The Sound of Silence (Disturbed) is FAKE! (VOCAL COACH REACTS/ANALYSIS)

You all deserve to see the truth, and I don't really care about the analytics anymore. I hope you all get something out of this.

[@chuckerdn8208]

Your amateur "OPINION" doesn't mean sh!t to anyone. Not even sure how anyone would want to even subscribe to your Channel.

[@ZachAnsley]

Imagine getting verifiable facts - like production techniques that you can audibly hear - mixed up with the idea of having an opinion on something. Your mindset is a byproduct of the very same societal problems I talk about in the video, so thanks for proving my point and boosting me in the algorithm! :) I've been teaching voice for nearly ten years, by the way, so I'm hardly an amateur.

[@brenleedee8061]

It randomly showed up in my feed after weeks of watching every critique I could find, this channel is at the bottom of the algorithm for sure lol

[@A1000-b9s]

​@@brenleedee8061so more algorithm means the channel has better content? If you Really think like that, i don't know What to Tell you

[@ZachAnsley]

Well, I opened the floodgates. This is why most of the vocal coach reaction videos are horrible. The source material is as fake as they are. Join my discord: discord.gg/hmK9uM7

[@Qyngali]

Wings of Pegasus did a video on this, isolated the vocals and showed that every single note was snapped perfectly on the line. In other live performances recorded of the singer he is off on most notes, though it still sounds fine. No scratch that, the unaltered ones sound much better. It's gone so far that they autotune Freddie Mercury now on new releases... Edit: Heck, you can hear it even in the first verse on "my old".

[@mia83]

you should do a collab with Wings of Pegasus, he has been analyzing "live" video with pitch correction software showing ALL music we see today is autotuned

[@Bellas1717]

@@mia83 He might be the anonymous contributor.

[@mia83]

@@Bellas1717 it seems strange he would want to stay anonymous as on his channel he is quite open about it

[@Bellas1717]

@@mia83 I see your point, and that's very possibly the case, but there is a difference in that going to that channel people are aware of the purpose, coming to this channel not so much.

[@EpicZadrani]

The first time I heard this the "metallic sound" you mention came to mind instantly. Majority of it always seemed fake and some parts were without a doubt so it's great to get a full on analysis of it. These "live shows" on such platforms , especially talk shows, tend to be lacking humanity and are quite dystopian. It's almost like they just put these faces on for the performance itself and everything has to be perfect. Back in high school our music teacher shared with us her personal behind the scenes experience of a local talk show in Croatia which has infinitely smaller audience. And still, it was fake to its core with most, if not all audience(her included) being personally invited. That story truly changed my perspective on those things and I simply, no matter how sincere some of them may sound, can't grasp any real emotion in it. IMO this is even worse than just letting the band completely lip sync. That is plain obvious and artists in many cases just make fun of that live. This however is purely deceptive, no matter the excuse of either the singer or the people behind the show production. Nice to see you back!

[@springer22ddss]

1. He was deathly sick before this performance. 2. David is classically trained. And 3. Everything he does in this performance is real. Most mics always have a little bit of auto tune for projection, but his choices to mumble some words or announciate some words more than others all plays into the meaning and lyrics of the song. It's easy to look at David as some rocker, but he has more vocal training than most. Year of training to be a cantor, years of classical training, training in opera, plus his vocal fry. It's been a very well known thing that David is a musical genius and a unique talent. That's why disturbed stood out so much

[@as101345207]

Hello there, Mr. Draiman!

[@EllyInVideoland]

excellent work and I liked the end a lot when you put a scene from one of my favorite movies. nicely done

[@annabethsmith-kingsley2079]

My husband showed me a woman, “reacting”, to Rush and just basically bouncing in her chair and saying it was so, “unexpected”. I said to him, “this lady is not doing any voice analysis, she’s just fulfilling a fantasy that a pretty lady might love Rush as much as you do”. He was sort of deflated but conceded I might be right. You’ve really opened my eyes to the fact that all of those videos are just 100% pandering and zero analysis.

[@rarevisionog]

Deep down everyone knows this lol.

[@amali9044]

Facts

[@dimitriid]

I think you and your husband really arrived at the reason why reaction music reaction channels are so prevalent: They rely on the very basis what the youtube algorithm rewards which is forming a long lasting, parasocial relationship between the audience and the "Insert identity here" Reacts! genre. Think about the purpose the video is serving. It's never educational (And to be fair, only *some* of the reaction channels lean on their identity based on their music business related credentials many are just "X guy/girl reacts" and present as just fully uninformed in music, but are often just as insincere) and the point of the video is basically to substitute for a normal relationship you might have with your friends, S.O. and family: it tries to replicate the way we watch media like music: We pause it, we make comments, we might share surprise and bewilderment you get the idea. The reaction channel knows that the best way to replicate this experience is to develop a parasocial (Meaning a strictly one-way relationship from the audience towards the youtuber) context: Even if they say (And actually, legitimately are) vocal teachers they don't really want you to think about them as your vocal teachers. Channels that legitimately try to educate about music are rare and often very unsuccessful (No offense Zach, but I don't think I'm wrong saying that) Instead, the "Vocal coach" wants you to think as their friend you're showing your favorite song to, who just *happens to be a vocal teacher* but as your friend, they probably wouldn't tell you "Yeah this is terrible and fake" and instead react just as a friend you have an actual REAL social bond with would react which is either lying about it for your sake, trying to be complementary of at least *something* about it and generally make a conscious effort to not be rude to you and try to match your level of excitement because the point is that they *want you* to feel as you just showed your favorite band to your friend and experienced it together. The channels are still lucrative because they aim to serve very popular but very under-served audiences: That's why you see metal bands, contestants from voice competitions that are never aired to western audiences, bands that were very heavily criticized in the past but now fans want to re-discover and proclaim, etc. (Yes, exactly like Disturbed: a very maligned band in it's heyday but that still carries a very wide audience looking for validation about their favorite band everyone used to truly, truly HATE) All these types of performances have that in common: An audience ready to heavily interact with the content but not willing to hear *ANY* criticism of it and that's why no matter what channel you look at they all have certain videos: Jinjer, Nightwish, Marcelito Pomoy, Dimash and last but not least, Alip Ba ta. They're all perceived as underdogs but still command audiences of many thousands of fans ready to come tell you a factoid and happy to interact and yes, boost your channel into a very lucrative business as long as you don't say "Yeah I really don't think this Nightwish song is as special as you think, this would be considered a pedestrian and cliché arrangement in the classical world and Floor would be considered 100% a pop singer" because well, that's not allowed: you must act as if a metal genre that has been popular for over 20 years is something so unexpected and complex and beautiful and did you know this was one of Floor's first ever performances with Nightwish! OMG how did she, a professional singer, managed to be a professional singer and learn songs quickly!

