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Este artículo trata sobre la interpretación de canto o oratoria imitada. Para otros usos, consulte Sincronización de labios (desambiguación) .
Un ingeniero de audio (primer plano) grabando a un actor de voz (en el micrófono) para una producción de video animado. La sincronización de labios de esta grabación con la animación dará la impresión de que está hablando un personaje animado.

La sincronización de labios o sincronización de labios (abreviatura de sincronización de labios ) es un término técnico para hacer coincidir los movimientos de los labios de una persona que habla o canta con la voz cantada o hablada.

El audio para la sincronización de labios se genera a través del sistema de refuerzo de sonido en una actuación en vivo o mediante televisión, computadora, altavoces de cine u otras formas de salida de audio. El término puede referirse a cualquiera de una serie de técnicas y procesos diferentes, en el contexto de actuaciones en vivo y grabaciones audiovisuales.

En la producción de películas , la sincronización de labios suele ser parte de la fase de postproducción. Doblar películas en un idioma extranjero y hacer que los personajes animados parezcan hablar requieren una elaborada sincronización de labios. Muchos videojuegos hacen un uso extensivo de archivos de sonido con sincronización de labios para crear un entorno inmersivo en el que los personajes en pantalla parecen estar hablando. En la industria de la música, los cantantes utilizan la sincronización de labios para videos musicales , apariciones en televisión y películas y algunos tipos de presentaciones en vivo. La sincronización de labios de los cantantes puede ser controvertida para los fanáticos que asisten a conciertos que esperan ver una presentación en vivo.

Terminología [ editar ]

La sincronización de labios también se conoce como sincronización de labios o sincronización de labios . El término sincronización o sincronización se pronuncia / s ɪ ŋ k / , lo mismo que la palabra sumidero . [1] ( Escuche ). [2]

En música [ editar ]

La sincronización de labios se considera una forma de imitación . Se puede usar para que parezca que los actores tienen una capacidad de canto sustancial (por ejemplo, el programa de televisión The Partridge Family ), para simular un efecto vocal que solo se puede lograr en el estudio de grabación (por ejemplo, Cher 's Believe , que usó un Auto -Sintonice el procesamiento de efectos en su voz ); para mejorar el desempeño durante los números de baile en vivo coreografiados que incorporan voces; para atribuir erróneamente las voces por completo (por ejemplo, Milli Vanilli , una banda que sincronizaba los labios con grabaciones hechas por otros cantantes), o para cubrir deficiencias en la interpretación en vivo. También se usa comúnmente en espectáculos de drag. A veces, los productores de televisión obligan a los artistas intérpretes o ejecutantes a acortar las apariciones de celebridades como invitados, ya que requiere menos tiempo para los ensayos y simplifica enormemente el proceso de mezcla de sonido, o para eliminar el riesgo de errores vocales. Algunos artistas sincronizan los labios porque no se sienten seguros de cantar en vivo y quieren evitar cantar desafinados.

Debido a que la pista de la película y la pista de música se graban por separado durante la creación de un video musical , los artistas suelen sincronizar los labios con sus canciones y, a menudo, también imitan tocar instrumentos musicales . Los artistas a veces también mueven sus labios a una velocidad más rápida que la pista grabada, para crear videos con un efecto de cámara lenta en el clip final, lo que se considera complejo de lograr. De manera similar, se sabe que algunos artistas sincronizan los labios hacia atrás para videos musicales, de modo que, cuando se invierte, se ve al cantante cantar hacia adelante mientras que el tiempo parece moverse hacia atrás en su entorno. Las excepciones notables a esta tendencia incluyen el éxito de Bruce Springsteen " Streets of Philadelphia", que solo utiliza los instrumentos como pista de acompañamiento mientras que las voces fueron grabadas con un micrófono adjunto al cantante, dándole una sensación diferente.

En American Bandstand y en la mayoría de los programas de variedades de la década de 1960, todas las voces e instrumentales (con algunas notables excepciones en American Bandstand) se sincronizaron con música pregrabada. [3] Desde la creación de MTV en la década de 1980, muchos artistas se han centrado en los efectos visuales, en lugar de cantar, para sus espectáculos en vivo. [4] Los artistas suelen sincronizar los labios durante los números de baile extenuantes tanto en presentaciones en vivo como grabadas. [5]

Rendimiento complejo [ editar ]

