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Hi-I'm new to this group...Sorry If I might be posting incorrectly....But I've been watching a lot of live concerts lately,Namely Hall of Fame and tributes to aging rock stars on blu-ray,dvd,Palladium etc. and I think they're really good-a little TOO good!...Most of these songs sound so close to studio-type recordings that they must be really doctored...I mean Crosby,Stills and Nash, Paul Anka,Davy Jones and the rest of the Oldies groups sound better now than they did 20 years ago and not because they've gotten any better....My question is this- Should live music be presented warts and all or is it ok to "tweak it" so it sounds better and therefore more marketable?..In my mind this is akin to lip-syncing entire songs....Either way the public is being deceived. I suspect that vocals and instrumentation are sometimes completely re-done in the studio and passed off as "live"......Maybe I'm just paranoid from smoking too much weed in the 70's.......Waddya think?
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As far as I'm aware.................most live performances have always been tweeked!:wink:
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Oh! it wears a man down into the ground
It's the strangest elation
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I don't care as long as it sounds good and looks authentic
Don't spend so much time analyzing
Just listen and enjoy
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I think this has always been a problem.
I would imagine almost every live recording is touched up in some way, even if it's only in the mixing stage. Re-recording to some extent seems to be an industry standard, presumably to offer the consumer what the industry thinks the public wants. Thin Lizzy's live album Live & Dangerous - very highly regarded - is a notorious case where very little of the original live recording survived onto the album.
In my experience, completely untouched live recordings are pretty rare, to the point that artists seem to give an indication that there's no over-dubbing, if that's the case.
Whether or not anyone regards this as fraudulent is really down to the individual.
Don't forget that recording technology is always improving, so this may explain why more modern "live" recordings can sound very good...
It doesn't really worry me, but I can understand that it would bother some people.
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"
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Apologies guys, MH & Griff have posted while I was pondering the question.
Agree with what both feel, and I've just reiterated what they've already posted...
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"
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No problem!:biggrin:
Nice to be able to go back to trust and friendship!!!!!!!!!
It's a mixed up sensation this being alive
Oh! it wears a man down into the ground
It's the strangest elation
I can't describe it
Oh it leaves a man weary
It makes a man frown..............................Chris Simpson ( "Mixed Up Sensations" 1975 Martin's Cafe )
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good artists release live albums and include labels like "no overdubs" etc on the covers...
Dire Straits "alchemy" was one i can recall, so was Paul Weller "live wood"...there has got to be others though!?
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
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Grumpy wrote:" I don't care as long as it sounds good and looks authentic
Don't spend so much time analyzing
Just listen and enjoy"
Point well taken but I'd rather hear off- key singing and the occasional wrong chord than have to con myself into thinking I'm listening to a genuine performance.....Perhaps I'm in the minority here....... Sometimes the mistakes add to the allure of the song giving them a more "human" touch instead of the sterile treatment that Pro Tools i.e. often can do to a performance live or in the studio......I think this is a major reason that music (Pop and Rock mainly) has been stuck in rut for the last xx? years.......Sorry If I sound like the old fart trying to bring back the horse and buggy......Peace.
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nitedawg Wrote:Grumpy wrote:" I don't care as long as it sounds good and looks authentic
Don't spend so much time analyzing
Just listen and enjoy"
Point well taken but I'd rather hear off- key singing and the occasional wrong chord than have to con myself into thinking I'm listening to a genuine performance.....Perhaps I'm in the minority here....... Sometimes the mistakes add to the allure of the song giving them a more "human" touch instead of the sterile treatment that Pro Tools i.e. often can do to a performance live or in the studio......I think this is a major reason that music (Pop and Rock mainly) has been stuck in rut for the last xx? years.......Sorry If I sound like the old fart trying to bring back the horse and buggy......Peace.
no problem dawg
may have felt the same way years ago
........and welcome to the site
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13-01-2012, 17:50
(This post was last modified: 13-01-2012, 17:53 by Jerome.)
nitedawg Wrote:Grumpy wrote:" I don't care as long as it sounds good and looks authentic
Don't spend so much time analyzing
Just listen and enjoy"
Point well taken but I'd rather hear off- key singing and the occasional wrong chord than have to con myself into thinking I'm listening to a genuine performance.....Perhaps I'm in the minority here....... Sometimes the mistakes add to the allure of the song giving them a more "human" touch instead of the sterile treatment that Pro Tools i.e. often can do to a performance live or in the studio......I think this is a major reason that music (Pop and Rock mainly) has been stuck in rut for the last xx? years.......Sorry If I sound like the old fart trying to bring back the horse and buggy......Peace.
Welcome to the site Nitedawg. Nothing wrong with the old horse and buggy! I like a blend of really old instruments and modern electronica. I DO NOT like 'autotune' & 'quantisation' - two processes used extensively in today's music production and part of the downfall of real creativity. But technology does provide one with the ability to do all sorts of things that were once only reserved for those who could afford it. Having said that I have yet to hear a 'virtual' guitar solo that actually sounds like a real guitar. It might happen one day but I have not heard it yet.
You can approximate sounds but you cannot fool the human brain.
'The purpose of life is a life of purpose' - Athena Orchard.
