This won them their first Grammy for the arrangement. Amazingly, they only spent about $400 for basic supplies and filming which was done in Avi and Kevin's apartment using a closet for the recording booth and filming and editing in the kitchen. It was sent out for "polishing" which would have cost some more moolah, but still...it's just incredible when you think about the complexities and perfect timing they needed in their vocals to sound to robotic. I recommend their original, Love Again which has a similar EDM beat and is just as impressive visually and auditory as Daft Punk.
They won their first Grammy for that : ) I love these creative and unconventional PTX arrangements where they really try something new, step out of their comfort zone, and show what is possible with acapella. For me, this is one of their greatest strengths. Other ones, for example, are "Aha!", "Come Along", "Gold", "making Christmas" or "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" (their second Grammy arrangement). So Cool that you're going down this rabbit hole!! It's going to be amazing! And there is no better time for PTX then Christmas season!! You definitely need to check out "joyful, joyful life from the evergreen tour“ and "Oh come all ye faithful".
Their second Grammy was for Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. As we Pentaholics like to say, a band with no instruments singing a song with no words and won another Grammy. #3 was for Jolene with Dolly Parton.
I'm a Pentaholic as well. My daughter got me into listening to them. They also have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And if you noticed that Mitch lost a lot of weight and didn't have any hair when they did "Jolene" with Dolly Parton. It was because he was diagnosed with cancer before Avi left. He is cancer free since they caught it in time. Another PTX you might want to check out is Kevin's Fifth. That is amazing.
Omg, how could you write such a thing : / Mitch never had cancer! These are long-time confirmed fake news. I don't know where you read this. Scott shaved his hair for fun in a superfruit video, and he liked the look for a while. And after 2 Months he already let his hair grow again. If anything, he was anorexic and had psychological problems. But he talks about it extremely rarely and has never officially confirmed it. In his podcast, he sometimes mentions "eating well" and other things. However, he was a member of an association for anorexics. He once gave an interview that can only be found very rarely. It's called Project HEAL. But please believe me, I'm a long-life fan, and I saw all the superfruit videos and listened to Mitch's Patreon podcast. He never had cancer!! I think there is actually a superfruit vlog video in which he and Scott talk about this rumor and deny it.@@iluvutube2011
Theres a private performance they did of this song in a greenroom with no mics no editing ot anything. And its sounds so good. You might be interested. :)
Pentatonix does have a genius sound engineer, Ed Boyer, who specializes in a capella music (he also worked on the Pitch Perfect movies). For their a capella studio tracks, he mixes to get the best balance, he "positions" each voice so with headphones you hear the voices in specific locations, he does some filtering / sound processing such as applying echo, making the bass and percussion sound sharper, etc. But if you hear them do a song live you won't notice much difference. There is a version of "Daft Punk" that they did live in a small conference room for a Make-a-Wish request, with no mics and recorded on a phone, so if you want to see how they sound with absolutely no processing or sound board tricks here it is -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tw4YCsHXKgI.html
Thanks! You saved the rest of us some typing. And YES anyone who hasn't seen it should listen to them in that private room cell recording. And YES, should also check out a vid of this song from one of their live performances, where they *do* use microphones but have almost zero sound processing
Great reaction! If you thought this was good, their original, Love Again will blow you away!!! It is a party in itself and does not get enough credit. Their originals don't get enough credit. I have played it for people and they don't believe me it is acapella!! Hope you react to it!
This was my introduction to PTX and it did not even occur to me that it was a capella... Several comments suggest Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy -- they won a grammy as an a capella group for a song that has no words, instrumental only. If that doesn't blow your mind the video for it will... Suggest you react to Happy Now or Coffee In Bed, two of their originals.
For another video like Daft Punk try watching their ORIGINAL song/video "Love Again". Another EDM vibe & KO kills the beatboxing on it. Of course, the Trio & Avi are great too!! Their costumes in this one take on a steam punk vibe which totally fits the song. I really think you will like this one as well. 💓💓💓
Thank you for reacting to this fun, early Pentatonix medley of 7 songs by Daft Punk. They are the kings and queen of medleys and mashups. Glad that you liked it. Please react to Pentatonix medley "90s Dance Medley". It's fun too. Please create playlists for the artists and bands for which you have done reactions, especially Pentatonix.
The deep bass beats are coming from Avi Kaplan in support of Kevin Olusola's beatboxing. You will also hear "wind sounds" and other pieces of "tech noise" as they go on.
