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have you ever watched a group perform and have been like "wow they sound rlly good, they sound perfect" well the majority of the time the perfectness of the vocals in that performance arent actually live. many kpop companies use things call pre-recordings that are basically vocals recorded before the music show that the idols lip-sync to. in this thread im going to explain how to tell the difference between a live performance and a pre-recorded performance.
1. THE MUSIC SHOWS
the music show that a group is performing at is the main factor in if theyre singing live or not, some music shows dont allow lip-syncing while some make the idols lip-sync whether they want to or not.
some of the most prominent music show is:
Music Bank
Show! Music Core
Inkigayo
M Countdown
The Show
but instead of going into detail for each music show (that would make my thread extremely long) im just gonna make it simple for you (yes that was a twice pun) Show! music core is the most reliable for live performances, it is apparently banned on that show to lip-sync
read this article, it gives a quote on why they made this decision: MBC to Ban Lip-syncing on “Music Core,” Super Junior’s Ryeowook Speaks Up in Response
every other music show really just depends on the performance, some times they make the idols lip sync and sometimes they dont, as a listener you have to decide.
so before I start showing performances I want to list some characteristics of a live performance vs a pre-recorded performance.
live performances usually make the backing track quieter and you can tell when the singer is singing and when theyre not. a live performance usually has some imperfections in it, you can hear more breathing against the mic than in pre-recorded versions. and they usually sound different from each performance.
Pre-recorded versions usually sound almost to perfect, they dont sound like the studio version but theyre definitely way to perfect for an idol to be pulling off when doing crazy choreos. you rarely hear breathing against the mic and when you do its very minimal. also if you compare a pre-recorded performance to another pre-recorded performance they sound the same because the company is most likely using the same pre-recording for each performance.
here are some music core performances to show you what a live performance sounds like, and then im gonna show you a performance of the same song which was pre-recorded on a different show. ill be using multiple groups to show what im talking about.
im gonna start with blackpink kill this love.
their live performance on Music core.
you can tell its live by just listening to their voices and looking at their mouths when theyre singing, you can hear them way better and you can hear their breathing against the mic. there mouths are also more open and you can tell that theyre trying to sing and that theyre not lip-syncing it.
their pre-recorded performance on Inkigayo
you can tell its pre-recorded by again listening to their voices, it's way to perfect throughout the whole performance for it to be live, and when you look at their mouths you can tell that its more closed then in the live version.
im going to be doing bts anpanman next.
here is there live performance on music core.
you can definitely tell that this one is live, you can hear them breathing and when you look at their mouths theyre open and theyre trying hard to sing. and there are some missed lyrics that they arent singing as loudly due to them breathing from the hard choreo. you can also see that in the beginning taehyung didn't start singing until he heard the music, and you could already hear some puffs of air when said anpanman the second time.
their pre-recorded performance on M COUNTDOWN
now this one is obviously pre-recorded, it's way to perfect throughout the whole performance when theyre performing hard choreo like this, their voices also seem to have some reverb effect added on to it to make it seem live. you cant hear their breathing and the puffs of air that would hit the mic when saying words with a p or b sound. like i mentioned on the live performance, we could hear the p sound on anpanman. on this one, we dont because it was most likely recorded with a pop filter which helps to eliminate those sounds.
im gonna show two more groups live performances and pre-recorded performances just to really show you guys the difference. im gonna try to shorten my explanations though because I dont want this thread to get longer then it already is.
Im going to be doing twice what is love now
now it was hard for me to find the right one to show, not because twice arent singing live, but because their voices are kinda hard to hear. but this is live, it's not perfect and you can hear the member's voices better and them breathing more than in their pre-recorded performances.
their pre-recorded performance on inkigayo.
now it's very obvious that this performance is pre-recorded, it doesnt even seem like jyp tried to make it seem like it was live. it sounds way to perfect for it to be a live performance, it sounds so much like the studio version. live voices do not sound like this, live voices do not come with post production so yeah this is pre recorded.
the final one that im going to be doing is Exo overdose
their live performance on music core
now this is definitely live, you can hear the members over the backtrack and sometimes they aren't singing due to having to breathe because of the choreo, we can also hear the breathing of the members going against the mic. baekhyun also holds his high note longer than the studio recording which is something that a pre-recording wouldnt have.
their pre-recorded performance on M COUNTDOWN
Now this one is obviously pre-recorded, we can't hear any breathing from the members and they sound way to perfect with all that hard choreo. it also has some added processing that the human voice would not be able to produce in a setting like this. it sounds like the studio version almost.
now with all this said and done, every single kpop idol lip syncs at some time or another, if you genuinely think that your faves have not lip synced one time and that theyre "always live" then whew I got news for you. There isnt anything wrong with lip-syncing as long as its not done every single performance, these idols work their ass off day and night, it's hard to sing live all the time with the busy schedules that they have.
but I hope that this very long thread may have taught you guys something about live performances and pre recorded performances, im always seeing kpop fans talking about how good their faves vocals were in a performance when it's actually pre-recorded, and so I really wanted to inform fans about this subject. I hope that you enjoyed, I love making threads about things like this so if there is any other kpop myth about performances or whatnot that you guys want me to make an unnecessarily long thread on then please tell me.
I also might not be able to respond to people on this thread right away cause im gonna go to sleep lol.
im not hating on any of the groups that I use in this thread, every kpop idol has lip-synced before and its not that big of a deal.
