Bono's range/singing on HTDAAB

[ZOOTVTOURist]

No, no – I wouldn't call it "cheat" either. It is just a technically supported effect, putting more drama and emphasis on the notes, he actually does hit ...

 

[last unicorn]

Of course it's him singing the notes, it's live. He is always singing it differently, you can clearly hear that. Sometimes his voice is shakier and sometimes it's strong and great. It's his new and improved voice that enables Bono to sing like that, it wouldn't have been possible on the Elevation tour. Whenever I hear Miss Sarejevo live I cannot help but think that the whole song is in fact the building up for the opera part. It's such a contrast, because the song itself is so subtle, almost more murmured than sung, and then the opera part kicks in, which Bono starts singing almost casually ... I like the way it's building up to that one long note.

 

[U2opra]

Plus, what about when he's live solo with artists like Alicia Keys and Kylie? I doubt he has total control over other artists set-ups to still sing good from performance to performance. Therefore it is almost definitely him.

His voice is just that good now.

 

[astronaut_baby]

Well, one of the reasons why his voice sounds a bit different on the opera part of Miss Sarajevo, may be because he uses a different singing technique
I don't know about effects and such, but of course your voice changes when you hit those high notes with such power.

 

[BVS]

Yes it's a different technique and yes thicker reverb and a little delay, none of which change the note. Singers have been using reverb and delay since the very beginning, nothing new.

 

[Peterrrrr]

Plus, what about when he's live solo with artists like Alicia Keys and Kylie? I doubt he has total control over other artists set-ups to still sing good from performance to performance. Therefore it is almost definitely him.

His voice is just that good now.

And the performences with Alicia and Kylie where great. "Keep my ARMS down below" on don't give up

 

[Jdelbove]

about the italian part is miss sarajevo I believe it is completely live no effects its all Bono. I do know what people have been talking about when they say somtimes on big nots he sounds thinner normaly like the sing in Somtimes on HTDAAB and on the lamour in Miss Sarajevo he sounds thicker and powerful. this is true

but I think this deomstrates that this is just the nature of the power of his voice - examples and clips follow

he has had this ability for a long time and I have been noticing it for about 5 years. Its almost as if he 2 voices somtimes. His normal sining voice and then a voice he can call upon at certain moments where he can produce huge bursts of power. Have u heard the music cares version of Night and Day where he sings an improvisation towards the end of the song with extreme operatic power as if his voice has no top. Dont tell me they did a backing track for that rare random one off prefomance.

The ending of Walk On at 2002 grammys around 5:10. Where is rough elevation touring voice is still able to reach this register - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pthck2ZfLH4

New Years Day live from Buenos Aires (its true its truuuuuue, we can break throooough, though torn in twooooo part) around 2:15 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7M...rs buenos aires argentina tour live bono edge

Hands that built America live on the Today Show in 2004. Listen to the end the way he sings Americaaaaaaaaa his voice is huge about 4:14 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI7LjGVO0ik

Even Beautiful Day at Slane on the DVD at the end where he starts singing "you dont need it now, dont need is nooooow it was a beautiful daaaaaay its almost as if his voice changes into a different register much bigger and thicker.

These examples deomonstrate the operatic power Bono's voice has had in the past few years. Clearly as his voice has become stronger Miss Sarajevo became possible. Further I truely beleive they only started preforming this song to show of Bono's new voice so to speak and with good reason too. Listening to the clips posted you can hear the same quality in those notes that you hear in the live preformaces of Miss Sarajevo's opera part. So either they have used backing track on all these various preformances or maybe its the most oviouse conclusion Bono has always had a strong voice and still does perhaps even more so now.

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

Of course it's him singing the notes, it's live. ... I like the way it's building up to that one long note.

... as you know, I disagree completely. Just because Bono is singing live – which he does – I'm nearly sure, there is a kind of enhancing effect (at least delay, reverb etc.) in the higher Italian lines ...

 

[BVS]

You don't make ANY sense!

First you say it's not 100% live, which would mean a backing track.

Then you say it's "It is just a technically supported effect, ...he actually does hit". What doesn't even make any sense. If he hit the note he wouldn't need "technical support".

And then you say, you disagree it's live again by saying it's sung live but with delay and reverb. double

Do you know what reverb and delay are?