[@pedroteran5885]

@@dimitriid 👍👍

[@ZachAnsley]

@@dimitriid This is the best comment I have ever seen on my channel. Thank you so much for posting this.

[@LigeiaNoire]

I am happy you didn't give up. Just your intro made me chuckle. This is what we need. Truth and knowledge. This video is probably the best to show how deceitful the industry is but, most of all, the myriad of "so called vocal experts" that stand there cheerleading. The metal community loves to boast how their music or their singers are the real deal and better than anyone else and only pop singers use autotune and yada yada yada... the vocal coaches standing there watching this and going along just further reinforces their ego. Even if they have the skills to analyse a performance, they fluff over it and only focus on bullshit to not upset the fanbase. It has no end. I was just reading the same complaint from a bel canto professor, you don't go along, you are actively trying to give people facts and they don't want to hear it and they will get you off the platform easy enough. This doesn't mean this singer can't sing. He obviously does but an analysis is supposed to be factual and make you understand what the singer is doing if right or wrong and make them perfect their craft. Why is that such a taboo? We live in the "don't talk because you will offend me" era. I hope you keep doing this and return to some more singers. I would love more in depth analysis.

[@as101345207]

Great video as usual! At the end you say that the better the illusion, the deeper their pockets, but the scary thing is that this performance is an utterly disgraceful illusion. I've always had a pretty damn good sense of pitch and I'm 100% sure that there's not a 5 second stretch of this performance that doesn't have some kind of pitch correction artifact. It's so blindingly obvious that it makes the generalised awe with which this has been received truly terrifying. Hope this video changes the minds of at least some people who still have some sense of honesty in them.

[@as101345207]

Also, yes, there are edits in the instruments as well. I can't speak for the orchestra because they're in the back and in the dark, but the band has clear edits (such as the 2:55 mark on the original video - the guitarist on the right + the timpani roll at the end while he is "sustaining" the note).

[@twoshirts17]

Finally someone that tells the truth about modern post productions...thank you for that.

[@Grayjacket11]

Glad to see you back in action, Zach. Great to see a legit vocal teacher calling out the bullshit of "reaction" videos🤘 I'd be curious to know if this is consistent across the studio version and other live performances of this song. Heck, is Draiman using pitch correction in other Disturbed tracks, too?

[@williamlanger9229]

I think when singers use "I was sick" to excuse performances, they are directing such statements at non-singers. I've sang for years and have been sick quite a bit. it honestly doesn't negatively impact your voice that much. I've actually recorded some songs sick. they sounded good and I was there. I mean, being sick is definitely generally worse than not being so, but it's just not that big of a deal. being sick may excuse lack of perfection, but it does not excuse awful performances. I'm trying not to name names here, lol. the only exceptions would be if you are so sick that you are too weak to really do anything or if you literally lose your voice to some degree. neither of those things are very common and a singer can't claim to be too weak to do anything if they are walking around a stage. as for losing one's voice, that's personally happened to me twice in my entire life (both while I was a child). maybe my experience differs from others, but I've seen some singers (and especially the fans of) defend poor performances by saying they were sick like every time there's a bad performance and that's just bs. case in point, your performance in this video. perhaps its not your best work, but the singers for which sickness is frequently used to justify shoddy performances sound nowhere near as good as you do in that clip. TLDR, common sicknesses just don't affect the voice that much. good video, btw!

[@richardmetzler7909]

Not sure what your point is. As you acknowledge, being sick is a spectrum ranging from "a little tired, but voice is fine" on one end to "literally unable to produce a clear word" on the other, and everything inbetween. And singing a show while in the first category can quickly put you in the latter. (Incidentally, after going to a metal concert with a bit of a cold a few days ago and singing along too much, that's where I'm at right now.) So, why wouldn't "I was sick" be a valid excuse for a shitty performance by a singer who catches a cold while on tour (and don't they all?) and has to keep going because canceling the tour is not an option?

[@unbound1995]

Do more of these. They're super entertaining!

