Acapella just means voices only, but once in a while the beatboxer, Kevin, will expertly play his cello and beatbox at the same time. Check out “Kiss From A Rose”, if you really want to be impressed.
I love this from PTX! They perform this live. They do use the auto tune on Cher’s song because she was the first major artist to use it on this song. For style, not because needed. They can do this great live. Mitch’s voice can sound very EDM.
Scott Hoying (the tall blond baritone) has a short video out there of him layering his voice for *all* the voice parts (including the alto and soprano) of a choir as a backup for one of their recorded songs. I was so happy when I saw them do this live last summer!
There are several LIVE in front of an audience live they do this song. Hunt one of them up, and tell me what they do, or don't do. Actually listen to any of their live performances against the studio, and tell me the difference. Although when they first started out, they were accused of pulling a Milli Vanilli, so now they all especially Scott will change something in the concerts to prove they aren't lip-syncing.
I kinda thought the same that layering is sort of cheating before. But just you know they did doubling on their voices to make the entire mix sounds fuller. Like one vocal line has actually 3 doubled track. Other wise it will sound super thin. So I think layering isn’t really that big because all they’re doing is making their space in mix fuller and richer to “kinda” compete with the modern era where there’s like 200 tracks in one song.
As long as it's only voices and not instruments used, no matter the effects put on them, I consider it acapella. No bass tracks, no keyboards, just vocal sounds.
These groups routinely use multi-tracking, sound engineering and pitch correction. None of that is "cheating," per se. Some might be shocked about the post production manipulation, but that doesn't change that it happens. Not ONLY Pentatonix, but they are 'produced.' Many seem to think the videos they are watching are actually live voices. They aren't in almost all cases. In my opinion, you can't get this finished product unless you START with exceptional talent.
