The Random Alter Bridge Thread

[Dolo]

Good grief. Who chose to put such heavy autotune on Myles for this?

Any specific timestamps? Didn't notice anything peculiar.

[Crumbso]

Good grief. Who chose to put such heavy autotune on Myles for this?

Any specific timestamps? Didn't notice anything peculiar.

1:22 until the bridge really. 1:56 is particularly bad.

It's all over Ghosts as well:


I really don't think Myles needs autotune. It certainly doesn't make him sound better. I'll have to admit that I never bought this DVD, so this is the first time I really watched through them. I kind of fell out of love with AB's live performance around this time, it was the era of tired Myles and ever-increasing tempos.

[maximzub]

Good grief. Who chose to put such heavy autotune on Myles for this?

This brings a question I've been wanting to ask for a long time.

Which albums does Myles use autotune on?

Here are my guesses.

One Day Remains - no. There are a lot of pitch perfect notes on here, but it's one slightly off-pitch line in Broken Wings that makes it clear that there's no autotune.
Blackbird - yes. It's especially evident on Watch Over You.
Live From Amsterdam - yes. I could tell as soon as I heard Before Tomorrow Comes from it.
AB III - no. I'd say this is the same situation as One Day Remains.
Live From Wembley - well, obviously, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about it now.
Fortress - yes. A lot of the vocal runs have that hard edge that autotune does to one's voice.
The Last Hero - no.
Live At The O2 Arena - no.
Live At The Royal Albert Hall - yes.
Walk The Sky - no.
Walk The Sky 2.0 - no.
Pawns & Kings - no. Myles's vibrato is at peak levels here. It's especially noticeable in Fable Of The Silent Son, which I just relistened to yesterday. I'm sorry, guys. I want to like it, but I can't. I've grown to appreciate it, but it's still one of my least favorite Alter Bridge songs.

On the other side, Mark is autotuned on pretty much everything he's done, except Live At The O2 Arena. I can tell because Waters Rising on there is pretty rough.

[Crumbso]

I'm going to say that I think there are minimal tweaks of autotune on all albums post-ODR (which sounds 100% natural to me). I don't think it is used most of the time but there are usually one or two lines on each album that sound a little unnatural.

I know it's pretty much standard practice in the industry these days. I just don't think Myles needs it and I like a few slightly spicy notes on rock/metal albums. It keeps things sounding expressive and lively.

[Dan Dando]

If I had OCD, AB's YouTube channel uploading the full Wembley show with each song/video having the exact same thumbnail, that would really get on my nerves

[maximzub]

I know it's pretty much standard practice in the industry these days. I just don't think Myles needs it and I like a few slightly spicy notes on rock/metal albums. It keeps things sounding expressive and lively.

Well said. When I was mixing all the audio recordings from my graduation party, I realized that some voices sound better with autotune and some sound better without. I'd say Myles is an example of a voice that doesn't need it, while, say, Michael Poulsen is an example of a voice that does. Some singers have experimented with and without it, and it allows the fans to decide which they think sounds better. Lzzy Hale used autotune on the first two Halestorm albums but not on the second two. Personally, I think she sounds better with it, and I'm glad that she brought it back for the latest album.

I'm gonna add that if you use autotune to try to achieve a sound that is "flawless but natural", you have to have great vocal pitch control without it first. I experienced this firsthand when I recorded a handful of covers back in 2021. Unlike what I do with my original songs demos nowadays, I recorded the covers playing each instrument in one take, with minimal overdubs to correct mistakes. My pitch control back then was not as good as it is now, so even though I used autotune on all the songs, there were plenty of sour notes to be found because I missed the correct note by more than a quarter step.

Of course, you can have terrible pitch control but use autotune to its full capabilities and correct every note, but then you're gonna get a choppy sound that does not sound natural at all. AKA the "Cher effect".

If I had OCD, AB's YouTube channel uploading the full Wembley show with each song/video having the exact same thumbnail, that would really get on my nerves

I haven't been on YouTube much recently, so the fact that they uploaded most of the Wembley videos slipped by me. I too was confused when I saw the video of Metalingus with Myles playing the Come To Life guitar.

May I ask, what is the point of uploading videos of a concert DVD that came out 11 years ago and that is already on YouTube in many other forms?

