The time has come again for another 1000+ word Chrisss Nofff article. If you got a ridiculous amount of patients and boredom, grab a cup of tea and read a long. Since the next Rammstein releases will be live DVD`s (whenever they may finally come), I thought we could stay on that topic. PS: The text might end up looking a bit wierd. I wrote everything in Word, because Affenknecht was a little unstabil today and I did not want to start over again.
How much "live" are Rammstein`s live albums ?
It´s no secret that artist often fix/re-dub their live recordings, in order to leave a better impression. In the old days (that means something like before 1980), recording a live show was very difficult. Back then the sound equipment was not very reliable. They even had problems recording long dialogues for movies. It is said that about 40% of all dialogue in movies like Star Wars is actually dubbed in post-production. Therefore it was very understandable that artists in the old days would rework their live material in case something went wrong. Capturing things like clean audience sound, was the most difficult. Jimmy Hendricks therefore used samples from chants and applauses from a spanish bullfight in his single Yardbirds. Some artists even went as far as recording new versions of their old songs, adding fake audience sounds and called it "live". Kiss - "Alive II" is by some said to be 96% studio recorded. The first time I noticed dubbing was in Marilyn Manson´s "Guns, God and Goverment" - concert movie. Everything sounded too clean and perfect. The recording was supposedly made in 2001, LA. However amateur recordings of that show revealed that it sounded completely different.
That being said, with today´s technology no artist that has a record labelcontract and sells out shows, can´t afford good live recording equipment. Therefore, the only excuse artist have today for dubbing, is because they either made mistakes during their concert, or they want to sound better than they actually do. Usually rock/metal bands today overdub parts of vocals, drums, audience sound and partially guitars. Those are usually the hardest elements to get right while performing live.
Dubbed/fixed elements in Rammstein live material
I thought I could just go through all the major live material the band has released, and give you my thoughts about how "live" it is. If you have any thoughts or other contributions, continue the list please.
Live aus Berlin (1999)
Live aus Berlin was Rammstein´s first live album. Although there is only 1 low quality amateur recording of that show, there are a few things that I am certain of were fixed:
3. Some guitar solos: I have to admit that the I am not entirely sure on this one. The solos in "Heirate mich" and "Rammstein" sound incredibly clean. There is absolutely no scratching or distortion, compared to all the other performances of these songs. I think they either removed some "unclean" noises or dubbed these solos. Or Richard is just a lot better than I think.
MTV awards, "Ich will" - performance (2001)
During the live performance of "Ich Will" in 2001 at the MTV awards, several things went wrong: Till´s microphone stopped working during the first couple of seconds, Schneider´s drumming was a little sloppy, Till switched the lines "Könnt ihr uns hören?" and "Könnt ihr uns sehen?" just to name a few. There is another version of this performance without any of these mistakes. It sounds overall quite different. You can find both versions on Youtube.
Völkerball (2006)
With the exception of the Japan segment, every single performance on this DVD has good amateur footage/recordings which can be used to compare it to the DVD. The Nimes concert has both video and audio amateur footage. Both are very easy to find on YouTube. There is even a pretty good 50 minute video that can be found on the channel of "SeidBereit". You can also find two very good videos from two of the Brixton Academy concerts on that channel. Oddly enough, I found almost no major evidence of dubbing on this DVD:
Surprisingly these are the two only differences I found. Of course they edit out things like pauses and "dead airs" between songs. It seems like the band or the directors wanted to keep the little imperfections, since that just helped the DVD get that raw and authentic live feeling. You can hear Till mess up the lyrics here and there. The microphone did not work in the beginning of "Feuer Frei" in London. Little scratch sounds from the guitars at the beginning of "Sonne" in Nimes. Richard starting his solo a little early in "Stein um Stein" etc. I love that the band has kept all these small mistakes. It makes you value the product more, since you know that you have bought a real live album. I hope the band keeps this attitude towards live recordings for their upcoming DVD`s.
Wacken 3d
I think it´s so obvious that this performance is dubbed, that I am not even going into much detail on this one. To sum it up really quick:
Overall, this one is very understandable. I mean the Wacken movie was more of a "3D experience" movie, than a serious documentary about these musicians. It´s understandable that the director wanted a more impressive sound, instead of the very simple festival TV - recordings. It´s also very obvious that everything is dubbed, since Jakob Hellner (the bands producer) was also the movie´s producer. In addition Till was probably recording Lindemann and Richard was working on Emigrate, while the movie was being made. Recording samples one afternoon and sending them over wouldn’t really be a problem.
The next live DVD`s?
One reason for the delays could be that they want to dub/rework something. I really hope they keep their Völkerball standard of only changing minor inconveniences, and not remove every single imperfection. Once the DVD`s come out, I will probably write a similar thread like this.
How much "live" are Rammstein`s live albums ?
It´s no secret that artist often fix/re-dub their live recordings, in order to leave a better impression. In the old days (that means something like before 1980), recording a live show was very difficult. Back then the sound equipment was not very reliable. They even had problems recording long dialogues for movies. It is said that about 40% of all dialogue in movies like Star Wars is actually dubbed in post-production. Therefore it was very understandable that artists in the old days would rework their live material in case something went wrong. Capturing things like clean audience sound, was the most difficult. Jimmy Hendricks therefore used samples from chants and applauses from a spanish bullfight in his single Yardbirds. Some artists even went as far as recording new versions of their old songs, adding fake audience sounds and called it "live". Kiss - "Alive II" is by some said to be 96% studio recorded. The first time I noticed dubbing was in Marilyn Manson´s "Guns, God and Goverment" - concert movie. Everything sounded too clean and perfect. The recording was supposedly made in 2001, LA. However amateur recordings of that show revealed that it sounded completely different.
