The secret to winning a yoyo contest in the modern day and age

[Studio42]

Now for the truth.

This isn't the music industry, where talent isn't even necessary anymore. Just auto-tune and move on.

That's one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard in my entire life.

This is your friendly, neighborhood graduate music major, signing out...

Then stay signed out.

I mean, I've been working in the music industry for 30 years. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for disposable talent, and I use that term "talent" loosely. All they really want is a face/look/body to slop onto something so it sells, then chuck them to the side in 2 years. I recently was hired to handle a bunch of bands because "their mixes weren't coming together for their live shows". Well, turns out the problem was: they sucked. Not only that, but they sucked HARD. I mean, we're talking any error you could make, they were doing. No talent, no skills, tech problems(beat to crap drums with ancient heads on them and some of the hardware was cracking the wood in the shells, guitars with bent necks that they didn't fix as well as not being set up properly for the strings, coupled with suck, and then singers who don't know how to work a mic). I walked away after 2 weeks saying "The problem clearly is that the producers hired real musicians to bang out this crap. Your live engineer isn't the problem(I was mix fixing, not touring), the problem is what you are putting on that stage is garbage, but then you're not providing your touring rig with the proper front end to ensure a consistent mix anyways.

Then again, how many major label acts have you handled? How many recording sessions have you done? I lost count. Major label acts are in the hundreds. Recording sessions are in the thousands, as are live events.

Technology is to the point where we just need signal source. Once we have capture, anything is the limit. Get a decent pitch, then vocoder it for rough pitch, auto-tune it for finer pitch and then compress the snot out of it. There ya go! Bye-bye dynamic range or musicianship. It's not satisfying working with a lot of the bands who want to record anymore, which is why I stick with live.

I saw Beyonce on I think it was Jimmy Fallon a few nights ago, a re-run. Oh my god, what garbage. She CAN sing, but in this she DOES NOT sing. It was "chick hip hop/rap". Doesn't mean I like her, but the whole concept of using your talent is being lost. If you can shake certain body parts and have a decent look, often enough, that will get you enough cred to get a deal and a tour and tv time.

Again, with yoyo, you can't fake it. If you ain't got it, you ain't got it. You can work on it until you do get it, but until then, don't expect to fake your way through it.

So, how's that major label deal working out for ya? The dollars rolling in yet? Paid back your recording contract yet? The tour working out? You tracking your sales or you expecting the record company to be honest?

I've made it a policy: NO AUTO-TUNE. I've lost jobs because of it but I say "If you suck, then you suck. If you can't sing, then you can't sing. So, either be good or be loud and proud, but I ain't gonna let an auto-tune get inserted into my rig". However, I go to sleep just fine knowing I didn't enable a poser.

[I6ify]

I've made it a policy: NO AUTO-TUNE. I've lost jobs because of it but I say "If you suck, then you suck. If you can't sing, then you can't sing. So, either be good or be loud and proud, but I ain't gonna let an auto-tune get inserted into my rig". However, I go to sleep just fine knowing I didn't enable a poser.

I think it's a shame the way modern artist have begun to use auto-tune, I like a few things I've heard in the past where a band has used it to sing higher than their normal range (nothing crazy, just a little bump) in a few of their songs, and it sounded really nice. I hate the modern application, though.

[offstring-stewart]

I love how winning yo-yo contextx turned into someone saying auto-tune is cool...Makes me laugh, how today people can't sing without it if they are in pop or rap...makes me miss Eminem and Tupac...plus a few others.  But back to the original topic...while i do agree it has gotten silly at the contests, yo-ing is about ahowmanship, too.  If you can throw well, and perform, then you're good to go, imo.  Yo-ing is an art, but should be fun, too.  That's why I don't like Jensen as much, he's too serious about the sport that's meant to be fun.

[nobody]

 Yo-ing is an art, but should be fun, too.  That's why I don't like Jensen as much, he's too serious about the sport that's meant to be fun.

I hope this was sarcasm. If not, where have you been? He told me himself (not in person) that the only reason he even went to worlds this year was because he could go for free.

[dingo54]

  Yo-ing is an art, but should be fun, too.  That's why I don't like Jensen as much, he's too serious about the sport that's meant to be fun.

I hope this was. If not, where have you been? He told me himself (not in person) that the only reason he even went to worlds this year was because he could go for free.

Ya jensen isn't really competitive at all. He was just having fun at worlds this year not really trying hard to win.

[I6ify]

  Yo-ing is an art, but should be fun, too.  That's why I don't like Jensen as much, he's too serious about the sport that's meant to be fun.

I hope this was. If not, where have you been? He told me himself (not in person) that the only reason he even went to worlds this year was because he could go for free.

Ya jensen isn't really competitive at all. He was just having fun at worlds this year not really trying hard to win.

The whole reason for the initial falling out of the yoyo world was because it stopped being fun for him...

Go watch some of his recent videos and try to tell me he's not having fun.

[JetEyeNight]

Now for the truth.

This isn't the music industry, where talent isn't even necessary anymore. Just auto-tune and move on.

That's one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard in my entire life.

This is your friendly, neighborhood graduate music major, signing out...

Battletoad, what you just said is one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard in my entire life.  What part of the music industry do you work in?

[offstring-stewart]

He just seemed so serious, at least thats the way it seemed for a while...I didn't mean it in a bad way...I know he has fun, but for a while he did seem a bit too serious imo.  Didn't mean to make anybody angry, sorry.  I did watch some recent vids, and now I see what y'all mean.  Again, sorry for the false start.  I do like his style, though.

