The Rolling Stones / Paul McCartney – Are We Being Ripped Off? (A.I & Legacy Artists)
It has dominated discussion forums recently to what extent A.I and studio tricky has been used in the the production of new albums by The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and others… Here is proof one way or another.
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#therollingstones #paulmccartney #classicalbum
@classicalbum
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
What is your favourite out of these new albums… and do you feel something doesn't sound quite right?
@jtt8886
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
They've been massaging music for sixty years.
@HarryFox-r6i
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Studia tricks were used in the days of analog recording but obviously that technology would've limited the ways artists could alter their work.
Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy says the backing vocals of some songs on the live album "Live and Dangerous(1978) were re-recorded in the studio because the live versions were so indistinct
David Gilmour says in the "Wish You Were Here Songbook" (1975)"
"The only time we've ever used tape speed to help us with vocals was on one line of the [Welcome to the] Machine song. It was a line I just couldn't reach so we dropped the tape down half a semitone and then dropped the line in on the track."
There are two version of the guitar solo at the end of Have a Cigar on youtube so you can hear the one on the album has been edited. It's not huge cut- just two or three notes
Would these two have used AI if that was available in the '70s? We'll never know
@MetalMan73100
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
There is that nagging suspicion with aging acts being, perhaps, a tad too “creative” in the studio with their later releases. For me there is no doubt that a lot of studio trickery was used on Whitesnake’s 21st century albums to augment Coverdale’s ailing voice. Compare that to Freddie Mercury, on the brink of death, still recording vocals in 1991 for an album that wouldn’t be released until another four years down the road.
@lonegroover
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Reviewed Foreign Tongues earlier:
Difficult to know how to assess this album really. It's remarkable that three men with a combined age of 243 can make a decent bluesy rock album, and this certainly is, superficially anyway, a decent record.
But how much help have they had from producer Andrew Watt? These performances sound tight, energetic, sometimes upbeat – but quite honestly I think we're listening to a clever producer making expert use of a digital toolkit, here. These tunes have, I believe, been built, copied and pasted on a computer screen. In some cases I'd guess that for any given tune, Watt captured a few dozen riffs from Keith or Ronnie, pinned down the best effort then looped it round in his software to make a whole verse out of it, syncing it to the beat with nanosecond precision.
Watt plays guitar himself on half the tracks, which I think is a bit of a tell.
The way Keith and Ronnie used to play – weaving around each other, around the beat, pushing it, dragging it.. that loose human groove – gone.
Mick's voice sounds fine, but again I assume it's time and pitch corrected.
Still – the songs are fine, nothing inspiring but certainly OK. And if the swagger and character of years gone by has gone, it's a perfectly adequate, radio-friendly album. Sometimes it feels a bit too upbeat, if anything. Never Wanna Lose You for example almost has a disco beat. You wish it had been slowed down, given a bit of groove and personality. But can they even do that now?
Best tune by far is a cover of Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good, which is somehow twenty years old now. But it adds nothing to the original, it only detracts from it. It was never one of Amy's better tunes anyway.
Keef's solo spot, Some Of Us is a decent second. I quite liked it.
@dinsky-o3z
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
At least half of the songs on the Stones album are faceless AI songwriting. And the whole album has a strange pop-rock sameyness to it. I'm not a fan of that album or McCartney's new one. It all sounds kind of sanitized and clinical and soulless and not something I want to sit and listen to beyond checking it out because of who it is.
@mmp64
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I have the same feeling as you regarding the Stones album. I think it’s great, but on first listen, I thought it sounded “too good” if that makes sense. And not just because of the production. For context I am 61 and have been listening to the Stones for probably 45 years. However, I’m not sure I could articulate the difference between AI and studio wankery. I supposed AI would be – “Mick sang the first three lines of this song – finish the rest of the song so it sounds like those first three lines” – or – “Mick sang all of the song – but I want you to redo the vocal to make it sound like the MIck from 1972”. Whereas studio wankery would be: “We pieced this together from 72 takes, and applied various levels of compression, EQ, phasing, etc. to make it all sound seamless and better than the actual raw vocals” – which has to some degree been going on since the mid-60’s.
@G.S.Holland
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Paul McCartney and the Beatles were always on the cutting edge of technology to make their art.
There was an entire period they stopped performing live because they couldn't replicate their studio recordings live on stage.
Most of what you hear isn't "real music" IE the band playing live in real time in the studio, not with all the dubs and tape effects.
If anyone should be able to be on the cutting edge of using AI as a tool it should be Sir Bloody Paul McCartney.
People act like all AI use is the same. It's not AI that's slop, it's their close minded brains that's turned to slop.
@carlgrimsman6683
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I'm assuming all your examples are AI-aided, unless verifiably not. These days I don't trust any big names.
@reluctantblumpkin
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Maybe a.i. could help you figure out what to do with your hands while speaking. Because what you do with them nonstop is unnatural and unsettling.
@Bugeye-p2x
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Perhaps "overthinking" everything is a problem too?
@BigCraig
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
A few years ago Blue Öyster Cult put out "Ghost Stories" with the explanation that a lot of the music was from rough demos that were enhanced using AI to bring the old tapes up to speed. In the end I think the album sounds pretty good, and I like that they didn't keep the AI work secret. Rather, be open about it, and let the audience decide how they feel about it.
@harrynewiss4630
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I thought the stones album sounded far too good to be true.
@uclaclass5598
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Next thing you're gonna tell me is Alvin and the Chipmunks manipulated their voices.