[@kunigaikstis]

Saw this recording before, thought "what a unique timbre"! Now know why, thanks Zach for education

[@estera4176]

Very important conversation. This is one of the reasons I rarely listen to mainstream music. I'm not a professional singer, even if I sing quite a bit and I recently started studying music formally. But it's clear as day when a voice is not human-sounding. Especially when he starts going up. You don't need to be to be a singer to hear computer sounds. Now I don't have a problem with people using all kinds of effects and stuff or with singers using prerecorded tracks at times (busy schedule, TV contractual terms, etc.) but it bothers me when that's all they use and the general public thinks that's how the voices really sound like. Obessed fans create a certain image about the artist and their voice and are not interested in reality at all. I myself am a fan of Dimash, and I noticed when he used prerecorded tracks (premiers in Russian TV shows or events, for example, or when I heard a fan cam vs an official show released version that was dubbed - I liked the fan cam one much more). I didn't consider it a crime, as he's proved what he's capable of and not simply fooling people, but I won't insist it's live and that he can't ever make a mistake. After I heard him the first few times, I searched for casual no mic singing to make sure it really was his voice. At times it sounded just like the official performances, at times he missed a note or went flat, and I've experienced this hearing him live in his concert too. He's phenomenal, but he's human and not singing perfectly for 3 hours straight. Human voices are not perfect, singers are allowed to make mistakes. An obsessed fan should know the singer's real voice and understand the difference between raw vs studio. Anyways, I knew you had an issue with how this performance is perceived long ago, and this whole perspective is not new to me, I've had it for some time. But I didn't think up until now how this can impact a teacher's work with students expecting to sound like a computer. I always enjoy your analyses and the things you address, despite being quite harsh. Please keep doing them now and then, at least.

[@sdunn89]

I've always appreciated your honesty and am always disappointed your subscriber count doesn't reflect the quality and truth in your output. I've actually applied lessons from your videos into my own singing. And like you, I was just counting with every other breath the obvious artifacts. I make learning tracks for my own ensembles and pitch correct my best takes in order to make the product as note accurate as possible for learning purposes, as well as to extend my range to parts not my own. But I don't put forth these as "performances" because they simply aren't. Nothing like doing hours of your own pitch correction to make it plain as day to hear in others. I'd be interested to hear your commentary on the performances of obviously unedited professional singers who do not need such crutches, but who still make mistakes like everybody does. I think of groups like Voces8 and The King's Singers, whom I have heard live and know to be fantastic (but not perfect). They both also have slickly produced content on youtube that I'd be curious if even that is a 100% live audio performance, even if just to accommodate the visual presentation of the product. Cheers from a fellow non-believer!

[@DrakodanSRL]

Imagine being an aspiring singer and "performances" like these are your point of reference. Dark times

[@randylevy]

Network is truly prophetic...applies even more today. Thanks for the red-pilled-truth-bomb and good to see a new vid.

[@lucyFV]

I notice you only like the comments that agree with you

[@georgewoolley9517]

The worst thing about the production here, to me, is how the pitch correction work just sounds so shoddy. Like there was the absolute minimum effort applied to the editing: just throw the plug-in on the track and pick a stock preset. There’s this tremulous, quavering quality to his sound - not from his natural vocal tone, but from the pitch correction - that threatens to go into the Autotune “yodel” effect at any moment. This was a performance on national TV from a world famous band: why does it sound like the tuning was done by someone who just got their hands on tuning software yesterday? You can hear this all the time in overly tuned TV performances. Like they’re in a rush to get the track out the door and they just don’t care. What producer listened back and approved this? Just a sidenote, Zach, when David sings “pray” in other videos you can see his mouth shape consistently - strangely - go to that of an /a/ vowel. Any idea why this might be?

[@davecouper]

George, you've nailed it! The entire vocal track/"performance" sounds f#$%ing abysmal because of amateurish use of pitch correction, which btw for everyone's information commenced in the very first line of the song (at least two notable fixes to my ears)! I've heard T-Pain studio songs that sound less overly AutoTuned than this!

[@linaivanuta5943]

Thanks man for this important work in a world deprived from soul. I hear it everywhere and it's sad indeed how much people are living in a illusion when it comes to live singing. It makes it so much thougher for those that do it raw.

[@Brombit]

The snippet of your performance is beautiful, and my untrained ears could not tell you were sick 🙂

[@CarolynGarduno]

I might be a little late with this comment, but I'll leave it anyway. After reading the comments after this video you posted it is apparent that only your own "fans" really believe in what you are saying. The one aspect of reality that you miss is the fact that everyone all ready knows that most singers and performances are dubbed and computerised. We all ready know that videos are just mini movies that are edited and as fake as Hollywood can make them. You insult all listeners by implying that we a just a bunch of sheep being lied to and not realising that we are being lied to. You sound like a flat earther who thinks that everyone else is being lied to because we see pictures of the earth being round. Yes David Draiman's voice was autotuned (something he was upset about after production)...it's actually a well known fact, but you make it seem that we shouldn't have enjoyed it because of that fact. The song, the performance, the orchestration was beautiful. David Draiman does have a very well trained voice, he is also a metal singer so he uses tongue manipulation, twang, vocal fry and distortion as a style. You seem to think that your opinions of his style are the actual truth, ie. because you don't like distortion that means his was fake and nobody should believe his performance. You should find him singing the same song in other venues, the song and his vocals sound exactly the same....just as beautiful.

[@ZachAnsley]

You realize that this performance wasn't even performed live, right? Your willingness to accept the fakery is the problem. Too many people like you allow such things in the name of fandom and and apologism. Also, twang is a garbage vocal pedagogy term. I suggest you find other people to teach about your understanding of the voice.

[@paulriddle7818]

David Draimon would do this right in front of you with no microphone and you would accuse him of being fake.... So funny.

[@alexbodi5526]

The fact is this has a lot of pitch correction and autotune. David has done better performances of this where autotune is not present, download festival 2016 for instance.

