Daniel Evans's Blog
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New acoustic live tracks at home...
t last I have finally got around to making some Live acoustic recordings at home to share with you amazing people out there. These are very simple acoustic versions, some with some effects, some with none whatsoever (raw feed). All about the song and the emotion. I hope to be doing a lot more over the next few months (work and family permitting! lol) and would love to hear any requests of songs that could be "acoustified" The more unusual the better. Recently took a rock track by David Cook and "acoustified" it, sounds beautiful I think, let me know what you think too! Please check out the playlist and rate, subscribe and leave nice comments! x -
New original tracks and home acoustic sessions (covers)
New Original Tracks…
First, as always, thank YOU for your amazing support…I’m happy to say I’ve been working on some brand new material that I am setting free exclusively on my youtube channel athttp://www.youtube.com/danielevansofficial.These tracks are rough home demo’s of some song writing projects and will not be for me to record but hopefully someone out there will take them on.You will also find some acoustic arrangements of some beautiful tracks that you may or may not have heard before. I may re-do these at some point for an online only EP but for now you can listen to the demo’s for free!Please comment, let me know what you think… if you are interested in using these songs, email me on my contact page.Keep watching for more tracks I’ll be adding soon…Thanks again,Daniel x -
Autotune in the music industry...good or bad??
First, lets make it clear, there is a place for computer tuning and enhancements in music today, its part and parcel of computer made music. And 90% of music now is produced on computers. Unfortunately there has been an explosion of mainly R&B and dance artists using this effect way too much. This wouldn't be so bad if the said artists then sing live without a problem, but too often its used with artists that just don't cut it vocally, so this begs the question, how did they get into the business in the first place if they cant sing? Is singing ability no longer important? Do you really care as long as it sounds good and they look good? If they can't sing live are you bothered? A lot of the younger generation it seems are not. What does that mean for the future of real music?Unfortunately its more about a certain image and a certain sound rather than a persons vocals. And I think that its sad in todays industry that these autotuned artists are selling so well when real live performers are struggling to break through. The simple fact is computer made digital tunes are much cheaper to make than using real musicians and what better than to have an artist who can turn up, do 1 quick take then tune it on a computer rather than take (expensive studio) days perfecting a real vocal performance with all its nuances, breaths and emotions.Elector pop producers will become more prevalent, people will learn music programs like logic and cubase and not bother with guitars or pianos. And world class producers like like David Foster will be regarded as old fashioned. OK this is an extreme view and a worst case scenario, but its a possibility if people don't stand up for real music.One of the UK's biggest boy bands, who I am big fan of, use this tuning to extreme effect, yet I know from spending time with these lads that they can sing, so why do they use it? Is it the labels choice? A management decision? Its also a sound that is hard to replicate live... why not do these same songs purely acoustic, would people like it less? Or is it a vocal style that is now a necessity in that genre? Would people not buy it if it wasn't there? Or is it time and cost issues, is it done so they can spend minimal time in studio? These types of performers are the biggest influence on young listeners at the moment, if they made a stand and made a point of keeping it "real" maybe youngsters would follow their lead?It needs to be stopped before it takes over or at least lessened or be used in a way that is not blatantly obvious. Some artists (the ones that cant cut it live) will complain, but if you are taking hard earned cash from the general public for being a singer, should't you be able to actually sing??If this continues, real musicians are going to slowly vanish, why spend years learning an instrument when a computer can replicate it reasonably well enough. And this replication will improve as technology improves.Thank god for artists like Michael Buble. This one artist alone keeps a minimum of 14 real musicians in work when he tours. If artists like this stop selling, that could be the start of the end. Here is the "old man" in me talking, but years ago my generation were bought up with a different view to music, artists would sing live on all tv shows, we could see the element of a song bought together and gel in front of our eyes and in our ears we could judge and buy records from artists we respected, now its bubble gum disposable, easy to make, easy to sell with the right face and big profits for the labels.Even 80's disco, despite creating a boom in synth/electro sounds, kept the vocals real. (Vocoders are a different kettle of fish)I'm not against the technology, I for one know there is no-way I could have made my album without it. But it is possible for it to be done (with a good producer) transparently. There is a particular track on my album that I made