What Every Singer Should Fear

The audience is loud and abuzz with excitement. Lights swirl around the stage and audience. Low volume downtempo music is pumped through the speakers as a prelude to the music about to be heard.

The band is heard behind tall curtains tuning up in preparation for the opening. The audience screams with anticipation of the curtains rising. Then, the band starts. They are playing a popular song and the lead singer and background vocals are right in sync with the band. The audience is stirred and applauding in anticipation to the curtain rising. The curtain rises, and there is the band. The audience screams!

Vocals are in complete sync with the music. Throughout the audience sparse impressions of the vocal arrangement can be heard. Everyone is grooving and happy.

There is no lead singer visible, and there are no background singers visible. However, the stage is covered with dancers gyrating to the beat, band members playing their respective instruments and visibly suspicious is a keyboard player, playing notes that seem to be in concert with the lead and background vocals.

- - -

The above scenario sounds like science fiction - a band and no singers, though singers are heard. We may not be too far off in seeing this scenario unfold. Software manufacturers are busily creating software that sings (not speaks) the words that are typed and played via MIDI.

I for one can’t wait for this day to arrive, especially as one who can’t sing. I fully support jazz, r&b, downtempo, electronic and urban musicians, especially those with talent but can’t sing. I know how difficult it is to find a gifted singer who doesn’t have an ego. If this sounds like I’m bitter because I can’t sing, you’re right! I don’t know if you’ve noticed the past decade how musicians seem to be an extinct species, especially on stage. You usually have singers, dancers but no musicians. Granted, this depends upon genre, but even some genres that you never think this could happen to, it's happening. Often times there is a single person with a keyboard playing full jazz ensembles or full symphonies.

Audio and MIDI loops have just about extinguished talented musicians. Anyone with GarageBand or Sonar can create a pretty nice sounding groove. And worse of all, no one cares how the song is made. If it has a nice groove, the making of it is irrelevant.

This is why the creation of the virtual singer is on my wish list. Because if musicians have to be relegated to the background, and symphonies to pits, so should singers.

This would also be a good way to weed out poor singers, because they would be in competition with software. Poor singers who use software to manipulate their voice to be in tune with the music wouldn’t be needed. The software would sing and there would be no need for tuning thus reducing the production work load.

And most importantly, the egos of singers can be placed in check. Most musicians say, if only I can sing. Well soon they will be saying, if only I could afford singing software.