A heroine for live performance on TV?
By Sophie Andersen · · 9 min read
Viola player Natalie Holt throws eggs at Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent. She protests at having to mime playing her instrument.
There are many who would criticize Simon Cowell, Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent, and similar TV talent shows. They would also criticize acts that have become successful through appearing on such shows. I don’t. If the public watches the shows and pays for the acts’ performances and recordings, then that’s all perfectly fine by me.
I don’t even object to lip-synced and mimed performances on TV.
What I do object to however is lip-synced and mimed performances being passed off as live. It doesn’t just degrade the performances and musicians who lip-sync and mime. It casts doubt on whether genuine performers are doing it too.
Perhaps someone should take a stand? Well someone has, and it is Natalie Holt, a background performer on the final of Britain’s Got Talent, which went out Saturday June 8 in the UK.
As singing duo Richard and Adam finished their performance, Holt put down her instrument and calmly walked to the front of the stage with a box of eggs, separating the two singers. Smiling as she threw five eggs, Holt apparently surprised the judges with her protest before being bundled off stage by security guards.
Later she said that it was a protest against having to mime her playing, rather than the string section being miked up and performing live.
In general, I agree with her point. There are a lot of faked performances on TV. Where it is obvious that a performance is faked, I don’t mind so much. Where the singing is done live and the background performers mime, I still don’t mind too much as it is all part of getting the practicalities of TV broadcast to work, particularly live broadcast.
I don’t like it though when a performance is presented as being completely live, but some or all of the backing is pre-recorded. That is plainly wrong. In this case, it is unlikely that the TV audience cares whether or not the musicians are playing live, but it is useful to have the issue raised so prominently.
Of course, Holt’s protest could all be part of the show, and the publicity it has garnered can’t be doing Cowell any harm.
But whatever the motivation, the key point is that it can’t be so difficult surely to put up a few mics on a string section. Surely Britain has Got enough instrumental Talent to put together a string section that is capable of performing live, and to an extremely high standard of professionalism? And enough sound engineering talent to mic it up.
My vote is for more genuinely live performances on TV. And by the way, if anyone is worrying about the judges being hit by any of the eggs, it’s OK. Natalie Holt said they were organic, and from Marks & Spencer.
P.S. Britain’s Got Talent has this to say…
“[Miming is] standard industry practice for backing musicians during TV performances as it isn’t possible to easily capture the quality of the sound in a live broadcast environment. All contestants on Britain’s Got Talent sing live.”
P.P.S. You can see and hear some genuinely live string playing on TV here…
Publication date: Tuesday June 11, 2013
Author: David Mellor
Join David Mellor’s Audio Masterclass…
“It isn’t about equipment and software -
it’s all about knowing how to use it”
It’s simple - your preamp needs MORE FREQUENCIES! Having trouble with your recordings? It could be that your preamp simply doesn’t have enough frequencies! Read more…
What is FLAC? Is it more than a waste of FLACCING time? There are more audio formats than you could possibly shake a stick at. But could you find a use for FLAC in your recording process? We think you could. Read more…
“Used” by The Botanists This band is a one man operation. All songs are written, performed, and recorded by one guy (Tom Saunders)… Read more…
Those sticking-out things on the sides of your head - what are they for? The pinna of the ear helps to collect sound, obviously. But why does it have those complicated folds? And why do we only have two ears and not three? Read more…
Can guitarists be trusted with their own equipment? What sounds good to the electric guitar player doesn’t necessarily sound good to the audience. A live sound engineer explains… Read more…
What frequencies do different instruments produce? Is it possible to relate frequencies to instruments? For instance, will the voice will be more present with a boost at 3 kHz? What about other instruments? Read more…
YouTube Review - The Pulse: You won’t find me there Take a trio of rhythm guitar, bass and drums. Add a vocal, add some overdubs. Oh, and someone find a lead guitarist for the solo… Read more…
A very unusual tape recorder used for mastering If you look at the photo carefully, you will see that this Studer A80 analog tape recorder has several more tape guides than the norm. It’s used for mastering. But why? Read more…
Q: What are the best filters for mastering? An RP reader asks, “I want to know the best filters for mastering. I want to know the best EQ.” Read more…
New music: Feeling Christmassy by The Christmassy Guy The Christmassy Guy explains how he wrote and recorded a new Christmas song with minimal instruments and equipment. Hear the song and see the video! Read more…
Q: How should I set the compressor for vocals in Nuendo? I would like to know the basics of adjusting the compressor for vocals in Nuendo. I generally do home recording and mixing. The music genre is Indian Contemporary, more or less ballads. Read more…
