Sound engineers: mechanics of modern lip-synching

Factual Questions
1

This thread is inspired (obviously) by the problems Ashlee Simpson had on Saturday Night Live last week. I want to know how lip-synching is done these days from a technical standpoint.

I did audio engineering for recording and PA in the '70s and '80s, but moved on to other things at just about the time everything started going digital. So I don’t know how to make sense out of what has been reported about Ms. Simpson’s mishaps.

For anyone who hasn’t heard, on the show, it all fell apart at the start of Ashlee’s second song of the night. The band started playing and the vocal part of her previous song was heard and then cut off suddenly. (Ashlee didn’t even have the mike to her mouth at the time.) The band kept playing and, embarassed and confused, Ashlee walked off stage.

Later, AP reported that the drummer hit the wrong button. On 60 Minutes tonight, SNL producer Lorne Michaels claimed he had no idea that she was going to lip-synch, and denied that it’s ever been done before, unless it was for dance performances. (OK, Lorne.)

It doesn’t strike me as very likely that the show’s technical crew wouldn’t have known that the lead singer was going to lip-synch. They might not have told Lorne about it (or maybe he insists on plausible deniability) but I don’t see how the band could have pulled it off without the house and broadcast engineers’ knowledge and cooperation.

So my question becomes, in concert and broadcast settings these days, what is the source of a synch track, and how is it synched to the band?

Way back when I knew everything there was to be known about sound mixing, it was a big deal (and state of the art tech) when James Taylor had a backup track for the chorus of “Shower the People” played from a reel-to-reel tape deck on stage. He did it on SNL and on tour, circa 1976. The tape was cued remotely (by hand) by an engineer, and ran through each chorus until it hit a piece of foil tape, which triggered the deck to stop, cued up to the next chorus. (Yeah, I asked one of the engineers at a concert how it was done.)

It must be easier and more high-tech now. Can a digital track be triggered automatically to a live beat from the drummer using MIDI? If not, how is it done? Who would control it? I would expect the an assistant of the main engineer, but does it make sense that the drummer might have been controlling the track? Or did he just get unfairly blamed?

Any expert opinions about current state of the art, and professional practice? (We’ll leave the carping about the ethics and morality of lip-synching to the Pit.)

Thanks.

2

First of all - I don’t buy the party line from either Simpson’s camp or SNL, mainly because after a few lines of the vocal track, the volume is dropped to almost inaudible - yet you can still hear it coming through, barely, for the entirety of the band’s little jam before they cut to the “please stand by” SNL logo. So obviously, someone was riding a fader there, and yanked it down when they realized what was happening.

3

When I worked in musical theatre from 99 to 02, to, there was quite a bit of stuff on computer - eight lines at least (x2 for stereo). One was the click track which went to the drummer, percussionist (in the pit), and some of the singers on stage (sometimes for only some parts of songs).

There was one soundeffects track that the conductor triggered (sometimes via MIDI if the SFX happenned during live music)

Other tracks were vocals (ie, for lip synching). In fact, now I think about it, all the lead vocals for all songs were on the computer (G4 Mac, triggered by the conductor who also played keys, BTW), and it was up to the front of house audio guy to decide if they were heard or not. The copmputer had to have recordings for each lead cast member, and for all their understudies (usually two per character). I never found out how the MD kept all the files straight, but at least he did not have to deal with all the permutations of duets, as each of the lead characters had their own lines, so he’d have to change who was playing the leads for tonights’ show, and nothing else.

The other problem was, when the director came in, and wanted to change some lyrics, the tracks had to be re-recorded - for the lead and understudies. Obviously, when the show is in pre-production, there are numerous stidio sessions, but when the show is touring around, this can cause scheduling problems, and of course cost a fair bit.

Also on computer were chorus tracks, to beef the whole sound up a bit.

Usually, the stage manager, relevant cast member, and FOH audio guy would work out whose voice needed some help for that show. Doing eight shows a week, meant by friday night several people were getting tired and needed some / a lot of help. By help, I mean, the FOH guy would allow more of the recorded track thru to the live mix, so the singer would not have to exert their voice so much.

For some dance numbers, some actors just had no chance of singing well AND dancing energetically, so these were always lip synched.

The drummer triggering the vocal track for the SNL performance makes sense, as often drummers will have “drum machines” (basically, a computer with a hard drive that has certain sounds stored in a track layout; some drum sounds might be triggered off his kit, for a fuller-sounding snare, or something).

I am not sure how SNL works, but I expect that most bands would use the in-house audio engineer (from other lip synch mess ups on other variety shows, this seems likely), so having the rhythm section triggering a vocal track makes sense - at least it’ll come in at the right time (as opposed to a in-house FOH guy trying to count bars?).

Of course, if the performer misses her cue (or drops her mic!), there’s not much anyone can do! At least in mucical theatre, mics are in wigs or of the boom type…

Hope this helps.

abby

4

Doesn’t compute. You pull a fader all the way down on any mixing board I’ve ever seen and there’s no signal on that channel at all.

5

Unless that channel’s monitor loop was being sent in a “Pre-Fader” mode, which means that the channel can be pulled down from the house send using the fader, but the fader won’t have any effect on the monitor send.
Most mixers have the capability to switch each channel’s auxilliary feeds (monitor, effects, etc.) from Post Fader (Channel Fader controls send) to Pre Fader (Channel Fader has no effect on aux send).

6

abby: Thanks for that detailed and informative post. That’s about what I thought.

Am I right in thinking that once playback starts everyone’s locked into the tempo of the recorded performance? I’ve heard of MIDI systems that can pace themselves to a single performer’s actual tempo, but I assume that flexibility isn’t available to a band or a theatrical ensemble. Can the musical director control the tempo on a whim, or is it full speed ahead, no matter what happens?

7

The obvious answer being that the fader wasn’t pulled all the way down, just partially yanked down in the confusion and panic - or the house was killed, but the stage mics picked up the monitor feed, which was still going strong. Either way, it’s audible.

8

The shows I worked on were very much set tempo for each track.

I cannot imagine the tempo changing if there is a voice track, or the pitch will change (like the chipmunks, ya know?). I suspect that very minor changes are possible - don’t most keyboards have some kinda tempo adjustment on the left hand end? (I am not a muso…).

abby