Tim Minchin -V- Andrew Lloyd Webber

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 2/7/13 at 9:26pm

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2013/01/31/17086/minchins_anger_over_superstar_auto-tune

THANK YOU, Tim Minchin, for once again people someone who was stepped on and put Webber in his place.

I have bootlegs of Tim in the role and he sounds AWESOME. And then Sir Andrew decided to (badly) autotune him to DEATH on the official recording. To the point where it’s almost unlistenable. To make Minchin sound like a bad pop star.

Webber has proven for the past 15 years that he has no idea what to do with Jesus Christ Superstar.

Now Andrew has pissed off Patti LuPone and Tim Minchin, two of the most talented people in their field. And it’s because Andrews is a narcosis and a sociopath.

But I guess that’s what egotist do, alienate themselves from everyone.

And I would be willing to BET this is why the tour has been “proposed” in March to this Fall. And I would be also bet that Tim will not be back it if comes back this fall.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/7/13 at 9:36pm

Honestly, I don't really hear it. It's not as obvious to me as the Glee songs are. Maybe because it's live so there wasn't as much that they could do to alter it, but I just don't really hear it.

Having said that, even without auto tune his voice is one of the most annoying and grating I've ever heard. He's probably my least favorite Judas, along with the rest of the cast, and anything they can do to make them sound better is a plus. The fact that this got filmed and the Broadway revival cast didn't even get to record a cast album is a total travesty. That cast sang circles around this one. I know not everyone agreed, but I loved it.

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 2/7/13 at 9:42pm

I have over 100 recordings of JCS. It's easily my favorite show if only because I got obsessed with it when I was 15 and it made a huge impression on my at such a young age.
And Tim Minchin is easily in my top five favorite people who have ever played Judas. Tim was my favorite thing about the cast of the production as the rest of the cast was crazy boring/sub-par.
And that's coming from someone who really loved the newest Broadway revival cast (MUCH better than the 2001 revival).

I find the auto-tune amazingly apparent. It's really badly done and has the quality of the way the effect is used in a bad rap song. Especially toward the end of Heaven on Their Minds and during Judas' Death.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 2/7/13 at 9:47pm

I can hear it too.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/7/13 at 10:24pm

I once came up with an all-star cast for JCS that I thought appropriate, but I don't think any of the people I chose would ever do it, so it's pointless to speculate.

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 2/7/13 at 10:53pm

I'd love to hear it, g.d.e.l.g.i.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 12:58pm

Boy, I would love to hear an unaltered live recording of Minchin in this role...

[FireFingers]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 1:22pm

You and me both.

[Dave19]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 3:23pm

Well, autotune is only used to change the notes to the actual right note it has to be, when they are sung off-key because of the disability of the singer to sing on key. They are not autotuning a note that is right in the first place.

There is nothing more annoying than listening to a recording with a singer that is off-key all the time.

For example Ramin Karimloo, in the Phantom 25 Anniversary dvd I wish they autotuned his voice much more! In some songs NOT 1 note is on key. Speaking of unlistenable.

I bet it was just a bad reality check for Tim Minchin to hear his actual voice on CD in clear quality. CD's with clear sound have no mercy and often after doing concerts, the image in a singer's mind/memories of how it sounded are much better. A crappy bootleg recording from the audience through the speaker sound system of the venue is no comparison.
I agree that it can be very confrontational to suddenly hear how bad you actually sounded, but he should be a bit grateful that they at least made his notes sound on key.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 3:37pm

Except we've heard the crappy bootleg recording and he wasn't bad. This AutoTune was applied in post-production, not live.

[Dave19]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 3:39pm

You can't compare the sound in an echoing arena to the vocals recorded on a soundboard, put on cd. You hear much more detail in the latter.



Updated On: 2/8/13 at 03:39 PM

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 3:48pm

Oh Dave...
Your logic is, as always, flawed.

Tim Minchin has four live CD's and a few singles. I have all of them. He knows what his voice sounds like. He has made a career singing.

The auto-tune was added to add in riffs and things of that nature. To make him sound like a pop star.

I have not so crappy bootlegs. Not to mention almost every review (professional and fan) and almost ALL of them universally praise Minchin (vocals included) while panning the rest of the cast/production.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 4:02pm

Who's Tim Minchkin?

[binau]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 4:33pm

He wrote the music and lyrics of MATILDA.

[darquegk]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 6:28pm

He's also a fairly successful indie musician-comedian; he is most famous for a series of atheism-themed songs he has recorded and performed on comedy shows and concert programs.

If you watch Californication, he is on the show this year as the Russell Brand expy.

[tourboi]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 9:55pm

You're right. The man who wrote the score isn't as equipped to decide things relating to the performance of his own piece.

Are you serious? The thing about JCS is that it can be interpreted many different ways, and ALW has embraced many of those incarnations. But to chastise the man because someone's performance was auto-tuned? Really? Ridiculous. It's his show.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 2/8/13 at 10:19pm

Andrew Lloyd Webber has made it painfully clear that he doesn't understand why this musical, which was Tim Rice's concept, succeeds in the first place. The very fact that he created a reality show around it shows how utterly ignorant he is of its message. At least now. At least in the form of the cynical hack that he has become.

Updated On: 2/8/13 at 10:19 PM