Yes it has reverb and delay. That's obvious to anyone who knows what reverb and delay are... EVERY rock singer has reverb when singing live, some reverb naturally occurs due to the venue itself. And delay WILL cover any imperfections of a long note. But guess what if you hit a bad note on delay, it will just be a bad note on delay...doesn't really help you out much does it?

I'm not sure how you think this makes it less than 100% live.

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

You don't make ANY sense!

... and you can call me Al!
But because you seemed to fall in love with this discussion, I do you the favour again:

A lot of people here think, that Bono does the higher Italian lines just by the way he's singing in the mic – without any technical supoort, without special effects enriching the thickness of his voice. This is clearly not the way it is,.
Bono does not only change his way of singing 'more opera'-like, which he does in an excellent way hitting the notes. But the general mic-sound of his singing does change, which is a proof, that there are technical possibilities used to enrich/change the sound of the LV. You can now tell the 100th time, this is normal in music business – which for me personally is already known – but I guess, it is not clear for many people out there having asked about it. I'm not talking – and have never done so – about Bono singing playback or ad-lipping. Okay? So now, please give it a rest. I'll do so (*smile*) – peace.

 

[Peterrrrr]

... and you can call me Al!
But because you seemed to fall in love with this discussion, I do you the favour again:

A lot of people here think, that Bono does the higher Italian lines just by the way he's singing in the mic – without any technical supoort, without special effects enriching the thickness of his voice. This is clearly not the way it is,.
Bono does not only change his way of singing 'more opera'-like, which he does in an excellent way hitting the notes. But the general mic-sound of his singing does change, which is a proof, that there are technical possibilities used to enrich/change the sound of the LV. You can now tell the 100th time, this is normal in music business – which for me personally is already known – but I guess, it is not clear for many people out there having asked about it. I'm not talking – and have never done so – about Bono singing playback or ad-lipping. Okay? So now, please give it a rest. I'll do so (*smile*) – peace.

The only thing they use is the echo. I don't see why people believe that he is using "cheats". The "L'amoure" note is much easier for him to hit then the "Sing" part on SYCMIOYO, HIGH C on Bad and WGRYWH. As I wrote earlier Bono's point with singing MS was to show how god his operatic voice is. He wanted to suprise the crowd. SO WHY USE ANY CHEATS TO HIT THE NOTE, the whole thing would be meaningless if he used a cheat. If he used "cheats" the opera note would have sound almost the same everytime he sang it. But Compare the Milan dvd to Gothenburg to Tokyo... All sound different.

 

[BVS]

... and you can call me Al!
But because you seemed to fall in love with this discussion, I do you the favour again:

A lot of people here think, that Bono does the higher Italian lines just by the way he's singing in the mic – without any technical supoort, without special effects enriching the thickness of his voice. This is clearly not the way it is,.
Bono does not only change his way of singing 'more opera'-like, which he does in an excellent way hitting the notes. But the general mic-sound of his singing does change, which is a proof, that there are technical possibilities used to enrich/change the sound of the LV. You can now tell the 100th time, this is normal in music business – which for me personally is already known – but I guess, it is not clear for many people out there having asked about it. I'm not talking – and have never done so – about Bono singing playback or ad-lipping. Okay? So now, please give it a rest. I'll do so (*smile*) – peace.

Calm down. I was just trying to understand what part wasn't 100% live.

 

[gvox]

The only effect Bono use on concerts is the echoes. But thoses echoes dosnet make your voice sound different or dosnet make the NOTE longer(just an echo of it).

Dude, I really respect all the stuff you know about Bono's vocals...but when you say something like this it really detracts from the validity. It's just not factual.

1. There isn't really an effect called "echoes". Tape Echo is an old common preset in alot of DELAY units, but it is just one of perhaps a hundred different types of delay. A good example of where that old tape echo delay is used is in old versions of I Will Follow...another is Discoteque. Miss Sarajevo and/or Sometimes are definitely not Tape Echo examples. They are different types of delay.

2. Of course Bono is using other effects than just a delay. Cmon now! In JO's palette, you'd most likely find reverb (actually, thats for sure), compression, tube pre, chorus, eqs, exciters, and on and on the list goes. And it makes a DRAMATIC difference in the way the voice sounds. Depending on the various setting of the delay and or reverb, yes of course it can trick the human ear into thinking the note is longer!

