I hate autotune so much, it's very limiting for me to find music. At the moment chilling to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHtJBj9F-sM

I think it is ok to post even if we aren’t listening, but watching or reading! We are watching BBC’s programme on *Political Thinking* hosted by Nick Robinson, who is interviewing the newly appointed Social Mobility Chairperson Katharine Birbalsingh CBE.

Listening to Radio 2 at the moment

Not right this very second, but I'm listening to a lot of TOOL and Pusifer recently. My stereo is currently in storage, so SONOS or phone mainly unless I'm in the car.

@"DavecUK"#p1436 Will you listen to anything that isn't auto-tuned, or do you have particular genres?

Apple music’s today’s hits and recent releases are my typical go to play lists. The last recent release album I listened was 30 by Adele. Elvis’s and Beatles are my all time favourites.

> @"PortafilterProcrastinator"#p1444 Will you listen to anything that isn’t auto-tuned, or do you have particular genres? I like all music, the problem is after autotune became increasingly prevalent after the mid 90s, I found myself listening to les and less…I couldn't initially work out why, then I discovered autotune and then Melodyne, There has been pitch correction for a very long time, right back to the tape and splice days with multiple takes…this isn 't a problem. Autotune is a massive problem as is hand dragged pure digital pitch correction. It changes the voice, looses all human character, and they all sound like singing Kazoos. If it isn't autotuned…I'll listen to it, I'm pragmatic. Just the same as when I go to buy a pair of Trainers, or shoes…I don't ask to look at various styles…I ask the shop assistant, what trainers have you got in size 12…they give me a puzzled look as if im an idiot, but come back with 2 or 3 pairs of trainers, which are the only 3 styles in size 12. What's getting really irritating is the production companies, in their "wisdom", have gone back and autotuned Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Simon and garfunkle etc.. to make it "better". I'm quite passionate about the companies stopping using it….as they are robbing generations of appreciating how voices can, and should sound. If you're interested, there is a great YouTube channel here, Fil does some great videos covering music, playing, performance and more recently autotune/pitch correction. https://www.youtube.com/c/wingsofpegasus

If I’m on my own the. It’s Planet Rock or my vast collection of Classic Rock through my iphone and my Bose Revolve plus. My stereo is in storage too as I have a two year old grand daughter who visits very regularly

The Hi-Fi stand is full of her toys and books atm

I do like classic Rock - deep Purple was a favourite of mine when I was young. Steve Tyler used to make me laugh as well. > @"Nightrider_1uk"#p1450 My stereo is in storage too as I have a two year old grand daughter who visits very regularly I understand 😁 ![Dent in the dust cap | HiFiVision.com](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fP2u0FCqNy0/maxresdefault.jpg) I had to protect mine from the cat with lift off shells….the more expensive ones in the front room, are not protected, he is just denied access….how he loves trying to get into the front room and is in 7th heaven when he does. [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/P2VakbB.jpeg]

This week I've mainly been listening to Leonard Cohen - Song's of Love and Hate, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanangan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas and Amy Winehouse At The BBC - all recent purchases (albeit third copy of the Cohen album!), interspersed with BBC 6 Music. I'm old fashioned, still listen almost entirely on vinyl and still buying it. I'm really interested in music and always have been, dabbled in recording and production for years, not so much now but still interested in it. Still play guitar, electric and acoustic. The discussion on the sound of a lot of modern popular recordings is interesting - it's not to my taste either. It's fashion though - that sound is what is popular now. Production is constantly changing as engineers and musicians use the latest developments available to them - been that way since recording started. That Cher song Believe, was the first big song to use Auto-Tune - and use it in a way that it was not designed to be used. It was initially intended to be a subtle correction tool but she cranked it to 11 for that robot voice sound and started a fashion. My other big gripe with modern music is that it generally lacks dynamics, what people sometimes refer to as the loudness wars. I think this is due to how people consume music now. When I was a teenager, getting your first "separates system" was a right of passage. Hi-Fi was a thing. And you listened to physical albums. Now people listen on streaming services through cheap earbuds or tinny bluetooth speakers. Artists (and record companies) no longer make money on sales, them make them on streamed "listens" - and without an immediate punch and catchy gimmick it's very easy for the listener to simply skip to the next song. So everything gets "louder" to attract attention. Recording even has a new measurement to cater for this need - the LUT, which is basically a measure of loudness. You should add that to your hate list alongside overt use of Auto-Tune. I'm less upset about Melodyne though as it is generally used as a subtle production tool rather than an effect; when used well it should be transparent and can make a good recording of a great voice even better. I do enjoy the imperfections in older recordings though.

What I'm listening to/Watching at the moment

Rob666

Pompeyexile Couldn’t agree more with all of that! Love the winter Olympics and the curling in particular.

