Being a fan is great as I don't have to do anything more than kick back and enjoy it and this is what is always coming in listening to Voodoo Shilton play. His play is intricate and immaculate and his orchestration is the most imaginative I've ever heard.
(Ed: hyperbole?)
Nope. I've heard a whole lot of bands but I've never heard anyone mix a melodica and an oud in the same set. Until I met Voodoo, I had at best a vague idea of a melodica and had no idea at all of an oud. Voodoo won't just use them in the same set, he will use them in the same song. The marvel is that it never sounds contrived. Every sound is there because it belongs.
(Ed: maybe that's the voodoo part?)
Maybe he does do it with magic but he does an exceptional job of it and voodoo really is African as it started there and went on to Haiti and eventually Louisiana. African rhythms are prominent in Voodoo's music but I can cheerfully report it does not require animal sacrifices, it's just not that kind of voodoo.
There's a Metropole Orkest (Metropole Orchestra) which is a modern-day symphony orchestra but there is no fixed array of instruments for an orchestra. Something I noticed for this one is it includes a synthesizer but does not include any bassoons. Voodoo does something similar on an individual scale as what he considers the orchestration necessary for his sound is unlike any I have heard before.
The Vocalist LiveFX gadget is intriguing me and Voodoo doesn't use or doesn't seem to use any effects on his vocal so I thought he might be interested. He was familiar with the device already and remarked it's trendy for pitch shifting. That's fair enough as pitch shifting vocals is exceptionally trendy and it's not doing music any particular good. However, I doubt it does any particular harm as pop kids will make annoying songs with or without pitch shifting, it's their mission in life.
There's a scale of 'musical purity' with bone-dry jazz on one end and every gadget in the music shop in the other. Now Voodoo is toward the bone-dry side but they would still burn him at the stake for using a synthesizer. If you use anything more electronic than a Rhodes electric piano, that crowd will burn you. I'm more toward the other side in which I'll use just about any gadget if I think what it does is musically cool in some way.
There isn't any musical coolness in taking my off-pitch vocal and shifting it to correct it. However, it's not going to set my conscience afire if it corrects pitch by a few cents one way or the other. 'A few cents' is just as tiny as you might imagine.
It's important to make a distinction between pitch shifting for vocal correction and digital harmonization as the latter is to create voices in addition to your actual voice whereas the former is to change your actual voice. Both fall into the realm of 'musical tricks' but both can have value when used judiciously and the last part is the key to it.
Don't worry too much about reading defensiveness in writing this as my biggest thought is whether I want to spend $200 on the gadget. I know I don't but is it cool enough to do it anyway. So far I still believe it is and specifically for reverb to give more 'space' to the sound, compression to make it 'beefier' and maybe some exciter so women want me, men want me, and everyone wants to name their babies after me ... or something like that.
It was grand to see Voodoo again, first to hear him play and then to talk a little after his show.
(Ed: hyperbole?)
Nope. I've heard a whole lot of bands but I've never heard anyone mix a melodica and an oud in the same set. Until I met Voodoo, I had at best a vague idea of a melodica and had no idea at all of an oud. Voodoo won't just use them in the same set, he will use them in the same song. The marvel is that it never sounds contrived. Every sound is there because it belongs.
(Ed: maybe that's the voodoo part?)
Maybe he does do it with magic but he does an exceptional job of it and voodoo really is African as it started there and went on to Haiti and eventually Louisiana. African rhythms are prominent in Voodoo's music but I can cheerfully report it does not require animal sacrifices, it's just not that kind of voodoo.
There's a Metropole Orkest (Metropole Orchestra) which is a modern-day symphony orchestra but there is no fixed array of instruments for an orchestra. Something I noticed for this one is it includes a synthesizer but does not include any bassoons. Voodoo does something similar on an individual scale as what he considers the orchestration necessary for his sound is unlike any I have heard before.
The Vocalist LiveFX gadget is intriguing me and Voodoo doesn't use or doesn't seem to use any effects on his vocal so I thought he might be interested. He was familiar with the device already and remarked it's trendy for pitch shifting. That's fair enough as pitch shifting vocals is exceptionally trendy and it's not doing music any particular good. However, I doubt it does any particular harm as pop kids will make annoying songs with or without pitch shifting, it's their mission in life.
There's a scale of 'musical purity' with bone-dry jazz on one end and every gadget in the music shop in the other. Now Voodoo is toward the bone-dry side but they would still burn him at the stake for using a synthesizer. If you use anything more electronic than a Rhodes electric piano, that crowd will burn you. I'm more toward the other side in which I'll use just about any gadget if I think what it does is musically cool in some way.
There isn't any musical coolness in taking my off-pitch vocal and shifting it to correct it. However, it's not going to set my conscience afire if it corrects pitch by a few cents one way or the other. 'A few cents' is just as tiny as you might imagine.
It's important to make a distinction between pitch shifting for vocal correction and digital harmonization as the latter is to create voices in addition to your actual voice whereas the former is to change your actual voice. Both fall into the realm of 'musical tricks' but both can have value when used judiciously and the last part is the key to it.
Don't worry too much about reading defensiveness in writing this as my biggest thought is whether I want to spend $200 on the gadget. I know I don't but is it cool enough to do it anyway. So far I still believe it is and specifically for reverb to give more 'space' to the sound, compression to make it 'beefier' and maybe some exciter so women want me, men want me, and everyone wants to name their babies after me ... or something like that.
It was grand to see Voodoo again, first to hear him play and then to talk a little after his show.
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