[@paulriddle7818]

@@alexbodi5526 🤣

[@alexbodi5526]

@@paulriddle7818 listen to this again and see for yourself

[@A1000-b9s]

I don't get your point that What you're exactly trying to defend, autotune is used here, no Genius brain is needed here to understand that

[@paulriddle7818]

@@A1000-b9s David had a bad case of the flu here and still went on to perform a brilliant performance. Afrerward the producers of the show added a 2 seconds of AT to a spot with any Tom Dick or Harry could tell there was some added. This S for brains tries to say that theres some added all throuout because hes a snake oil saleman who doesn't know WTF he is talking about. Ive talked to VC coaches who have said hes FOS. This was why the 🤣

[@osorioace]

I was just binging your videos lol good to see you doing well

[@peiwenchen5254]

It's not as bad as it sounds but here's something interesting: post-produced live performances are one of the reasons why my parents don't think I'm good lol

[@Timliu92]

That is the huge problem - almost no human being out there sings THAT perfectly like David Draiman in this video. It definitely was very post-processed. Even the best opera singers with amazing technique do not always sound "perfect" - what makes them thrilling to listen to is the humanity of their performances, so to speak.

[@helbardvocalcovers5848]

Based and Zachpilled

[@donjohnson1155]

Thank you, I'll watch live performances more critical now.

[@joshashe2087]

I am really surprised people don't hear the clear robotic pitch correction and that someone even disagrees. Ever since I've heard this song for the first time I knew something was wrong. I'm not a singer and my voice is terrible, but my ears are good enough to spot something odd. In silent parts I couldn't hear it, but once he gets louder it's obvious. I think Mongolian throat singers could produce sounds like that, it's inhuman what they can do, but this is fake. I don't understand why this singer resorted to this, he is talented and has a good voice.

[@joannefarley5620]

I am kinda confused! It is common knowledge that the ran vocal correction with this performance. And it is common knowledge that it wasn’t necessary!

[@framebadger]

Loved your rant at 25 minutes. The whole arrangement of this cover is impressive. And to anyone who's played with these things before, there were obvious bits of Autotune but I *had* been willing to put assume more of it was real than probably was. I was a little bit proud of myself when I called out the neck tension before you said it. What is the deal with classical chamber choirs and the like - does this stuff happen there at all on their live recordings? I've heard the King's Singers live and up close so I know that really good singers can be astonishingly accurate. But stuff online is so pristine - and when you hear old recordings of choral works the choir often drifts more than you ever hear today. Anyway - thanks for bringing the truth. We like to think that the most truthful and helpful material will eventually win out on the internet but it simply doesn't. It's true here but you can see it on lots of other topics. Social media is designed to tickle us, not to make our lives better.

[@Mattpro-jv2uu]

Zach you're badass. Everything was true. I'll be honest you pissed me off once but I got over it I realized you were right. I got over my bias.

[@kennethbrown5664]

See it live ,acoustic version,sounds exactly the same ,just sayin

[@lubotodo]

I believe that your teaching ear is more trained than that of the average music fan. But I am also convinced that you are a skeptic by nature and are trying to instill something in us through preconceptions and prejudices. Your "evidence" failed to convince me. There may be some auto tunes to the song, but not in the amounts you're trying to convince us of. Your situation is probably like this: students come to you and say "I want you to teach me to sing like David Draiman". But no budding singer can match David's vocal range, and you wonder how to explain to the student that it's impossible. So you instill in him that no man can sing like David and it's all manipulation. You have explained so often that the performances are fake that even you yourself have believed it. Finally, if you make less excuses for your analysis, your evidence will carry more weight. 40-50% in the video was justification of words. I give you a thumbs up 👍for having the courage to express your opinion, which is different from the mainstream!

[@ChrisTimmsmusic]

Thanks for coming back dude, great to see you've got passion back for singing. Yours are the best analysis videos I've come across, I fixed my aperture (which was far too wide) based on one of your analysis videos a couple of years ago and it was a huge game changer. Thanks so much. Keep up the great work!

[@coffeecranksinging]

Really great job right there! I always struggle noticing details like this, but even I could hear autotune there in a couple of spots. If I don't judge it for singing quality and just look at it from a perspective of a consumer, this is great, and I would probably even share it with other people after hearing it. But as a singer, I am in danger of being influenced by it and always comparing myself to the unrealistic expectations of post-production.

[@HawkOfGP]

"The videos of your of your favourite singers that you see on the Internet, for the most part, are not real" But sir, my favourite singer is Kazuki Tomokawa!

[@amali9044]

Amazing vocal analysis. Please keep it up zach, might i recommend reacting to the weeknd

[@kellymckinney9050]

The live version with Disturbed and Myles Kennedy is great!

[@_JUNGSEIPEI_]

I know I'm late to the party, but the timpani in the video also doesn't line up.

[@connierauscher5583]

Everyone is happy with this....let them be happy. It's hard now a days

[@kellustzall3057]

Post-truth society also means, the ultimate truth, as in specific context given, is not important anymore, but rather the delusion. It's a sad and mad world.

[@musicformysanity9050]

That last auto-tune was painful! Some of the artifacts sound like the delay timing coming back around. You hear this a lot of metal albums where the singer goes for extended notes. I was always thrown off by this video, it was always a little TOO perfect and I couldn't place it. Let alone the idea of almost any vocalist pulling off this level of control in this intimate of a setting.... while sitting. Drayman is a decent vocalist.... Not a phenomenal one. This would literally be the performance of a lifetime for damn near anyone. You mentioned the voice sounds thin and metallic. Welp, there ya go. Sounds like a damn Mp3. Missing some data points in it to fill it out.

[@peachpi4025]

Wait, so you’re saying this performance is the Neon God they made. No one dare call out it’s artificialness and disturb the sound of silence.

[@rarevisionog]

I understand people using backing track if they've been performing 2-3 shows a month and it is one the performances of the tour... but that's just backing track. No live pitch corrections, auto tuning and deceptive level of reverb. If you are just giving one grand performance why use all those tricks and delude people that you are anything special vocally?

