Pre-recording Vocals to be Played Back During Performance

In Ted Chapin's book EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE about the birth of the musical FOLLIES, which I have just completed, he describes the pre-recording of vocals to be played back along with the actual singing of those vocals during performances. He describes this practice as "sweetening" the sound, especially during dance numbers when the singer-dancers might be winded. I had no idea such practices were common and view this "sweetening" as cheating. What would prevent this sweetening to be used during any live singing by a particular actor, at the discretion of the conductor? This meant that the audience was not hearing pure live singing, but rather embellished singing. Is "sweetening" still practiced today, or does the use of body mikes, not available at the time of FOLLIES, make this practice unnecessary? To me this is one more instance of the whole problematic use of amplification in the theatre.

---

For A Chorus Line, the cut dancers in the opening number (God, I Hope I Get It) sing all of the chorus parts off-stage after that (Sing, One, Hello Twelve, etc.). Any time the full group is singing together. Michael Bennett was big on having his chorus sound as good as they looked. And while this wasn't "pre-recorded" singing, it was definitely "enhancing" the vocal performances onstage.

With Cats, a few years later, they had the "Cats Chorus," which consisted of four offstage mic'd singers (SATB) who sang along with the entire show. Again, not a pre-record, but they were used for all choral numbers to enhance the onstage chorus.

---

Updated On: 10/5/11 at 07:34 AM

^ One of the Cats Chorus was Walter Charles, originally.

Sweetening and click tracks are still common. In Mamma Mia, any time a performer is offstage and not changing clothes, they go into a booth and sing to create the ABBA sound.

Phantom has several places where the singing is pre-recorded and sometimes you get the wrong Christine.

Is it cheating? Well, maybe.

---

I don't view it as cheating when there are people onstage singing in a group...in that case the "sweetening" is only used to boost the overall sound and give a more pleasing acoustic effect.
HOWEVER...I think when you have someone singing a solo (Christine) and they are just mouthing along to a click track...now THATS cheating.
Yes..I understand the reasoning behind them prerecording the high note at the end of the titular song (even in that case though think its absolutely stupid that they have her mouth it EVERYNIGHT as oppose to her singing it live every night and only using the click on nights her voice isnt fully there)
But the whole thing where they have doubles onstage while the actual Christine and Phantom are offstage and the doubles are mouthing a click track is bullSH*T in my opinion. Forgive me if I am being ignorant but my understanding is that the only thing the Phantom and Christine are doing offstage is basically walking and getting into the boat...why cant they be singing LIVE offstage and have the doubles onstage mouth the words instead of having the audience basically listening to a CD instead of a live show?

---

The Swings in the Wings

---

There have always been rumors circulating that That Streisand Woman mouthed "People" to her own recording throughout the run of FUNNY GIRL.

---

It's not that uncommon a practice. I hate to say it's just easier for some casts to deal with, but that's been the explanation to me when my music direction work suddenly became recording studio work. I hate pre-recording vocals, but it's a creative decision. Sometimes it's to guarantee an accurate vocal on something exceptional tricky. Other times, it's purely for effect, like recording the voices at the beginning and end of Brigadoon and processing the sound a little.

Off-stage voices/live voices piped in are more common in shows with big dance numbers. The dancers still sing, but the singers who aren't in the scene help balance the song out from the wings.

Whenever the Four Seasons sings a song in Jersey Boys, it's not a quartet; it's a group number.

The original PROMISES PROMISES had pit singers as well.

Didn't the revival also have pit singers?

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRe7UeroWAE

@ 3:56, wish there were a better quality video with better audio so you can clearly hear how incongruous the mixing on that high note is

Updated On: 10/5/11 at 02:05 PM

newintown, yes for the most part. But I mean to say that what you hear is not just the four men onstage.

BIG deal!

I know it's neither a mega-hit nor everyone's favorite, but BROOKLYN THE MUSICAL from 2004-2005 starring Eden Espinosa used some offstage singers. They were credited as "Vocalist"
http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=383057