I think their original 'run to you' is still an underappreciated masterpiece, so that would be a good one to react to. Also, come chrustmas, their live recording of 'silent night' is wonderful!!
I think you would really enjoy their 90’s Dance Medley. Plus you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement because it’s a mashup of a lot of songs. They make them all sound just so darn good.
This was their first Grammy. Check out their other two, Dance of the sugar plum fairy and Joleen with Folly Parton, and then check out the Prayer (if you haven’t as that one should’ve been their 4th).
You know about the origin of Pentatonix, right? About how they won season 3 of _The Sing-Off_ with a first prize of $200,000 and a recording contract? Well, that recording contract was with Epic Records, a minor subsidiary of Sony, who sponsored _The Sing-Off._ So immediately after winning the contract all the members of Pentatonix moved to California in preparation for recording their music, and a week later Epic reneged on the contract, saying that they didn't know how to market a cappella music. But at this point Pentatonix was totally invested in staying together and making a career for themselves doing what they loved best, with the people they loved best. They weren't about to give up just because some short-sighted recording executives said there was no future in their music. So they came up with Plan B. They pooled their winnings, using the $200,000 as seed money. They lived frugally. The men shared two apartments, to cut down on rent. They arranged music and rehearsed every day. And whenever they had a song ready they'd record it on their iPhones and post it to RU-vid. It didn't take long for their fans from _The Sing-Off_ to find their channel and subscribe, and even then pentaholics were enthusiastic, so they spread the word around. And some of them became patrons. And Pentatonix started going viral. And someone at Sony sat up and took notice. "Hey, Pentatonix! Here at Sony we've concluded that Epic made a big mistake when they cancelled your contract. But we have another subsidiary, named Madison Gate. Would you be interested in a contract with them?" Darn right Pentatonix was interested! It wasn't a terribly good contract; Madison Gate specialized in movie soundtracks, so they couldn't provide Pentatonix with a recording studio, for instance. But they could and did get a company named FifGen Films to record videos for Pentatonix, and they published albums, and albums bring in money. It was a start. "Daft Punk Medley" was released on PTX Volume II, their second album, in 2013. And in 2014 it won them their first Grammy. And someone at Sony said, "Wait a minute! We got a Grammy from MADISON GATE?! Madison Gate publishes film soundtracks, not Grammy winners! What's going on here?" Eventually they figured it out, and they heard Scott's acceptance speech from the Grammys, where he said that the budget had been $400, much of which went for makeup and a single ring light, and that the audio had been recorded in a closet. Hmmm. Think what they could have done with a proper recording studio and a decent budget. "Hey, Pentatonix. Congratulations on the Grammy! We've been thinking some more, and we've concluded that you might find a better fit with our flagship company, RCA. What do you think?" Pentatonix has been with RCA ever since.
They did an Original song around the same time they produced this hit. The creative concept of this video inspired them to do an EDM song of their own with an alien steampunk theme to their costumes. The song is called LOVE AGAIN. Mitch is a beast on lead vocals and hearing Kevin do his 808 bassdrop in your headphones makes you feel like your at an edm Festival. He's amazing.
The audio was recorded in a closet that had good acoustics. They had a venue lined up for the video, but it fell through at the last moment so someone at FifGen suggested that they buy a set of black sheets and use them to make a sort of photo booth in one of their kitchens. And since the list of what they spent their $400 budget on includes a SINGLE ring light, which we see behind each singer, it's fair to conclude that they filmed each singer separately. I don't know where the black light came from; it isn't mentioned in the $400 budget. FifGen may have had one on hand. I believe Avi was making the whooshing sounds, just as he did in "Bohemian Rhapsody." I have no idea what they used to make the blue line between a couple of his cornrows. There's a SuperFruit video from around this time of Scott deciding to try bleaching his hair; I believe this is the reason his hair is white in this. Kevin's eyes couldn't tolerate the contacts, hence the visor. From how red his eyes were it appears that Avi was also having problems with the contacts. The Grammy was for "Best Arrangement Instrumental Or A Cappella," a category that didn't exist prior to 2013. It HAD been "Best Arrangement Instrumental," but it was so obvious that this song rated a Grammy that the academy decided to tweak the categories just so it could be nominated. Their second Grammy, for "Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy," was in the same category. Both of those Grammys are shared with Ben Bram, who is listed as an arranger on their songs. I recommend listening to the "Daft Punk mix private performance": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tw4YCsHXKgI.htmlsi=aqOSJrXiBSnAvd_Y This is a fan video, taken on a cell phone. Pentatonix are off-mic, in a quiet room. We can't hear Kevin very well - he really does need mics - but they make it abundantly clear that they don't need fancy technology to perform this song.