[@Arttekot]

To be honest, the idea of dramatic pomp sappy piano-violin cover of Simon and Garfunkel, is stupid and bad taste enough

[@Blue_rosetx]

Then Paul Simon must have been mistaken when he reached out to David and told him how much liked Disturbed's cover of his own song.

[@Arttekot]

@@Blue_rosetx The man is flattered by the attention to his art, of course one would expect such a reaction from him.

[@Jd-yw6dz]

Clearly autotuned as is the studio version

[@jonashoffmann3730]

I've always prefered Nevermore's version of the song anyway ;)

[@akacjabiala]

i just started watching and i'm so so so glad that you are talking about critical thinking in relation to educational content. we as consumers are often provided watered down, bite-sized information to make it more digestible, so it makes fact-checking seem unnecessary. i don't like that. i don't want that. i need sources. i need evidence based science. nothing is wrong with that. sorry, for the little rant. it is not related to the video😅

[@theostrich4731]

I love how KZbin recommends a bunch of "vocal coach reacts to..." videos after I'm done watching this lol.

[@vickit.1797]

People singing without singing

[@stephenwatkins7592]

Wings of Pegasus did a much better objective analysis of the Conan performance (heavily autotuned), the album version (more lightly pitch corrected), and a true live version. And managed to avoid the click-baity title.

[@ZachAnsley]

I'm not trying to explain the nuances of pitch correction. I'm a singing teacher and I don't need to use, nor do I use that fake garbage. My point is that I can't teach/do my job/analyze something that isn't real, and the world is increasingly filled with things that aren't real.

[@sonyabyrd8739]

I'm near fanatic level about David's Sound of Silence ... but, when I listened to the Live version on Conan, it felt artificial - in exactly the same parts you pointed out. I don't think anyone needs to be an expert to hear that it isn't the sound of a human's vocals... I think it's what you said, society has become so self-indulgent they just want to believe what they want, and others are too scared to go against the flow. There was very popular YTr that stated the entire thing, from beginning to end, that was autotuned - but he polished it by saying that it didn't matter b/c it David could pull it off w/o the A.T. and he respected him as an artist... Don't know if he was the guy you mentioned. Maybe that video isn't there anymore. Anyway, wonderful video, your message about not compromising your principles b/c of Cancel Culture is admirable. #respect

[@brianaldridge905]

Just a question. Do you believe in the flat earth theory🙄

[@EllysAndroidVideos]

What kind of comment is this? Lol turn on your big boy brain and think... would someone focused on revealing truth be a flat Earther ?

[@ToadsNewMania]

You're the first commentator who has mentioned the bit where he mumbles. I would LOVE to be able to compare what was actually performed on Conan vs what was provided to us as "live." I've always said the Conan version was better than the studio version because the studio version seems so overworked and "special feeling", but now I don't know what to think. Fake, auto tuned and possibly pre-recorded vs overworked. Hmmm - this will require some thought. Thanks for bringing up the mumbly bit. I've never been able to figure out why nobody else mentioned it.

[@ZachAnsley]

They don't mention it because they don't want to get told to unalive themselves by hyena-like fanbases. :)

[@lassesaikkonen501]

I have heard a couple of analyses that say autotune or pitch correction was used here. I think at least Wings of Pegasus said that.

[@alexbodi5526]

Check out the download festival 2016 performance of this, it's much better with a lot less autotune.

[@JeanneSheridan]

The auto-tune was done by the shows producers before posting without asking the band

[@therealjeffstein]

Thank you so much for doing this. It needs to be said, and you are spot on that audiences have become conditioned to expect perfection from singers. This link right here is the first time I ever noticed a 'live' rock performance with blatantly scrubbed vocals - Korn performing 'One' at an MTV Metallica tribute show 20 years ago. So much of what you point out in this video is also present here - convenient angles, his mouth area is conveniently dark lighting-wise, the choruses are obviously edited and then copy/pasted. It's Korn so obviously we're way past 'vocal technique' analysis, but as far as post-production trickery for a 'live' TV performance, this was the first time I noticed it, at least with rock music: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4XGmKOjZ6pom9U That same year, I also noticed at a Slipknot show, the sound guy hit a button every time Corey Taylor screamed, and the exact. same. scream. came out every time. I thought "hmm this is what happens when screamers can't call in sick". Ever since these two examples, because I'm a multi-instrumentalist/perfect pitch/yada yada yada, I am always watching every aspect of a live rock show and very suspicious any time I don't hear any mistakes. It's always very demoralizing when I see a two hour set by a band I usually admire and don't hear a single mistake. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is, but my biggest gripe is that 99.999% of the audience doesn't even think to wonder if it was too good to be true. They sure will harp on a mistake if they catch one though. But this is why analysis like what you've done here is so important in my opinion. I watch a lot of your other content, and I know what you watch for in other musicians/singers, and that your commenters love to engage in ad-hominem to avoid directly addressing a general point. I'll go ahead and acknowledge in my performance videos, for one thing all vocal tracks are doubled so one vocal 'video' isn't going to cover everything. I also acknowledge in the description that one is a play-through/not live off the floor. All songs have comped vocal takes (two tracks from three or four takes total), but very little if any pitch correction. That shouldn't matter as far as the general point I'm making here, but, putting it out there anyway. In any event, cheers and thank you again for doing this.

[@umimo]

I missed your videos so much! They've helped me a lot in my vocal studies, and to feed the music nerd in me lol Hope you're back for good now! 💜 It's funny that, as a music producer, I've always listened to this performance and thought the vocal quality was super weird, compressed and equalised in a way you just don't do for live vocals, but never realised the crazy amount of post-production they did there Also, I know everyone choses their battles to fight or whatever, but, honestly, you have the experience and chops to prove you're a serious professional and educator, fuck the whiny bitches who come for you. Your content is so well researched and of such good quality, just keep up and let the shitheads scream to the void

[@phadrus]

What I heard was the singer was sick, and the producers of the show applied autotune against his will. I haven’t verified if that is true. From an artistic standpoint there’s still some good stuff going on here either way.

