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

Beverast

dfk41 It’s funny, Dream Theater were one of my favourite bands in the early 2000’s but I lost interest in the band after Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence and have not listened to any other of their works since. I still consider Awake, Images And Words and Scenes From A Memory as being masterpieces of the genre and peak Dream Theater.

These days I listen to a lot of different genres but mainly black/ambient/avantgarde metal. Here is a personal favourite of mine from the 90’s:

MediumRoastSteam

Beverast - @dfk41 - Same here. Pretty much lost interest after Train of Thought, the one following Six Degrees. Recently, Feb 2020, just before Covid, I went to Hammersmith and saw 25 Years tour since Images and Words.

Not a big fan of Lines in the Sand or I walk Beside you. But if I have to pick two, it would be Metropolis Pt.1 The miracle and the sleeper (Images and Words) and H-e-l-l’s Kitchen (Falling into Infinity). Ok… Metropolis Pt2: Scenes from a Memory is the third one… presumably that can be classified as one song… 😊 can I say a fourth one too… “A change of seasons” - brilliant stuff -Is that also one song?

Edit: the place which is the opposite of heaven is deemed a naughty word and it won’t allow me to type it, hence why the Manhattan Neighbourhood is spelled hyphenated. Oh, speaking of the d****, “Heaven and H***” is a great album by Black Sabbath.

Correction: the concert I went in feb 2020 was “distance over time”, where the 20 year anniversary of Metropolis Pt.2: Scenes from a Memory was commemorated. I also went to the 25th anniversary tour, but that was in 2017 I think.

dfk41

I find myself listening to fewer albums nowadays, and more play list and individual tracks. I used to listen to albums but like video as opposed to just hearing, unless I was working. After Christmas I am going to treat myself to a half decent pair of ear buds of some sort. I use them all day long with my lap top so they never last very long.

Norvin

I find myself listening to music on Youtube nowdays, hardly ever listen on vinyl, although that could change. I find myself listening to music on Youtube nowdays, hardly ever listen on vinyl, although that could change. As @dfk41 says, it learns your tastes and offers playlists, I get Leonard Cohen, Dylan, Travelling Wilburys, Floyd, Beefheart and more. I’ve spent a lot of time recently listening to the Grateful Dead, there are lots of live performance vids on Youtube and they were a great live band, once some of those tunes get in my head they stay for weeks. Spent so much time listening to them I adopted the Ice Cream Kid cartoon (symbol of their 1972 european tour) as my avatar.

PortafilterProcrastinator

@DavecUK I completely agree on the autotune - it is massively overused. Loudness has become a real issue. You look at wave forms on modern CDs and they are clipping all over the place. Creates problems on my iPod when going from old CDs to new ones. If I had the time I’d go through and reduce the volume on the newer stuff, but that’s a luxury I do not have.

@Nightrider_1uk Mine is being protected from my 4yo and 18mo! Was meant to be until we had an extension, but the last couple of years have put paid to that for longer than expected. Having a turntable again will be immense.

@Gagaryn If you like Mark Lanegan, have you listened to The Gutter Twins? Only one album - Saturnalia - but brilliant. I saw them at the South Bank year after it was released, so good!

Growing up grunge was the big thing for me being the ‘current’ genre at the time. That was on top on all the classic rock/ motown/ blues/ soul/ jazz. I didn’t get into heavier music until late teens/ early twenties.

Leonard Cohen has been mentioned a couple of times - Popular Problems is my favourite album.

DavecUK

PortafilterProcrastinator I completely agree on the autotune - it is massively overused. Loudness has become a real issue. You look at wave forms on modern CDs and they are clipping all over the place. Creates problems on my iPod when going from old CDs to new ones. If I had the time I’d go through and reduce the volume on the newer stuff, but that’s a luxury I do not have.

Ah, don’t even get me started on that, especially dynamic range. Some of those people with the hands on the controls of the sound mixing desks need a good slap, and Radio/TV need a few rules to cover dynamic range.

most movies, the dialogue is very unclear because of the very wide dynamic range used. The explosions make your eardrums bleed and the quieter parts including speech can hardly be heard. You end up turning the volume up and down constantly in some movies. A reduction in dynamic range used would help us all, not only in saving kids hearing, but I would no longer need earplugs in the movie theatre. Movies on TV would be watchable Without fiddling.

I know the adverts want to get noticed, with the Gentlemen we need to talk about Viagra, but not let the entire advert be as loud as the loudest sound your device can produce.

…..dynamic range misuse, another pet peeve of mine.

Oh, also enjoying the Travelling Wilburys and Tom Petty at the moment (Don’t back down, what a great song).

n8spresso

I usually try and stay clear of discussing music as it tends to be a personal subject with everyone having their own tastes, for me that’s usually anything under the very large umbrella of goth. One album I’ve been listening to a lot over the last few months is by Twin Temple https://www.twintemple.com/music (warning — explicit content and self described as Satanic Doo-Wop, so ignore if that’s definitely not your thing).

