324 replies to this topic

[pink-ku]

Oh that. Yap, pre-recorded. Someone mentioned hearing other members' voices which not in the line-up. Perhaps they didn't have time to do the recording with the correct line-up.

[Lurkette]

48G has a lot of tricks to edit their audio, and many times it's not clear which method they were using. It's not immediately apparent if they're lip-syncing in concerts DVDs or if the audio has been doctored and over-dubbed, and you'd have to try and find an actual mic rip (where someone tracks the radio frequency of a girl's wireless mic to get the sound coming directly into it, plenty of these exist for H!P groups) and see if they were actually singing or not. Usually if there's a break between what sounds like studio audio and definitive live audio, we can deduce that it was probably originally sung live, but they edited it in post-production so that very little of the live singing got through. 

 

Here's a handy guide to identify the type of audio you are hearing (only because I see people really not understanding what is what when I usually think it's fairly obvious):

 

This is live:

Spoiler

 

The volume of her voices changes considerably as she sings and moves around. The chorus in particular challenges her with the jumping, as you can clearly hear her dropping notes, going off-key briefly, etc. Her singing voice is also substantially deeper than it is in the studio version and you can hear her breathing into the mic. While there's a reasonable chance that there was still some editing done for the release of this footage, the singing is still largely live and should be considered as such.

 

This has a backtrack:

Spoiler

 

Do you hear that slight echo? Like two people are singing the song at exactly the same time with exactly the same voice? That's what's happening with a backtrack. It's a popular choice for lots of idol groups because it gives the girl the option of lip-syncing or singing, but if she does sing, the backtrack should be loud enough to cover any flaws that might occur. 

 

This is lip-syncing:

Spoiler

 

First of all, 90% of the time headset mics=lip-syncing. It just does. Even if it is necessary to use them to show off a rigorous dance while still singing live, the audio is cruddy enough that you'll be able to tell if it's actually live or not. If it's too polished and she's wearing a headset, it's not live. This one is lip-syncing and not doctoring because you can hear the echo of the sound being pushed through the speakers. That said, it's not always easy to tell this apart from doctoring because they like to use echo effects and fade-outs to make it seem like the audio was from the event and not added after the fact.

 

This is doctored:

Spoiler

 

Remember what I said about echo and fade-outs? They tried to sync up the fade with whenever Acchan pulled her mic away, but if you listen to the studio version alongside this, they're still virtually identical until she rides off on her boat, and then back again for the group part. Knowing that that's how she sounded in that moment, do you really think that she or anyone else on stage, who were also crying, really sounded exactly like they did in the studio recording? Alas, I would have loved to hear the whole performance live, but someone else didn't think I would.

[Yasser96]

Wow. Thanks for the info. This will make it a lot easier to tell whether a performance is live or not   

[Lurkette]

No problem. Here are some other tips to spotting the difference between live and not (spoiler because I'm hijacking this thread, sorry KitaRie fans!):

 

Spoiler

 

* Compare to the studio version that you have available. For small events, like the one in the video originally in question, they typically use the original cut of the track, even when girls in the track are absent from the event. I imagine it's also used when the full and original line-up is performing the song in concerts, but we'd need a mic rip to determine what was actually happening.

 

* Where is the mic and what are their mouths doing? AKB members tend to be particularly bad about mic positioning, which comes partly from not knowing how they sound when they jostle the mic around that much and partly from too much focus on looking cute (if that's a bad thing). No, but really, the girls tend to be more focused on facial expressions and getting into the dances so much so that they don't realize that they haven't held the mic in one place for more than a second. That also contributes to them not remembering to actually sing or at least pretend to sing; as it turns out, lip-syncing is still a skill and not everyone has it. Looking at you, KojiHaru.

 

* Check the dance. Even the most skilled performers will still have some shortness of breath when doing a dance that requires bouncing around, which a lot of 48G songs do. When in doubt, try doing the dance yourself and seeing if you can sing a line without having some sort of vocal hiccup. These girls might be more skilled than you, but you'd still be able to hear some sort of variation in their breathing and singing instead of the unwavering stability you usually hear from their "live" tracks. For both the mic and the dance, you should be able to hear some changes in volume, a few deep breaths, and some slight variation, fault or otherwise, in the songs if it's live.

 

* 48G also, for whatever reason, is big on compressing the vocal tracks of all of their recordings. It makes the volume of all the singing much more uniform, helps alleviate some cracks and pitchiness, and makes the vocals sound more cohesive when you have 16+ girls, many of whom are not great or similar singers, singing all at once. This is pretty characteristic of their recordings, so if the vocals sound sort of strange to you, (I've heard people, fans and antis alike, describe them as "watery," "normalized," "distant," "emotionless," "quiet," etc.) it's probably pre-recorded audio. This isn't quite as noticeable in songs with large numbers of girls, but it's way more apparent when it's a small unit. This also isn't an effect that can be used on live audio directly, either; it has to be done in a studio.

 

Here's a good example of several of the above (you can rewatch Acchan's final Yume no Kawa to compare studio versions). Aoi seems to have decent mic stability, albeit it a bit close to her mouth, but Sakura definitely does not, and she occasionally forgets to move her mouth appropriately. The dance also requires some bouncing and wiggling, which would normally be reflected in the audio, but it's as stable as it will ever be. You can also hear the compression and filters they used for the recording, which makes their voices sound really similar, really stable, and just a little bit... off.