The buzzing sounds you refer to are Avi's overtone singing. He's given several demonstrations; here's one, beginning at 3:14 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3gnSTPT-2GQ.html Here's Avi explaining how to do it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fEEAfNij_JU.html and this is an interview where the trio and Kevin demonstrate that they also know how to do it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FKm5zNC-maE.html (the question about overtone singing begins at 17:11, but the whole interview is worth watching). And since Avi's explanation wasn't quite enough for me to understand how to do it, here's a tutorial I found: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-w42DQoZ-z_c.html It's really surprisingly easy; my voice is nothing special, but I can do overtone singing.
Kevin the Beatboxer is amazing.... I never request anything but this one piece. Ok, so on RU-vid there is a 17+ minute video taped during their 2022 Christmas Tour called Kevin's 5th... The Kevin Show... Scott starts with the story of how they were trying to find a Beatboxer to try out for the Sing-Off.... I would love to see your reaction... it will seriously 🤯
You should definitely watch their other Grammy wins, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Jolene (with the one and only Dolly Parton!) Also, as it's approaching Xmas but still is Spooky season, give their Making Christmas (from Nightmare Before Christmas), My Favorite Things, and Aha! (official video) a go as the videos definitely give off spooky vibes. And then start diving into their Xmas music! There is SO much of it it's really better to start sooner rather than later with them.
This song won them their first Grammy and it was filmed (I believe) on a $400 budget, filmed at Scott’s kitchen table and recorded in a closet. I have been following them since The Sing-off. They are fantastic. I just saw them in concert a couple weeks ago and they are even better live. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️(also please watch more Buffy)
The visuals on "Daft Punk" are unique. They do use some split screen stuff in "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch," and this is a qood time of year for that; Christmas is coming. I recommend "Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy" and "Waltz Of The Flowers," both from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite." The originals are entirely instrumental so the songs have no words, but since when has Pentatonix let a little detail like that stop them? They won their second Grammy for their arrangement of "Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy," but I prefer "Waltz Of The Flowers."
Avi was a HUGE support to Kevin with the effects for this recording. They often worked together to maintain a full sound for many songs, with Avi jumping from singing melody or harmony to holding the bassline to adding to Kevin's effects. In truth, they all fill in according to their skills wherever it can enhance the song. Are you aware that Avi can sing two notes at once? It's the most other-worldly sound, and he did it a number of times in the early days with PTX, including their first ever performance, which was on the Sing-Off TV show in 2011. There are some terrific clips of him demonstrating that skill live on tour. Just check out Avi the lion sleeps tonight. We love Matt, but we also miss Avi's amazing contributions. Great reaction. Really enjoy following you and PTX.
@@philipem1000 That's so cool. Breath control is such a phenomenal thing. I did some meditation sessions with a guy who plays the didgeridoo, and they have their own circular breathing thing, which I realize is a different skill than overtones, but is just as fascinating to hear, imo.
Other impressive songs to watch...Carol Of The Bells. I don't think Mitch breathes one time during the whole song. The 2nd Grammy winner Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy. So impressive! And lastly, New Rules x Are You That Somebody. I'm this one Kevin and Matt show out with the beat boxing and bass line. Better than the original in my opinion. Great reaction Dude!!! You always do a fantastic job! Thank you!! Hope you are doing well. Sending you love from Texas!!
Since it is October you should definitely check out their take on My Favorite Things (originally from The Sound of Music). Think of it as Steam Punk meets Tim Burton for a Mad Hatter’s tea party.
Great reaction! You should check out Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Its one of my favorite videos of theirs and how can you skip a band with no instruments performing a song with no words?
So glad you did this one! Thank you!! I think your summary included a lot of my thoughts as well and why I just keep coming back to this one from PTX. It just showcases each of them in the best possible way 😊
One of my absolute favourite PTX songs/videos! There's a live version which shows how tight they are, if you are interested. I hope you will do their _History_ _of_ _Music_ and _Imagine_ too.