Los artistas a menudo sincronizan los labios durante los números de baile extenuantes tanto en presentaciones en vivo como grabadas, debido a que se necesita capacidad pulmonar para la actividad física (ambas a la vez requerirían pulmones increíblemente entrenados). Michael Jackson es un ejemplo de esto; realizó complejas rutinas de baile mientras sincronizaba los labios y cantaba en vivo. Su actuación en el especial de televisión Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) cambió el alcance del espectáculo en vivo. Ian Inglis, autor de Performance y música popular: historia, lugar y tiempo(2006) señala el hecho de que "la 'Billie Jean' sincronizada con los labios de Jackson no es, en sí misma, extraordinaria, pero el hecho de que no haya cambiado el impacto de la actuación es extraordinario; ya sea que la actuación se haya realizado en directo o sincronizada con los labios. no hay diferencia para la audiencia ", creando así una era en la que los artistas recrean el espectáculo de las imágenes de los videos musicales en el escenario. [4]

Chris Nelson de The New York Times informó: "Artistas como Madonna y Janet Jackson establecieron nuevos estándares para el espectáculo, con conciertos que incluían no solo trajes elaborados y pirotecnia sincronizada con precisión, sino también bailes muy atléticos. Estos efectos se produjeron a expensas del canto en vivo. . " [3] Edna Gundersen de USA Today comenta que la complejidad del espectáculo teatral moderno ha obligado a "el canto y la musicalidad a papeles menores", citando como ejemplo a artistas como New Kids on the Block , Milli Vanilli , George Michael , Cher , Paula Abdul y Janet Jackson. [5]Gundersen explica: "El ejemplo más obvio es el Blond Ambition World Tour de Madonna , un espectáculo visualmente preocupado y muy coreografiado. Madonna sincroniza los labios con el dúo 'Now I'm Following You', mientras que un personaje de Dick Tracy pronuncia la voz grabada de Warren Beatty. otras canciones, los cantantes de fondo le dan volumen a la voz, tensos por el esfuerzo de bailar sin parar ". [5]

Cambiando las expectativas de los fans [ editar ]

El editor de Billboard , Thom Duffy, comentó: "Las expectativas de los fans han cambiado, y esa es la fuerza motriz aquí ... Ellos esperan un concierto tan perfecto como lo que ven en MTV". [5] Rashod D. Ollison de The Baltimore Sun observa: "Desde el advenimiento de MTV y otros canales de música en video, el público pop ha recibido videos elaborados con efectos asombrosos, coreografías asombrosas, ropas fabulosas, cuerpos maravillosos. Se espera que el mismo nivel de perfección se extienda más allá del video grabado hasta el escenario del concierto. Por lo tanto, si Britney Spears, Janet Jackson o Madonna suenan estridentes y aburridos sin una pista de acompañamiento, los fanáticos no pagarán hasta $ 300 por una entrada al concierto ". [6]

Usando canto real y algo de sincronización de labios [ editar ]

Algunos cantantes habitualmente sincronizan los labios durante las presentaciones en vivo, tanto en conciertos como televisadas, sobre música pregrabada y coros simulados; esto se conoce como cantar sobre la reproducción. Algunos artistas cambian entre el canto en vivo y la sincronización de labios durante la interpretación, particularmente durante las canciones que requieren que toquen notas particularmente altas o bajas. La sincronización de labios de estas notas asegura que el intérprete no estará desafinado y que el artista no forzará demasiado su voz durante un concierto arduo. Una vez que ha pasado la parte difícil de la canción, el artista puede continuar con la sincronización de labios o puede continuar cantando en vivo. Algunos artistas sincronizan los coros durante las canciones, pero cantan los versos principales. [ cita requerida ]

Teatro musical [ editar ]

La práctica de la sincronización también se da en el teatro musical, con el mismo propósito que para los músicos. Una producción puede incluir una mezcla de números musicales sincronizados con los labios y en vivo. En espectáculos de larga duración, esto se puede hacer para ayudar a proteger la voz del intérprete de tensiones y daños, así como para mantener un alto nivel de producción. Un ejemplo notable del uso de la sincronización de labios como efecto especial incluye las actuaciones de El fantasma de la ópera , con actores de swing con los mismos disfraces que los actores principales que dan la ilusión de que los personajes se mueven por el escenario con cierto misterio.

Desfile de carrozas [ editar ]

Los artistas también pueden sincronizar los labios en situaciones en las que sus bandas de respaldo y sistemas de sonido no pueden adaptarse, como el Desfile del Día de Acción de Gracias de Macy's , que presenta a cantantes populares sincronizando los labios mientras viajan en carrozas .

