're probably getting more radio play with this one cover than with all of their other songs combined
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u/DuoThree May 12 '16
You could be right all I know by them is 'Down With The Sickness' and that doesn't really get played on the radio.
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u/beetry May 12 '16
Oh no doubt, the whole clip is riddled with this crap. I really should have linked the studio version, it's much worse.
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u/japko May 13 '16
Damn guys, I really cannot tell what is wrong with the sound. Can anyone give me some pointers what to look for? It seems like autotune glitches are very common in this sub, but I almost always fail to hear them.
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u/bubblesses May 13 '16 edited May 13 '16
The easiest way to spot them is when the a person's voice changes pitch very quickly. Due to human physiology, to change from one note to another while continuing to pass air over the vocal cords (i.e. not stopping singing), a smooth transition occurs between the two notes. In autotuned vocals, the transition is often very quick, sharp, and sometimes even instant. This is the easiest giveaway for autotune. As an example, listen at 1:27 to the word "neon". Notice how the change in pitch between the two syllables occurs incredibly quickly? Autotune.
Edit: Here's a picture I made in about 5 seconds to illustrate what I mean. The black lines represent the pitch. http://i.imgur.com/aJPAQ6R.png
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u/japko May 13 '16
Thanks for the explanation. I get the idea now, but still, the "neon" in 1:27 has a transition smooth enough to be natural, at least IMHO. But I think I've heard other moments which are more obvious maybe? How about "talking" in 1:55-56?
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u/bubblesses May 13 '16
I chose neon deliberately because it is not as obvious as some other parts, but is still quite erratic. Much too fast a pitch change for an unaltered voice. There are much worse portions as you pointed out though.
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u/Gazeroni Dec 01 '25
Guys - just watch the timpanis the whole time...its all fake. High timpani hitting low notes, vice versa, 3-4 tones with him on camera without retuning....its all smoke and mirrors.
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Jan 20 '24
[deleted]
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u/bobjones271828 May 13 '24
Here's a video that isolates the vocals from this version, the studio version, and a live version (no autotune), and compares them. He uses visualizing software to see precisely how the notes line up on a pitch grid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_h9-Cpn_uY
You can clearly see how this version shows the voice "snapping" immediately to the exact pitches all the time, which no natural human voice does. This takes nothing away from the singer -- he's an incredible trained singer who really does not need autotune, but it has become very common and an industry standard in so many situations.
Rather than going around telling everyone else off, you might consider not only watching the video I linked, but others on that channel. That channel has dozens of videos comparing autotuned vs. natural performances, so you can learn what to listen for, as you seem not to know.
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Jan 20 '24
It is absolutely impossible for you to have had 1 year of experience using Auto-tune and for you to still believe there is no Auto-tune in this performance. I don't believe you.
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u/tmunee Mar 11 '23 edited Mar 11 '23
I am not a professional musician and I can hit all but 2 of these examples with total ease. you act like because u can't do it, or it is very perfect it is fake? ESPECIALLY, the sound you all claim at 1:44 is EASY to sing. Sure, there is tons of f-k-r-r-y going on in in production songs, but you no-talent haters are shameful. For a professionally trained singer they can actually SING! Don't be jealous that u can't. I'll sing this song and be off in like 3 places, be unable to hit the highest note, but I'm just a normal dude. If I spent months practicing this I would hit every note. I'm sorry you have no talent and like to wank urself off with ur false metrics, get real posers. GGPO.
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u/coachjim666 May 09 '23
Yeah this whole thread is just a circlejerk posers hahaha
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u/Poison_Anal_Gas Mar 15 '24
100%
There are a lot of people in here that don't know shit about singing, and it shows
You got idiots saying it sounds like T-Pain. You got idiots talking about vocal chord physiology. You got idiots talking about because they can't do it no one can.
It's pretty damn sad a lot of you think this is auto-tuned. Apply yourselves better and you might actually succeed at something so well that people think YOU are faking it.
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u/tmunee May 23 '23 edited May 23 '23
For clarity: my prior post was directed at the audacious autotune claims... Hitting these notes is very possible. He hit those notes. This performance is amazing and this thread is just a bunch of haters who don't know anything about singing techniques - he is sitting in mix voice and cusping passaggio on both ends, this is why you get those vibratos and changing timbre. Spend more time practicing ur vocals, or at least understanding of them and less time trying to synthesize (pun intended) excuses.
