perfidy

The doughty and redoubtable Ken Layne weighs in on the Great Modulation Flapdoodle of 2003,writing:

Anyway, on the modulation thing I have a few complaints about the charges. . . . [T]he real sin can be heard in whatever drippy synth-laden love ballad currently playing at the mall. It's when the producers kick the last chorus or two up a key so the gal can get busy with her own throat. Worse, you can just do this with Pro Tools and not actually have to commit the modulation in reality.

Pro Tools: We Make Shitty Music Sound Great!

Does anybody else miss the pre-Pro Tools harmonizers? You know, the ones where you sing a line and then key in the harmony you want? More than a third up and you sound like a Chipmunk, more than a third below and you're Darth Vader.

I record in a noisy room in my home with one cheap microphone into a Tascam 4-track. My percussion choices are tambourine, The Rhythm Egg, cardboard box, or skillet. My only amp is a bass amp. I choose to see these so-called limitations as assets-- since I can't just walk over to the kit and lay down a fatback beat, I have to make fatback out of an oatmeal carton, a shipping box, a saute pan, and all the implied 32nd note rhythms my fingers can manage on the bass. Fun!