Problemas psicológicos [ editar ]

Algunos artistas pueden optar por sincronizar los labios durante la presentación en vivo debido al miedo escénico o la percepción de insuficiencia. [ cita requerida ] A diferencia de la grabación en estudio, la actuación en vivo ofrece solo una oportunidad para cantar cada canción correctamente. A un artista le puede preocupar que su voz no sea lo suficientemente fuerte, que suene notablemente diferente a las versiones grabadas o que toque una nota incorrecta.

Acusaciones incorrectas [ editar ]

A veces, los fanáticos que se sientan en la parte trasera de un estadio identifican incorrectamente la sincronización de labios debido al tiempo que tarda el sonido en traspasar la distancia. Los espectadores pueden, por ejemplo, ver a un baterista tocar un kit antes de escuchar el sonido. El retraso puede confundirse con una mala sincronización de los artistas que imitan y una pista de acompañamiento.

También es posible que los fanáticos que están viendo una presentación en vivo en una pantalla de video de pantalla grande, ya sea en el lugar o de forma remota como en una transmisión en vivo, en realidad estén viendo un error real de sincronización de labios. Estos pueden ser creados por el retraso en el procesamiento de la señal de video que ocurre en la ruta de la señal de video electrónica entre la cámara en el escenario y las pantallas grandes. Este error de sincronización de labios puede hacer que esos fanáticos perciban la actuación como menos entretenida o posiblemente negativa, en comparación con una actuación que se muestra sin el error introducido electrónicamente.

Existe una solución técnica a este problema, el estándar SMPTE ST-2064, pero desafortunadamente a marzo de 2018 no ha sido adoptado por ningún grupo de producción de televisión, como los que brindan televisión en grandes espacios, o por las emisoras que brindan transmisiones en vivo. Estos retrasos en el procesamiento de la señal de video, las percepciones negativas que se crean y el estándar SMPTE ST-2064 se analizan en el enlace Ver también a continuación, Sincronización de audio a video.

Tipos [ editar ]

"Algunos de los cantantes más talentosos han sido sorprendidos en el acto de sincronizar los labios". [7] El periodista artístico Chuck Taylor dice que se considera "una ofensa atroz", pero señala que cuando los cantantes bailan y realizan espectáculos teatrales complejos, es difícil cantar en vivo. [7] En algunas presentaciones de programas de televisión, "el micrófono del cantante todavía está encendido. En las partes en las que no confían o si la presentación es físicamente exigente, el artista cantará más bajo y más de la interpretación [acompañamiento] con las voces de la pista puede ser escuchado." [7] Hay "muy pocos artistas que [...] sincronizan completamente los labios" mientras se reproduce una pista de acompañamiento con "voz principal completa", una práctica que se hace debido a "condiciones climáticas, problemas técnicos o enfermedad".[7]

Para entretenimiento y efecto [ editar ]

La sincronización de labios en la que el público sabe que el intérprete está fingiendo también ha sido popular como una forma de pantomima musical, en la que los intérpretes imitan música pregrabada para el entretenimiento del público. [8] [9] A menudo lo realizan artistas drag ( drag queens y drag kings ). [ citación necesitada ] Iron Maiden y Muse se burlaron de las demandas de dos programas de televisión de música para dar actuaciones imitadas, haciendo que los miembros de su banda intercambiaran instrumentos deliberadamente. [10] [11]

Los ejemplos de actuaciones de sincronización de labios (a veces denominados videos de doblaje de labios ) también han sido populares como videos virales en Internet. [12] [13] Un ejemplo temprano, " Numa Numa ", un video grabado por Gary Brolsma de él bailando y sincronizando los labios con la canción " Dragostea din Tei ", fue clasificado en 2007 por The Viral Factory como el segundo más visto. video viral de todos los tiempos detrás de Star Wars Kid . [14] [15]

Se han creado varios programas de competición de televisión en torno a actuaciones de sincronización de labios, como Puttin 'on the Hits y Lip Service . La competencia de telerrealidad RuPaul's Drag Race incorpora actuaciones de sincronización de labios en su formato. [16] El comediante Jimmy Fallon incorporó actuaciones similares con celebridades como bocetos durante su programa de entrevistas nocturno Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ; supervisó una serie de televisión independiente para Spike , Lip Sync Battle , que extendió el concepto a un formato competitivo entre parejas de celebridades. [17] Aplicaciones móviles como Dubsmashy TikTok (que adquirió y cerró Musical.ly en 2017), que permiten a los usuarios grabar sus propios videos de sincronización de labios en clips de audio y canciones preexistentes para compartir en servicios de redes sociales o una plataforma interna, también han sido populares. [18] [19] [20]