DavecUK

Pompeyexile I stopped watching anything Disney after Bedknobs and Broomsticks😁

well apparently

There are some elements of this film which are quite dated, and some sequences and dialogue are either explicitly racist or sexist (see comments above) or come very close to it. For example, there is a long dance sequence in the Portobello Road market scene showing different cultural groups dancing (for example Sikh soldiers in turbans with long swords, Caribbean Women dancing to the beat of exotic drum rhythms etc). which is colourful and fun but does exotify and sensualise minority groups in a way that would not be acceptable in film making today.
Eglantine Price, the central character, is a great positive role model. She is a strong-minded, independent unmarried woman who is intent on building her skills as a powerful witch. However, the story arc ‘reforms’ her to fit a more traditional and acceptable female mould – she decides to give up magic because she thinks she was never too good at it anyhow (even though she manages to lead an army into battle against a Nazi invasion!) and form a family with Emelius Brown.
A good opportunity to discuss attitudes towards nationalism, patriotism and the realities of war in contrast to how it might be portrayed in a Disney film.

https://raisingchildren.net.au/guides/movie-reviews/bedknobs-and-broomsticks

Pompeyexile

Funny that Dave because that’s exactly what my 6 year old niece said after watching it too😂

LMSC

Coco on Disney+

Mark-drinks-coffee

DavecUK It’s a controversial view, I know…but look at Olympians bodies from the 60s and now….“that’s all I will say about that”.

While I have no desire to open that particular can of worms and I am not naive to think that drug use is not widespread among elite sport (perhaps more than people care or choose to admit), I would argue that advances in physical training methods (including science) as well as the general move to professionalism has more to do with the change in athletic body type and increased performance than performance enhancing drug use.

Gagaryn

I watched loads of TV over the weekend so some recommendations from me -

Pam & Tommy - Disney - much better than you might think

Severance - Apple - tale of people working for a massive corporation who have their brains manipulated so their work life and personal lives are totally independent - two episodes in - already brilliant.

Kimi - Sky Movies - A take on Rear Window crossed with Siri or Alexa - sort of! Very modern, some nice touches in the use of audio - enjoyable.

On the sport thing I agree with Mark above - nutrition and training is on a different level these days. Elite sports people are obsessive in a way that they weren’t in the 60s or 70s. You used to have professional footballers turning up for games hungover and smoking fags at half time! At the same time drugs have always been used in sport and testing for them is pretty recent. I remember reading about cyclists in the Tour De France taking combinations of Ether, Brandy and Strychnine before the war.

Meldrew

Watching Reacher at the moment. Must admit it’s better than I first thought.

DavecUK

Meldrew Watching Reacher at the moment. Must admit it’s better than I first thought.

It’s really good after the first episode I was drawn in, after episode 2 I was hooked.

CafeNoir

Meldrew Yes, such a blessed relief after the brain-numbing turn by Mr Cruise, an actually credible Jack Reacher character

Meldrew

DavecUK We felt the same. The first episode did not draw us in we then watched episode 2 and we were sold.

gotters

Reacher is great, even if it just an extended A Team episode for grown ups with a lot more visceral violence thrown in.

Clean up small town baddies, bed local hottie, move on. I’ve not read the books but apparently there are 20+ of them he knocks out at 1 a year that follow pretty much the same template.

CafeNoir

gotters Having read a fair few of them, I’d class them as ripping yarns, lol….Not my main literary diet but very good light relief

Pompeyexile

One of my all time favourite shows the Americans do so well in the Reacher vein is Banshee. In fact, in my humble opinion I don’t think it has been bettered. Another up there was Sons of Anarchy. A few years ago I was visiting a friend in Sweden and he was a fan and had the box set, I had never seen it. We all fell ill with some lurgy and all we could do for about 4 days was sit and watch DVD’s and Sons was what we watched. It was worth being ill for.

CafeNoir

Pompeyexile Banshee was brilliant, loved it. Sons of Anarchy was very good, almost Shakespearean in its story arc…thinking Hamlet mostly

DavecUK

There are some YouTube channels I really like, and many YouTubers are very gifted indeed. If you are interested in Air crash incidents…this guy is really good.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MentourPilotaviation

The other guy that’s great is..747 Gear

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCovVc-qqwYp8oqwO3Sdzx7w

DavecUK

Got stuck into a weird one on Netflix. It’s a Turkish drama called “The protector”.

I watched it and yes the acting is not that polished, the lines can be a bit cheesy and the main protagonist is a walking erection from the 70s films. However, the watching is compelling…I don’t know why. The thing is actually filmed in Istanbul (I preferred the name Constantinople), so the location is authentic, the basic story isn’t too bad, and you get to like the characters. What helped a lot was the inclusion of Mehmet Kurtuluş, an actor I quite like and have seen him in a few things. Plays the absolutely hard bastard evil character immensely well.

I’m hooked and I don’t know why, it ran for 4 seasons, I think there may even be a 5th?

Definitely worth a watch for something a bit different.

Pompeyexile

One thing Netflix does very well are these crime documentaries…Just watched Making a killer and it is unbelievable. Also saw the one on Challenger that exploded 90 seconds after taking off…certain members of NASA certainly have blood on their hands.

DavecUK

Pompeyexile Also saw the one on Challenger that exploded 90 seconds after taking off

What is that one called?

If you like the NASA space stuff, “Hidden Figures” is a good film.

SouthMark45

DavecUK hidden figures is good and based on a true story

Pompeyexile

DavecUK What is that one called?

Challenger the final flight.

SouthMark45

The Last Kingdom Series 5 landed on Netflix yesterday….. if you haven’t seen this show I would highly recommend…. Fantastic!

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