Gagaryn

Apologies if everyone already knows or have tried this but some tips to help hear dialogue on your TV

try turning on dynamic range compression in sound settings

try turning on night mode (does much the same thing as above)

if using a 5.1 or 7.1 or other x.x sound system, boost the centre channel (or even better -reduce all channels except the centre)

try lowering bass and/or raising treble.

Some of these might help or might not - sound on a lot of stuff on TV is really poor.

DavecUK

TVs really need a smart way of reducing dynamic range, but without clipping. I can do it with Kodi when playing movies, but unfortunately I’m sensitive to the frame rate issue Kodi has. Too much dynamic range reduction and it can clip. TVs use clear voice and similar to do the same thing. really though, it needs something a lot cleverer. I did read about someone who built an electronic circuit to turn down the volume at the lout points and turn it up during the quiet times/dialogue.

This worked really well…I guess because it emulates what humans do, just much faster……no more waking up to adverts.

Beverast

One of my favourite British bands below. Great dynamic range on the vinyl version of this release too.

Steven Wilson’s stereo remixes of a few Jethro Tull albums (Thick As Brick & Minstrel In The Gallery) also sound amazing on vinyl in my opinion with good dynamic range (average of 13 on my setup). Could talk for days about poor/good dynamic range in music, especially metal related music. Probably why I am still stuck in 80’s and 90’s death/black/classic metal…a large sum of albums were really well produced, with clear separation of instruments and no distortion. These days a lot of music to me sounds like a distorted mess.

Norvin

What am I listening to? I’ll tell you what I’m bl***dy well listening to, it’s a Christmas mix cd made by my daughter. It’s been on repeat for the last week and there’s another three or so days to go. Some of the tracks aren’t so bad; Pogues, Slade, even John Lennon (except for the kids wailing in the background, or is it Yoko?) but others are awful, Cliff Richard, Shakin’ Stevens, Chris de Burgh. Arrrgh. There’s no respite, when we go out she puts the disc in the car cd. I’m not usually psychic but I predict that disc is going to have a bad accident sometime in the new year.

DavecUK

Norvin The Chris De Durgh song, is that the one that sounds like a Eurovision entry "The baalls of Christmas? Similar to the Cliff Richard, let me guess “Muscle Toe and Vine”. Or the rather creepy “Mostly weirdness every one” from that gang leader Shakey.

Java_avaJ

Norvin Next year you could sneak in Chet Baker’s Christmas Album, it satisfied my wife’s obsession with such music but the absence of cheesy vocals and cloying strings meant my Christmas spirit didn’t transform into evil thoughts. Chet is as cool as f*** as you’d expect

Norvin

DavecUK

It’s the one about the Spaceman came travelling.

The family call me a grumpy old git, they even gave me the tee shirt once, perhaps they have a point.

DavecUK

Norvin It’s the one about the Spaceman came travelling.

The family call me a grumpy old git, they even gave me the tee shirt once, perhaps they have a point.

Oh my goodness…that was a terrible song, they got the idea from the Walking in the air thing with little Aled…and made something horrible instead. I need a grumpy old git Christmas Jumper

Lake_M

Just put the Sam Fender album ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ on to get a break from the Christmas Music.
This Geordie lad is going to go far! Best new music I’ve heard in a very long time. I’m a child of the 80’s and this just takes me back to that time. One hell of a song writer, power, emotion, he’s got the lot. He’s going to go Supernova soon - already started, you heard it here first.

Pompeyexile

Just been listening to a marvellous blues singer called Kyla Brox. Grew up listening mainly to rock which was influenced by my older brother who listened to Floyd, Purple, Cream etc. My favourite band as a teenager in the 70’s was Be-Bop Deluxe with Bill Nelson writer, lead singer and brilliant axeman. But over the years my taste has grown and I like many different styles and artists. At present my go to is blues. Joe Bonamassa, Larry McCray, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Beth Hart, Walter Trout, Grainne Duffy, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Leslie West ,the list is endless.

But, as it’s Christmas day, there will be the Ratpack, Buble and the like on. In fact, even some of the80’s and 90’s Christmas Classics… Driving home for Christmas by Chris Rea being one of my all time favourites.

LMSC

Have been binge watching Money Heist during the last 2 weeks. We are on S4, Ep 1. Amazing.

Pompeyexile

We thought Money Heist was brilliant…Well over the top, lots of clever nutty unbelievable ideas, but escapeism at its best.

Waiting for the final season of Ozark with anticipation and at the moment enjoying the new season of Dexter.

LMSC

Pompeyexile We have another 3 episodes left on season 5. We keep our mind out while watching box sets like this.

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