Tune out AutoTune!
Having the RealSing™ stickers and logo on your CD's, DVD's, Website, Live Performance, Television or Streaming Event, and being listed on the Realsing.org certification list will authenticate that your vocal performance is exactly how you sang it; no vocal tuning required, no questions asked!
Click here to download registration forms and to submit a recording or event for RealSing™ certification.
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The RealSing Collective is comprised of music professionals who are dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of recording, and every submitted CD, Track, DVD, Live Event or Televised/Streaming Events goes through a Council review process.
Why RealSing?
RealSing empowers the listener by identifying and certifying authentic vocal talent..
Real singers, those who don't rely on vocal pitch correction and Auto-tune technology deserve advocates and a means to be identified, elevated and separated from imposters. RealSing Collective informs the listening public about the creative and authentic counterpoint to vocal pitch correction, a misleading and now common practice. This should be music to everyone's ears.
Sports heroes are worshipped for their athletic abilities – as long as those abilities are authentic. When an athlete is found to be using performance enhancing drugs to beat the competition, to the fans and to the world that hero is nothing more than a cheater and a fraud! Vocal pitch-correction is a lazy solution to a lack of talent that strips away the nuances, tonal variations, distinctive twists, turns and interpretation that define a true artist; one who rejects the science of compromise.
And what is to become of the artists who are the well-springs of new ground breaking talent? Their journey is already a vertical climb and now they must rise above the hoards of Stepford singers to engage fans who, when it comes to true vocal excellence, have become desensitized. Hard work combined with core talent should ensure career longevity, generations of fans and long-term return on the investment.
In 1990, a pop duo performed their international smash during the worldwide telecast of the pre-eminent music celebration the GRAMMY® Awards. Their peers – other singers, songwriters, engineers, producers and performers honored the duo with that year's Best New Artist GRAMMY. Following the telecast and under great media, industry and fan scrutiny, Milli Vanilli admitted that they had lip-synced their performance on the GRAMMY Stage and on the actual recording of huge hits including "Girl You Know It's True" and "Blame it on the Rain." In response, The Recording Academy revoked their GRAMMY Award. It was the first time a GRAMMY had ever been revoked and to this day, it remains the only one.
The Academy response set precedence, declaring loud and clear that in order to win the highest honor in the recording industry, vocals that are recorded and submitted for GRAMMY consideration had to be – at the very least -- authentic. RealSing believes this standard must be maintained!
Many singers are not even aware that their producers and engineers alter their vocals with technological gimmickry. On the other hand, there are many performers today who wouldn't even recognize their own voice without it. The various technologies that are being used more and more eliminate the opportunity for unique personal interpretation. The very essence of unique interpretation is gutted from vocal performance; the rich and buttery slides of Patsy Cline; the unmistakable atonal twists and turns of Bob Dylan; Frank Sinatra lingering on the bends between notes; Rufus Wainwright's circuitous vocal interpretations, and oh so many others would be lost from the vocal lexicon that we all love and yearn to experience over and over again.
Now, as fans, we never know what the singer's original performance actually sounded like or what the singer had intended. Critics of technological vocal manipulation say more and more music is being created without depth or soul because the singer no longer needs inspiration, intention, interpretation, emotion or even the ability to sing in the right key.
Of course we understand that sometimes vocals are manipulated for a stylistic, novelty or production effect, and many members of our own Advisory Council and Collective use these tools within that context. These recordings and those which employ pitch correction technology are not eligible for RealSing certification.
In a 2010 USA Today article about the Milli Vanilli/Grammy scandal:
"Fabrice Morvan of the the duo, now 43, questions whether (the duo) would've been penalized as severely if their crime of succeeding-while-lip-synching had been committed today. Morvan says he sees performers lip-synching in concert all the time, and what's more, he points out that vocals manipulated by Auto-Tune are commonplace on contemporary pop, dance and rap recordings. He theorizes that music fans these days simply do not care. 'It's not about being authentic anymore,' he says. 'It's about entertaining.'"
The RealSing Collective strongly disagrees!
Take Note:
Why is this an issue today? There is probably no hotter concern right now with regards to the present and future of the art, science and transparency of recorded music.
- Talent scouts and labels no longer scour the earth for great talent; now they just look for someone they can manufacture into their next money train.
- The singer/songwriter is responsible for at least 75% of enduring copyrights. If no one is cultivating this type of talent then these folks will not be able to make a living and the world won't benefit from their unique contributions.
- Music Academies and associations that are built to recognize excellence in recorded music will find their own brands diminished and the public disillusioned every time a vocal imposter is presented with an award.
- Many of the celebrated names on the council are producers and engineers. They realize that an enduring career for an artist and for themselves is best achieved by recording "real" artists, not vocal imposters.
- Congressional committees who are forced to make decisions between Art/IP and big business (ISP's/Platforms) are less inspired to support the arts if the status quo becomes cookie cutter and disposable, void of distinction, authenticity and unique talent.