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Gee, I dunno - You're So Naive

Posted by Mike Porper (A) on February 14, 2011 at 09:20:06

In Reply to: Gee, I dunno, something strikes me as fishy. posted by John Marks on February 12, 2011 at 12:31:07:

You're supposed to be some sort of former recording industry professional, right? Jeez, if greater proof were needed that people "hear what they see"...

STEP 1. Have a look at the many, many professional musician magazines. There's at least one for every pop instrument [electric guitar, keyboards, drums, vocals, etc. etc. etc.], as well as those for recording professionals. Gaze with amazement at the endless variety of electronic effects devices marketed to musicians/engineers. Read the articles devoted to using all of those effects. You may then begin to dimly suspect that no sound, no signal whatsoever, is ever recorded without intentional gross signal manipulation.

STEP 2. Go to some non-classical "live" performance. It doesn't matter what it is. Rock, Jazz, folk, whatever. They're all amplified. Let's keep it simple. Go to some simple singer/songwriter performance. Just some guy sangin' with a guitar. Then, instead of staring at the performance art [and it is 'performance art'] along with the rest of the sheeple, waddle on back to where the mixing engineer's standing. Gaze with disbelief not only at the massive mixing board, with it's multitude of effects available to fingertip control, but at all of the computer hard drives, and the gigs and gigs and gigs of RAM, along with a gaggle of other black boxes, all with LEDs blinking and gleaming.

STEP 3. At this point, step back, and begin thinking. Yes, something may be "smelling fishy" to you. Let's see. There's that one gravely voiced, tabacco-smelling singer, with just one guitar standing up there, alledgedly singing and playing. And, back here? Why, there's enough processing electronics to power a nuclear reactor and electron accelerator combined. Hmmm...

LAST STEP. In fact, there is no such thing as a "live" performance, outside of a classical concert [and even some of those have had electronic encrochment]. You've mentioned voltage triggers. At least you're aware of them. Most humans living today aren't. Any amplified performer, by use of voltage triggers, can have any sound occur on stage instantly. Thus, harmonies are virtually never, ever sung live. Why take the chance, when it's so easy to have studio pitch-perfect harmonies stored on RAM and voltage triggered? Every human watching will see the other musicians mouthing into dead mikes, and think that those guys are actually singing the backup.

Indeed, the entire band can be faked on stage, and mostly is. All of the instruments are right there, on RAM. These days, for any pop/rock/R&B/whatever band, the only "live" part of the performance is the singing done by the lead singer, at least partially. Everything else -everything - is delivered pre-recorded from RAM, or even CD in some cases.

Even more insidiously, there's usually a mixture of live and pre-recorded playing. That's right. The music is recorded and mixed with the live feed, as the musicians "play" in stage. Even a simple 4 piece guitar band does this - how else do you think they get all of those studio perfect instrumental parts performed [let's see - there's one guy playing guitar, but I hear a rhythm part played by 2 or 3 rhythm guitars, and a lead over that - but there's only one guitar player on stage - amazing].

Pre-recorded material in mixed with live material; live material is manipulated and massaged by a combination of computer pre-programmed effects, special propretary devices the engineer has, and anything else the engineer wants to do on the fly at the mixing board.

Live music? There's your "live" music.

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