# Difference between singing live, a recording, or just plain voice.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-singing-live-a-recording-or-just-plain-voice/466633>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 6, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-singing-live-a-recording-or-just-plain-voice/466633 "2008-10-06T04:26:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-singing-live-a-recording-or-just-plain-voice/466633/21 "2008-10-07T18:47:17Z")

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The fact that everything colors the sound is the reason for, well, the entire music gear industry.

As for specific artists, the vast majority of John Lennon’s vocal performances were treated with ADT, or “automatic double-tracking,” a subtle effect that’s actually a major part of the “sonic identity” of his vocals.

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**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-singing-live-a-recording-or-just-plain-voice/466633/22 "2008-10-08T01:31:01Z")

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> [@gaffa](#):
>
> I’m about as big a Kate Bush fan as exists…and I’ve never heard of this. As she only toured the once, back in 1979, her opportunities for doing any manipulation of her voice on stage were severely limited. I can only assume you’ve conflated a video about Kate with someone else. She does do a lot of manipulation of her voice in the studio - her basic vocal sound is a Neumann U47 microphone processed through an SSL compressor, and spends a lot of time doubling and tripling her vocals. She eased up a lot on the compression on her latest album “Aerial”. But she does not have to be pitch-tweezed, and is perfectly capable of singing live with no processing, as I was able to witness at the [1990 Kate Bush Club Convention](http://gaffa.org/dreaming/chat_90.html).

Well, I confess myself baffled - if it wasn’t Kate Bush, I’ve no idea who it was. I couldn’t have just dreamed that one up, though - I’m not that imaginative. I yield to superior fandom and my inability to cite anything more than a vague reference to a 13 year old episode or two of The New Music.

And I certainly didn’t mean to imply any disrespect to Kate Bush, whom I think is one of the most original and talented performers of the last 30 years. The point I was trying to make was that whoever it was used this technology in a highly original manner, not that she needed pitch correction.

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