A Question about Live Performances...

[Beauty4123]

sorry if this seems like a stupid question to ask, but you know how bands (UVERworld, HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, ORANGE RANGE, etc..) all play instruments during live performances (like on POPJAM, Music Station, etc..), are they actually playing the instruments or is it just the studio recorded version playing in the background? the same goes for solo artists, like younha (who plays the piano) and just any jpop artist that plays a certain instrument.

[sora2522]

i'm pretty sure they play the instruments themselves...
then again, like with do as infinity's first tv performance (which i haven't seen...), tomiko van represented them, so they prolly had the recording then.
it really depends on the situation, in my opinion...

[Beauty4123]

but if they really are playing the instruments live, then how come the music sounds exactly the same as the studio version?

[sora2522]

...they're really really good? *shrugs*

[Beauty4123]

Originally Posted by sora2522

...they're really really good? *shrugs*

lol, thanks for your help anyways.

[Hazuki]

Sometimes there's a slight difference depending on the artist. Maybe it's not easy to spot for everyone.

I know when abingdon boys school plays live, they sound a bit different from the CD version. Since Takanori's voice isn't as rough as presented in a.b.s.

Sometimes, during the very first performance of a song, some artists would lip sing, like Korean artists who dance would use the first performance to show off dance moves.

It really does depend on the band/artist in question. Some of them have real sound that doesn't need to be altered in the studio, some do, more or less.

I hope I helped~

[Beauty4123]

ohh i see now. thanks hazuki! don't worry, you've helped.

Are the artists actually playing the instruments? Much of the time, yes. Are we, the listeners, really hearing that playing? A great deal of the time, no.

Many artists play (and sing) over the studio track, but their instruments aren't routed to the main audio outs. I have seen some performances where certain instruments, such as keyboards, aren't even physically plugged in and turned on.

On a related note, in some cases, the song an artist is performing doesn't feature certain acoustic instruments, yet the TV lives will include a band with those instruments. Take a selection of Ayu's past TV lives, for example. Some of the songs featured programmed drums, but a live drummer (who we couldn't hear) played along on TV.

[Beauty4123]

ohh thanks Cavi for the info. i think i understand better now, lol.

thanks for the replies, guys! i really appreciate it.

[namiie]

I think they do play, but the recorded version goes in the background just in case. So they're playing OVER the recorded version I first realized this last year when I was watching Ai Otsuka perform "Frienger" on a TV show....you know there's that part where she swings her arm around and goes, "Fight!" and when her band did it too, their hands were off their instruments and yet the music was still playing XD;