[@ThomasSchachtlhuber]

You are really leaving me confused. While I can fully understand that you want to educate people about post-processing, auto-tune and so on I don't get some other points that you do. What confuses me is that, in previous videos, you explicitly said that you were choosing songs / recordings where you have the least processing. OK, you wanted to show that processing explicitly. I get it. But if you say you can't say anything about the real performance you could have looked up the other live recordings of this song. But why this song? It is known for years that almost all chart songs / pop songs and so on are heavily processed and autotuned. I wish you would have explained why from all the songs other vocal coaches react to and like - also processed in the same way - you picked this one. This would have helped to understand it and not assuming a bias from your side. After some other videos of you that I watched I feel very sad. I feel sad because I think that you make your life harder than it has to be. It is, at least for me, not a problem talking about "the truth" or at least "your truth" - and by your truth I mean your honest believe in it to be the truth. I think it is not the topics you cover or you pointing out possible health problems. It is more a communication problem. What it leaves people with is a feeling of seeing an arrogant person full of self righteousnes. This youtube comment section is not the place to go into details as it would be too much . But please at least consider it and talk about it with other people (or let them analyze your videos regarding these points). Best wishes for you and don't let these things pull you down.

[@ZachAnsley]

I appreciate the thoughts, but I'm not interested in sugar coating my commentary for the sake of the fans' feelings. It isn't 'my truth'. I point out objective, provable things. It is never going to be easy to tell the truth to people. I don't really care about making people feel good - I want people to learn. I picked this video because it was an egregious example of the masses of people falling for a widespread deception. My content is not the same as it used to be because I am not the same person that I used to be. When I started my channel I was under the impression that people would be interested in learning about singing, but I found after a while that most people watching this kind of content only want their predetermined opinions validated, and they had no interest in learning about truth. I don't really care about catering to what people want, and I certainly am not interested into feeding into the mass delusion that the world on the screen is real. If I'm going to be hated by people who disagree with me, and if the world is so polarized that people are unwilling to take what I have to say in good faith, then I'm not going to waste my time putting on a fake smile and talk like everything is amazing. I am far more than knowledgeable enough about singing to where I could EASILY get a million subscribers. I could spout any amount of bullshit that I wanted to make people like me, and the same masses of people who hate my commentary wouldn't know the difference. It isn't about fame, or money, or anything like that to me. It's about being a staunch advocate for truth, regardless of the outcome.

[@patriciasentz4950]

Do you ever just listen to a song's beauty without ripping it to shreds? How sad for you. I've seen grown men cry after hearing this song. I heard alot of "you can't tell for sure," type comments coming from you. Quit trying to ruin it for the rest of us.

[@ZachAnsley]

It makes me sad that your ears aren't capable of distinguishing reality from fake things. I'm trying to help people, whether you want to believe that or not.

[@user-id9ci1qg3s]

I guess I’ll take your “opinion only” when you’re as popular and can sing as well as David :)

[@ZachAnsley]

Data is not subjective. The fact that he is using pitch correction can be measured and has been done so by myself and many others. My capabilities have nothing to do with truth or reality.

[@sergrojGrayFace]

The performance with Myles Kennedy is not pitch-corrected and way better. Wings of Pegasus did a breakdown of how this one's autotuned.

[@debb481]

That performance with Myles is just beautiful. Both so talented!

[@lassesaikkonen501]

I agree on your point that this performance was not authentic but your other points about 'healthy singing' and correct singing technique is basically just your opinion, and in my view ignorant bullshit.

[@ZachAnsley]

That's because you listen to voice teachers on KZbin assuming that they are knowledgeable. If you understood anything about my platform you would know that all of my knowledge is backed by nearly a decade of college and years and years of experience.

[@davecouper]

As a Melodyne user (thankfully not too heavily on my own voice haha!), I can absolutely guarantee everyone here that not only is the entire performance pitch-corrected, but it is far more heavily corrected than Zach even gave the recording credit (read: debit) for. The fixing begins in the very first line of the song and gets worse over the duration. Some people have claimed to have "listened to it twice and didn't hear the obvious pitch correction". I suspect people in that results bracket are physiologically/neurologically not capable of hearing it in any recording, and that's just fine; not all human brains are wired the same especially in terms of auditory processing, and of course on top of that, different ages and environmental exposures bring different degrees of frequency-hearing degradation which may make it difficult to tell such things. Nonetheless, the Wings of Pegasus YT channel has already shown the entire vocal performance to be "perfectly in tune" (which means it has been entirely AutoTuned), and my perfect pitch and understanding of the human voice in general allows me to confirm this without seeing it drawn on a screen. Those asking "how does that make it 'fake'?" when an entire vocal production is AutoTuned, overdubbed and heavily "effected" are demonstrating the denial of a fact. Yes, the performance can (and did) affect as many people as statistical deviations allow and as virality generates across a viewing/listening human population, but Zach came here primarily to make a series of points about the factual matters of the performance. If I can annoy everyone for a moment and play the role of a "first-time reactor": I had never seen this clip in any form until I came back to Zach's channel tonight. My immediate reaction to Draiman's first line was "holy f#$k that sounds atrocious!", and my second reaction once I heard more of the singing was that I have previously only heard AutoTune used either this inexpertly and/or overtly (in a problematic context as opposed to an artistic choice) on a particular set of live recordings from the early 1990s (I won't name the artist). My reactions here were visceral but not grounded in any particular dislike of David Draiman, his vocal techniques, or Disturbed's music back catalogue, but were instead grounded in the immediate understanding that this was a bullsh*t performance. Others have said that Draiman and the band only knew afterwards, and if that is true, then the network and its audio production/post-prod team acted like a bunch of cheap and unprofessional d#$kheads. Unfortunately, we are now basically inside a two-year window in which some audio software company will take vastly ramped-up neural network technology (akin to LLMs) and allow an artist or band to pre-record takes for a live show, then watch the mouths of and respond to the actual singing of a vocalist and instead using A.I. to produce (with reference to those backing tracks AND a MIDI basic equivalent) a "flawless" rendition in real-time. Lip synching, which we may have hoped would die out, is about to instead go to whole new levels of capability and thus usage! I'm intrigued to know which artist will be first to employ/deploy the tech when it inevitably arrives... Good on ya Zach for not pandering like all the rest of 'em so-called "coaches"!