That being said, with today´s technology no artist that has a record labelcontract and sells out shows, can´t afford good live recording equipment. Therefore, the only excuse artist have today for dubbing, is because they either made mistakes during their concert, or they want to sound better than they actually do. Usually rock/metal bands today overdub parts of vocals, drums, audience sound and partially guitars. Those are usually the hardest elements to get right while performing live.
Dubbed/fixed elements in Rammstein live material
I thought I could just go through all the major live material the band has released, and give you my thoughts about how "live" it is. If you have any thoughts or other contributions, continue the list please.
Live aus Berlin (1999)
Live aus Berlin was Rammstein´s first live album. Although there is only 1 low quality amateur recording of that show, there are a few things that I am certain of were fixed:
- Audience sound: On Rammstein´s website there is an old advertisement from 1998, where Rammstein fans were asked to help record the audience sound for the concert movie. The advertisement can be found here. You can hear on the amateur recording from one of the `98 Berlin shows, that the audience was incredibly loud. However, on the DVD the audience chants and singing is just WAY too loud and clear. Especially during "Du riechst so gut" and the beginning of "Laichzeit".
- Till´s vocals on Wilder Wein: This one requires a very good ear. Try to turn on the Live aus Berlin DVD/CD, and listen VERY carefully to Till´s voice on that song. You will realise that there is a very clean and deep backing track that follows his singing during the entire song. You can hear this especially well during the start of the song, and the end of it. I am not entirely sure if this was done in the post-production or if the backing track was also used in the live concert. Another fixed vocal part are the two shouts in "Herzeleid". They sound exactly like on the album, and every other "Sehnsucht tour"-performance. However in this case I am sure that it was just playback/backing track and not dubbing.
3. Some guitar solos: I have to admit that the I am not entirely sure on this one. The solos in "Heirate mich" and "Rammstein" sound incredibly clean. There is absolutely no scratching or distortion, compared to all the other performances of these songs. I think they either removed some "unclean" noises or dubbed these solos. Or Richard is just a lot better than I think.
MTV awards, "Ich will" - performance (2001)
During the live performance of "Ich Will" in 2001 at the MTV awards, several things went wrong: Till´s microphone stopped working during the first couple of seconds, Schneider´s drumming was a little sloppy, Till switched the lines "Könnt ihr uns hören?" and "Könnt ihr uns sehen?" just to name a few. There is another version of this performance without any of these mistakes. It sounds overall quite different. You can find both versions on Youtube.
Völkerball (2006)
With the exception of the Japan segment, every single performance on this DVD has good amateur footage/recordings which can be used to compare it to the DVD. The Nimes concert has both video and audio amateur footage. Both are very easy to find on YouTube. There is even a pretty good 50 minute video that can be found on the channel of "SeidBereit". You can also find two very good videos from two of the Brixton Academy concerts on that channel. Oddly enough, I found almost no major evidence of dubbing on this DVD:
- The intro of "Du riechst so gut": There was some kind of problem with the keyboard during the start of "Du riechst so gut". There are a lot of weird noises that are being played on a loop. Then all the sudden the keyboard stops working and the band just starts the song. On the DVD we can however hear the standard "Reise, Reise" - tour intro of that song.
- Sound level of the vocals: There was some kind of problem with either the microphone or the sound mixing during "Benzin". In any case, if you listen to amateur recordings, and compare it to the DVD, you will hear that the vocals are the exact same, however they are more balanced on the DVD.
Surprisingly these are the two only differences I found. Of course they edit out things like pauses and "dead airs" between songs. It seems like the band or the directors wanted to keep the little imperfections, since that just helped the DVD get that raw and authentic live feeling. You can hear Till mess up the lyrics here and there. The microphone did not work in the beginning of "Feuer Frei" in London. Little scratch sounds from the guitars at the beginning of "Sonne" in Nimes. Richard starting his solo a little early in "Stein um Stein" etc. I love that the band has kept all these small mistakes. It makes you value the product more, since you know that you have bought a real live album. I hope the band keeps this attitude towards live recordings for their upcoming DVD`s.
Wacken 3d
I think it´s so obvious that this performance is dubbed, that I am not even going into much detail on this one. To sum it up really quick:
- If you listen to the wacken songs that aired on TV, and the other "Du Hast" - proshot festival recordings from that tour (Hurricane, Download), you will hear that the sound is overall very different. Compared to Wacken 3d, the drums have much more bass and the guitars are heavier/lower tuned. Overall the main riffs are also a little faster than usual and shortened down.
- Till`s vocals are multi-layered, and don´t always match his lips.
Overall, this one is very understandable. I mean the Wacken movie was more of a "3D experience" movie, than a serious documentary about these musicians. It´s understandable that the director wanted a more impressive sound, instead of the very simple festival TV - recordings. It´s also very obvious that everything is dubbed, since Jakob Hellner (the bands producer) was also the movie´s producer. In addition Till was probably recording Lindemann and Richard was working on Emigrate, while the movie was being made. Recording samples one afternoon and sending them over wouldn’t really be a problem.
The next live DVD`s?
One reason for the delays could be that they want to dub/rework something. I really hope they keep their Völkerball standard of only changing minor inconveniences, and not remove every single imperfection. Once the DVD`s come out, I will probably write a similar thread like this.
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