New Celtic Woman special

[piperdbh]

I do believe the vocals are recorded, and I'm tempted to believe the fiddling is, too. However, the novelty of the "Celtic Woman" shows is so strong that I always enjoy watching them. The "Songs from the Heart" has some new singers, which were very good, as always.
This is pledge drive week for PBS, so, as mentioned before, it'll be on again.

[Geoff Withnell]

I tend to think the vocals are NOT lip synced. I have some hearing lossand I use lip reading to supplement my hearing for voices in noisy environments. As a resukt, even the slightest mis-timing of voice and lip movement is very jarring to me. I don't get that at all with Celtic Woman. I believe the concert recording quality is a cut above the usual, which makes it sound less like in concert and more like a studio recording.

Not only are their voices wonderful, they have some great backup musicians. I love their drummers.

And as a man who appreciates a nice pair of shoulders on a woman, I love the costumes.

Geoff Withnell

[McMathTX]

Ah yes, the shoulders!

[Detroitpete]

Ah yes, the shoulders!

Ahem......yes.

I think this is the ONLY place that I can admit my weakness for Celtic Woman Watching these PBS specials turn me into a glassy-eyed mouth-breather and there's nothing I can do about it.

I just heard they'll be in my city in April!

[beowulf67]

The shoulders are what stand out to me as well!

[Mike in Dayton]

Keep in mind that if you are watching a program in HD the timing can be off between the video and audio. This is a problem that the TV stations and networks are fighting. Sometimes the out of sync picture and video can be very annoying.

[EagleJCS]

dbh,
They're using some very good wireless earpiece mics. Look carefully at the right cheek, just in front of the ear. You may be able to see a small, light- or flesh-colored ball. That's the mic, with a foam screen over it to keep out ambient noises, like wind (the screen is the colored part). Wearing the mic as an earpice reduces the "mic-moving-against-something noise". The camera angles (and their hair) are adjusted so the mics are a little more difficult to see. That preserves the "illusion" for the audience. (You mean their voices aren't strong enough to sing over a full orchestra? )

The reason they're able to keep singing while moving about like that is because they've been practicing doing both for quite a while before doing public performances, and as professional singers, they have excellent breath control.

I do a little performing from time to time, and I wish I could afford the 'inexpensive' versions of those mics - they run about US$300 or so. The cheap ones (quality as well as price) run about US$90. That's just the microphone (plus the transmitter & battery pack). The receiver base will cost you a little more. The better ones are even more expensive. I was told by one of the stage managers at our performing arts center that the professional stage wireless mics run about $500 or more, depending on whether you want it as an earpiece, or hidden in a part of the costume the performer is wearing.

[Frank McGrath]

If the music isn't pre recorded, they have the greatest sound man on earth

[chasem]

I work with a guy who used to run sound for shows up in Maine (to give him some credit: Dashboard Confessional, Martina McBride, etc), and ran a show for Celtic Woman. I asked his thoughts on it, and he said that Celtic Woman do not lip-sync. He's a good sound guy, and isn't a big fan of CW.

He did proceed to tell me about a couple groups he has worked with who did use pre-recorded sound, so I don't doubt he would've told me if CW actually did.