Is it true Broadway singers lip-synch for some shows?- Page 3

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 12:12pm

i too would like to know which songs in Miss Saigon are tracked... it doesn't seem like a show that would need it

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 2:01pm

Oldschool,
You are a bit off in your response.. I think it comes down to differences in semantics. Someone stated that the cast lipsynchs "You Can't Stop The Beat". TheatreDiva said that that statement is false and that they sing live the entire time. That is fully accurate. The cast DOES sing live.
Prerecordings that you refer to are called "sweetner tracks" and they are extremely common in many shows. You don't lipsynch to sweetner tracks, you use them to thicken up the vocals so that the cast doesn't sound winded. It is a fine, but very big difference.
Mamma Mia uses sweetner tracks as well. The cast is (supposed to be) singing live at all times, with any cast members not actively onstage standing either behind the set onstage or in vocal booths backstage providing the background vocals that many people think are prerecorded. The sweetner tracks play along with the live singing to thinken up the sound and the chords.

[Oldschool]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 10:56pm

Broadwayguy2, I think I addressed that issue. As a matter of semantics, they function both ways, if the cast member can't bring it that night, or they need it to augment it immaterial -- having seen the actors come offstage for that song they are winded and cannot have been singing in any functional way and need the backing track to supplement. There are parts of the song, the main verses where people are singing with little or no "sweetener" but when they dive into the choruses and are dancing fast, the vocal demands of the song, its meter, require the use of the track to make it presentable.

[Kad]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 11:20pm

"In regards to You Can't Stop The Beat, the ending of the song is defiantly tracked."

Hairspray was never a show about following the rules...

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/8/10 at 9:16am

Oldschool,
I just wanted to specify because your post seemed to read as though the cast is lipsynching and not actually singing. That isn't the case. They are singing live the entire time. Augmentation and out and out lipsynching are very different things.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 2/8/10 at 10:26am

At least as far as Broadway and the First National tour were concerned, there were no pre-recorded tracks in Hairspray. The only recorded bit was voiced by John Waters as a newscaster. Evrything else is performed live.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/8/10 at 11:34am

Thank you, Fosse.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 2/8/10 at 5:55pm

Are there pre-recorded tracks in the current non-Equity tour of Hairspray? If so, I never noticed.

[Dantes]

Posted: 2/8/10 at 6:24pm

Colle - Miss Saigon

Im so bad but i dont know the name of all the songs

Heat is on in Saigon had girls voices pre recorded for ensemble

The one when the big gold hed is in the background (how thick does that make me sound) lol

The act 1 finale

[felipenor]

Posted: 1/30/14 at 1:32am

Is The Lion King sung live? Pretty much everything screamed pre-recorded to me.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 1/30/14 at 2:42am

Yes, The Lion King is live singing. Sometimes it is from offstage, but still live.

[ukpuppetboy]

Posted: 1/30/14 at 6:01am

As I recall, and it's harking back to The Lion King's London opening so things may be different now, but there was definitely a click track used for "The Stampede" sequence which the ensemble sang ontop of.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/30/14 at 9:07am

Yes, as someone who has heard the click tracks, the singing IS live, but a lot of it is on top of sweetener vocals to approximate the "gigantic massed choir" effect that the music needed.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 1/30/14 at 7:35pm

Certain numbers in Chicago are at least sweetened, specifically the ensemble parts for All that Jazz, and Both Reached for the Gun. Seeing the show in the front row, the chorus of the Cell Block Tango also seemed to be sweetened.

[NotTheComfyChair]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 10:06am

I know that shows will record a bunch of numbers to potentially use as click tracks and I believe that Equity will then make a ruling on whether the click can be used for that number. I could be wrong on that and I don't know the criteria for why the ruling is made to allow for number A to have a click and not number B. I'm sure BroadwayGuy will know the truth to this..
In my experience, it's always for augmentation/reinforcement/sweetening and there will always be live singing over the click. The click can fail. I heard it go out in a couple of shows, and there were people singing live.

