Aloha !
I know, this'll be a long read which hopefully gives some insight to both the trained but especially the untrained ear as to how they make Jon sound better than what he's actually capable of.
The first time I looked into pitching vocals was probably somewhere in 2008. Thierry told me that in order to make James Hetfield of Metallica sound better, they tuned down the instrumentals by half a key, made him sing his vocal lines, and then raised everything back up half a step just so it'd sound as if everything was played in standard tuning. When they went out on the road, they tuned down the instruments again and yet there was no way he was able to sing the songs like he'd sang them in the studio, which was what made people wonder about it in the first place, and eventually I think it was Rick Rubin, their producer, who confirmed theories fans had made up.
I suggested to Thierry that I bet Jon had done the same with his vocal takes and went on to check a few songs which confirmed by suspicions. In hindsight I should’ve realized this earlier. Back in 2005 I’d made a playlist of live cuts I enjoyed playing along to on guitar, and I had used the Sheperds Bush take of Bounce and raised the key by half a step just so I wouldn’t have to change the tuning of my guitar. When raising the pitch I found out Jon sounded quite close to what he sounded like on the studio version of Bounce, which sort of confirmed that his studio vocals were raised by half a step so he’d sound as sharp and clear as he does.
1. Bounce
I've been tinkering a bit with this in Adobe Audition (audio editing software etc.) and started noticing quite a few more things when tuning down the studio version of Bounce. Ever since the release of Bounce they seriously started adding various effects over Jon's vocals, effects that are are mixed for the standard tuning. Change the tuning and the balance between instruments changes a lot though, hence some effects "disappearing" a bit.
In regards to Bounce, the slight rasp in Jon’s voice during the word “Bounce” is gone for the most part, and every line of the chorus is a different take. It’s impossible to sing the song the way Jon does without doing it in multiple takes. He’s belting out one line, and then the next line is sung with the same power without catching his breath. I'm not talking about actually hearing him breathe, I'm talking about there being no time to breathe as every word is attached to the next one.
Another possibility is that he sang the words “Bounce, Bounce” in one take, and the lines in between in another. Further on, he sounds more nasal, and a lot more like what he sounded like during the early part of the North American Tour in 2003. Later on during the tour he wasn’t even able to sing the song decently when tuned half a step down as he’d lost most of his voice by then due to always being out of breath and struggling with hayfever a lot on top of his smoking habit really catching up with him.
Now listen for yourself to see what I mean. Here's a chorus of Bounce tuned down half a step:
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/boun..._tuneddown.mp3
2. Have A Nice Day
A few years later when Have A Nice Day was premiered at the American Music Awards, even before the studio version was released, it was telling how out of breath Jon was even during the small segment. When really giving the vocals a proper listen, the entire chorus is a mix of various takes and the backing vocals are mixed very well just so Jon’s nasal voice is drowned out by the multiple layered lead vocal.
To listen for yourself, here's the chorus of Have A Nice Day tuned down half a step.
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/hand..._tuneddown.mp3
Now listen again and see how they put this together;
- There’s a cut after “night” He’s not breathing after night, but goes into the next “Iiii” right away.
- There’s a cut after “liiiife” He’s not breathing after liiife, the word is barely finished yet he starts the next line already.
- There’s a cut after “dice” He’s not breathing after dice yet goes in full force during “standing on the edge”.
During the first line of the chorus Jon sounds very close to what he sounded like back in late 2005 though. There's still that bit of clearity in his voice going on, and when comparing it to the performance at the American Music Awards in 2004 the tone of the vocals is quite similar. Yes, he's constantly out of breath during the live performance, but I've got little doubt that would he actually concentrate on the vocal line only as opposed to the entire performance, he might just pull it off after warming up his pipes a bit more.
But just for comparisons sake, here's the chorus of Have A Nice Day of the AMA.
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/hand...a_original.mp3
Now let's have a listen as to what Jon's vocals sound like when pitching the live performance by half a step.
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/hand...ma_pitched.mp3
No surprise really, but he sounds a bit weird. This is because, unlike the doctored studio vocals, there's no effects on his vocals here. What does show up though is the same clearity in his vocals as the doctored studio vocals, which kind of confirms the theory of how they doctored with what was originally there; it's working both ways.
3. Welcome To Wherever You Are
I found it hard to believe how Jon would only have done one song of the HAND record this way, so I did another one. When hearing Jon sing Welcome To Wherever You Are he just sounds too clear in the chorus, so why not check what happens when the song is tuned down half a step?
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/wtwy..._tuneddown.mp3
It’s fairly obvious how the tuned down version is the original take and the thing that gives it away the most is during the end where he’s trying to hold the note and it gets a bit shaky, and just sounds a lot more natural and dare I say it, even better?
Now you can also hide a lot with music played over your vocal chords. With the release of 5.1 mixed editions of records you can extract the vocal cut from the final mix and really hear how a singer sang a song which in regards to certain vocalists is really cool, but for others…not so much. In Welcome To Wherever You Are there’s a part where Jon goes “exACTly where you wanna be”, which has never been sung that way in the studio. The “e” from exactly is from one take, and then they lift “xact” from a different take to a higher register just so it sounds as if he’s singing it in a different key, but he isn’t.
Check here for a sample as to what I mean. This is the vocal mix tuned down but with the effect of “exactly” still in there. The cut is really obvious.
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/wtwy..._tuneddown.mp3
4. I Am
I Am is easily the most demanding song of the album, and it’s quite safe to say how this one is a mess of many takes. The “I aaaam” parts are pasted from many takes, and even though I haven’t heard the a capella version in a long time now it wouldn’t surprise me if they used the same take at various places in the chorus. When changing the pitch of I Am it becomes very apparant as to how much Jon is straining his vocal chords and it becomes a bit painful to listen to.
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/iam_..._tuneddown.mp3
5. Any Other Day
Did it stop after the HAND record? No, not really, but most of the vocals on Lost Highway do sound a lot more natural. Jon doesn't need to stretch his vocals as much either, he's singing in a rather safe register. That's not to say they didn't alter them, I'm quite sure Lost Highway was altered quite a bit, but a song of which it's more obvious is Any Other Day. Its vocals sound just a little too perfect and too high, especially considering how Jon hadn't been able to deliver anything on the HAND tour that got even remotely close to this studio take. Now let's have a listen to Any Other Day tuned down half a step;
http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/aod_..._tuneddown.mp3
Jon sounds very close to what he sounded like on the HAND tour and the tone of his vocals is quite similar to the tone of his tuned down vocals of the samples I posted from Have A Nice Day. The problem with mixing your vocals half a step up is that whenever you'll be singing the song live, you're pretty much trying to sing the song the same way you sang it in the studio, before it got altered. Given how Jon's vocals detoriate every year by pretty much half a semi tone it means that what he records now in it's original key he won't be able to reproduce live anymore 2 years down the line even when stuff gets tuned down half a step, hence him never being able to pull off a decent vocal for Any Other Day a year after the album had been released.
I do think the vocals for The Circle were recorded the way they sound on the record, as in he's sang those in the key they appear in on the record. It's a big reason for me as to why I just can't listen to the record; I honestly can't stand Jon's vocals on it. However, given the very strong decline in Jon's vocal strength over the past 10 years, it's going to be interesting to see how they're going to make Jon sound decent in about 10 years time. Although right now only a trained ear will pick up on how artificial he sounds, at a certain moment no effect will be able to save him anymore, and that's a real shame considering what a powerhouse he used to be.
Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan
01-21-2013, 04:34 PM
5 examples of (very) doctored studio vocals