En 2015, Maine Mendoza , una popular usuaria filipina de Dubsmash que había sido apodada la "Reina de Dubsmash", se convirtió en miembro del elenco del programa de variedades filipino Eat Bulaga! Apareció en un sketch recurrente como un personaje llamado Yaya Dub , cuyo diálogo consistía exclusivamente en audio sincronizado con los labios. Sus reacciones espontáneas al miembro del elenco Alden Richards durante una transmisión remota dieron como resultado la creación de una pareja al aire conocida como AlDub , en la que los dos fueron retratados como una pareja que nunca se conoció físicamente y se comunicaron únicamente a través de sincronización de labios. La pareja se convirtió en un fenómeno cultural importante en el país y apareció en el escenario por primera vez en un concierto especial de octubre de 2015.Tamang Panahon . Un hashtag asociado con el especial recibió 41 millones de publicaciones en 24 horas en Twitter , batiendo un récord mundial previamente establecido durante el partido de semifinales de Brasil y Alemania en la Copa Mundial de la FIFA 2014 . [21] [22]

Aspectos legales y éticos [ editar ]

En el estado australiano de Nueva Gales del Sur , el gobierno está considerando nuevas leyes que requerirían que los cantantes pop impriman avisos legales en las entradas "para alertar a los fans si [los cantantes] tienen la intención de imitar durante sus espectáculos". El ministro de Comercio Justo, Virginia Judge, declaró que "Seamos claros: vivir significa vivir". El ministro Judge declaró que "si gastas hasta $ 200 [en entradas para conciertos], creo que te mereces algo mejor que un clip de película". Indicó que "el gobierno de Nueva Gales del Sur estaría feliz de ver opciones, como una exención de responsabilidad en un boleto que advertiría a los consumidores que una actuación está completamente pregrabada". [23]

Un escritor sobre ética llama a la sincronización de labios una "afrenta a todos los artistas en vivo legítimos que se arriesgan a cometer errores líricos y agrietarse las voces para ofrecer una interpretación auténtica". El autor sostiene que la sincronización de labios en los conciertos en vivo "... destruirá nuestra capacidad de disfrutar de grandes actuaciones en vivo de la forma en que alguna vez pudimos, emocionándonos con la certeza de que estamos presenciando algo extraordinario de un gran talento". El autor sostiene que esto "... hace que la sincronización de labios en las representaciones públicas sea incorrecta. No solo se miente a la audiencia, sino que se vuelve cínica". [24]

Ejemplos [ editar ]

La cantante pop Ashlee Simpson sincronizó los labios con una canción en el programa de televisión de variedades Saturday Night Live en 2004.

While Michael Jackson's performance on the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) changed the scope of live stage show, as he mixed singing and complex dance moves, Ian Inglis, author of Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time (2006) states that "Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean'" during this TV show.[4] In 1989, a New York Times article claimed that "Bananarama's recent concert at the Palladium", the "first song had a big beat, layered vocal harmonies and a dance move for every line of lyrics", but "the drum kit was untouched until five songs into the set, or that the las voces de respaldo (y, al parecer, algunas de las voces principales también, una interpretación principal híbrida) estaban grabadas junto con el ritmo ". El artículo también afirma que" la banda británica Depeche Mode , ... agrega voces y algunos teclados líneas a [una] copia de seguridad grabada [pista cuando actúan] en el escenario ". [25]

Milli Vanilli en 1990

En 1989, durante una actuación de Milli Vanilli grabada por MTV en el parque temático Lake Compounce en Bristol, Connecticut , lo que parecía ser una pista pregrabada de la canción del grupo "Girl You Know It's True" se atascó y comenzó a saltar, repitiendo la línea parcial "Chica, sabes que es ..." una y otra vez. Debido a las crecientes preguntas del público sobre la fuente del talento para el canto en el grupo, el propietario Frank Farian confesó a los reporteros el 12 de noviembre de 1990 que Morvan y Pilatus no cantaban en los discos. Como resultado de la presión de los medios estadounidenses, el Grammy de Milli Vanilli fue retirado cuatro días después.[26] y Arista Records eliminó el acto de su lista ydeleted their album and its masters from their catalog, taking the album Girl You Know It's True out of print. After these details emerged, at least 26 different lawsuits were filed under various U.S. consumer fraud protection laws.[27] On August 28, a settlement was approved that refunded those who attended concerts along with those who bought Milli Vanilli recordings.[28] An estimated 10 million buyers were eligible to claim a refund.