 

 

 

 

******* And, before anyone possibly tries to jump on me for this, this does not come from a place of hate. I mean, clearly I had to watch a lot of videos to find these examples and I had to know what to search for, so don't try to tell me I'm a "hater" or an "anti." I'm simply annoyed with people trying to tell me and others that 48G sing a lot of things live when it's obvious to me that they don't. I know why they choose not to let the girls sing live, and I do disagree with that choice, admittedly, but it's really not the end of the world since most everyone knows that they lip-sync a lot anyway and it's not like they're the only idols doing it. I'm not saying that lip-syncing is wrong, I'm not saying that you can't still enjoy their performances, and I'm not even saying that you can't prefer the lip-syncing to live audio, but I am saying that you can't be ignorant about it and still try to argue over it. I personally prefer live audio because I want to hear the girl singing with her own voice in that moment, regardless of how shaky or bad it may be, but that is entirely personal preference. Oh and this skill of mine came about long before AKB, so it's not just about them, either.

[komarirechiyu]

 

9/5 Kitahara Rie's solo event @ AKB48 Cafe & Shop「RIE KITAHARA 1st one-man tour FINAL MEMORIES 2015」Setlist

 

M01 Nakinagara Hohoende

M02 Yokaze no Shiwaza

M03 Kareha no Station

M04 Itoshisa no Accel

M05 Mushi no Ballad

M06 Jungle Gym

M07 Flower

M08 Fui Ni

 

EN1 Mujin-eki

 

Rie on NHK's Masakame TV 9/6

[pink-ku]

During Halloween Night Handshake event, Rie brought her old clothes to give away to NGT members.

https://twitter.com/...562606596448256

[komarirechiyu]

New video message of Rie for the shortshorts movie project

 

Screencaps of the Niconico live stream of Rie, Sasshi, Yuihan, and Mayu at a haunted place

I actually missed the stream but hopefully it gets uploaded somewhere!

[komarirechiyu]

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NGT48 became PR ambassadors for “Bakauke”, Bakauke is a Japanese snack food. It is a thin banana-shaped senbei with various flavours added. It is manufactured by Kuriyama Beika of Niigata Prefecture.The word bakauke in the Niigata dialect of Japanese colloquially means “extremely well received”. The characters who appear on the packets are Borin and Barin, who are boyfriend and girlfriend. (source)

 

Website

 

[NGT48 “bakauke” PR Project Description]

 

○ The goal of the project

“Through bakauke PR activities, liven up all Niigata Prefecture to be more healthy.”

 

○ Leaders

The entire project → NGT48 Kitahara Rie

Team Joetsu → NGT48 Nishigata Marina

Team Chuetsu → NGT48 Ogino Yuka

Team Kaetsu → NGT48 Kato Minami

Team Sado → NGT48 Yamaguchi Maho

 

○ The main activities

PR for Bakauke 

Develope a new taste of bakauke

 

(someone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong cause i'm no translator but i did my best lol)

[pink-ku]

^
added... it is made from rice.

video from the news:



from: http://akb48-daily.b...ambassador.html

>>>

I felt that the Niigata prefecture really embraces and supports NGT tremendously.

[komarirechiyu]

^^ Not sure if it's been the same with the other 48 groups but I feel like NGT is the group that has the whole prefecture behind them and supporting them, it's really nice to see especially since they haven't even debuted yet and have only been around a couple months now!

 

Here's Rie on Downtown DX (or at least some parts with Berryz's Momochi and she also went to visit NGT during rehearsals and got emotional aww)

[ShiningLight445]

^

The pride and joy of Niigata

 

I'm still so excited for their debut - can't come fast enough. I'm already thinking of first single

[pink-ku]

Rie just opened Instagram account.

https://www.instagra...rie_kitahara_3/

from: http://akb48-daily.b...-instagram.html

[komarirechiyu]

Rie on the cover of Tokai Date Speical Navi! You can order it on Amazon! http://www.amazon.co...duct/B0182LTE0U

 

 

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[komarirechiyu]

Rie has an eye sty. Ouch ):

[komarirechiyu]

Hello guys! If anyone here is voting in next year's Request Hour, please vote for Choose Me if you're not sure what song to vote for! It's Rie's center song and I would like to see it performed or even rank really high! Thanks!

[komarirechiyu]

Rie and Annin at Shawn the Sheep 20th anniversary event

 

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[komarirechiyu]

Rie sang a little bit of Momusu's The Peace on today's ANN lol it's really cute

https://www.youtube....?v=sMknsmznt9w\

 

Also, she’s going to make a small appearance in this drama special Kuro no Shamen (The Black Slope). It premieres January 24

 

(btw she shows up in this video for like a quick second at around 1:36)

[komarirechiyu]

Haven't posted here in a while lol but with ssk coming up I'll probably start doing so more. Rie's goal this year was 10th place at first but her recent blog post shows she now wants to be in Kami 7!!! here's the translation by BokeSubs http://boke46.tumblr...016-translation

[komarirechiyu]

Trailer for Ninkyo Yarou, in theaters June 4

 

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[conanidol]

New profile photo! She looks so good (it had to be with the Seishun Dokei outfits tho...).

 

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