[@thebeef420]

I'm not reading that

[@isivaasanaru5643]

Preach. This needs to be heard.

[@xmetax]

Fil from wings of pegasus showed all the pitch corrections on a realtime graph. The amount of pitch correction in modern music is staggering; for some reason, hitting every note perfectly sounds completely forgettable to me. As far as the rasp being unhealthy, nearly all voice coaches comment on it but also note there _is_ a healthy way to do it and singers like David Draimen and Devon Townsend would have not have the long careers they've had and still be able to sing as they do unless they were doing fry correctly. I agree with most of what you say in the video but your also obviously a little too emotionally & subjectively biased. Maybe because of all the fluff "vocal" analysis that has swamped KZbin idk

[@ZachAnsley]

Those vocal coaches say that because it pays the bills. I've talked to several of the other KZbin voice coaches. Very few of them actually believe their own words. There is no peer reviewed longitudinal study that proves the safety of any kind of harsh vocals. The people who have careers from it are the exception to the rule, and even most of them have no idea what they are doing. Devin Townsend himself said in an interview that he has no idea why his voice isn't destroyed by now.

[@paulriddle7818]

Rewatched this again and its still mind blowing what a conjob this is. Certifiable snake oil salesman. Like somehow all of the people in that audience heard something different live then this recording.

[@ZachAnsley]

The audience wasn't there. This was pre-recorded.

[@paulriddle7818]

@ZachAnsley You have every excuse under the book, don't you, Charlatan? It was live to the audience attending. Did you ever attend a Conan show? I have and the guests were all live in front of an audience.

[@paulriddle7818]

@ZachAnsley vocal Coach my bleep. What excuse are you going to give when in the next few years there ample papers written on harsh vocals and distortion in general.

[@yantz8281]

If you speed up the video the pitch correction becomes MUCH more evident

[@KarzGuitar]

serious guitar player here, amateur karaoke-ist at best but I still heard and saw the points you made quite clearly. But seriously, the fake guitar playing at 12:09 is insane. Who thought that was a good idea?! If the vocals are as fake to a vocal teacher as the guitar is fake to a guitarist, then there's really no hope for these kinds of performances to be real.

[@pietrayday9915]

Not really all that weird to those of us who were alive in '76 to hear someone call the TV "the tube" - for one thing, televisions back in the day ran on a technology called a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - but, more interestingly (I hope) is that even in the '70s, the television had earned a popular nickname of "The boob tube" (my parents said it all the time) - from the sense of that word as used for describing a fool or idiot - because it was well understood at the time to be a shut-your-brain-off form of entertainment! And, weirdly, it's where KZbin got its name, as the more euphemistic variation of just "the tube" came to be used as slang for television, and KZbin was billed as "television" starring you..... Do people in general still see television - and its younger brother, the internet - that way, as "brain rot"? Television itself used to have frequent moments of "talking heads" trying to tell us to turn off the television, and go outside for some fresh air, or just read a book... do they still do that? It's been a while since I've watched television proper, but it seems like a long time since I've heard anyone on the internet say anything like that, now that I think of it. Anyway, glad for the breath of fresh air on the "reaction" thing's dirty laundry. Maybe a couple years too late, but that's fair enough. And, it's regrettable that so much of it focused on you, but I suppose that could be fair enough given the backlash you expected.

[@SpaceNinja321]

Yes, the internet term is “touch grass”. Same meaning.

[@johnjulian88]

Thank you for the truth, needed more than ever in the world.

[@theostrich4731]

As Plato once said, "No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."

[@kylepartridge5977]

Based, I love it

[@stephencoxbass]

That last "silence" sold me on how much pitch correction there was. I still believe he's a great singer (in that style...I know you disagree with some of the stylistic choices due to improper technique), but you are right that it's impossible to know what the original performance sounded like. Great video as always! I'd love to hear you cover this in your own way.

[@brenleedee8061]

I love hearing critiques from professionals, yours didn't even seem like a fair critique but almost a witch hunt.....so many things you couldn't even be sure of, yet questioned them and how angry you are it is almost comical, I really don't think people really care about you opinion that much, they watch you go off on things you can't even be sure of.....how is that even fair? You don't like him resonating the consonants, I bet he thinks about that comment every time he sees his bank account.

[@ZachAnsley]

I am absolutely sure of the fact that it was prerecorded and pitch corrected. Draiman himself has already openly admitted it.

[@brenleedee8061]

@@ZachAnsley Can you share where he "openly" admitted it? That seems to be key in this type of video, if you have that information then this video would be irrelevant if he did say that?!?!

[@ZachAnsley]

@@brenleedee8061 Team Coco podcast. You're basically saying that my video is irrelevant either way, and it isn't. Lots of people have no idea how to notice the ways that the industry is deceiving people.