@jimideez9829
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Nice Mate, already shared…
@russelljdj
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
In 1982 it was fore told, "The problem's plain to see. Too much technology. Machines to save our lives
Machines dehumanize!"
@Kingdom1996-skc
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I was listening to Please Please Me Album earlier, we will always have that authenticity.
@WilliamHerlihy-p4g
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
The Stones have sounded too "polished" since Steel Wheels
@thebadterrorists5323
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
When you replace AI with the phrase Contrived Reason, then we are getting close to the truth.
@martincurran8221
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
There has been manipulation since the 80s to cover mediocre vocals, particularly Stock Aitken and Waterman spring to mind. Sorry to bring that up. I don't agree with it but producers can be pretty amoral at times. It's probably no different today, it's just the tools are different.
@Rodeo1202
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
As long as it's their ideas I don't care
@enricomarchello
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
why complain, about engineering on records? …wheren't the Beatles themselves doing that …when they had voices
that didn't need it! …
@terrymann1341
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I love both Dungeon Lane and Foreign Tongues, they are both fine albums and I don't think that AI has been used in any way. Thing is effects have been used in the recording studio for decades, just listen to those mid sixties Beatles albums; Revolver and Sgt Pepper in particular, and it's common knowledge that John Lennon hated the sound of his voice on tape and was constantly asking George Martin to double track it or enhance it in other ways. I have no problem with AI, as long as it's only a tool to enhance what is already there, not to replace anything or anyone, and to be fair an AI only made album would sound cold to me. You need the human heart and spirit to create music born out of experience and the influences of those making the music. Give me a Stones album of those five guys playing the blues or Dylan with his acoustic guitar or the Beatles taking us on a psychedelic journey through Pepperland with sitars and mellotrons. We have to be careful here with AI, as with other modern day aspects of life in 2026, because we can so easily find ourselves disappearing down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, and that's a whole other world of bullshit altogether.
@dan2050
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
The one that is likely AI impacted is the Stones albums. There are no tracks where Mick sounds 80+ unlike McCartney’s record where you hear Paul’s age a lot.
@valentino1000
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I must disagree. The Rolling Stones album is probably the worst album they ever released. It sounds like a parody. They use every cliche. The riffs are meaningless. There is no melody. Mick is just doing a Mick parody. The worst thing are the lyrics. There is an idea or a message in every title and that idea is being paraphrased in the verses. No specific observation, just general statements.
@Rockstardust69
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
There is an over produced sheen to these albums that does not feel organic. I would like to hear a band or artist go back to an analogue sound crank up the amps less effects and be real. If you cant sing anymore hang up the microphone.
@michaeldoherty-d3f
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
There's a saying: 'Old rock bands write the same music as they did when they were young, only not as good!' Both Purple and the Stones have been lauded as producing their best music since the halcyon days of 40-50 years ago. I guess it's not too much of a stretch to consider that they used AI, at least as part of the composition process.
@SHTMusik
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
I have been thinking more and more about forgetting the "studio magic" and just recording things live and natural, no click track, no nothing. Keep an eye out for my song Robot (I am not a) .
@enricomarchello
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
certainly a lot of "people"
are off …and crazy! ..
@ffrancrogowski2192
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
The music industry can do without AI full stop! Decades without AI was ok?!
@thelonesomerider
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
somehow funny that u are neither the 1st nor the last one (as i'm pretty sure ;-), who especially made a video about these 4 new albums by older & well known bands! to me they all sound good & also authentic (enough) to not questioning them… & even go as far tp claim that this is made with AI – not in the least! some studio trickery was used for sure, but that was always part of the process & also the progress of any good artist & band, wasn't it? anyway… i'm quite content with all of these albums! cheers! 🙂
@mrsmith4662
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
The sound of this album sounds incredibly good. If you see the footage of the Stones playing Hyde Park a few years ago, was appalling, like an inferior tribute band. Therefore, some wizardry has certainly been employed here.
@roymatthews8500
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
McCartney's voice on Dungeon Lane has definitely had every studio manipulation possible done to it. Maybe not AI but certainly tuning and various other things. No way could he sing 'As I lie there' with those screaming vocals anymore.
@brianmason9361
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
When I heard how good the new McCartney album was, I stopped listening. It doesn't make sense that it's this good. AI is ruining Human reality.
@DarkFruit
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Personally, I can forgive artists in their 80s for using a bit of digital manipulation to make their voices sound better on records and on stage (apparently Robert Plant had autotune on his voice when he played Glastonbury last, for example). But as you say, bands like Deep Purple and Jethro Tull now write songs the singers can handle without much manipulation, and as someone who studied singing and did classical training, I'm interested in hearing what these guys actually have left, and digital manipulation robs us of that, doesn't it? Jagger is obviously too vain to let us hear his vocal decay; we all could predict that, and people are very hard on older singers who are still going and are letting us really hear their voice; look at how mercilessly people are thrashing David Lee Roth, for example. And Jon Bon Jovi has actually had to have an implant to permanently activate one of his vocal folds in order to still sing, and yes, it does sound like he might have started singing with it publicly before he got used to it, but people are being very harsh. Maybe if the public understood natural vocal decay with ageing that happens to everyone, and weren't so mean about it, older singers would be more comfortable letting us hear their natural voices. The guys try to sing naturally, and people scream for them to just retire.
@randomx8822
July 21, 2026 at 11:21 pm
Powerful technology in the hands of an un evolved species is a recipe for how you feel right now.
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