Chris Nelson of The New York Times reported that by the 1990s, "[a]rtists like Madonna and Janet Jackson set new standards for showmanship, with concerts that included not only elaborate costumes and precision-timed pyrotechnics but also highly athletic dancing. These effects came at the expense of live singing."[3] Edna Gundersen of USA Today reported: "The most obvious example is Madonna's Blond Ambition World Tour, a visually preoccupied and heavily choreographed spectacle. Madonna lip-syncs the duet "Now I'm Following You", while a Dick Tracy character mouths Warren Beatty's recorded vocals. On other songs, background singers plump up her voice, strained by the exertion of non-stop dancing."[5]

Similarly, in reviewing Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation World Tour, Michael MacCambridge of the Austin American-Statesman commented "[i]t seemed unlikely that anyone—even a prized member of the First Family of Soul Music—could dance like she did for 90 minutes and still provide the sort of powerful vocals that the '90s super concerts are expected to achieve."[29]

The music video for Electrasy's 1998 single "Morning Afterglow" featured lead singer Alisdair McKinnell lip-syncing the entire song backwards. This allowed the video to create the effect of an apartment being tidied by 'un-knocking over' bookcases, while the music plays forwards.

On October 23–24, 2004, US pop singer Ashlee Simpson appeared as a musical guest of episode 568 of the live comedy TV show Saturday Night Live. During her performance, "she was revealed to apparently be lip-synching". According to "her manager-father[,]...his daughter needed the help because acid reflux disease had made her voice hoarse." Her manager stated that "Just like any artist in America, she has a backing track that she pushes so you don't have to hear her croak through a song on national television." During the incident, vocal parts from a previously performed song began to sound while the singer was "holding her microphone at her waist"; she made "some exaggerated hopping dance moves, then walked off the stage".[30]

Spears performing in 2009's world tour The Circus Starring Britney Spears

In 2009, US pop singer Britney Spears was "'extremely upset' over the savaging she has received after lip-synching at her Australian shows", where ABC News Australia reported that "[d]isappointed fans ...stormed out of Perth's Burswood Dome after only a few songs".[31] Reuters reports that Britney Spears "is, and always has been, about blatant, unapologetic lip-synching". The article claims that "at the New York stop of her anticipated comeback tour, Spears used her actual vocal cords only three times – twice to thank the crowd, and once to sing a ballad (though the vocals during that number were questionable, as well)".[32] Rolling Stone magazine stated that "Though some reports indicate Spears did some live singing [in her 2009 concerts], the L.A. Times Ann Powers notes that the show was dominated by backing tracks (which granted, is not the same thing as miming)".[33]

Teenage viral video star Keenan Cahill openly lip-syncs popular songs on his YouTube channel. His popularity has increased as he included guests such as rapper 50 Cent in November 2010 and David Guetta in January 2011, sending him to be one of the most popular channels on YouTube in January 2011.[34][35][36]

The Beatles ran foul of the contemporaneous British law against miming on television in 1967 with their lip-synced promo clip to their song Hello, Goodbye. On the 21 November 1967 edition of Top of the Pops, the song was thus played over a series of sequences from the band's 1964 film A Hard Day's Night. On the 7 December edition of the show, a specially-made black and white promo clip was broadcast with the song, which consisted of the band members editing their telefilm Magical Mystery Tour, and (other than the official promo clip in color including miming, which first became commercially available with the 1996 VHS release of The Beatles Anthology) was not released on home video up until appearing as a bonus feature on the 2012 DVD release of Magical Mystery Tour.[37]

Indian cinema relies heavily on lip synching. Lip synching by a Playback Singer is almost exclusively used in Indian cinema, where actors perform song and dance sequences in movies while lip-synching to the song that is sung by playback singers. The playback singers are officially recognised and have gained much fame in their careers. Some notables among them are Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Muhammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, and many more.

  • Gene Pitney was involved in a memorable gaffe on ITV's This Morning in 1989, owing to a "technical mishap".[38] Giving an ostensibly live performance of his track "You're the Reason", Pitney missed his cue and was seen "failing dismally to mime along in time to his backing track";[39] he tried not to laugh and continued with the song.[40] The incident has been repeated on television over the years, notably on a 2002 episode of BBC One series Room 101,[39] where host Paul Merton described it as a "very funny moment" in which Pitney came in "unbearably late".[41] It was re-aired on the 25th-anniversary edition of This Morning in 2013, where presenter Holly Willoughby "broke out into a cold sweat" while reliving the moment.[38]
  • 50 Cent was caught lip synching live on stage at the BET awards, watched by millions of people when DJ Whoo Kidd played the instrumental version of the hit song "Amusement Park."[42]
  • During a concert at Madison Square Garden, the R & B singer R. Kelly put down his microphone in the middle of a song and let his recorded vocals keep singing.[3]
  • The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called Janet Jackson "one of pop's most notorious onstage lip synchers" in a 2001 article on lip synching.[43]

