Have You Ever Lip Synched ?

[zimbo]

This may sound like a stupid question but how is it done? Do you just move your lips or do you actually sing and have your mic turned off?

[bendecaster]

Dunno. You aren't contemplating this are you?

[Toto'sDad]

I mumble under my breath when my wife is chewing me out, but I try not to move my lips.

[dan1952]

The only way to make it look right is to actually sing, according to Sam The Sham. Of course, he IS named Sam the Sham...

[Telesavalis]

From working convention shows with stage entertainment where the singer/entertainer lip syncs I've only seen it done with a live mic. The singer is actually singing along with the track and the mic signal is fed back to the IEM with the recorded track so the singer can hear the live voice and sing along with the track. The FOH is sent only the pre recorded track.

[telleutelleme]

When it's done right, hardly anyone can tell.

[hekawi]

[emu!]

I used to do it at choir practice as a kid. If I didn't at least look like I was singing, the nuns would destroy me.

[gpasq]

I sing my heart out.

But I play air guitar.

[stnmtthw]

I never tried. I'm not pretty enough that people just want to look at me. If I want attention, I actually have to earn it.

[rcole_sooner]

Every Sunday in Church service.

I would not want to torture the person in front of me with my real singing.

[bo]

Back in the mid-'80s when my punk band released its first EP we arranged a gig where, for the last song, the soundman would fire up a tape of the last song from the EP over the PA and we fake to it. About two thirds of the way through it we put our instruments down and walked off stage. Some people weren't initially fooled by it, some were.

[sir humphrey]

Yup - did a TV show back in about 1998 where we lip synced three songs. Worse than that, it was just me and the lead singer but one of the tracks had the full band sound. Not very convincing!

Edit to actually answer OP question: yes - we sang but the mics were off. And my guitar wasn't plugged in!

[allen082]

I did with my church choir when I was in high school. We sang the national anthem at Kansas City Royals game. They required that we record it before hand and then fake it.

They still had mics set up so we went ahead and sang.

[reverbbb]

I lip sync'd before it was either cool or uncool. This is a video of me & a friend lip-syncing to "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" way back in 1964. Ignore the music over-dub.

Funny thing is, this was a "rehearsal" before the talent show - as if we needed rehearsal to lip-sync. LOL

[octatonic]

I had a weird experience of seeing someone else mine to my guitar parts once.

I did a guitar session for a well known (in Switzerland anyway) Swiss singer in 2006.
She did a promotional tour including a TV appearance.
Normally we (the band that played on the album) would play with her live but for the TV appearance it was decided that:

a) she would mime and
b) the band weren't 'pretty enough' for Swiss national TV.

So they hired male models to fake playing the instruments whilst pouting and generally carrying on like a bunch of twonks.

It was quite a surreal experience to see some shirtless 19 year old with a washboard stomach and ABSOLUTELY ZERO idea of how to play guitar fake my parts.
Very weird.

[sir humphrey]

Originally Posted by allen082

I did with my church choir when I was in high school. We sang the national anthem at Kansas City Royals game. They required that we record it before hand and then fake it.

They still had mics set up so we went ahead and sang.

That reminds me - I lip synced the Welsh national anthem in school for years. English born but moved to Wales as a child - didn't know a word of it and it was in Welsh! Just had to open and shut my mouth in time!

[MrTwang]

Many years ago the band I was in was filmed for a TV show and we had to mime because they were filming with only 1 camera and were doing several takes from different angles etc. and wanted to make sure everything was exactly the same tempo for editing purposes. They had the pre-recorded track blasting through the monitors and PA at full gig volume. To be honest, the experience felt exactly the same as if we were playing live (even the singer said it didn't feel as if he was miming). It was really weird at one point where I realised I'd hit a bum note but it still sounded fine.

[Jamie Black]

I just saw the stooges voices of spring this morning, true comic genius!