[dreamcoat12]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 10:48am

In Mamma Mia the only thing I'm sure is pre-recorded are the vocals in the Entr'acte because of all the reverb and stuff. I would venture to think the heavy reverbed bass line vocal in Under Attack is also pre-recorded? Mamma Mia is one of those shows where there's heavy offstage background vocal singing.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 1:20pm

You know reverb is in no way indicative of a recording, right?

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 1:42pm

90% of shows do not use pre-recorded tracks, just to be clear. The OP seemed to be asking if it's a common practice. It's not.

Backing/sweetening tracks, sure. But not *in place of* live singing. Updated On: 1/31/14 at 01:42 PM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 2:13pm

Mamma Mia on the recent UK tours has click track throughout most of the ensemble numbers, i work in theatre and have been around many theatres during tech time and nearly all the big shows (at least here in the UK) uses click, Mamma Mia (and in the London run) was one of the biggest offenders. Fame, Lion King, Hairspray, Footloose, Flashdance, Phantom, Starlight, Ghost etc all 100 percent use it to strengthen the ensemble sound.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 3:01pm

Again,
I think we need to stop misusing the term "click track". Click track does NOT mean "prerecorded something". A click track, at it's core is exactly what the name suggests.. It is just CLICKS. It is a metonome to keep steady tempo. This is done in cases where many things need to be perfectly timed to music, usually automated scene changes and light cues, SOMETIMES vocal sweetening tracks.
Reverb, as was said, IN NO WAY indicates pre-recorded anything. It is a very simple effect to create on even a basic soundboard. I hear it ALL the time in karaoke bars and small cabarets around town.
Equity has no problem with the use of vocal sweetening tracks. It is used to support and thicken ensemble vocals while the cast is singing LIVE in performance. It is not used to "replace" anyone. A big reason for the use of sweeteners in modern theat is smaller cast size (dont blame cheap producers alone, Equity also requires a certain square footage of dressing space for each actor, so that limits cast size). In the ages past, shows had a singing ensemble and a a dancing ensemble. Therefore, no out of breath actor had to sing. Now ensemble members sing AND dance, so a sweetener can be used to support vocals for actors singing during a dance number, among other things...
Equity DOES carefully monitor and determine cases where a prerecorded vocal would be used in place of an actor actually singing - example, Christine in Phantom of the Opera.
In the case of Mamma Mia!, the cast is singing singing live 100% of the time... On stage or in the vocal booths. If an actor is NOT singing it is because they can't physically sing it at the time due to lavk of skill or illness and were told not to or they are being flat out lazy and will be reprimanded after the show.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 4:09pm

Ghost was mentioned above as using sweeteners and click tracks, but the vocals on the click for Ghost are effect-laden, digitally processed vocals that could not be recreated live. Since the score for Ghost draws on electronic, dance and ambient music for part of its sound, the use of sampled vocals and studio effects plays in as part of the score.

[NotTheComfyChair]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 5:14pm

Apologies for using the term "click." In my defence, when I've been in sessions to record vocal augmentations, the session was always described as "recording the click track." I've heard the actual clicks from the conductors headphones when they rehearsed the number before recording and know their specific purpose.
I've been part of one show where Equity did refuse augmentation tracks in a couple of ensemble numbers. It was a case of "we'll record and hope they let us use it."

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 5:25pm

Pre-recorded elements are traditionally integrated INTO the click track if they exist, hence the blurring of line between the two things.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/31/14 at 5:34pm

Yes, very true. Given the way the track of this discussion, i just think it important that we distinguish between the two things. They attach TO other, but are separate things. If we consider them to be the same thing for purpose of this discussion, people will consider the, to be one and the same and think that every time a condictor wears headphones, the cast is singing along to a CD. Hahahaha.

ComfyChair,
Rquity has to approve all that stuff and sometimes it takes showing and demonstrating, but as a general rule, they are far more agreeable to a show using a sweetener track than an actor lipsyncing.

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 2/2/14 at 12:31am

This topic has been discussed before:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1037596#4202742

This practice dates back to at least 1970, apparently.