[TheseDaysEra]

Bon Jovi: Live on "Private Sessions"...

I was watching the 'private sessions' thing that happened back in 2010 and noticed it. I think that by now, most of us know that they use pre-recorded backing vocals during the chorus, when the band 'sings' "ohh-ohh livin on a prayer" without Jon

Now, jump to minute 2:57 and you can clearly see he's not fully in sync. There's a good reason why Prayer is always played to a click track.

[Javier]

Don't know what you're referring to since that seems perfectly in sync to me. There is strange movement in his mouth but Jon's been pronouncing vowels wrong for some time now. But if he was Lip Synching that why wouldn't he use a better sounding vocal track?!! That performance lacked so much.....

[Captain_jovi]

Originally Posted by Javier

Don't know what you're referring to since that seems perfectly in sync to me. There is strange movement in his mouth but Jon's been pronouncing vowels wrong for some time now. But if he was Lip Synching that why wouldn't he use a better sounding vocal track?!! That performance lacked so much.....

This may sound jaded but if it sounded amazing I think it would be too obvious. I feel like that line has been traditionally either lip synced over himself singing it (if I'm crazy people please correct me) to the point where past 2000 if it was a televised performance without an audience it was usually the acoustic version. I always figured that was why, due the the pre-taped vocals, the audience always drowned it out.

I'm not sure if THIS one is pre-taped, it does look off for half a second.

[Rdkopper]

The OP does have a valid point. Here are my two suggestions...

1. Auto-Tune... Maybe that is the reason for the mouth not wording the lyrics correctly... Was that a live stream or released after the fact? Either way, Jon does have some type of auto-tune feed connected to his microphone. It might be on a low setting and controlled by others but I do hear something unnatural from time to time.

or

2. It is in fact a backing track (to expand on what Capt Jovi said above)... Maybe hitting that note has become such a strain for Jon that he does need a backing track just to make it through without passing out or blowing out a chord. Maybe having it be not so perfect is the plan all along. If it's too perfect, people will be alerted so they use a backing track that's just good enough to match Jon's current vocal condition without throwing anyone off.

Either way, Jon definitely uses tricks to get through these 2.5 hour shows and I would say technology plays a big part in it with both, backing vocals and auto-tunes.

[Captain_jovi]

Originally Posted by Rdkopper

The OP does have a valid point. Here are my two suggestions...

1. Auto-Tune... Maybe that is the reason for the mouth not wording the lyrics correctly... Was that a live stream or released after the fact? Either way, Jon does have some type of auto-tune feed connected to his microphone. It might be on a low setting and controlled by others but I do hear something unnatural from time to time.

or

2. It is in fact a backing track (to expand on what Capt Jovi said above)... Maybe hitting that note has become such a strain for Jon that he does need a backing track just to make it through without passing out or blowing out a chord. Maybe having it be not so perfect is the plan all along. If it's too perfect, people will be alerted so they use a backing track that's just good enough to match Jon's current vocal condition without throwing anyone off.

Either way, Jon definitely uses tricks to get through these 2.5 hour shows and I would say technology plays a big part in it with both, backing vocals and auto-tunes.

I wouldn't be surprised if he used something. I remember in 2003 when someone got a hold of Jon's mic feed and it was pretty rough. I don't know about the rest of LOAP, I just know that line in particular (the part before the chorus) has been pre-taped in the past or added to.

[bonjovi90]

I originally thought he ****ed that line and they autotuned it in post-production. It was taped without an audience and not a live broadcast, so that wouldn't have been something too extraordinary.
However, I just compared several live performances from that era and from 2008 to 2012. On broadcast dates they might've used that backing track. The 12 12 12 concert sounds and looks lip-synced to me as well.
During live shows, I don't think it was utilized that much. They had a track for the backing vocals in the chorus ever since '95 I think (though I can't understand why they changed it to a shitty sounding one around 200 and we all know about the massive use of the original recorded chorus in '87, but there were quite a few occasions where Jon sounded dreadful and it wasn't saved by a back-up sound (Tokyo '08 broadcast, Munich 2011 etc).

I can't see him having much of an autotune technique on his microphone thought. I actually don't even know how that should be possible in real-time, but I'm not a technician on that part. However, IF there was this chance and he wanted to take advantage of it he would've exaggerated it to counteract his singing in mid/late '13 since that was out of tune half of the show.

[jovifan93]

Originally Posted by bonjovi90

I originally thought he ****ed that line and they autotuned it in post-production. It was taped without an audience and not a live broadcast, so that wouldn't have been something too extraordinary.
However, I just compared several live performances from that era and from 2008 to 2012. On broadcast dates they might've used that backing track. The 12 12 12 concert sounds and looks lip-synced to me as well.
During live shows, I don't think it was utilized that much. They had a track for the backing vocals in the chorus ever since '95 I think (though I can't understand why they changed it to a shitty sounding one around 200 and we all know about the massive use of the original recorded chorus in '87, but there were quite a few occasions where Jon sounded dreadful and it wasn't saved by a back-up sound (Tokyo '08 broadcast, Munich 2011 etc).

I can't see him having much of an autotune technique on his microphone thought. I actually don't even know how that should be possible in real-time, but I'm not a technician on that part. However, IF there was this chance and he wanted to take advantage of it he would've exaggerated it to counteract his singing in mid/late '13 since that was out of tune half of the show.

As far as I know, it IS possible to autotune vocals in real-time. But I agree, IF he would be using it, he should've (and probably would've) increased the settings in mid/late 2013. OR the operator is that bad that it's the reason why he's constantly 1/4-1/2 note off, who knows

[bwehehehe]

Originally Posted by jovifan93

As far as I know, it IS possible to autotune vocals in real-time. But I agree, IF he would be using it, he should've (and probably would've) increased the settings in mid/late 2013. OR the operator is that bad that it's the reason why he's constantly 1/4-1/2 note off, who knows

So far it's been only used twice - in the Hyde Park and New Jersey livestreams.

[bonjovi90]

Originally Posted by bwehehehe

So far it's been only used twice - in the Hyde Park and New Jersey livestreams.

Yeah, but these streams were worked over in post-production (both shows were aired later and not really live).
Correcting some vocals / out of tune instruments afterwards for a broadcast is a common thing to do.

Case in point:
I knew that Jon blew out his voice halfway through the third night at Wembley in '95. Bed of Roses and especially These Days sounded extremly flat. Yet I always wondered why he was able to put on such a decent performance of Hey God, considering it was performed at a later point. Recently I grabbed the original BBC radio broadcast and there you can hear that he was a lot flatter and some of the rasp and energy was added later on.
Or this one:

'ALWAYS' BON JOVI (LONDON 1995) HD + ORIGINAL...

[KSantaFe]

I don't have a huge problem with some kind of tech being used for LOAP live, it's one of those songs that need to be played and the reality is that Jon can't really reproduce it.

There's something definitely going on in this 2005 Amsterdam performance:

Bon Jovi Livin' On A Prayer Amsterdam 2005 -...

See approx. 3:13