[jrspike]

well, since a big part of winning a competition is string hits, why not just do boing-e-boing for three minutes straight as fast as you can? (obviously I'm not serious)

[Studio42]

well, since a big part of winning a competition is string hits, why not just do boing-e-boing for three minutes straight as fast as you can? (obviously I'm not serious)

I guess that would be cool. Just bang them out machine gun style. Burn through your glove, your skin, your muscle, your bone and then you have to pick your finger tip off the floor and rush to the ER.

Tip: Leather gloves!

Seriously, I know you're not serious. Maybe an Eli Hops challenge could be created. They already have a "longest spin" time killer segment, why not add things like that. How many revolutions can you get out of a gyroscopic flop? Don't they have a suicides count contest?

It seems a bit of the artisty is lost. It's too much about speed and "swagger". Granted, these can be incorporated in to any routine. I'm still amazed. But, as I see it, there's a showmanship quality missing from at least the 1A finals, at least in the Top 3. Amazing performances without a doubt, but it was "all business".

[Slade Riggs]

well, since a big part of winning a competition is string hits, why not just do boing-e-boing for three minutes straight as fast as you can? (obviously I'm not serious)

I guess that would be cool. Just bang them out machine gun style. Burn through your glove, your skin, your muscle, your bone and then you have to pick your finger tip off the floor and rush to the ER.

Tip: Leather gloves!

Seriously, I know you're not serious. Maybe an Eli Hops challenge could be created. They already have a "longest spin" time killer segment, why not add things like that. How many revolutions can you get out of a gyroscopic flop? Don't they have a suicides count contest?

It seems a bit of the artisty is lost. It's too much about speed and "swagger". Granted, these can be incorporated in to any routine. I'm still amazed. But, as I see it, there's a showmanship quality missing from at least the 1A finals, at least in the Top 3. Amazing performances without a doubt, but it was "all business".

Well the boingy boing thing could work to an extent, less and less points the more you repeat the trick...yeah I know, serious reasoning on a not so serious statment, hehe.

@ studio-hiroyuki holds the world record for most eli hops in one minute (can't remember the number) and some guy...I think Jesse...something, did a youtube video of 89 consecutive suicides, insane, hehe.

I just watch the freestyles, I don't try to analyze them too much, some do look like they are just competing out there but hey maby that is their true style, just pure competition action, ehhe.

[Kristiawan]

well, since a big part of winning a competition is string hits, why not just do boing-e-boing for three minutes straight as fast as you can? (obviously I'm not serious)

It seems a bit of the artisty is lost. It's too much about speed and "swagger". Granted, these can be incorporated in to any routine. I'm still amazed. But, as I see it, there's a showmanship quality missing from at least the 1A finals, at least in the Top 3. Amazing performances without a doubt, but it was "all business".

Well, that's the side effect of point based competition we have.
String hits with high risk factor does business way better than showmanship.

[bigkat]

Maybe an Eli Hops challenge could be created.

Colin Leland got the record at World's. If I remember right, I think he got 157.

[ShaunC]

Now for the truth.

This isn't the music industry, where talent isn't even necessary anymore. Just auto-tune and move on.

That's one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard in my entire life.

This is your friendly, neighborhood graduate music major, signing out...

Then stay signed out.

I mean, I've been working in the music industry for 30 years. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel for disposable talent, and I use that term "talent" loosely. All they really want is a face/look/body to slop onto something so it sells, then chuck them to the side in 2 years. I recently was hired to handle a bunch of bands because "their mixes weren't coming together for their live shows". Well, turns out the problem was: they sucked. Not only that, but they sucked HARD. I mean, we're talking any error you could make, they were doing. No talent, no skills, tech problems(beat to crap drums with ancient heads on them and some of the hardware was cracking the wood in the shells, guitars with bent necks that they didn't fix as well as not being set up properly for the strings, coupled with suck, and then singers who don't know how to work a mic). I walked away after 2 weeks saying "The problem clearly is that the producers hired real musicians to bang out this crap. Your live engineer isn't the problem(I was mix fixing, not touring), the problem is what you are putting on that stage is garbage, but then you're not providing your touring rig with the proper front end to ensure a consistent mix anyways.

Then again, how many major label acts have you handled? How many recording sessions have you done? I lost count. Major label acts are in the hundreds. Recording sessions are in the thousands, as are live events.

Technology is to the point where we just need signal source. Once we have capture, anything is the limit. Get a decent pitch, then vocoder it for rough pitch, auto-tune it for finer pitch and then compress the snot out of it. There ya go! Bye-bye dynamic range or musicianship. It's not satisfying working with a lot of the bands who want to record anymore, which is why I stick with live.

I saw Beyonce on I think it was Jimmy Fallon a few nights ago, a re-run. Oh my god, what garbage. She CAN sing, but in this she DOES NOT sing. It was "chick hip hop/rap". Doesn't mean I like her, but the whole concept of using your talent is being lost. If you can shake certain body parts and have a decent look, often enough, that will get you enough cred to get a deal and a tour and tv time.

Again, with yoyo, you can't fake it. If you ain't got it, you ain't got it. You can work on it until you do get it, but until then, don't expect to fake your way through it.

So, how's that major label deal working out for ya? The dollars rolling in yet? Paid back your recording contract yet? The tour working out? You tracking your sales or you expecting the record company to be honest?

I've made it a policy: NO AUTO-TUNE. I've lost jobs because of it but I say "If you suck, then you suck. If you can't sing, then you can't sing. So, either be good or be loud and proud, but I ain't gonna let an auto-tune get inserted into my rig". However, I go to sleep just fine knowing I didn't enable a poser.

This is, by far, one of the best and most interesting responses I've read on this forum in a long time. Thank you.

[lccagle]

Wear cool stuff and have like 4 yoyos in your pocket and use the dark magic 2