Kevin is their Beatboxer so he does the sounds but hes also a world class Cello player as seen in their Radioactive video which also features Lindsey Sterling whos on the Violin (the two of them together in that video is amazing)
I love Pentatonix. Please react to more. You should check out their live performances also. My favorite is "Joyful Joyful" Live from the evergreen experience.
How are they doing this? With timing and precision. They are amazingly in sync. Kevin and Avi both work on the percussion/effects in this one. When they are performing live, they have a metronome beat in their "in-ear" mics, which helps them deal with the differing acoustics of the performance venues, but they don't need that in a controlled recording environment. As to the tone/electro on the melody sections, Mitch is a fantastic mimic and helped the others with how they sang the notes. I have heard them do this live (this past August).
A little trivia about the sunglasses Kevin's wearing: The contacts were bothering Avi and Kevin's eyes. Avi's slightly less than Kevin, since he could still wear them even though you could tell they were making his eyes red, but they bothered Kevin's eyes so much that he couldn't wear them and they went with the futuristic sunglasses look instead.
Watch the live version of it to see they didn't use any distortion. Nineties Dance Medley is similar so watch that too. Avi and Kevin carry this song perfectly. Any song of theirs is my favorite. I literally don't dislike any of them.
Great reaction to the best $400 song ever! -- That is what it cost them to produce this after their label temporarily dropped them. It was filmed in a closet of Avi's and Kevin's apartment kitchen.⬅ Two other of their effects-heavy songs are: 1) 90's Dance Medley (auto-tune in certain spots, but when you hear it you'll know why) 2) Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (acapella not enough? How about no lyrics, either?)
I have seen your PTX reactions and subscribed today with you watching Daft Punk. They are known for so much diversity in genre. 3 Grammys for this, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies and Jolene with Dolly Parton. Other covers I love are Can’t Hold Us, Imagine, Problem, Papaoutai, Radioactive, Gold, New Rules x Are you that Somebody? And all their medleys and evolutions like Michael Jackson and Perfume Medley. For originals I like Love Again, Coffee in Bed, Water, Sing and for Christmas you need to check out Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Little Drummer Boy, Mr Grinch. Just a sampling to start.
yes, that is all them. sure, there is a bit of polishing in the studio but nothing more than some reverb to make them sound more dynamic on recording. the sounds they are making are 100% them. I still highly recommend Imagine, New Rules x Are You That Somebody, Havana, and all of their Evolution of... videos (Music, Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Beyonce, Ariana Grande). ❤
I think their Evolution of Michael Jackson is amazing. Anything that sounds like an instrument in this (like the wind or synth) is coming from Kevin or Avi. Avi is great because he hit two notes at the same time. Kevin is amazing because of his skills as a beatboxer. Also, if you want to see craziness, watch their Bohemian Rhapsody cover. Mitch had a prop in that, but what he's doing when the prop comes out is unassisted & entirely done with his voice.
Hi there! While I also love Pentatonix (saw them live in London in May!), you should also check out Voiceplay, especially with the spooky season upon us - they do everything themselves (apart from a final audio mix by the genius Ed Boyer), so their videos are never blocked/copyrighted..! They cover all types, from Disney medleys to Vikings, Metallica to S&G, and everything in between!!
Avi and Kevin are doing most of the instrumental parts. I'm sure you know Avi left the group years ago and was replaced by Matt. This remix is years old. All of them have now learned different instrument sounds so in the newer songs and Vids you'll hear a change. Always evolving.
I love PTX's "Gold"! I don't like the original at all, but I think what PTX does just sitting around a mic instead of using all of the electronic stuff is amazing! ❤
I love this reaction and yes I have actually seen them performed this 5 and it sounds just as good. I would highly recommend A reaction to the original song love again. Also if you can find the 2016 live pop spring performance. It's amazing it's 4 songs in total 3 of which are originals that are wrote.
It is such a pleasure to see your reaction to Daft Punk Medley! Your smile and amazement made me smile and feel so good! Just a suggestion, instead of trying to figure out how they do it, just sit back and enjoy the gift that is PTX! I saw them live in August of this year, and they did this song, sounds the same and with all the enthusiasm and energy as the video! I would recommend the cover of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and John Lennon’s Imagine! Stay safe sane, stay strong Ukraine 🇺🇦
Look for live performances. There’s is one there’s a Make A Wish video. It’s recorded on a camera with no mics. The sounds you’re referring to is one of many Avi’s overtones.