1. THE MUSIC SHOWS
the music show that a group is performing at is the main factor in if theyre singing live or not, some music shows dont allow lip-syncing while some make the idols lip-sync whether they want to or not.
some of the most prominent music show is:
Music Bank
Show! Music Core
Inkigayo
M Countdown
The Show
but instead of going into detail for each music show (that would make my thread extremely long) im just gonna make it simple for you (yes that was a twice pun) Show! music core is the most reliable for live performances, it is apparently banned on that show to lip-sync
read this article, it gives a quote on why they made this decision: MBC to Ban Lip-syncing on “Music Core,” Super Junior’s Ryeowook Speaks Up in Response
every other music show really just depends on the performance, some times they make the idols lip sync and sometimes they dont, as a listener you have to decide.
so before I start showing performances I want to list some characteristics of a live performance vs a pre-recorded performance.
live performances usually make the backing track quieter and you can tell when the singer is singing and when theyre not. a live performance usually has some imperfections in it, you can hear more breathing against the mic than in pre-recorded versions. and they usually sound different from each performance.
Pre-recorded versions usually sound almost to perfect, they dont sound like the studio version but theyre definitely way to perfect for an idol to be pulling off when doing crazy choreos. you rarely hear breathing against the mic and when you do its very minimal. also if you compare a pre-recorded performance to another pre-recorded performance they sound the same because the company is most likely using the same pre-recording for each performance.
here are some music core performances to show you what a live performance sounds like, and then im gonna show you a performance of the same song which was pre-recorded on a different show. ill be using multiple groups to show what im talking about.
Not every single music core performance is live, many of them from before 2015 were pre-recorded, and tbh even though its "banned" there are SOME idols who still pre-record. mbc core still is the most reliable for live performances though. and also, not every single performance from other music shows are pre-recorded, there are a lot of live performances from other music shows and if you take what I told you today about live performances, you can usually tell. that's all i wanted to say before I really got into this.
im gonna start with blackpink kill this love.
their live performance on Music core.
you can tell its live by just listening to their voices and looking at their mouths when theyre singing, you can hear them way better and you can hear their breathing against the mic. there mouths are also more open and you can tell that theyre trying to sing and that theyre not lip-syncing it.
their pre-recorded performance on Inkigayo
you can tell its pre-recorded by again listening to their voices, it's way to perfect throughout the whole performance for it to be live, and when you look at their mouths you can tell that its more closed then in the live version.
im going to be doing bts anpanman next.
here is there live performance on music core.
you can definitely tell that this one is live, you can hear them breathing and when you look at their mouths theyre open and theyre trying hard to sing. and there are some missed lyrics that they arent singing as loudly due to them breathing from the hard choreo. you can also see that in the beginning taehyung didn't start singing until he heard the music, and you could already hear some puffs of air when said anpanman the second time.
their pre-recorded performance on M COUNTDOWN
now this one is obviously pre-recorded, it's way to perfect throughout the whole performance when theyre performing hard choreo like this, their voices also seem to have some reverb effect added on to it to make it seem live. you cant hear their breathing and the puffs of air that would hit the mic when saying words with a p or b sound. like i mentioned on the live performance, we could hear the p sound on anpanman. on this one, we dont because it was most likely recorded with a pop filter which helps to eliminate those sounds.
im gonna show two more groups live performances and pre-recorded performances just to really show you guys the difference. im gonna try to shorten my explanations though because I dont want this thread to get longer then it already is.
Im going to be doing twice what is love now
now it was hard for me to find the right one to show, not because twice arent singing live, but because their voices are kinda hard to hear. but this is live, it's not perfect and you can hear the member's voices better and them breathing more than in their pre-recorded performances.
their pre-recorded performance on inkigayo.
now it's very obvious that this performance is pre-recorded, it doesnt even seem like jyp tried to make it seem like it was live. it sounds way to perfect for it to be a live performance, it sounds so much like the studio version. live voices do not sound like this, live voices do not come with post production so yeah this is pre recorded.
the final one that im going to be doing is Exo overdose
their live performance on music core
now this is definitely live, you can hear the members over the backtrack and sometimes they aren't singing due to having to breathe because of the choreo, we can also hear the breathing of the members going against the mic. baekhyun also holds his high note longer than the studio recording which is something that a pre-recording wouldnt have.
their pre-recorded performance on M COUNTDOWN
Now this one is obviously pre-recorded, we can't hear any breathing from the members and they sound way to perfect with all that hard choreo. it also has some added processing that the human voice would not be able to produce in a setting like this. it sounds like the studio version almost.
now with all this said and done, every single kpop idol lip syncs at some time or another, if you genuinely think that your faves have not lip synced one time and that theyre "always live" then whew I got news for you. There isnt anything wrong with lip-syncing as long as its not done every single performance, these idols work their ass off day and night, it's hard to sing live all the time with the busy schedules that they have.
but I hope that this very long thread may have taught you guys something about live performances and pre recorded performances, im always seeing kpop fans talking about how good their faves vocals were in a performance when it's actually pre-recorded, and so I really wanted to inform fans about this subject. I hope that you enjoyed, I love making threads about things like this so if there is any other kpop myth about performances or whatnot that you guys want me to make an unnecessarily long thread on then please tell me.
I also might not be able to respond to people on this thread right away cause im gonna go to sleep lol.
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