The sE Electronics Reflexion Filter in a noisy environment Is your computer noisy? Do you think the sE Electronics Reflexion Filter will help? Think again. (With audio) Read more…
How can you keep up in the fast-moving music and sound industry? Gosh - the music and sound industry moves so fast that if you blink it will be in a totally different solar system. How can one ever hope to keep up? Read more…
Do we really need 200 more features and 20 pages of tutorials? Apple’s new OS Mountain Lion apparently has more than 200 new features and you need 20 pages of tutorial to understand them. In what way is this a good thing? Read more…
Output impedance - does it matter how much current an output can supply? This is a tricky concept to explain and understand. But once you do understand it you’ll feel an awful lot better. In fact, you’ll probably feel so good you will consider yourself one of the ‘elite’ of sound engineering and look down upon lesser mortals who do not understand it… Read more…
Q: How can I filter out the vuvuzela? Q: “I have been watching the FIFA World Cup on TV (June 2010). I find the sound of the vuvuzela very irritating. Why don’t the sound engineers filter it out?” Read more…
What is the Low-Z button for on the Golden Age Pre-73 microphone preamplifier? Ask a number of preamp users what each of the controls on the Golden Age Pre-73 does, and the ‘Low-Z’ control will probably cause the most scratching of heads. So what is it for? Read more…
The dynamic microphone - why isn’t it dead yet? When super-accurate capacitor microphones are available, why do we cling to the past and still often use dynamic mics? Shouldn’t we be moving on? Read more…
Are you hard on your hard disk? Is the way you record damaging your system? An RP reader asks whether freezing tracks that use plug-ins is bad for your hard disk? Would it be better to bounce them? Read more…
Do you make this simple schoolgirl error in production? It’s a simple schoolgirl error in production, but the song made it into the charts and was the theme song of a successful movie. Hear for yourself… Read more…
- How to insult a sound engineer [with video]
![How to insult a sound engineer [with video]](http://www.record-producer.com/i2/deal-or-no-deal-200.jpg "How to insult a sound engineer [with video]")
Sound engineers are normally a pretty thick-skinned bunch. So what is it that really riles them? - A heroine for live performance on TV? Viola player Natalie Holt throws eggs at Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent. She protests at having to mime playing her instrument.
- Why won’t publishers listen to your music? It’s one thing being rejected. But when publishers won’t even listen to your music, what could you possibly be doing wrong?
- Have your music recorded by a real symphony orchestra If you have a spare 665 euros among your loose change, you could have 60 seconds of your own music recorded by a 70-piece orchestra! For real.
- What is the easiest way to convert watts to decibels? An RP reader wants to convert watts to dB. Is this even possible?
- If you had no dangly thing at the back of your throat, how well could you sing? That dangly thing at the back of your throat, properly called the uvula… Could you sing without it?
- An interesting example of miking for TV If you’re recording in the studio, you can put your mics anywhere you like. But for TV, it’s a little different…
- What information do you need on your CD (to make money)? ?”) Getting the music done is one thing, getting the artwork finished is another. But what about all the other information a CD needs?
- Is it possible to *produce* classical music? Classical music just needs to be recorded, doesn’t it? Well in some cases it really can be produced.
- M-Audio Studiophile AV 30 monitors - Could they be Auratones for the digital age? Can an $89 pair of monitors really be an effective tool in the recording studio? Or are they only good for ‘media creation?
- Can a pianist’s wrong note played in 1962 be fixed in 2013? A wrong note that has resonated for more than half a century is fixed - without the aid of a time machine.
- Are certain mic/preamp combinations special? An RP reader finds that a certain combination of microphone and preamp works much better than he expected…
- Why haven’t you had a Hot 100 hit yet? Anyone with a home recording studio now has the means to create a hit. So why haven’t you yet?
- Can guitarists be trusted with their own equipment? What sounds good to the electric guitar player doesn’t necessarily sound good to the audience. A live sound engineer explains…
- What is your main concern if your interest is voice over? So you’re setting yourself up in the voice over business. What should you think about before anything else?
- Can you print a vinyl record on a 3D printer? Amazingly, the answer to this question is - almost - yes!
- An interesting microphone setup for violinist Nigel Kennedy If you’re miking one of the finest violinists in the world, should you point the mic at the double bass instead?
- To mic or not to mic the backline? That is an interesting question raising fascinating further possibilities An RP reader fears losing cabinet resonances if the backline of his band is miked up through the PA. But perhaps it is innovation in live sound that has been lost over the years.
- When working in a new theatre, always find out where the tielines go Any theatre would have tielines from the stage to the sound control booth. But from one side of the booth’s window to the other?
- Top producer ‘steals’ song as part of massive publicity stunt A major producer has ‘stolen’ a song from a pair of unknowns. A crime, or normal everyday life in the music business?