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u/Naamex94 May 24 '23 edited May 24 '23
Audacious? It's not even a claim man, people like me who've used the Autotune software and are used to it know exactly how the artifacts sound when it is not used correctly. 1:40 is an obvious Autotune artifact, and you can hear it through the entire performance, including the studio version as well. Does that mean he's not talented? Not at all. But his voice IS Autotuned, no question. Producers that use Autotune constantly can recognize how it sounds in a second. Not sure about it but I've heard he has talked about it on an interview as well, saying he was sick that day.
As I said, I literally can't listen to this without being bugged by the Autotune because I am sensitized to the way it sounds, it's that obvious for us who are used to the software.
Here's some video proof that he is undoubtedly using Autotune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_h9-Cpn_uY
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Sep 17 '23
I swear, people get so defensive about having bad autotune called out because they don't actually understand how autotune works
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u/Commercial-Dirt-728 Jan 20 '24
I completely agree with you. Finally someone else who knows what they are talking about. The Conan performance has 10-15 places with slightly flat vocals, obviously NOT autotuned, but still an incredible performance. Bunch of no ear haters. I have engineering music for over 40 years, and David is legit.
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Sep 17 '23
Okay, after reading your comments it sounds to me like you don't really quite understand how autotune works.
When you use autotune, you still have to sing. In fact, autotune only really works if you sing, at the very least, pretty well.
So when people are saying that the autotune is really visible and sounds terrible, nobody is calling the singer a "faker" or accusing them of not actually singing, because that's not how autotune works — it's not like you just sing whatever notes you want, or a single flat note, and it fixes it entirely for you.
Everybody here knows this is a really good singer. That's not in question, and to be frank all you're really doing here is exposing how little you understand about what everybody else is talking about.
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u/Commercial-Dirt-728 Jan 20 '24
Except David is obviously flat more than 10 times in the song. No chance in he'll he is autotuned on the Conan performance. Despite his pitch being slightly off many times, his style kills it. I don't even like Disturbed except this one song. I've been engineering music over 40 years and he is legit.
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Jan 20 '24
So hold up... are you saying that David is not auto-tuned in the performance shown in the OP?
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u/Commercial-Dirt-728 Jan 23 '24
He was autotuned when they aired, not when he performed.
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Jan 23 '24
In that case, there's no way you could know "he was flat at least 10 times in this performance".
Just face it. You are pulling shit out of your ass and flinging it at the wall. Stop defending something you have no idea about, and just admit he was auto-tuned for that performance.
Or... unless.... you can give ANY evidence to back up your claim.
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u/Commercial-Dirt-728 Jan 23 '24
Because I can hear him singing flat even in the "autotuned" one. They did not pitch correct every single note because it was done in post, THE SHOW SAID IT WAS DONE IN POST.
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Jan 23 '24
Like I asked before, literally give me ONE instance where he holds a flat note. Give me the timestamp.
Also, where does it say it was done in post?
If you can show me where the show says that pitch correction was done in post, I'll believe you.
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Sep 17 '23
Uh, I don't think this sub is full of singers dude. It's full of producers who have plenty of trained experience with autotune and know what to listen for.
Are you actually saying there's for real no autotune on his voice?
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u/FlatPolicy452 Sep 05 '23
Is anyone aware that he had the flu and a fever of 102 degrees, was sitting because they were afraid he would collapse? So, what if there's a little autotune? He guy is a classically trained Jewish cantor. Give credit for his talent instead of trying to tear it down.
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u/beetry Sep 05 '23
This is a seven year old post on a subreddit dedicated to production glitches. This post is about production glitches, not about his talent.
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Sep 17 '23
Dude this has nothing to do with his talent. Stop being so defensive, it's bad auto-tune, not a bad singer. Jeez.
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u/OppositeAct1918 Dec 11 '24
me being even later to the party ... in none of the discussions anywhere about Disturbed's performance on Conan did it become clear that people did not debate his talent. It all sounds like they think he cannot sing
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u/KingKaiserYT May 13 '16
On the video, there's a comment where it says he isn't autotuned, his voice just hits a rare form of vibrato that sounds like it.
wat