Livin' On A Prayer vocals
 

I've just been listening to some vocal only tracks, inspired by that Jon & Richie harmonies thread, and I just thought: do we know for sure that the part after the key-change in LOAP wasn't doctored in the studio? I don't know how far the technology to do such things was in 1986, but I guess it would've definitely been possible by speeding tapes up etc.

It just doesn't sound real to me, if you know what I mean (especially the "whoah-oh livin' on a prayer" stuff (not that Jon couldn't sing the rest, but do we have any proof that he's ever actually been able to sing that part at all)?

I know I've had a CD in my car with the vocals only tracks excerted from the SWW Dual Disc, but that was about 8 years ago. This video definitely sounds more "robotic" to me than I remember it and it may be that it stems from the Rockstar video game where it sounded a bit different.
It sounded layered to me back then, like Jon had sung the high part once and after that it was just copy and paste.
Since I'm not that much of a technician I can't say whether it would've been possible back then or not, but autotune as we know it nowadays was invented in the mid/late 90's.

That's the original sound file I was talking about above:

It sounds strained as hell, but definitely real to me.

[QUOTE=jovifan93;1231427]I've just been listening to some vocal only tracks, inspired by that Jon & Richie harmonies thread, and I just thought: do we know for sure that the part after the key-change in LOAP wasn't doctored in the studio? I don't know how far the technology to do such things was in 1986, but I guess it would've definitely been possible by speeding tapes up etc.

It just doesn't sound real to me, if you know what I mean (especially the "whoah-oh livin' on a prayer" stuff (not that Jon couldn't sing the rest, but do we have any proof that he's ever actually been able to sing that part at all)?

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXNsZScafSk"]Bon Jovi Livin' on a Prayer Vocals Jon sang that part in the key change in Bradford 1986, Dortmund 1986, Stockholm 1986 and I think also in Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK 1986

It sounds looped, but that second link sounds real.

There was no autotune in '86, anyway, so the extent of what could have been done is tons of reverb, multiple takes, multitracking to cover up a thin sounding voice, having backing vocals / keyboards sugercoat it all, and so on.

I was more talking about recording it in a lower key and then changing the pitch. Though the only way I could think of is speeding up the tape, which would also speed up the recording...

I wouldn't doubt Jon's vocal register back in the days. He had an amazing rage back then. Then of course there are studio tricks to use to make it sound smoother than it is, but in terms of him actually hitting those crazy notes I'd say there is no doubt - even though it was crazy high for Jon even back then.

Yup, it sounds more real than the chorus of We Don't Run.

Nonetheless, I still don't see a point in recording something so incredibly difficult when you know you will never be able to replicate it live, which Jon, obviously wasn't even in 1986.

Jon actually reached the key change high notes in Bradford, Stockholm, Dortmund and Apollo Theatre, Manchester all from 1986.