Ashlee Simpson Caught In The Act
Ashlee Simpson’s lip-syncing on the “live! It’s Saturday Night!” program brings up an opportune time to discuss the subject.
I’m sure most audiences don’t want to see a singer lip-syncing through songs at a so called “live” concert but many are probably attending a concert where there is a mixture of live and taped music playing.
I used the phrase “masters of sound” on my last blog entry and that is exactly what many singers and song writers are with the help of sound engineers, producers, and arrangers so many times when you here a song live it will not sound like the version you here on the radio, CD, or MP3.
What you are hearing in these formats is in most cases highly engineered music produced in a music studio. A lot of elements of the music is tweaked or rearranged in the studio.
Lyrics of a song are done over and over until the producer thinks it’s perfect. Some sounds are generated by a computer or other more primitive electronic device.
If one is at a concert or watching a performance on television how can one tell if it is live or lip-synced?
Sometime it is very difficult to tell and sometime it is not. One of the telltale signs is if the song sounds exactly as it does on the CD. It is hard to make a song sung live sound exactly like that on CD and only the most disciplined and well trained musicians can do this and that is only if the music was not heavily engineered in the music studio because if it was it cannot be accurately reproduced live.
Everyone should know that most music put out by the major labels is tweaked in the studio in some way (unless it is a recording of a truly live concert).
Techno music is completely generated by computer or other electronic device (like synthesizer).
If there is a lot of dancing or running around going on by the singer on stage while he or she is singing then it is a possibility that the song is not being performed live. Breathing is important in singing and running around or dancing on stage will make most people breathless.
You have to watch things closely here because some people will have music on tape and sing live or the singing on tape and the music live and they may switch back and forth during the concert.
If you go to a concert specifically because of an artist’s singing (or rap) then having the music played live may not be that important.
I prefer to have the whole package live. Why would I want to watch a performance with a bunch of people fake playing instruments or fake singing?
Some artist do put on a good show though in place of not singing or not really playing instruments. If that is the case then maybe just seeing them live and the fantastic show is enough.
The very best singers, musicians, or composers are those that produce a song in the music studio and can go out before an audience and play that same song and it sounds very similar to that put on a CD or who can play their song live under different arrangements (like acoustic).
Poor Ashlee Simpson’s crew got all the technical stuff mixed up on the SNL set and when the music playing wasn’t what Ashlee was lip-syncing she started to do a two step sort of like one would see at the end of a Bug’s Bunny Cartoon (with that funny music playing as they, “exit, stage right”) and danced right off the stage out of embarrassment………..Now that’s funny.