In an article about Katy Perry, entitled "Lip-Sync Malfunction Forces Katy Perry to Use Her Own Voice to Sing", Gawker stated that while the pop star was "performing her hit song "Roar" at the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes on Saturday, [she] suffered a devastating lip-sync malfunction." Perry was "unable to match the backing track" with her lip movements, causing the host to stop the performance and ask her if she wished to start again. Perry restarted the song, this time without the backing track. The producers issued a statement indicating that it was planned for Perry to sing live, except that a "technical problem" caused staff to play a "bad soundtrack".[44]

Recurring events[edit]

The Super Bowl has used lip-synching during singers' performances at the live-to-air sports event. During Super Bowl XLIII, "Jennifer Hudson's performance of the national anthem" was "lip-synched ...to a previously recorded track, and apparently so did Faith Hill who performed before her". The singers lip-synched "...at the request of Rickey Minor, the pregame show producer", who argued that "There's too many variables to go live."[45] Subsequent Super Bowl national anthems were performed live. Whitney Houston's rendition of the anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl was also reported to have been lip-synched.[45] Such pre-recorded performances for the Super Bowl's halftime shows and national anthem have been commonplace since the 1990s; the NFL has confirmed this as standard practice.[46] In January 1998, singer-songwriter Jewel was criticised for lip-syncing the American national anthem at the opening of the Super Bowl XXXII to a digitally-recorded track of her own voice. This was noticeable as the singer missed her cue, and thus, did not sing the first few words of the song.[47] Super Bowl producers have since admitted that they attempt to have all performers pre-record their vocals.[45]

Some Olympics events have used lip-synching. In the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, the song "Ode to the Motherland" appeared to be sung by Lin Miaoke at the ceremony, but it emerged that she mimed her performance to a recording by another girl, Yang Peiyi, who actually won the audition. It was a last-minute decision to use lip-synching, following a Politburo member's objection to Yang's physical appearance.[48][49][50][51] International Olympic Committee executive director Gilbert Felli defended the use of a more photogenic double.[52][53]

On February 10, 2006, Luciano Pavarotti appeared during a performance of the opera aria "Nessun Dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy, at his final performance. In the last act of the opening ceremony, his performance received the longest and loudest ovation of the night from the international crowd. Leone Magiera, the conductor who directed the performance, revealed in his 2008 memoirs, Pavarotti Visto da Vicino, that the performance was prerecorded weeks earlier.[54] "The orchestra pretended to play for the audience, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. The effect was wonderful," he wrote. Pavarotti's manager, Terri Robson, said that the tenor had turned the Winter Olympic Committee's invitation down several times because it would have been impossible to sing late at night in the sub-zero conditions of Turin in February. The committee eventually persuaded him to take part by pre-recording the song.

Protests by artists[edit]

On occasion, some vocalists have protested being asked to lip sync on television programs by blatantly drawing attention to the fact they are not singing live. When Public Image Limited singer John Lydon performed on American Bandstand, he "instead he sat on the floor of the studio, threw himself into the assembled audience, and stuck his nose into the camera while recordings over his own voice played".[55] When appearing on a TV program in Detroit in 1966, Frank Zappa and his band similarly gathered on a "stage" with items from the station's props department, and asked his band members to perform "a repeatable physical action, not necessarily in sync with (or even related to) the lyrics, and do it over and over until our spot on the show was concluded", leading to a performance Zappa described as "Detroit’s first whiff of homemade prime-time Dada."[56]

Morrissey protested a similar policy on the BBC music programme Top of the Pops by singing "This Charming Man" with a fern plant as a "microphone".[57] When appearing on a German music programme in 1986, English metal band Iron Maiden gave a lip-synced performance of "Wasted Years" where the band blatantly swapped instruments mid-song , and at one point had three members "playing" the drums at the same time.[58][59]

Reception and impact[edit]

After the Milli Vanilli vocal miming scandal, it "...forever embedded skepticism into the minds (and ears) of the listener." In the fallout of this miming controversy, MTV’s Unplugged series was launched, "a showcase for artists wanting to prove they were more than just studio creations". As the show used live performances with singers and acoustic instruments, it required performers to "...display their unembellished voices and ability to perform live." On MTV Unplugged, artists could not use lip-syncing, backup tracks, synthesizers, and racks of vocal effects. With Unplugged, authenticity in live performances again became an important value in popular music.[60]

Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran have called for honesty in live shows by joining the “Live Means Live” campaign. "Live Means Live" was launched by songwriter/composer David Mindel. When a band displays the "Live Means Live" logo, the audience knows, “there’s no Auto-Tune, nothing that isn’t 100 per cent live" in the show, and there are no backing tracks.[61]

In video[edit]

Film[edit]

In film production, lip synching is often part of the post-production phase. Most film today contains scenes where the dialogue has been re-recorded afterwards; lip-synching is the technique used when animated characters speak, and lip synching is essential when films are dubbed into other languages. In many musical films, actors sang their own songs beforehand in a recording session and lip-synched during filming, but many also lip-synched to voices other than their own. Marni Nixon sang for Deborah Kerr in The King and I and for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Annette Warren for Ava Gardner in Show Boat, Robert McFerrin for Sidney Poitier in Porgy and Bess, Betty Wand for Leslie Caron in Gigi, Lisa Kirk for Rosalind Russell in Gypsy, and Bill Lee for Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music. Some pre-overdubbed performances have survived, such as Hepburn's original My Fair Lady vocals (included in documentaries related to the film), and Gardner's original vocals in Show Boat were heard for the first time in the 1994 documentary That's Entertainment! III. When songs appear in non-musical films, however, the actors sing live on set, but later dub their voices in ADR using a "better" performance of the song.

Lip-synching is almost always used in modern musical films (The Rocky Horror Picture Show being an exception) and in biopics such as Ray and La Vie en Rose, where the original recording adds authenticity. But some early musicals usually use live recordings.

In the 1950s MGM classic Singin' in the Rain, lip synching is a major plot point, with Debbie Reynolds' character, Kathy Selden, providing the voice for the character Lina Lamont (played by Jean Hagen). Writing in UK Sunday newspaper The Observer, Mark Kermode noted, "Trivia buffs love to invoke the ironic dubbing of Debbie Reynolds by Betty Noyes on Would You" although he pointed out that "the 19-year-old Reynolds never puts a foot wrong on smashers like Good Morning".[62] Reynolds also later acknowledged Betty Noyes’ uncredited contribution to the film, writing: "I sang You Are My Lucky Star with Gene Kelly. It was a very rangy song and done in his key. My part did not come out well, and my singing voice was dubbed in by Betty Royce [sic]".[63]

ADR[edit]

Automated dialogue replacement, also known as "ADR" or "looping," is a film sound technique involving the re-recording of dialogue after photography. Sometimes the dialogue recorded on location is unsatisfactory either because it has too much background noise on it or the director is not happy with the performance, so the actors replace their own voices in a "looping" session after the filming.

Animation[edit]

Animated lip sync of "At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime"

Another manifestation of lip synching is the art of making an animated character appear to speak in a prerecorded track of dialogue. The lip sync technique to make an animated character appear to speak involves figuring out the timings of the speech (breakdown) as well as the actual animating of the lips/mouth to match the dialogue track. The earliest examples of lip-sync in animation were attempted by Max Fleischer in his 1926 short My Old Kentucky Home. The technique continues to this day, with animated films and television shows such as Shrek, Lilo & Stitch, and The Simpsons using lip-synching to make their artificial characters talk. Lip synching is also used in comedies such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes and political satire, changing totally or just partially the original wording. It has been used in conjunction with translation of films from one language to another, for example, Spirited Away. Lip-synching can be a very difficult issue in translating foreign works to a domestic release, as a simple translation of the lines often leaves overrun or underrun of high dialog to mouth movements.

Language dubbing[edit]

Quality film dubbing requires that the dialogue is first translated in such a way that the words used can match the lip movements of the actor. This is often hard to achieve if the translation is to stay true to the original dialogue. Elaborate lip-synch of dubbing is also a lengthy and expensive process. The more simplified non-phonetic representation of mouth movement in many anime helps this process.

In English-speaking countries, many foreign TV series (especially anime like Pokémon) are dubbed for television broadcast. However, cinematic releases of films tend to come with subtitles instead. The same is true of countries in which the local language is not spoken widely enough to make the expensive dubbing commercially viable (in other words, there is not enough market for it). However, other countries with a large-enough population dub all foreign films into their national language cinematic release. Dubbing is preferred by some because it allows the viewer to focus on the on-screen action, without reading the subtitles.

