Bono Singing To Track?

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jeffschmid said:


its pretty obvious... allthough maybe on the elevation dvds its just edited in a way that makes it sound like a backing track... possible too...



I used to watch both the Slane and Boston DVDs over and over while I was doin' time :drunk: and after some clever sleuthing I noticed that Bono is still walking out on stage (far away from a mic :ohmy: ) with the "woo hoos" playing. When I saw that I was like OH HELL NAW, BONO DONE TURNED INTO BRITNEY SPEARS. :ohmy: :no:


Hey there Reggie Thee Dog. :flirt: :sexywink:
 
Well check out the link I posted above the Elevation thing has been hammered into the ground, the only "woo hoos" that had the backing track were the first ones and they did it to help from the transition from the PA 'Elevation' to actually playing live...
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
Well check out the link I posted above the Elevation thing has been hammered into the ground, the only "woo hoos" that had the backing track were the first ones and they did it to help from the transition from the PA 'Elevation' to actually playing live...

thats actually very possible yes
 
jeffschmid said:
Wow... lets just clear this up for you guys... canadiens1160 is the only other person who has any idea what is going on here...

Rather than a few guitar parts here, a few keyboards there, a few vocal harmonys here...etc... the reality is that U2 plays about half of their set to a click track (like a metronome). This means that there is a backing track going throughout the WHOLE song. However, it is not often very audible except for in certain parts.

The most backing track-heavy song of this tour is probably Miracle Drug. You will notice that if you listen to the San Diego bootlegs the band is having a hell of a time staying in time with the backing track. Like canadiens1160 said, as the band reaches different parts of the song, the techs will start new programs so that they can try to stay in time as close as possible. So, for Miracle Drug, I would assume there are 5 or 6 different backing tracks that start up at different times during the song. HOWEVER, U2 may just use one backing track which plays for the whole song, in time with the click... this is why the band needs to stay in time.

I assume that Larry, Adam and The Edge all have the 'click' playing in their earpiece at the start of any song that uses a backing track. After the song has started, The Edge's click, and maybe Adam's as well, goes away or turns down. Larry is always playing to a click for songs with backing tracks. Im pretty sure this is why The Edge isn't all over the place as much as he would maybe like to be... with all his different effects and backing tracks and what not, he needs to keep shit organized...

I think it is fair to say that Bono does not listen to a click in his earpiece...

As for some more specific stuff:
Beautiful Day has plenty of vocal backing tracks, but the Edge is singing as well...
There are very few Bono backing tracks... during the Elevation tour I think he had them for the OOOs in elevation and there was some pre recorded bonos in the backgroud for beautiful day, no words though, just aahhhs and stuff... I haven't noticed any bono backing tracks so far this tour...

I hope this clears up some stuff for you guys... if you have any more technical questions I can probably answer them... I have played in bands with and without backing tracks...

Read this.

Read Canadiens1160's first post on the thread.

Close the thread.
 
Just in case it hasnt been said before, all of Bono's woo-hoo's on Elevation during the Elevation Tour WERE backing tracks. This was a tactical decision made after U2's performance of Elevation on Saturday Night Live during which Bono's voice cracked miserably over and over again during the woo-hoo's.

Otherwise, Canadiens1160's post is spot-on. The Edge is always hearing a click in order to maintain the proper timing of the "Edge delay" sound and shimmers.

Lastly, there are NO other musicians playing besides the band. All songs that have backing tracks for pre-recorded synth parts -- for example, Miracle Drug and One -- are triggered by sound engineers, as implied within Canadiens1160's excellent post. (The Edge also triggers certain synth keyboard parts at the start of the song, for example, Miracle Drug and One.) In other words, there is no live "keyboardist." Rather, just someone that just hits "play" to initiate the keyboard parts.
 
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MTEdge said:
Just in case it hasnt been said before, all of Bono's woo-hoo's on Elevation during the Elevation Tour WERE backing tracks. This was a tactical decision made after U2's performance of Elevation on Saturday Night Live during which Bono's voice cracked miserably over and over again during the woo-hoo's.

Otherwise, Canadiens1160's post is spot-on. The Edge is always hearing a click in order to maintain the proper timing of the "Edge delay" sound and shimmers.

Lastly, there are NO other musicians playing besides the band. All songs that have backing tracks for pre-recorded synth parts -- for example, Miracle Drug and One -- are triggered by sound engineers, as implied within Canadiens1160's excellent post. (The Edge also triggers certain synth keyboard parts at the start of the song, for example, Miracle Drug and One.) In other words, there is no live "keyboardist." Rather, just someone that just hits "play" to initiate the keyboard parts.

i thought at times the techs helped out at times. wasnt there something referring to this in "u2: At The End of the World"? not the part about Adam not being able to play in Zoo TV, but something else? I cant remember now. I didnt give much thought to it till now...
 
MattFromNYC said:


i thought at times the techs helped out at times. wasnt there something referring to this in "u2: At The End of the World"? not the part about Adam not being able to play in Zoo TV, but something else? I cant remember now. I didnt give much thought to it till now...

For those that don't know... At the first concert in Sydney in 1993, Adam -- if memory serves -- had just broken up with Naomi Campbell, and had drank himself into a stupor (amonst other things). Adam's tech (can't remember his name) took Adam's place for the first concert. (In other words, Adam was a no show.) Adam returned for the second Sydney concert, which was broadcasted on PPV, and later released on video.

