Members BonsoWonderDog Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 I saw Evanescence in concert last night. I enjoyed myself, although I needed binoculars to see anything properly...... I noticed a few times that Amy Lee would be playing an intro or whatever on a keyboard, then grab the mike and start running around dancing & singing....and magically the piano would continue in the background. Was she even playing the intro or just miming? How much of your "live" gigging is actually just miming over a recording and how much is actually playing? Is miming perfectly acceptable now, or is it considered "cheating"? Sorry if my questions are naive.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unfed Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 that makes me sick more than anything. there's an ebm act from Buffalo that played here a few times. the first time i saw them the girls fingers were hovering two inches from the keys as she 'played'. i never forgot that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CO622 Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 Someone posted here a while back a picture of a girl playing a JP8000 that was not even turned on. No lights Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BonsoWonderDog Posted February 9, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 Don't misunderstand me......this is not a thread to slag Amy Lee...I'm actually quite a fan. I know she can definitely play quite well..... I'm just wondering if it's commonly accepted to have keys auto-playing in the background or should she have had another band member playing keys for her? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unfed Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 if i saw someone i respected doing something like that, i think i'd think a bit differently about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 "It's not right ... but it's OK ... they're going to make it anyway ..." I guess each artist needs to figure our what their (potential) audience finds acceptable ... let's face it, it's not easy to play an instrument, sing and act like a cheerleader too ... I suppose it's about setting priorities in your performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jchas Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 It probably happens a lot more than you'd like to think - what with most shows having everything but the kitchen sink synced to the music. While it certainly wouldn't be impossible to pre-program the sequencer to mute parts here - play parts there - imagine what just a little too much improv would do to throw the whole thing out of wack. Oh for the good old days when it was all played live (even if it ment hiding some extra players under the stage). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members XorAxAx Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 I could never gig in such a way. I enjoy playing music. Well, I suppose if they gave me millions of dollars I could fake it, but then I would don a disguise and go play real music in my spare time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdh Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 The Stones, The Who, U2 and a lot of other big name bands all have done this to fill in there soundscape. The Who still use the original tape tracks for playing Baba O'Riley, Won't Get Fooled Again and Who Are You, but they never tried to hide it. What I've seen in many of the younger bands stage shows is that the sound is too good meaning recorded. Who can forget the Ashely Simpson mess on SNL last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BonsoWonderDog Posted February 9, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 What I don't like about it is that it rules out any chance of spontaneity. What if they wanted to go nuts and change from rock to reggae just for the fun of it? No can do.....you have to do what the sequenced music is telling you. Crowd requests a favourite old song but you can't play it because you don't have the backing tracks ready..... :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr. Botch Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 We only do one sequenced song in our entire repertoire, No Doubt's "Hellagood". I used to hold my hands up near the keyboard during small portions of the sequence where I wasn't actually playing, but soon decided that was worse than letting the audience know a sequence was playing. No more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unfed Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 well, i do think there's a hell of a difference between sequenced music and someone standing up there literally pretending to be playing an instrument or singing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members XorAxAx Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 I will change my mind in one specific case. For pop music, it's OK. Most pop fans aren't aware that bands make music, anyway. When they think of music they think of sexy people dancing on a stage, no musicians to be seen. Those people don't deserve to have real music played before them. Guess it is obvious now that I vehemently vomit on pop music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members robotsquid Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 We have a fair bit of stuff coming off the laptop when we play live, it used to come from the MPC. The laptop is sitting right there on stage though, and the audience can see the screen from the side. We never pretend to be playing something when we aren't, that just seems dumb. There is one song we do where I don't play anything, just tweak fx on the lead vocal, I guess people must wonder what I'm doing in that one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Synthoid Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 I could never gig in such a way. I enjoy playing music. Same with me.....not interested in faking it on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rouqmirg Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 What about solo keyboard acts? Is it acceptable to play one or two parts and have the rest sequenced? Or would that be boring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 Apparently Thomas Dolby has been doing just that lately, and has been well received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jchas Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 What about solo keyboard acts? Is it acceptable to play one or two parts and have the rest sequenced? Or would that be boring? I hope not. I've performed some ELP stuff solo and if they expect me to play bass and drums while flailing my way through Hoedown i'm SOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members XorAxAx Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 ISTR he was building loops from scratch on stage, though. It's a bit different than playing back loops made in your studio (or perhaps made by someone else). I think it is cool to build up a complex song from zilch using only some looping sequencer/sampler and a few synths on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Outkaster Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 Nothing for me. What you see and hear is what you get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JohnN Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 well, i do think there's a hell of a difference between sequenced music and someone standing up there literally pretending to be playing an instrument or singing. I think that's the crux of the matter; sequenced / pre-recorded is OK, but don't mime to it, making out it's you. EDIT In fact, back in my day (!), we used to have on open reel tape on stage which we used for echo. We got a few "play live" shouts... BRJN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bozak Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 We all know many acts do it, see Prince at the superbowl, it's totally lame and speaks volumes of the caliber of live musicianship and audio engineering these days, which is not even close to what it once was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheFoosa Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 I once sequenced the bass to Chameleon on my SH-201, because I had it split for a synth lead as well, which I used to solo. Between one hand soloing and one hand following Herbie's adventure of sound phukkery on the original recoding, I would have found myself with no hands to play the bass part (this was an organ/synth, guitar, and drums trio). I didn't mime it though. It was an obvious loop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fisnotigut Posted February 9, 2007 Members Share Posted February 9, 2007 I don't think it's so bad to use sequencing to augment a band with extra padding. If someone was actually acting like they were playing but the sound was sequenced - NOT COOL. That's as bad a Milly Vanilly. Most respectable musicians who are putting on a SHOW might spend a little time on their instrument then leave to interact with the audience, and the part they were playing continues on afterwards. I'd hope that this is scripted for the show and that the sequenced part starts where the artist ends. I have a Peter Gabriel DVD where I think he does this a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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