U2Girl1978
Blue Crack Addict
Bono's Lip Synching at concerts (Edge too)
- Thread starter chocky
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babyman
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
yeah, he lip synchs to the talk shows........................................
babyman
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Chiz, that fat U2 photo is fan-ta-stic!!! 
Hewson
Blue Crack Supplier
klombardo said:
The view from GA Tues night provided this about "Crumbs"...
Bono missed coming in with the "Where you live..." portion of the song, so he motioned to Edge that to come back around and he would sing it...which he did.
While he was sing "diginty passes byyyyyyy" and extending the "By", sudddenly we heard "YOU SPEAK", while Bono was singing a different word and Edge was away from his mic. Bono then made a face.
It appears the "You Speak"s in Crumbs are canned much like the "Woo Hoo"s in Elevation.
Someone misfired it, or Bono's miscue got them out of sync.
U2FanPeter
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
<<Bono sounded terrible on Conan>>
Technical wise and performance wise I thought the entire group sounded good/OK, but not great. I did think Bono performed very well for someone doing singing about 10 songs total and interviews on an "off night". NBC does have a history of musical performances sounding like shit(SNL, Leno etc.)
<<T.O.3 sounded like crap from section 306>>
I'm always mystified by people that bitch at concert acoustics - go to the symphony if you want perfect sound. U2 concerts can be heard with preferred acoustics via live DVDs and high quality bootlegs in your own perfect home theater set-up. Did you expect it to sound good at the farthest corner of the arena? Seasoned concert veterans know where the best place to hear a concert - I think there is even a website dedicated to that topic.
u2fp
Technical wise and performance wise I thought the entire group sounded good/OK, but not great. I did think Bono performed very well for someone doing singing about 10 songs total and interviews on an "off night". NBC does have a history of musical performances sounding like shit(SNL, Leno etc.)
<<T.O.3 sounded like crap from section 306>>
I'm always mystified by people that bitch at concert acoustics - go to the symphony if you want perfect sound. U2 concerts can be heard with preferred acoustics via live DVDs and high quality bootlegs in your own perfect home theater set-up. Did you expect it to sound good at the farthest corner of the arena? Seasoned concert veterans know where the best place to hear a concert - I think there is even a website dedicated to that topic.
u2fp
MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
Hewson said:
You're right.
After the 2nd chorus, the Bono missed his cue for the bridge, so they played 4 measures going into the bridge, instead of 2.
Right after the big "Dignity passes BYYYYY", a falsetto vocal could be heard, band smiled, them Bono belted out a few more of those big bellow notes as cover.
It still kicked.
So what do people think about U2 using prerecorded vocals for parts Bono can't do live anymore? Would people be mad if the opera part of Miss Sarajevo was prerecorded? How is that much different from the prerecorded "You speak" falsetto parts during Crumbs?
I'm not sure if I'm 100% ok with it, not that it's a huge deal either way.
I'm not sure if I'm 100% ok with it, not that it's a huge deal either way.
i'm not 100% ok with it either, so i'm going to pretend i didn't read it so as not to ruin the 4 shows i'm going to this weekend 
chiz, do you have a bigger picture of that? i wanna print it out and take it with me just in case i bump into the band heading into the arena. that would be awesome... a fat u2 autographed picture
chiz, do you have a bigger picture of that? i wanna print it out and take it with me just in case i bump into the band heading into the arena. that would be awesome... a fat u2 autographed picture
super sweet... it's printing now 
U2Man
ONE love, blood, life
Chizip, is it OK, if I post this in PLEBA?
Kudos - a very accurate description. Yeah, a bit sketchy. It didn't change the way I felt about the show. Crumbs came off beautifully outside of that.
I think most here either know or believe that the Elevation tour used the pre-recorded Woo, Woo's in a similar way.
Heck, the EP Wide Awake in America has a live version (I believe it's Bad) that was recorded at soundcheck and then audience ambience was added later.
I also have my doubts about the opera section in Miss Sarajevo and the strength which comes through in Sometimes. There is definitely profound effort performed in both of those, but I'd have to be foolish not to question whether a certain percentage of the mix is an enhanced backing vocal.
dave
Agreed! NBC did a horrible job with the mix. Down right aweful in fact.
Bono might not have sounded terrible (as I stated earlier)...chalk it up to sounding rough / horse & the terrible mix which didn't help his vocals. Maybe for mini-shows like this, he doesn't go through the usual vaporizor routine. Who knows.
dave
TheBrazilianFly
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Chizip said:
Hi, joining this late but a few things:
The 'woo hoo' in Elevation is pre-recorded and with that in mind who knows how many falsetto bits have a pre-recorded element (i.e. the falsetto before the chorus in COBL comes to mind...) - it's a shame but it is all a matter of where to draw the line...that's up to the U2 camp...I'd prefer they keep the vocals all live (although Beautiful Day may be an exception as it is a full on choir, not just a single harmonized vocal)
In terms of Miss Sarajevo and SYCMIOY (the operatic parts parts) - I don't think there is any track here - Bono is going all out - but it is likely that the sound engineer is using a vocal doubling effect to thicken the sound...it's common in live music to use these sorts of effects...Bon Jovi uses them all the time I think...it basically is a digital copy of whatever is sung that is superimposed over top the singer's voice in real time (with a very small delay (i.e. unrecognizable as a delay to our ears). Bono also undoubtedly uses "pitch correction" technology that takes notes that are slightly off key and corrects them.
It should be kept it mind: these are technological advances in live sound engineering that are used by all touring acts and it is up to the sound engineer to decide whether or not to use them and which songs to use them in etc...Bono probably has nothing to do with it - he is just singing along giving it 100% and Joe O'H. is doing the rest...
