Pre-recording Vocals to be Played Back During Performance — Page 2

I can definitely see Priscilla doing this. With the guys being onstage for so much of the show, so many costume changes, and tough dancing, swings or back tracks are probably added to enhance the sound.

I would have to get out my old Playbills, but I think BROOKLYN (as I mentioned before) credited their off-stage singers. They were listed as "Vocalists" - they are listed as such on the BROOKLYN IBDB page. http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=383057

The "sweetening" in the original production of FOLLIES included the "Loveland" number (tape and chorus together, with the cavaliers certainly on tape), the intro to "Live, Laugh, Love" (to facilitate a quick change for the chorus), and (I believe) the last chorus of "Who's That Woman?". No secret here- I believe these instances are noted in the published vocal score.

In COMPANY, the male and female understudies (along with the Vocal Minority) enhanced SIDE BY SIDE BY SIDE from the pit.

Is it a surprise to anyone that this technique is used in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?

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Updated On: 10/5/11 at 07:56 PM

The last time I saw Phantom, Giry had to do the whole note in the second act. There was a delay in the note, and you could see her eyeing the conductor. She did well though covering it. Oopsies! Gotta love live theater!

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Christine's high E in "Phantom of the Opera" is prerecorded as was Julie Andrews's G-flat in "Victor Victoria."

As someone who has sat in several pits (not as a musician) and worn those infamous headphones mentioned earlier in the thread, hearing exactly what the conductor hears, I just want to chime in that it is not really a clue as to whether prerecorded vocals are used and seeing "click" in a musical score doesn't indicate the usage of pre-recorded vocals either. It is LITERALLY a click.

Especially in shows that utilize keyboard synthesizers or where not all musicians are in the orchestra pit, the headphones allow the conductor to hear the full orchestra and as the audience hears it mixed together, complete with any filtered orchestral effects within the computer. Without them, the conductor wouldn't be able to get the picture. The headphones and the indication of "click" also indicate and a LITERAL click... a computerized metronome that keeps the conductor perfectly in tempo when light cues, scene changes, etc are automated and need to happen in exact sync with the music.. it keeps it all together.

The musicians also wear headphones with the click track that keep them in tempo - particularly in scenarios where the conductor also plays keyboard, and allows them to hear both what THEY are playing and how the orchestral sound is mixing.

Hairspray DID indeed use a sweetner tracks in the finale. Most productions do use them.

Promises, Promises and Company have separate parts written for off-stage voices in the original score. Whether the singers also sweetened or not, I don't know, but I would imagine they did. I mean, could you do the end of "Turkey Lurkey" and stay on pitch?

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So how do they perfectly line up a recorded vocal track with a live orchestra?? I have always been curious of this.

EvanK, the recording most likely has a click built in, like a metronome tick, so the conductor conducts to the click. The click is inaudible to the audience, only pumped into the conductor/pit headphone system.

My initial post which started this thread reflected my dismay at the use of sweetening tapes to augment the live vocals in the original production of FOLLIES. Having just read this entire thread I can see that other ways of augmenting the live vocals are readily used today, most especially by live singers in the wings or in the orchestra pit. The use of live singers in the wings does not bother me, but the use of pre-recorded vocals does. There is something dishonest about the latter, fooling the public as it were. Ted Chapin, author of EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE, in his discussion of sweetening, emphasized that the audience was unaware of this practice and was none the worse off by not knowing. This use of pre-recorded vocals apparently does not bother most posters here, simply because it is so widespread. Call me naive, but aren't we talking about live theatre here, without the gimmicks, please?

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Gypsy,

Theatre is about illusion illuminating truth.

Isn't illusion, by it's nature "fooling"? Are you not "fooling" an audience into believing that the 30 year old actor is a 16 year old/ Are you not "fooling" the audience into believing that they are in the streets of 16th Century Paris or a crumbling theater in 1971? Are you not "fooling" the audience into believing that it is 100% natural to suddenly go from spoken word or thought into a musical number or dance when the emotion is too much to contain?

By the presented logic, is it not dishonest that Dorothy's Ruby Slippers are not genuine ruby? That Cinderella's slipper's are not genuine gold and glass? Isn't dishonest for Peter to be flown by a wire?

While I can understand your sentiment, you seem to be mingling lip syncing and sweetening, which are VERY different things. Christine lip syncing the title song in Phantom is a rare exception to the rule.. AEA doesn't approve of it's members lip syncing. Sweetening is nothing scandalous. The vocals are recorded by the original cast of the production you are seeing and the cast on stage is singing live at all times (unless there is a lazy ensemble member skirting the rules - I am looking at you, Mamma Mia). All it does is thicken the sound so that you don't hear huffing and puffing.. it isn't replacing a thing. It isn't compensating, it isn't 'tricking'..

As far as the title song for Phantom, it didn't bother me at all that they were lip-syncing, since it's part of the illusion while they use body doubles, etc. to descend into the underground lair of the Phantom. The voices can't be detectable as coming from the actual "bodies" on stage, or the visual trick wouldn't work to have them go through the floor and descend from the fly space above, a second later. As for Christine's high notes at the end of that song being pre-recorded, it also doesn't bother me. Webber wrote it in a merciless way for a soprano. She stays up around high C, singing all those "ahs" for about 12 bars, which would kill any soprano anywhere. I'd rather hear a pre-record than listen to a performer completely wreck her voice. She turns upstage for it anyway. I thought it was very effective, not as singing, but as a "special effect."

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