Mariah Carey

[Millis]

I also have zero sympathy for her. She's been in this industry too long to not have a backup plan for this. If you are going to rely on backing vocals, you better know what to do about it when they fail. She deserves all the scorn being heaped on her now.

[Ginger]

Mariah Carey's Manager Lashes Out at Rockin Eve Producers

"To suggest that DCP… would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd. In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television, however, an initial investigation has indicated that DCP had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey's New Year's Eve performance," Dick Clark Productions said in a statement.

During the New Year's performance of "Emotions," Carey noted that "we didn't have a check for this song," meaning a soundcheck to rehearse the track. However, Dick Clark Productions told TMZ that it was Carey who refused to do a soundcheck for the performance, and that despite the in-ear monitor issues, there was ample sound on stage to hear the backing track. Carey's rep, however, contended that the music was drowned out by the Times Square crowd.

You could tell that Mariah could hear the track to "Emotions" just fine with or without the earpieces. On the few lines she bothered to sing, she came in at exactly the right time. And of course her dancers did their routine perfectly to the track and they weren't wearing earpieces.

[prisma]

Can someone explain to me what technically supposed to happen? The music is piped into her ear? I don't understand why she couldn't have sung along listening to the music that the audience was hearing. The dancers were able to perform; I don't understand why she couldn't sing along. Is the sound that distorted when you're on stage? I'm genuinely curious about this--I've noticed the performers I've seen live where ear plugs because I assumed they'd have their eardrums blown out otherwise, but I never thought about what they actually *do* hear.

When was that rendition of Auld Lang Syne recorded that Mariah opened with? That was the first thing I noticed that was amiss--not the lip synching, but that I was listening to what sounded like a 25-year-old Mariah singing. The contrast to her regular speaking voice (which is pretty deep and seasoned at this point) when she started complaining about the sound check was a huge contrast.

ETA: I was posting the same time as Ginger and that answered a lot about the earpiece, but I'm still curious about how much and what performers actually hear in their earpieces. Do they just hear the backing track? Do they hear the other live performers also?

[Ginger]

I think the real issue with Emotions is that she wasn't expecting to sing that song at all because she did zero preparation, refused to do a sound check, and was probably sloshed while they were doing what passed for a rehearsal.

So when the song came on, she was caught completely off guard and realized she didn't know the words and couldn't sing it properly. I don't think it had anything to do with the sound.

[Atreides]

Jan 2, 2017 10:18:50 GMT -4 Coffeecakes said:

There is no excuse. I still remember the ear buds for Celine going out during one of her performances on the AMAS or Billboard awards. The result? She still killed it and didn't skip a beat even though she couldn't even hear herself. Mariah, learn a few things from Celine. Also how to actually take care of your voice.

Here's the clip of Celine! It's at the Grammys as part of the tribute to Luther Vandross, no less. That's how a professional performs.


Oh, and here's Adele. The arena's PA system cuts off the entire sound around the 2:40 mark. Adele doesn't even know until the song ends and the audience tells her what happened. Her reaction is priceless and she proudly proclaims that she was singing her heart out the whole time and she always sings live at every show. Take notes, Mariah!

[deeconsistent]

Prisma, on the last page I was wondering exactly what the technical failure was and your post reminded me that there was a leak of Madonna's earpiece feed from last year's Rebel Heart tour. The engineers were reminding her of lyrics, dance steps, guiding her stage banter, telling her where she was supposed to be onstage, what song was coming up, etc. (I would try to search and post a link, but I'm on my phone and don't have the patience or skill to do that.) I'm also reminded of a Whitney Houston concert from DC from about 20 years ago in which it's incredibly obvious that she's reading lyrics and banter from a teleprompter.