[@brenleedee8061]

@@ZachAnsley I really enjoy vocal analysis and watch many on many different channels...in fact wings of Pegasus did one on John Denver a performance he did(I think it was Annies song live) before auto tune was even a thing and his voice was so perfect that was on the "line"....I am not saying your points are not relevant, but I think maybe the way you come across can seem a bit hostile towards those that may not want to hear that about David.

[@Seizure1993]

He does this at concerts too.i went to the Disturbed Concert At Moody Center, Austin, TX, on Feb 29. You can hear background instruments and cvocal tracks throughout the show, and when you can tell it was real, you can hear a “backing” vocal track and pitch correction. I used to like them, now I strongly dislike them.

[@donclarence3644]

Hi Zach, I really enjoy your videos and hope you come back to youtube. I'm dying to see an analysis of M.Shadows and Nils K. Rue of of Pagan's Mind.

[@ever-openingflower8737]

23:40 "...because there's knocking to critique." Hahaha! You criticize others, yet you misspoke yourself! Hey, just joking! I'm not a hater. Good video. I agree with you.

[@iakampa6265]

Yeah no way it was just a sickness that affected this performance. He obviously has bad tension habits

[@retwerts]

David Draiman is a great singer, but this wasnt a great performance. I just dont know why people can't hold those 2 thoughts together. I think if you had shown examples of David where he actually sounds great live (and real), then most fans would be less oppose to your critique. From all of the popular reaction channels, I like "Lost in Vegas" the most, because althgough they are not voice teachers, they don't hold back - if they dont like something, they dont like it and they would tell you why. Everyone else... yeah, there is no point to even see the reaction, you already know what it is.

[@dgtlgrfiti5551]

Best vocal analyst on KZbin BY FAR. Love your stuff, Mr. Ansley!

[@sergrojGrayFace]

If you ask me, "OMG it's so amazing" reactions aren't entertaining, it's like watching Teletubbies as an adult. Best entertainment is when you learn something new.

[@theostrich4731]

Wow, even as a voice teacher, this was eye opening. I have mad respect for your work.

[@peachpi4025]

18:50 Nailed it. Team Coco’s podcast panel discussed that it was prerecorded. Recording was played during Conan’s show filmed later that day. Team Coco Podcast episode 10/29/21 Edited for spelling :)

[@tarahill2193]

"A lie doesn't become truth,wrong doesn't becme right and evil doesnt become good just because it's accepted by a majority. " -Booker T. Washington

[@PKAPE004]

You proved my suspicion. He sounds too perfect to me in that song.

[@TillieChapman-h5r]

If you come down on this cover I'd hate to see what you do to some real hack.

[@magickowl528]

Well I was kind of interesting your video until you started rambling and The sound of silence is kind of like people don't listen because people don't speak concisely with brevity embellish far too much just like I'm doing now so I just continue on even though I'm very interested

[@TheBinaryRecoil]

I watched up to the segment of 8:50 to 9:05 I can't watch more. It created resonance in my teeth. I don't know what they did but I REALLY don't like it. My tiny little phones standard speaker has never done this to me before.

[@80-d28]

Woah! Major auto tune just before 25.30 like silent raindrops. .

[@vinceblasco]

Hey Zack it is SO good to see you back. You’re such a breath of fresh air. Would you mind analyzing this performance by Brittany Slayes from Unleash the Archers? It’s not the best recording but it is CLEARLY unadulterated. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHzXi4OOrJyHgNE

[@HalfDuck]

Post production fight: Disturbed vs that one dimash s.o.s. performance

[@christine4109]

Dimash does not need autotune, or post production. You can check this SOS performance out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/enOsm4WJm8aHjZI. Absolutely beautiful and his notes are perfect.

[@nickaligeorgas5927]

Great analysis Zach.Spot on.I was watching recently the analysis you did for Eric Adams before few years and i would love to see an analysis of Nessun Dorma from this great singer.

[@80-d28]

Yeah that prayed and made it's like they spliced in the studio track over the live. This is fun. I love your videos! I hear you I get in trouble too cause I hear too much little things and spot notes. It's like it's a bad thing to pay attention. This is how it should be with these reactions.

[@gregzyntek847]

Did you check out the drums also? I doubt your critic. Sorry.

[@jteal6251]

I am crushed. I adored this song. But I would rather have truth. Thank you for teaching me suspicion. I need it.

[@thelonghalloween6923]

Prior to watching this video, every single time I’ve heard this song, I’ve pictured you commenting on the mumbling and extended NNNNNNNs (rather than vowels). I’m a huge Disturbed fan, but I’m also not surprised this is fake. I noticed a change in David’s timbre over time that felt “auto tuned,” particularly after Believe. I never thought it actually WAS auto tuned but I thought it was overproduced and processed.

[@tunesmith2]

Refreshing to see & hear the truth for once on you Tube. Thank you!

[@miso56]

i assume this band has also a video outside a tv production, which is not adjusted (most of tv performances are not so live and due to demands from tv production). so the "mistake" is just on the side of "reviewer" on youtube. the situation on youtube can be far more worse, for example performace/ vocal reviews of "live" albums like kiss - alive! or dream theater - live in marquee.

[@ivankovacic5752]

I was on Disturbed concert in Bulgaria. And enjoyed in David's voice live, without TV-show BS, voice distortion or "state of mind changing ideas". And sorry, his voice sounds almost equally like in the YT videos. And, with or without "fake" notes, he made excellent concert. Very simply, David and Disturbed are group known in US but also in other parts of the world. With thousands of fans. And You sound just like a little hater. With less than 200 comments in 5 months. I think you missed a shot. With one or two changed pitch in some TV show you cannot spit on his popularity in real life. That's point.

[@ZachAnsley]

Ok apologist