Janet, Madonna, MJ, Britney etc.

Those things don't work! do they?

Marrk said:

Sure they work. I'm pretty certain that my girl was the first to use them in the live arena. There was a brief interview with her on The Sensual World video collection. She talks about it on there.

Well they work, but I don't think they've ever been used for singing though.

Cloudbuster said:

Sure, but that was awhile ago. I'm sure Ms Bush did indeed sing when she used one. Nowadays i think it's a different story totally.

Madonna used them on the DWT and sang live. Of course, how well she did it is up to you.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 13 14:29:52 2004 by VoicesCarry]

It's actually the funniest with Michael, i think. He is non-stop fumbling with it, with the wire attached to it, with the transmitter on his back and whatnot. Also it's mounted in such away that it floats somewhere below his chin. Shouldn't it be in front of his mouth? At one concert he actually had a technician coming up twice without singing one note live. (The first live song was Wanna Be Startin' Something, but he changes to a regular mic for that one :rolleyes:). It's incredible how many tics nerveux the guy has.

I've heard some amazing performances through headset microphones however (musicals and stuff), so i guess u can get them to work properly.

These stars use the best headset microphones money can buy, so I wouldn't worry too much about where you think the microphone pick-up pattern is (ie. around MJ's chin and what have you). Microphones have different pick-up patterns.

Of course, when their mouth does not match with what their voice is doing on the loudspeaker then perhaps said headset microphone is a prop.




\/ \/ \/

I recently listened to Britney Spears debut performance of "Me Against The Music", sans-Madonna (instead of Madonna's Hey Britney bridge, there is a cool break), from the NFL Kickoff. You all know how the real track sounds now.. go back and listen to this performance and it is clear she was actually sing lead vocals live!

CinisterCee said:

I have that mp3 and it doesn't sound like it's live to me. Granted, she does grunt ("Uh!" "Oh!") in monosyllabic tones throughout but that's the only thing that sounded spontaneous and live. It was probably a rerecorded track if anything. It certainly ain't the album version.

P.S. If you've seen footage from that event you'd know why it couldn't be live. At one point she gets lifted up by these guys and she looks like she's had the breath knocked out of her but it still keeps going perfectly.



As a curiosity, any idea what he's doing here (funniest pic from the event):


[This message was edited Tue Apr 13 17:11:59 2004 by VoicesCarry]

A friend of mine has a head-set mic and he uses it to record and perform. He plays guitar and he likes being able to move around more. I used them once at his house and realized that there are no headphones on them! It just wraps around your head, but you can't monitor yourself. I'm not sure if the more professional ones would have headphones. Peter Gabriel used a headset mic for his Secret World tour.

When watching the Videos for All For You and the Velvet Rope tour there are two packs one for the mic and a seperate one for the monitors You can see Janet fumbling with the monitor pack and giving hand signals to the sound guy about what she needs turned up, also during we go dee she says more bass peter. Another thing I noticed is that there aren't monitors on stage anymore its all done though ear pieces. Madonna didn't tour with a headset during the DWT last tiem she used a headset was for The Girlie Show and you can hear her huffing and puffing and popping her "p" during her performace of Fever. Britney I don't think sings live but Madonna and Janet do seem to. Than again I don't go to hear their concerts I go to SEE them.

VoicesCarry said:

Oh.. OK I never actually saw the performance.. I was judging by a few parts of the performance that seemed quite convincing that it was live.
Example: About 50 seconds in, this section starts:

I'm up against the speaker, tryin' to take on the music
It's like a competition, me against the beat
I wanna get in the zone, I wanna get in the zone
If you really wanna battle, saddle up and get your rhythm
Tryin' to hit it, CHIC-A-TAA
In a minute I'm a take a you on, I'm a take a you on C'mon now!

At the start of this section it sounds like the backing track has taken over and she has started dancing but by the end (especially the underlined portion) she is singing very loudly all of a sudden.

VoicesCarry said:

Oh, Britters.

I'll have you know that Julie, my Time-Life operator, is NOT faking it!