In U2: At the End of the World, there was a short discussion (maybe two sentences) indicating that Ultraviolet included a pre-recorded guitar part. The specific parts, in my opinion, were not germane to the song as a whole, but rather were necessary to make the song somewhat close to the album version. (If memory serves, the pre-recorded part was the "tun-ton-don" part as The Edge is playing his solo. :wink:)
 
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The Elevation "woo-hoo" bit isn't even using a backing track these days. Listen to a few bootlegs, you'll see. As for the whole mic-away-from-mouth thing, have you looked at Larry during these moments? One poster mentioned they noticed this during Miracle Drug, which just so happens to feature a good about of Larry singing.

Sure, they use some musical backing tracks to complete the sound. There's no way 4 guys could physically create all of those sounds live. However, any foreground sound (lead guitar, etc) is always live. Again, check out a few bootlegs. You'll hear Edge miss a note one night, or hear him play a solo a little different another night. Really though, it's no secret at all that U2 use musical backing tracks to fill in the sound. However, those backing tracks don't reduce the work load at all for any of 'em, it just makes the songs sound better.

I saw 4 shows in a row. For two of them, I was in the very front of the bomb shelter. I'm also the type of person that pays really close attention to the vocals. As a result, I also watch Bono singing a lot of the time. Aside from the vocals being slightly different each night, and aside from all of the prior proof I had from the bootlegs, it's just extremely obvious that he's singing live. Like I said in a past post, I heard the vocals directly from Bono's mouth. I'm not sure what other form of proof I need :)

Anyway, it pains me to see thread after thread questioning if the band is actually playing live or not. I assure you though, if you still don't buy what some of us have said here, just download 3 or 4 bootlegs. You'll get the idea.
 
gorman said:
The Elevation "woo-hoo" bit isn't even using a backing track these days. Listen to a few bootlegs, you'll see. As for the whole mic-away-from-mouth thing, have you looked at Larry during these moments? One poster mentioned they noticed this during Miracle Drug, which just so happens to feature a good about of Larry singing.

Sure, they use some musical backing tracks to complete the sound. There's no way 4 guys could physically create all of those sounds live. However, any foreground sound (lead guitar, etc) is always live. Again, check out a few bootlegs. You'll hear Edge miss a note one night, or hear him play a solo a little different another night. Really though, it's no secret at all that U2 use musical backing tracks to fill in the sound. However, those backing tracks don't reduce the work load at all for any of 'em, it just makes the songs sound better.

I saw 4 shows in a row. For two of them, I was in the very front of the bomb shelter. I'm also the type of person that pays really close attention to the vocals. As a result, I also watch Bono singing a lot of the time. Aside from the vocals being slightly different each night, and aside from all of the prior proof I had from the bootlegs, it's just extremely obvious that he's singing live. Like I said in a past post, I heard the vocals directly from Bono's mouth. I'm not sure what other form of proof I need :)

Anyway, it pains me to see thread after thread questioning if the band is actually playing live or not. I assure you though, if you still don't buy what some of us have said here, just download 3 or 4 bootlegs. You'll get the idea.


when you mentioned hearing the vocals directly from bono's mouth... were these entire lines?or just shouts or something?

and have you noticed this type of thing on other tours you've been to? the hearing it firectly from his mouth thing?
which other shows have you been to?
 
MattFromNYC said:



when you mentioned hearing the vocals directly from bono's mouth... were these entire lines?or just shouts or something?

and have you noticed this type of thing on other tours you've been to? the hearing it firectly from his mouth thing?
which other shows have you been to?

Ah, I've never been close enough before to hear it. The only other U2 tour I've been to was Elevation, and I had nosebleed seats. Seriously though, listen to some Elevation bootlegs. Bono's voice wasn't so hot during that tour at times. There's no way they'd make a vocal track that sounded like that :)

As for this tour, I was close enough to hear Bono's (drastically improved) vocals directly from his mouth twice. Keep in mind that between the insane noise levels of the arena, and the fact that Bono moves around a lot, I didn't have the opportunity to have this happen very often. However, it did happen, and what I heard was actual singing. I can't remember all of the exact instances, but it was various songs, and it was singing. It sounded identical to what was coming through the PA, and it was consistent.

There are a number of other things that made it very obvious for me. The spontaneous lyric changes, the point during Elevation (May 9th I think) where he had a frog in his throat and missed a line and commented on it mid-song, and the fact that there was a noticeable difference in delivery on a number of lines from show to show to show... to show.

If you want, send me a message on AIM. My screen name is g0rman (the 0 is a zero). I can provide plenty of proof in the form of mp3s :)
 
MattFromNYC said:



when you mentioned hearing the vocals directly from bono's mouth... were these entire lines?or just shouts or something?

and have you noticed this type of thing on other tours you've been to? the hearing it firectly from his mouth thing?
which other shows have you been to?

My god, you may want to lay off the drugs, for they are making you paranoid and delusional.
 
I can't believe I get up this morning and this thread is still on top.

I'll take this opportunity to ask if any of you that are so worried about this have any tickets for the November NY shows that you'd like to unload now.

Thanks.:)
 
gorman said:
The Elevation "woo-hoo" bit isn't even using a backing track these days. Listen to a few bootlegs, you'll see.

Yes, thats true for every show execpt the Broadcast Elevation from Chicago 5/10 (Haven't got an audience bootleg yet, so I dont know if it was live on the night....)
the "wooohooos" were definitly not Bono...well not Live. At least it doenst sound that way, sounds just like some of the Elevation shows.
Now maybe that was just edited onto the video because Bono wasnt happy with his own performance that night....or maybe just wanted it that way for the DVD release.
 
:mad:

Closing due to multiple attacks on my person!!111 :madspit: :mad:




Also, there have been a few complaints :wink:
 
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