In video games[edit]

Early video games did not use any voice sounds, due to technical limitations. In the 1970s and early 1980s, most video games used simple electronic sounds such as bleeps and simulated explosion sounds. At most, these games featured some generic jaw or mouth movement to convey a communication process in addition to text. However, as games become more advanced in the 1990s and 2000s, lip sync and voice acting has become a major focus of many games.

Role-playing games[edit]

Lip sync was for some time a minor focus in role-playing video games. Because of the amount of information conveyed through the game, the majority of communication uses of scrolling text. Older RPGs rely solely on text, using inanimate portraits to provide a sense of who is speaking. Some games make use of voice acting, such as Grandia II or Diablo, but due to simple character models, there is no mouth movement to simulate speech. RPGs for hand-held systems are still largely based on text, with the rare use of lip sync and voice files being reserved for full motion video cutscenes. Newer RPGs, have extensive audio dialogues. The Neverwinter Nights series are examples of transitional games where important dialogue and cutscenes are fully voiced, but less important information is still conveyed in text. In games such as Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic, developers created partial artificial languages to give the impression of full voice acting without having to actually voice all dialogue.

Strategy games[edit]

Unlike RPGs, strategy video games make extensive use of sound files to create an immersive battle environment. Most games simply played a recorded audio track on cue with some games providing inanimate portraits to accompany the respective voice. StarCraft used full motion video character portraits with several generic speaking animations that did not synchronize with the lines spoken in the game. The game did, however, make extensive use of recorded speech to convey the game's plot, with the speaking animations providing a good idea of the flow of the conversation. Warcraft III used fully rendered 3D models to animate speech with generic mouth movements, both as character portraits as well as the in-game units. Like the FMV portraits, the 3D models did not synchronize with actual spoken text, while in-game models tended to simulate speech by moving their heads and arms rather than using actual lip synchronization. Similarly, the game Codename Panzers uses camera angles and hand movements to simulate speech, as the characters have no actual mouth movement. However, StarCraft II used fully synced unit portraits and cinematic sequences.

First-person shooters[edit]

FPS is a genre that generally places much more emphasis on graphical display, mainly due to the camera almost always being very close to character models. Due to increasingly detailed character models requiring animation, FPS developers assign many resources to create realistic lip synchronization with the many lines of speech used in most FPS games. Early 3D models used basic up-and-down jaw movements to simulate speech. As technology progressed, mouth movements began to closely resemble real human speech movements. Medal of Honor: Frontline dedicated a development team to lip sync alone, producing the most accurate lip synchronization for games at that time. Since then, games like Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault and Half-Life 2 have made use of coding that dynamically simulates mouth movements to produce sounds as if they were spoken by a live person, resulting in astoundingly lifelike characters. Gamers who create their own videos using character models with no lip movements, such as the helmeted Master Chief from Halo, improvise lip movements by moving the characters' arms, bodies and making a bobbing movement with the head (see Red vs. Blue).

Television transmission synchronization[edit]

Main article: Audio to video synchronization

An example of a lip synchronization problem, also known as lip sync error is the case in which television video and audio signals are transported via different facilities (e.g., a geosynchronous satellite radio link and a landline) that have significantly different delay times. In such cases, it is necessary to delay the earlier of the two signals electronically.

Lip sync issues have become a serious problem for the television industry worldwide. Lip sync problems are not only annoying but can lead to subconscious viewer stress which in turn leads to viewer dislike of the television program they are watching.[64] Television industry standards organizations have become involved in setting standards for lip sync errors.[65] In 2015 SMPTE (the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) adopted Standard ST2064 which provides technology for greatly reducing or eliminating lip sync errors in television programming.

Finger syncing[edit]

The miming of the playing of a musical instrument, also called finger-synching, is the instrument equivalent of lip-synching.[66] A notable example of miming includes John Williams' piece at President Obama's inauguration, which was a recording made two days earlier and mimed by musicians Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman. The musicians wore earpieces to hear the playback.[67] During Whitney Houston's performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” with full orchestra, a pre-recorded version was used: “At the game, everyone was playing, and Whitney was singing, but there were no live microphones,” orchestra director Kathryn Holm McManus revealed in 2001. “Everyone was lip synching or finger-synching.”[66]

See also[edit]

  • Audio to video synchronization
  • Automated Dialogue Replacement
  • Audio synchronizer
  • Backing track
  • Ghost singer
  • Human video, a style of dance sometimes referred to as a "lip sync"
  • Lip dub
  • Lypsinka
  • List of Rusicals
  • Miming in instrumental performance
  • Playback singing
  • Presentation time stamp
  • Ventriloquism

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