How do you feel about performers miming in LIVE concert ?

Zincubus

It's just that today I came across a few LIVE concerts on Sky Arts On Demand - each concert they sing in front of thousands of people and they do hundreds of LIVE concerts each year .

The group in question is Celtic Woman ( there are four women actually ) .

They do hundreds of LIVE concerts each year . They all look gorgeous , great presentation , sing beautiful songs , beautifully BUT it's clear as day that they're miming or lip-syncing .

How do you feel about this kind of thing !

noiseboy72

Hate it! I used to engineer live gigs (full time job for 20 years before moving into corporate work because it pays better and there's less heavy lifting) and the likes of Liberty X, Girls Aloud etc. all used to mime. Part of the reason is that you cannot dance that energetically and sing well, but also the level of vocal training was sadly lacking.

Other bands like the Sugababes and McFly could do it live and sounded so much better for it.

These days you get a lot less miming and more double tracking and pre-recorded backing tracks, but for a televised show, they may have mimed just to get the presentation needed for the video and may sing live on their standard show.

We went to see Kate Rusby last week and she always performs live. Her last show is available as a download and it just sounds stunning. The integration of her voice into the instrumentation is perfect, with no other vocals, just the accordion doubling her vocal parts. A demonstration of how it should be done. Her engineer is her brother - Joe, and he is a master at his art.

Zincubus

Interesting ... if you get chance have a listen to part of Celtic Woman LIVE shows ...on Sky or Utube

Zincubus

They seem to mime every concert and their shows are nearly as extravagant as Andre Rieu's !

I read somewhere that they occasionally sing live but the Mics aren't powered up so the first two rows hear them live but the speaker system pumps out a recording !!

Zincubus

They have released loads of albums including about FIVE different Christmas albums !!

Funny thing is on most of their standard release albums they usually have two or three LIVE tracks at the end - jaunt wondering if they're LIVE , LIVE or LIVE , MIMED ??

Jazzmag

Watched Halestorm a week or so ago and she had a backing track. Now the stuff they do is very vocal intensive so I can understand why she'd need help but they had a track for her speaking to the crowd too which I thought was weird. There was a point where she stepped back from the mic but the speaking track kept playing and she rushed forward to cover it up.

Greg Hook

Not that I’d ever go to one, although they are fit, but if it’s a concert like Little Mix where the spectacle, dancing and performance is as important as the singing then fair enough.

But if it’s a concert where the performer isn’t dancing and just standing in front of a mic then absolutely they should sing live.

But as some of these acts do multiple concerts day after day, you can excuse if they have to save their voices, but if it’s a show being recorded then you would have thought they would make more of an effort.

Backspace

If by concerts you mean musicians performing live then I would expect them to be actually playing and singing. Who's gonna pay to listen to recordings?

Not me.

jonathanrace

I wouldn't go to see a mimed concert but understand it happens. The expectation from some people is so high that anything that doesn't sound "like the record" is going to disappoint so it makes sense to do it for these kind of shows but yeah not my thing.

One thing I'm ok with though is pre-recorded backing to thicken out the vocals. As long as we are getting some of the live singing then I'd see that live.

Backspace

I don't expect the artists to sound like their recordings. Live is live and it changes especially extended solos and lyric changes.