a vocal error on, and due to time and the fact that I could not afford to re-book a studio and record the part again, we had to tune it. Shock, horror! But i'm happy to admit it, even Buble gets tweaked! Buts it done in a way that respects the song and the singer...its not an excuse to sing badly and try and deceive the listener.The biggest problem we had when recording my album was with the song Maria. It has a beautiful saxophone solo by the legendary Snake Davis. It was a one time deal, we was very lucky to get him.When we recorded it, we only had a rough Piano track, but when we put all the elements together we discovered to our horror the saxophone was very slightly out of tune, but enough that it was unusable in the track. It was a disaster for us. His performance was a one off. So the producer came up with the idea that maybe if we give it the smallest touch of tuning it might work... and it worked perfectly.It was enough to correct the pitch without losing one ounce of the gorgeous performance he put in that day. We saved the track and no-one would have ever known. Actually even Snake didn't know! He will now! lolSo, it does have a place in the studio and I'm so glad we had that option, but it should only ever be an option.I have been a big campaigner against the blatant use of autotune for a while now but what I witnessed recently as bought it back up and there has been a lot of debate in the national newspapers.To my disbelief, the XFactor tv show, a show I was proud to be a part of has been using autotune post production (and badly) on singers at what is supposed to be a "Live" audition. To do this on what we are led to believe are live performances is crossing the line. Is this autotune epidemic going to spread to the live stage too?A certain record producer has defended it saying its necessary to tweak even the best artists, but he knows as well as I do it can be done transparently in a way that only the trained ear can hear. Does this producer happen to work for Mr.Cowell's label?This was not transparent, it was blatant. But why? To make the show better they say?The big stage live first auditions is the problem.Ask any major artist that has played in an Arena, the sound on that big stage bounces around like a ball, you can sing off a little, it gets lost in the auditorium. Meatloaf has talked about this a few years ago. He did an interview where he made a point of saying he hated singing in the studio. There is no hiding from even a slightly missed note. His point was, on stage, in the atmosphere of a big arena, the sound gets bounced around, you can sing off occasionally and most of the time it gets lost in the mix. Singing dry, its unforgiving.This is the case and also the problem with first auditions on the big stage. The judges hear the performance with the reverb, the crowd, the full backing track, the sound all around them. When the producers have come to edit it and heard the clean feed without the ambience of the hall/arena, it would have been painfully obvious singers were off more than the judges realised.The only way to hear clearly was the old way, in a room, dry acoustic with no backing tracks. Its much harder for the contestants, but its the only way you can really judge a person's vocal. Last year Danyl gave an unbelievable first audition, people may say going back to the old format would lose amazing performances like that. My belief is his first audition would have still been amazing, they still would have had 10 million viewers...but he could have saved that for the live shows. But he never really topped that first audition with subsequent performances. If its to be a singing competition, it needs to build up to the big stage, then you can hear them clearly at the start. Watch them grow and learn and then shine on that big stage.Why not just call it BGT 2 otherwise?Tuning "live" auditions is a step too far.I'm hoping they will back track on this, and remove it from the future live auditions, if not, the show that gave me the most amazing experience and who I have always defended from critics will have no defense and also 1 less fan,me.Real Music with Heart Soul and Passion...UPDATE 27TH AUGUST:Xfactor producers have promised this technology will never be used again in future shows. Apparently Simon Cowell demanded it be removed. Well done Simon... -
A thank you, and a special afternoon in France...
Hi Guys!
Been a while since my last post so let me first say again thanks for the amazing support you've given me. I'm sorry for my UK friends and fans who have been frustrated by my lack of gigs in the old home country.
I truly believe the UK fans are some of the best in Europe, but we have not managed to secure anything of high enough quality to give you the kind of show you deserve. But we are working on it. Luckily I'm keeping busy over here in Spain but as soon as something is announced for the UK you will see it here first! New dates are being added all the time though so please check out my tourdates page...Most of my dates are in Spain but we have a French venue booked for a special afternoon that I am very excited about with some exclusive tracks never before performed. Would be great to see some of you guys there...nearest airport Perpignan, please email for info of hotels etc.
Tickets available here:
[caption id="attachment_2090" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Daniel Evans @ Cote Jardin, St.Cyprien, France"]
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love it love u but you already know that x