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how to know if your fave is actually singing live? (2 Viewers)

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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.
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.
:pandalove:

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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yeji

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love this thread. it‘s so detailed :maheart:
I hope people will get that no one sings always live
 

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That was good read. I guess i have to rely more on Music Core now, I actually hate lipsynching and prefer the imperfection of live vocals over it, to me you cannot give of good performance without it being genuine singing and rapping on stage.

One thing i like/liked about my fav groups was singing live. I agree that they might not have singed live all of the time, but 2NE1 and Big Bang always made it kinda obvious when they were live, u didn't have to guess. I think it's definitely harder to tell with Blackpink, they are better at lipsynching than 2Ne1 and Big Bang are too xd And I also think Mamamoo is live most of the time, they also make it obvious by changing stuff up in their performances like changing lyrics based on where they perform and so on.
 
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That was good read. I guess i have to rely more on Music Core now, I actually hate lipsynching and prefer the imperfection of live vocals over it, to me you cannot give of good performance without it being genuine singing and rapping on stage.

One thing i like/liked about my fav groups was singing live. I agree that they might not have singed live all of the time, but 2NE1 and Big Bang always made it kinda obvious when they were live, u didn't have to guess. I think it's definitely harder to tell with Blackpink, they are better at lipsynching than 2Ne1 and Big Bang are too xd And I also think Mamamoo is live most of the time, they also make it obvious by changing stuff up in their performances like changing lyrics based on where they perform and so on.
Acording to this analysis of Baidu for the music shows made in the beginning of 2019, Mamamoo always sing live. The analysis concerns the third generation GGs.

/
 

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Acording to this analysis of Baidu for the music shows made in the beginning of 2019, Mamamoo always sing live. The analysis concerns the third generation GGs.

/
I'm not surprised at all, they do sound and look like they are live when they perform. They are the kind of group that sounds better live than studio too, you know singers from that ^^
 
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I'm not surprised at all, they do sound and look like they are live when they perform. They are the kind of group that sounds better live than studio too, you know singers from that ^^
They do sound better live than studio. Some others GGs on this list almost always sing live too like April and Lovelyz.
 

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They do sound better live than studio. Some others GGs on this list almost always sing live too like April and Lovelyz.
That's really interesting list to go through. And i'm glad they have English names for groups and songs otherwise I wouldn't be able to make anything out from it xd

There is some interesting stuff like Twice being 100% live with some of their songs (Cheer Up, Like Ooh-Aah) and 0% with some others (Likey, Heartshaker) :jisoosmh:

Too bad they don't have one for Blackpink that would be interesting.
 
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That's really interesting list to go through. And i'm glad they have English names for groups and songs otherwise I wouldn't be able to make anything out from it xd

There is some interesting stuff like Twice being 100% live with some of their songs (Cheer Up, Like Ooh-Aah) and 0% with some others (Likey, Heartshaker) :jisoosmh:

Too bad they don't have one for Blackpink that would be interesting.
I would like to know about Blackpink too. I think that some groups are limited by theirs companies. They could sing live but they are not allowed to do it.
 

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I would like to know about Blackpink too. I think that some groups are limited by theirs companies. They could sing live but they are not allowed to do it.
Yep, i think Blackpink doesn't sing live as often as some other YG groups (I don't rly know about Ikon and Winner, but 2NE1 and Big Bang). But i guess it makes sense comparing to 2NE1 that they would be less live since they dance more and have harder choreos when 2NE1 relied more on back-up dancers. I don't think BP are always lipsynching, but it's hard to tell when they are and when not which bothers me a bit ^^;
 
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Yep, i think Blackpink doesn't sing live as often as some other YG groups (I don't rly know about Ikon and Winner, but 2NE1 and Big Bang). But i guess it makes sense comparing to 2NE1 that they would be less live since they dance more and have harder choreos when 2NE1 relied more on back-up dancers. I don't think BP are always lipsynching, but it's hard to tell when they are and when not which bothers me a bit ^^;
You must be right about Blackpink. Lip-sync seems to be a more general trend since 2016-2017 at least. I attended their concert in France and they were sounding great live though they had some backtracks of course. Their Coachella performance was live too for the most part.
 

RainbowDevil

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You can always know by stanning Mamamoo :sanapray:
 
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Acording to this analysis of Baidu for the music shows made in the beginning of 2019, Mamamoo always sing live. The analysis concerns the third generation GGs.

/
I'm not surprised at all, they do sound and look like they are live when they perform. They are the kind of group that sounds better live than studio too, you know singers from that ^^
You can always know by stanning Mamamoo :sanapray:
actually mamamoo do have lipped performances, here are just a few







if you compare the performances you can see that their voices sound the exact same, and thats not because of how good they are at singing live, its because theyre playing the same pre-recording each time they perform. mamamoo is good at singing live but they aren't live all the time.
 

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Two things:

1. Damn, Lisa sounded almost identical in the live vs pre-recorded versions. Such a queen

2. We all need to acknowledge that Onces have the best live singing of anyone in kpop
 
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That was good read. I guess i have to rely more on Music Core now, I actually hate lipsynching and prefer the imperfection of live vocals over it, to me you cannot give of good performance without it being genuine singing and rapping on stage.

One thing i like/liked about my fav groups was singing live. I agree that they might not have singed live all of the time, but 2NE1 and Big Bang always made it kinda obvious when they were live, u didn't have to guess. I think it's definitely harder to tell with Blackpink, they are better at lipsynching than 2Ne1 and Big Bang are too xd And I also think Mamamoo is live most of the time, they also make it obvious by changing stuff up in their performances like changing lyrics based on where they perform and so on.
I think the big difference between blackpink and other yg artists is that their dances are hard, they dont rely on back up dancers like big bang and 2ne1 did. i think that applies to most 3rd gen groups nowadays as well, the dances are way harder.

like this big bang performance, theyre great performers but their choreo isnt that hard, they rely on their backup dancers to dance for them.



if we look at blackpinks choreo its way harder and requires way more energy and stamina to even be able to perform it live, theyre the only ones up there so they have to give more to the performance dance wise.


I agree with you that idols should try to sing live as much as they can but sometimes it's not up to them or they can't due to having to sing live all the time which hurts their voice.
 

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