This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2022) |
A scratch vocal or guide vocal is an audio recording made without the intention of keeping it. The recording is intended for reference only. [ citation needed ] These vocals can be used for music or animation. In music a singer may use a scratch recording to rerecord the song later. In animation, scratch vocals are often used to check the story and can be kept instead of auditioning for another vocalist.
A scratch vocal is a vocal performance that a singer records to provide a reference track that music producers and audio engineers can use as they craft other pieces of the recorded song.
Most of the time, the singer of a scratch vocal ultimately re-records the vocal performance after production is complete. However, there are a number of exceptions to this rule, such as "The Piña Colada Song" by Rupert Holmes, where the re-recording lacked the desired energy and spontaneity, or "Superstar" by the Carpenters, where the scratch was so well performed that a re-record was deemed unnecessary.
A guide vocal is a vocal performance that a singer records to provide a reference track for another singer or singers who will be performing or recording the song. [1]
Scratch vocals are also often used in the production of feature-length animated films to bring storyboards to life as "animatics," in which storyboard frames are synced to the relevant dialogue, together with a rough soundtrack generated on a synthesizer. Animation directors "hire temporary voices to help find their way through various script revisions, visual renderings and other steps of the process." [2] Scratch vocals may be obtained from professional voice actors (who may or may not be well-established in the voice-over community but are generally unknown to the general public) or from anyone around the studio willing to chip in a line or two (as well as friends or family members). [3]
For lead roles of animated films, scratch vocals are nearly always replaced in the final cut by vocal tracks recorded by bankable stars or experienced character actors. However, in the rush to meet deadlines, if the scratch vocals for a minor role are good enough, the director may skip auditions and simply use the actor who recorded the scratch vocals in the role. This is how many animation studio employees (and their friends and family members) end up with minor credits as cast members on their studio's products. [3]
If scratch vocals for a lead role are exceptionally good, the studio may approve casting of the scratch vocalist in the lead role—as occurred with Pixar's Turning Red (2022). [2]
Toy Story is a 1995 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story franchise, the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. The film was directed by John Lasseter, written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow based on a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney.
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of crude illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic, or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-screen, or non-visible characters in various works such as films, dubbed foreign films, anime, television shows, video games, cartoons, documentaries, commercials, audiobooks, radio dramas and comedies, amusement rides, theater productions, puppet shows, and audio games.
John Dezso Ratzenberger is an American actor. He is best known for playing the character Cliff Clavin on the comedy series Cheers, for which he earned two Primetime Emmy nominations. Ratzenberger reprised the role in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis, an episode of Wings, as well as in an episode of Frasier. He has voiced various characters in several Pixar animated feature films including Hamm in the Toy Story franchise, The Abominable Snowman in the Monsters, Inc. franchise, Mack in the Cars franchise, The Underminer in The Incredibles franchise, Fritz in the Inside Out franchise, and many others.
X-Men: The Animated Series, also known as X-Men, is an animated superhero television series aired in the United States for five seasons from October 31, 1992, to September 20, 1997, on Fox's Fox Kids programming block. It was Marvel Comics' second attempt at an animated X-Men television series after the pilot X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men was not picked up. Set in the same fictional universe as Spider-Man (1994–1998), Earth-92131, it was followed by a revival, X-Men '97, which began airing on March 20, 2024, on Disney+ to critical acclaim.
A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single singer-guitarist, to a large building with space for a full orchestra of 100 or more musicians. Ideally, both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician or audio engineer to achieve optimum acoustic properties.
Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive whole. Multitracking became possible in the mid-1950s when the idea of simultaneously recording different audio channels to separate discrete tracks on the same reel-to-reel tape was developed. A track was simply a different channel recorded to its own discrete area on the tape whereby their relative sequence of recorded events would be preserved, and playback would be simultaneous or synchronized.
Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. In the film, Oliver is a homeless kitten who joins a gang of dogs to survive in the streets. Among other changes, the setting of the film was relocated from 19th century London to 1980s New York City, Fagin's gang is made up of dogs, and Sykes is a loan shark.
Traditional animation is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shift to computer animation in the industry, such as digital ink and paint and 3D computer animation.
Tangled is a 2010 American animated musical adventure fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" in the collection of folktales published by the Brothers Grimm, the film was directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, and produced by Roy Conli, from a screenplay written by Dan Fogelman. Featuring the voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, and Donna Murphy, Tangled tells the story of Rapunzel, a lost young princess with magical long blonde hair who yearns to leave her secluded tower. She accepts the aid of an intruder, the outlaw Flynn Rider, to take her out into the world which she has never seen.
Lip sync or lip synch, short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals.
The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 American animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Jerry Rees. It is based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Thomas M. Disch. The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thurl Ravenscroft, with Wayne Kaatz, Colette Savage, Phil Hartman, Joe Ranft, and Jim Jackman in supporting roles. It is set in a world where domestic appliances and other consumer electronics come to life, pretending to be lifeless in the presence of humans. The story focuses on five anthropomorphic household appliances—a toaster, gooseneck lamp, electric blanket, radio and vacuum cleaner—who go on a quest to search for their owner.
Overdubbing is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more available tracks of a digital audio workstation (DAW) or tape recorder. The overdub process can be repeated multiple times. This technique is often used with singers, as well as with instruments, or ensembles/orchestras. Overdubbing is typically done for the purpose of adding richness and complexity to the original recording. For example, if there are only one or two artists involved in the recording process, overdubbing can give the effect of sounding like many performers.
Joseph Henry Ranft was an American animator, screenwriter, and voice actor. He worked for Pixar Animation Studios and Disney at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Television Animation. His younger brother Jerome Ranft is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar films.
Pitch correction is an electronic effects unit or audio software that changes the intonation of an audio signal so that all pitches will be notes from the equally tempered system. Pitch correction devices do this without affecting other aspects of its sound. Pitch correction first detects the pitch of an audio signal, then calculates the desired change and modifies the audio signal accordingly. The widest use of pitch corrector devices is in Western popular music on vocal lines.
A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach, is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often also helping them to improve their singing technique and take care of and develop their voice, but is not the same as a singing teacher. Vocal coaches may give private music lessons or group workshops or masterclasses to singers. They may also coach singers who are rehearsing on stage, or who are singing during a recording session. Vocal coaches are used in both classical music and in popular music styles such as rock and gospel. While some vocal coaches provide a range of instruction on singing techniques, others specialize in areas such as breathing techniques or diction and pronunciation.
Elissa Knight is an American employee at Pixar and voice actress. As a voice actress, her first major role was in the 2006 film Cars as one of the twins known as Tia and as Eve in WALL-E in 2008.
Sarah L. Buras, professionally known as Serabee, is an American singer-songwriter. She has released Six studio albums.
Dug Days is an American animated series of shorts created, written, and directed by Bob Peterson and produced by Pixar Animation Studios initially for Disney+. The series is set immediately after the 2009 film Up, following its main characters, dog Dug, voiced by Peterson, and his owner, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, voiced by Ed Asner in one of his last performances before his death.
Rosalie Chiang is an American actress. She is known for her leading role of Meilin Lee in the Pixar animated film Turning Red (2022).