I personally think he sounded fantastic doing OOTS last night on Conan. His chest voice and upper register (think chorus of Pride) is the best since Zoo TV. The weak link in his voice these days is his falsetto which has declined since popmart and it is maybe why they are pre-recording some of these parts - I don't agree with it, but I won't let it get me down as I know Bono is giving 100% every show.
Cheers,
Brady
The 'woo hoo' in Elevation is pre-recorded and with that in mind who knows how many falsetto bits have a pre-recorded element (i.e. the falsetto before the chorus in COBL comes to mind...) - it's a shame but it is all a matter of where to draw the line...that's up to the U2 camp...I'd prefer they keep the vocals all live (although Beautiful Day may be an exception as it is a full on choir, not just a single harmonized vocal)
In terms of Miss Sarajevo and SYCMIOY (the operatic parts parts) - I don't think there is any track here - Bono is going all out - but it is likely that the sound engineer is using a vocal doubling effect to thicken the sound...it's common in live music to use these sorts of effects...Bon Jovi uses them all the time I think...it basically is a digital copy of whatever is sung that is superimposed over top the singer's voice in real time (with a very small delay (i.e. unrecognizable as a delay to our ears). Bono also undoubtedly uses "pitch correction" technology that takes notes that are slightly off key and corrects them.
It should be kept it mind: these are technological advances in live sound engineering that are used by all touring acts and it is up to the sound engineer to decide whether or not to use them and which songs to use them in etc...Bono probably has nothing to do with it - he is just singing along giving it 100% and Joe O'H. is doing the rest...
I personally think he sounded fantastic doing OOTS last night on Conan. His chest voice and upper register (think chorus of Pride) is the best since Zoo TV. The weak link in his voice these days is his falsetto which has declined since popmart and it is maybe why they are pre-recording some of these parts - I don't agree with it, but I won't let it get me down as I know Bono is giving 100% every show.
Cheers,
Brady
MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
Chizip said:
He still sings the part, it's not as if he stops singing.
This is a result of their attachment to being a 4 piece.
They use alot of backing tracks that they could do away with if they added a 2nd guitar player, a piano/keyboard player, a percussionist, and 2 or 3 female backing vocalists.
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
MrBrau1 said:
They should do this, just so I can be one of the female backing vocalists.
gvox
Ghost of Love
What Brady said 
And it will change from room to room. Joe will tailor as he hears it coming from the best position on the floor, the mixer position.
What works at the ACC wont necessarily work on Conan.
Joe's a genius
And it will change from room to room. Joe will tailor as he hears it coming from the best position on the floor, the mixer position.
What works at the ACC wont necessarily work on Conan.
Joe's a genius
going back and listening to crumbs from MN it sounds like theres a backing vocal that goes "you speak of science and wonders" and bono sings over it.. but its like that in the album version too (double voice), maybe they wanted to create that effect?
U2FanPeter said:
I wasn't saying that it ruined the concert for me. I totally understand the thing about live concerts sounding a bit rougher than soundboards and what not; especially from where I was sitting. I've read that website that you were mentioning which talks about the best place to stand when you are taping a concert, and thats why I didn't even bother bringing a recording device, because it would have turned out like shit. If anything, I was just a little bit surprised as most people bitch about the quality of the outdoor concerts, but I've been to an outdoor concert before (SARS-fest in Toronto with the Rolling Stones) and the audio was crystal clear. The concert was amazing and I forgot about the sound after the first song. Read my review at U2tours here if you don't believe me
http://u2tours.com/displayfan.src?ID=20050916&XID=7477&Return=
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I couldn't care less about the falsettos being pre-recorded, unless if Bono/Edge aren't singing along - and they do, from what I've read.
As for pitch correction, makes me wonder where the stories from off key notes come, then.
As for pitch correction, makes me wonder where the stories from off key notes come, then.
L03VIk
War Child
bradyvox said:
The who hoo's is live this tour. On Elevation tour they had a backing track through Elevation including Who hoos... BUT THEY DON'T LIP SYNC!
There's a BIG difference between lipsyncing (britney) and backing vocal tracks... The Edges sings HOLA! and you can hear his voice, but you also hear 2-3 more Egdes on a vocal track, and if Edges forgets to sing his bit, you'll only hear the backing track.... For those of us that has more than 2-3 bootlegs you can hear a big difference from show to show.
Let's say they where lipsyncing completely, this is at least 10 things that wouldn't happen:
1. Bono's occationally vocal cracks
2. Edge mumbling his Miracle Drug part.
3. Bono starting 40 in half a key too low
4. Bono's face turning red, green and then blue before finishing "amore" in Miss Sarajevo.
5. A little stop in the drumming when Larry looses his drumstick...
6. Bono playing guitar... OK, it's not a loud sound, but he still misses a few chords...
7. Bono singing the wrong lyrics/starting the wrong verse/staring chorus instead of verse/starting verse instead of chorus
8. Bono not managing to hit a falsetto part, so that only a whispering sound comes out... Often happens during WOWY, and some of the Woo Hoo's in Elevation disappears.
9. Edge or Adam playing the wrong chord.
10. Terry fucking up the keyboard.
I stood 2 feet from Bono both in Oslo and Gothenburg and that high Sometimes note was as real as the spit hitting my face! So quit this lipsyncing nonsense... If you wanna see lipsyncing, see Britney.
All the big bands uses backing tracks live, to create a big statium sound, noone hides it either. Do you really think U2 thinks that noone hears the violin at the end of Miracle drug, at least on the first leg? Of course they know we hear it, and of course they know we couldn't care less!!!!
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