I’m a subscriber to “Wings of Pegasus”, a YouTube channel, featuring Fil, a guitarist, singer and music teacher. Many of his patrons and followers ask him to make analysis videos of artist performances which includes him using pitch-rendering software. What’s that you ask? When someone sings, the software takes the digital input (your vocals), analyzes and renders them visually. In other words, it’s a fingerprint of your voice. It then shows a graph (similar to this) of your voice against a background, displaying notes of a scale on the left. It allows one to see not only what notes you are singing, but if you are sharp or flat, etc.
Okay, so now that you’re familiar with the premise… So, Fil received a request from a few viewers who were suspicious of Don Henley’s “Desperado” vocals at two different concerts, several months apart—one from 2023 and one from 2024. The suspicion (which was later proven true by the software) was that Henley’s vocals weren’t live. The vocal tracks were IDENTICAL for each concert, an impossible feat.
Anyone singing will never be able to replicate a performance. You might have extra vibrato one day, hit a slightly sharp note, take an extra breath, or hold a note for a fraction of a second longer. It will be a unique signature each time you sing. That’s just the nature of the beast.
So, after comparing the two concerts, it was determined that Henley mimed his part—a point that pissed people off, and rightly so. You pay good money to see bands and want a LIVE performance. If not, you can sit at home and listen to their recordings, right? Then, others denied what Fil showed them. They were acting defensively out of love for the band. I get that, but when faced with the facts, sometimes it’s hard to swallow the truth. No one wants to believe anything bad or hurtful about someone or something you love. It’s disillusioning.
To drive his point home, Fil created a new video for his viewers, showing Michael Jackson in the studio, doing six takes of one vocal. And even though it might sound exactly alike to your ear, the software clearly revealed how the takes varied from one another—a great example showing how impossible it would be to sing a phrase, let alone an entire song, and have the performances be identical, even if you’re Michael Jackson.
@coffeemachtspass
This was a spot-on comment by one of Fil’s viewers in response to them miming! It received 1.1K likes so far.
11 days ago
Henley is so protective of The Eagles’ music that he won’t even let The Eagles perform it.
As an aside, Henley is one of a small minority of musicians who won’t allow use of their music. Watch the video below to understand the logistics. Thanks!