**NOTE: I'm not saying he's not singing the notes, but to say that there is no other effect than 'echo', and that effects can't help fill out the vocal signal and sustain notes, I'm sorry, that's just not accurate. I'd say the only thing he isn't obviously using is pitch correction. You're talking about a band who, together with their tech, pioneered advancements in the live music arena. To assert that they wouldn't be using very standard effects, thats just naive.

 

[gvox]

Plus, what about when he's live solo with artists like Alicia Keys and Kylie? I doubt he has total control over other artists set-ups to still sing good from performance to performance. Therefore it is almost definitely him.

That's not really a good barometer. Honestly if you can't tell the difference between how he sounds for those one-offs with other artists and how he sounds for 100 shows last tour... .. I can certainly tell, it's night and day for petes' sake.

 

[gvox]

about the italian part is miss sarajevo I believe it is completely live no effects its all Bono. .

You're just plain wrong. It's all his vocal signal, yes. As in no, there is no backing track and no there is no apparent pitch correction. But to assert that his voice is '100% live no effects', that's just silly and absolutely wrong.

Can't you even hear the stuff going on there?? Well, just baecause you can't hear it doesn't mean it's not happening - it just means Joe's doing an excellent job.

 

[gvox]

The only thing they use is the echo.

 

[Peterrrrr]

Well, if you listen to the earpeice recordings or unoffical sb recrodings you often hear Bono's voice without effects. And the only thing I can hear thats different is the "DELAY".

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

You're just plain wrong. It's all his vocal signal, yes. As in no, there is no backing track and no there is no apparent pitch correction. But to assert that his voice is '100% live no effects', that's just silly and absolutely wrong.

Can't you even hear the stuff going on there?? Well, just baecause you can't hear it doesn't mean it's not happening - it just means Joe's doing an excellent job.

Ahem, thanx to you mate – but we won't convince, I fear ...

 

[gvox]

my final word on this, I promise (hope? lol)

Don't assume that IEM recordings are completely effect-less, alot of singers don't want a completely dry monitor mix, it's a bit disconcerting especially when heard in relevance to a guitar that's already loaded with effect before it even hits the mic off the amp. Even the drums and bass, all these pieces have characteristics that can be modified by the musician/tech before the soundguy even gets ahold of it, so they have 'effects' inherently built into their signal, to some extent. The voice doesn't. You can't tweak the voice before it goes into the mic, it goes into the mic and everything after that is up to your soundguy. Simply put, if you have monitor mix where you as the singer are completely dry, the net effect is that everyone else sounds brilliant and like they are playing a concert, and you sound boring and like youre singing in your basement. So yeah, you get a bit of effects in your monitor mix. Some other semi/pro singers here might disagree with me and say they like a completely dry vocal monitor, well to each their own. If my soundguy is good and is making me sound sexy and exciting, I'd like to know it more than the times when I go out on the floor, I mean why not, it makes me more confident. Delay in your ear is very distracting and can throw you off, so most singers opt out of the delay, but there is other stuff going on. imo Bono is not dry in his IEM, given what I personally know about IEMs and how the voice sounds completely dry in an IEM. No way.

Most unofficial soundboards come off the signal before it gets any effects, ie the basic mix off the stage board. It doesn't really matter because it's never intended for public consumption anyways. Most official releases, of course, are taped from the effects return for each channel, for what should be obvious reasons.

A good example is the Vancouver soundboard. That is a dry Bono vocal signal, if there ever was one. It was recorded before the effects send, or pre-effects, I'm almost positive. Compare that with a Bono IEM mix. Night and day difference in what's going on there, and it's got nothing to do with delay. THen compare it to a Larry IEM mix. Different again. I'd have to dig around but I've got a Larry IEM where you can't hear Bono's guitar, period. Does that mean that Bono's IEM didn't have it or that the soundboard didn't have it? No, it's just a different mix, that's all. Then an official release: different again, and likely closer to what was heard on the floor.

One of the great things about having the same soundguy over your career is that you always sound somewhat similar over the span of said career. Bono/U2 are smart, they kept a good guy around and he does his thing and keeps them consistent. And believe me, the difference in how you can sound from a good soundman/one that you always work with and a bad/random soundman? It's phenomenal, trust me!! But all in all, it can't fix a bad singer, as someone mentioned before, heavy delay on a bad note just means a bad note ringing out longer. Bono still has to do the work to get those notes, but how rich, thick, thin, powerful, booming, whaetver other untechnical word, they sound has a hell of alot to do with Joe.

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

Thanx for the words – you nail it, mate.