Yes, it's one of the most impressive ones in their repertoire. It's _so_ impressive that they actually were awarded a Grammy for their performance on this song, showing that even the critics agree with it being so impressive. They're also the first acapella group to land a Grammy. And if you think _that's_ impressive, keep in mind that this was all shot in a _closet_ of Avi's apartment. They weren't able to fit in there simultaneously, so they had to take turns to record this seperately and then combine the recordings to make this video feel like a cohesive song. You're practically listening to five artists all singing their own songs individually and it somehow ended up sounding as one song. I mean, I'm not a "pentaholic", but to me that sounds highly impressive. p.s. I only picked up on this through comments, so there are probably people who know many more details on this, but this is a summarized version of what I gathered.
Some reactor asked who arranges who writes their songs? It was obvious after hearing this they did. When you pick apart what each one is doing they composed it probably by note first adlibbing some by ear. Taking from daft punk, the other group and that editor guy they paid mixed maybe they some of it, it’s obviously to that they all had a background in music from a very young age. Then you see from their bios some of them (at least) went to school together and were in like the glee club and they started out in singing competitions, winning. This is where all of their experience and knowledge in accapella came out. Now also think about this somebody or several somebodies have to have perfect pitch. God doesn’t pass that around. Dimash, Charlie putth and Natalie Cole(had) has it. Probably orchesestra directors have it. They say some don’t have it but memorize one note and find in the other notes from that one by going up or down steps or intervals. Do you see what musicians have to go through without this god given gift. The accapella groups in movies and like have a harmonica like note whistler that they blow into starting them out. So all those auto tuned artist on the radio and the tube absolutely don’t have it much less stay in a key iPod hut a note without going sharp or flat and h@ve to be fixed. Can you imagine all the technical stuff the did here in tune? I’m just a simple musician, I hear their training and education. This sounds written and composed. Big time producer and composers The Bee Gees didn’t know written by note music, but the wrote and produced for themselves and a bunch of artist in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. It what saved th3m when the macho men would boo at sports stadiums at the disco and R&B music. Then they just started writing and producing number one songs for other people. Maybe one of these is just doing it like Barry Gibb by ear, but it sounds composed.
A so enjoy your reactions . Movies , television, and music . Well done . You are insightful and thoughtful . If I may make a suggestion , you should listen to their original song “ run to you “ it is not flashy like the daft punk but the vocals and message of the song are amazing . Would love to know your thoughts and look forward to all your future reactions .
HI Nick, nice reaction! Glad it was finally able to get through the copyright challenge. My sidebar shows you did a reaction to "When the Party's Over" by Billie Eilish. I heard the PTX cover first, and couldn't even make it through the original. The PTX 'upgrade' would be well worth a listen. A couple of other reactors have done side-by-side, double-reactions, sequential reactions, etc. which might help give you something to demonstrate your 'fair-use intent'. Plus it's a blast to pay close attention to their creative process.
Anything Geoff Castellucci, particularly Oogie Boogie Song as we come up to Halloween! Also anything Voiceplay or Voctave, all astounding people/groups
I suggest, Making Christmas, Mary Did You Know, The Prayer, Hallelujah, Bohemian Rhapsody, Carol Of The Bells.... You really can't go wrong with ANY of their songs! Enjoy going down that rabbit hole! I will hit subscribe so I can follow you down that rabbit hole! 😊
There really isn't much reverb added in production, they really can do that robotic sound themselves. If you want to compare, there's a vid of them doing it live & off mic in a dressing room. Just look up "PTX Daft Punk private performance" to see it. Frankly the only real difference is that without personal mics you lose some of Avi's bass because the camera mic couldn't pick it all up. So it probably sounded even better to those in the room. There are also a couple of videos of them doing it live on stage with mics.
The whole thing is of course mixed and balanced in the studio, but there is also an insane live performance filmed with an iPhone, where they pull this off backstage in front of 20 fans or so. The bass is not coming through the same, because it is filmed on a simple iPhone, but other than that… it‘s worth watching to appreciate the insanity of the whole performance. Similar to this: their „90ies dance medley“! (But there they deliberately use some audible autotune to pay Hommage to Cher…)!
No, they DO in fact do studio manipulation, just like every other band and music group who makes studio recordings. They've never denied using the technology available from studio recordings. HOWEVER, they never record anything that they cannot pretty closely replicate live.
