By MIKE CHAIKEN EDITIONS EDITOR Live harmonies can be a tricky thing for pop performers. Crosby, Stills, and Nash are renowned for their harmonies. On record, they are impeccable. The voices instruments themselves, relegating the electric guitars, bass, and drums to the background where they should be. However, in the mid-1980s, I saw CSN at Lake Compounce, where they performed in an open air setting, and the harmonies were a disaster. The voices were out of sync or out-of-tune. And it was so awful, it ruined their reputation in my eyes. Boys II Men also is a group that made its reputation on their harmonies. But a few months ago, I saw the group in a live setting and the harmonies were shrill and dissonant—- and not deliberately. The group sweetened the harmonies with backing tracks or electronic trickery… and it made it sound even worse. In a live setting, more times than not, the voices are willing—but the technology is not. If you get the wrong sound mix—the monitors aren’t turned up enough, the earpieces providing the wrong sonic information from your bandmates—the ship of harmony hits the rocks. However, when the harmonies are spot on, with the sound […]
By MIKE CHAIKEN EDITIONS EDITOR Live harmonies can be a tricky thing for pop performers. Crosby, Stills, and Nash are renowned for their harmonies. On record, they are impeccable. The voices instruments themselves, relegating the electric guitars, bass, and drums to the background where they should be. However, in the mid-1980s, I saw CSN at Lake Compounce, where they performed in an open air setting, and the harmonies were a disaster. The voices were out of sync or out-of-tune. And it was so awful, it ruined their reputation in my eyes. Boys II Men also is a group that made its reputation on their harmonies. But a few months ago, I saw the group in a live setting and the harmonies were shrill and dissonant—- and not deliberately. The group sweetened the harmonies with backing tracks or electronic trickery… and it made it sound even worse. In a live setting, more times than not, the voices are willing—but the technology is not. If you get the wrong sound mix—the monitors aren’t turned up enough, the earpieces providing the wrong sonic information from your bandmates—the ship of harmony hits the rocks. However, when the harmonies are spot on, with the sound […]