[Mr. Slash]

Heh, funny. I didn't notice this back then when I bought the DVD. But I remember Mark's muddy guitar sound. I hope they will upload the Amsterdam live show as well. Undoubtedly, this was the best live DVD they released.

[Dolo]

I still do not hear any autotune in the Live at Wembley, I guess you're nitpicking a little bit (speaking as a major 'AB hater'). There are far more obvious examples on a lot of modern pop records though.

[Crumbso]

I only mentioned it because it really jumped out at me.

[maximzub]

I could have sworn that I saw a picture of the AB III whiteboard on this website once, but now I can't find it for the life of me.

EDIT: I found it. Whew.

[cheesedip1]

@Dolo

I like shinedown and breaking Benjamin but moreso their older material.

Black stone cherry and FFDP I don’t really care for. Although the former has 2 songs I like.


@ other people’s comments in this thread

Amy Lee has a wonderful singing voice.

And Myles maybe had some “born with” talent when it came to singing but a lot of it was really him putting in a lot of work plus great technique.

[Whitebird]

Mark should try to sing the high parts on the chorus on Sin After Sin, it sounds empty in the lower key

[maximzub]

Quick glance at tonight's setlist, and it's the exact same as the ones in Anaheim and Highland. They aren't even trying to change the setlists anymore. Some songs that they used to rotate in during this tour haven't been played in a long time.

[Crumbso]

Quick glance at tonight's setlist, and it's the exact same as the ones in Anaheim and Highland. They aren't even trying to change the setlists anymore. Some songs that they used to rotate in during this tour haven't been played in a long time.

This is the AB way. They don't tend to change things around much. My goodness, most of the set was Blackbird material for close to a decade.

[maximzub]

Quick glance at tonight's setlist, and it's the exact same as the ones in Anaheim and Highland. They aren't even trying to change the setlists anymore. Some songs that they used to rotate in during this tour haven't been played in a long time.

This is the AB way. They don't tend to change things around much. My goodness, most of the set was Blackbird material for close to a decade.

I thought that The Last Hero tour changed stuff up pretty good from show to show. I don't remember seeing a single setlist that was exactly the same as another other than festivals.

Of course, when it comes to changing the setlists, Alter Bridge is much better than most bands out there that play the exact same setlists night after night. But personally, I would never play the same setlist twice in order to give the fans a unique experience every time, as well as to not get bored myself.

[anguyen92]

AB's Twitter posted this so it's fair game to put it here. So it looks Mark and Slash is going to be doing something for Jersey Jack Pinball and it looks like it's going to be the Love Theme from the Godfather with Mark handling the vocals. Interesting, I never would have thought the first time these two would collaborate with each other would be something like this. I would have put money on an all rock instrumental track.

https://twitter.com/alterbridge/status/ ... 6539774983

[Vaux]

No idea why they are doing this - the pinball machine has been on sale since March, and was promoted by Slash and Jersey Jack back then, as well.

https://www.jerseyjackpinball.com/

[anguyen92]

Charity reasons and publicity is more than good enough for me.

[Vaux]

Not saying it's a bad thing. I just think it's a little silly they are teasing this like some sort of reveal.

[anguyen92]

So Loudwire released a list of 50 bands they looked at three songs per band when it comes to most streamed deep cuts on Spotify and AB was one of the bands they looked at, so they were looking at songs that "were not released as singles, did not chart on rock radio or were not issued as promotional singles to tease new albums." So eliminate Open Your Eyes, Rise Today, Isolation, Addicted to Pain, etc. Metalingus would also not qualify on this list as even though it was not used as a single, it being Edge's theme song, qualifies as promotional material being played on TV on a regular basis.

Here's the list. Oddly enough, Blackbird should have qualified under these perimeters, but Loudwire opted not to include it. I'm surprised on how much plays Island of Fools gets.

1. "In Loving Memory" - 34,234,014
2. "Come to Life" - 12,117,006
3. "Island of Fools" - 8,833,043

Slash, as a "solo" artist, is also included. I'm surprised Dirty Girl has some traction in plays.

1. "Gotten" - 16,800,103
2. "Dirty Girl" - 11,684,962
3. "Starlight" - 10,672,255

https://loudwire.com/most-streamed-deep ... m=referral