I'm just speculating, but I'm guessing the two issues were that she was expecting to be fed the lyrics, and even if she had been able to remember them, the fact that she was backed by a partially recorded track that she couldn't keep time with jammed her up. She probably just assumed that they would cut to a commercial at some point as opposed to letting that drag out for 5 minutes. I remember there was video of Beyonce's hair getting caught in a fan while she was performing to a backing track and she performed that song for dear life while some stage techs got her hair out of the fans.

Interestingly enough, Ginger's post makes it sound like DCP is now acknowledging there were earpiece issues where they
were saying the earpieces were fine last night.


eta Obviously, ratscabies would know more about the specifics and benefits of ear monitors, but I'm back at a computer, so here's a link to Madonna's soundboard feed. Apparently, fans get them by tapping into the wireless frequency. If you listen closely, you can hear a voice giving her guide words for the verses that aren't pre-recorded, giving her choreography cues and letting her know when there are music changes.

[ratscabies]

Prisma- most performers (at least at top levels) use in-ear monitors, instead of floor wedges (those boxes on the floor along the front of the stage that Iron Maiden's bassist was so fond of putting one foot on all the time). Either way, their purpose is to allow the performer to hear what they need to to play or sing with everyone else on stage.

Floor wedges tend to get VERY loud, so it is a constant battle (of egos!) to get them set up right for each guy in the band. And the poor bastard mixing for the audience (like ME) has to contend with the deaf guitar player's stage volume being louder than the main PA speakers.

In-ear monitors are a god-send. Think of them as a personal Walkman for each person on stage. You get a small belt-pack that your earbuds are plugged into. Incidentally, most of those "earplugs" you see are actually specially made earbuds molded to fit a specific person's ears. They do block out stage volume from drums and amps, but are also tiny speakers. In theory, you can get a level that is low and clean, and you can play and sing better without going deaf. In practice, most artists are trying to squeeze as much volume out of their ear-buds as possible.

The beltpacks are little radio receivers, and there are low power transmitters just off stage hooked up to a mixing console. The signal that was sent to the wedges back in the day are instead sent out over the radio frequency dedicated to each performer. Each guy gets a personallized mix of vocals and music set the way they like or need in order to play along with the rest of the band. (Generally "me really loud, and less of them!" Example: my lead guitarist has only his guitar and enough vocal to hear if someone changes the setlist on the fly. He can hear the drums leaking through his earbuds to mark time, and assumes everyone else is where they need to be. He can hear his own vocal in his head, and gets his pitch from his guitar.)

Most of the time this works flawlessly. Occasionally, there are problems like bad cables, interference from radio stations, cell towers or local fire and police radio traffic. One venue we play in California is across the street from a major defense contractor, who emphatically DO NOT receive periodic transmissions from intelligence satellites as they pass overhead. I have to get quite creative to find a way to get four distinct mixes for my guys with only two clean radio frequencies. Yay stereo!

Some old school guys hate ears, and feel disconnected from the audience when using them. Jeff Keith from Tesla comes to mind. He starts out with both ears and wedges. By the third song he usually pulls one earbud out and leaves it hanging. He apparently like to "feel" the volume of the wedges.

Oh, and using only one earbud can potentially fuck with your sense of balance by abusing one side's inner ear more than the other.

[Millis]

Do all performers use/need earbuds? I dated a musician for years and he played fairly big venues and did not use them. After Prince died I watched tons of live videos of him, didn't notice any earbuds. And talk about a professional! Imagine Mariah "singing" in a torrential downpour.

[prisma]

Thanks for the info, ratscabies! I realized that all of the sound issues must be more complicated than I imagined, but it's interesting to learn how customizable it is.

It seems like Mariah's career was already on the decline so this definitely won't reverse that. I hope her kids have good people in their life because Mariah doesn't seem to be functioning in the real world.

[Neurochick]

I still think this was a non story before her manager said it was ABC's fault. If any real news had happened that night, no one would have cared about Mariah. I don't even get what is so newsworthy about it. I mean the ball dropped in Times Square, which was what people were really there for.