The R2D2-esque "beep/whistle" in "All The Beautiful Worlds"
 

Does anyone else hear this? It comes at the 0:45-0:46 mark during the word "on" when the girls sing the line "on the edge of my heart"...please tell me I'm not going crazy. I've been meaning to bring this up for the last couple of weeks now. I hear it EVERY TIME! In fact, I wait for it, because I know it's coming. :lol:

This isn't the first time that "weird sounds" have popped up in Stevie's music. There is what sounds like a screech at 0:56 on "Think About It" before they sing "fortune is your life's love" for the first time.

And in the first chorus of "Sorcerer", during the pause in between the first "black ink darkness" and "who found..." (the 1:29 mark) there is what either sounds like someone humming or the faint sound of a wooden chair scraping against the floor.

I can hear all of these "weirdnesses" clearly on my car stereo, but they are of course REALLY NOTICEABLE with earphones/ear buds.

Add a new one...On "Cathouse Blues" at 2:37-39 it sounds like someone is talking in the background...

Strangely enough, I don't hear anything there. :shrug:

Me neither :shrug::shrug::shrug::shrug:

It's at the end of the last "yeah" ..Maybe it's not a voice but it's there.

now I will need to check to see if i can hear what you are describing.

one thing I've noticed is however they're tweaking/processing her voice, it messes with her Ss on some songs.. .really noticeable on Watch Chain which I just listened to in the car on the way home.. It sounds like she's got reallllly badly fitting dentures or something.. her Ss are verrrry slushy-- but only in certain places like it was a different take edited in, or an effect was on her voice to auto tune it or blur it a bit or something and it isn't noticeable til she says the letter S.

It's REALLY noticeable at about 1:24, when she sings:

"beware of the danger
as you cross the great water
be careful of strangers
who are new to your eyes"

It sounds like she has a wicked lisp on the bolded/italic parts

then on the first "people who look/not straight at you" it's there a little bit though this one is not as bad

compare this to all the other Ss she says thru the whole song up to that part. From the beginning-- "soft faded jeans" "soft shirt" "perfect dreams" the first "watch chain becomes you" is a little mushy but the second one is perfectly clear and normal.

Then she sings more Ss "soft tired face" "kitchen lace" "should hold your hand" "do you understand". All those Ss are very clear, crisp, and not lispy at all.

Oh my God!!! You are soooo right!!! I'm laughing my ass off! It's like Cindy Brady singing! :lol::lol::lol:

God, I hope thith doethn't ruin the thong for me in the future!!!

ok that made me snort out loud!

here are some more for you:

Mabel Normand

at 1:37 her Ss on "same" and "since" aren't exactly lispy but they're kinda "spitty" like she's got a lot of spit in her mouth or something… see if you hear it too. Compare those Ss to the S in "still it's all the same" right after and hear how different they are.

2:59.. similar thing on "passes" and "circumstance"

Then OMG at 3:15
"cause patterns" Cindy Brady returns "cauth patternth"

following that "someone" "someone" and "say" are back to that slurry/spitty thing


Starshine

:38 "he said" "this is the price" is that slurry/spitty thing going on

If You Were My Love

She sounds fine on "lost" but then at
:51 there's something funky with her Ss on "where is the wild white rose"

What do you think?

She does it in Mabel Normand too. "Things are not the shame, Shinshe you've been gone Rome burned down" That bit really stood out to me. It sounds like she's had a few too many gin and tonics before she got in the recording booth :lol:

I reckon it's loose fitting dentures. It's a pretty common problem for people who wear false teeth. I think in an ideal world she would probably wanted sharper vocals, but the album was made with a strict time limit, so I suspect that played a part.

Too much de-esser applied to the vocal track, maybe? :lol:

People with new veneers also seem to have this problem. I notice it with actors and others who are older and have impossibly white/large teeth. But seriously hers don't look different, and she sounds find on Ss elsewhere. I blame computer tweaking on the production side.

Nah, S's are just notoriously tricky to get right on recording.

But back to R2D2...anyone hear this?

I don't, actually. I've listened to it a few times but I still can't spot it.

yeah but there's no consistency in how they sound even within the same song. Some are crystal, mega clear and others are slurry and blurry and lispy, which leads me to think they are either edits from different takes or there's some studio wizardry that was done on her voice in those sections. her voice has to have been tweaked on some previous albums, but none sound as egregious as this. I'd love to know what would cause that, if anyone knows the technical ins and outs of digital recording/pro tools/whatever software is currently used. :shrug: