Gary Numan Live!! How much is actually live?? 

I just saw him in March in a small club in Detroit. I was ten feet away from Gary. He was most definitely singing his ass off! Great performance.

“Savage” was probably my favorite comeback ever. I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like for him when that completely blew away all expectations.

I was happy to see Gary live in 2022. Steve, Tim and Richard were literally playing their hearts out, David was hard at work with all the keyboards, synths and the laptops. Gary´s voice was totally live, with the occasional backtracks he uses for atmosphere. No one in the audience had any doubts that this was a real live show.

In 2017 my wonderful daughter bought us backstage passes to Gary Numans show at the iconic 1st Ave in Minneapolis. We met Gary and we able to watch the band rehearse a handful of songs. It lasted about 45 minutes or more and it was obvious he was singing all the songs live. The show was spectacular and I feel extremely blessed to have been there, I will never forget it.

I have seen over 300 concerts since 1984. Anyway. I rarely came across a band that really did a bad job. Gary Numan is an awesome performer and he always has great talented musicians backing him. Love Numan

I’ve seen Gary in concert 3 times. I was up front and it was absolutely live.

I've seen Gary live three times now and never once doubted how "live" it was. Everything you said is totally understandable and valid. Why his so called fans discredit all this is beyond me - this isn't the Telekon era anymore and I swear they're in denial of that 🙄😂

As a sound technician/engineer myself I totally agree with everything you said in this video

Good analysis. In terms of keyboards one man can do a 3 man job on the synths of the old days, hence some 'backing track'. I was privileged enough to be at his rehearsal last Saturday just inches away from him. Spoke to him and all band members at length on their instruments...not to mention about the 3 performances leading up to the Numan's 1000th.

I would imagine that there is a degree of "help" for most live performances, especially when the studio tracks are multi layered. I for one think Gary does an awesome live show every time and I've been a fan since 79. Still go to his concerts and can't wait for the Intruder tour.

Numan Live and his epic musicians always give 110%. Of course its multi layered and high tech. That requires a tight band and rehearsals. And that gives us a quality of entertainment. I've taken endless non fans to gigs over the years. All have been impressed with his shows.

I saw Gary here in Perth maybe 8 years ago. I'm also a musician and the guys were definitely playing and singing like champions!

To be honest, a lot of Numan fans piss me off! Whining on about setlists?? I have seen Gary twice and I am not bothered what he plays!!! it’s Gary Numan!!!! Good to be there

Thank you for explaining that. I just saw Numan and his band in concert a few days ago (Intruder tour 2022) and thought it was a great show. You explaining how it all works makes me even more impressed by all of the musicians up on that stage!

When I started gigging again with my project back in 2012, I had what I considered at the time a small live rig consisting of two hardware synths, a large rack mounted mixer in a heavy flight case and a laptop playing backing tracks. Over the intervening years (and due to onstage technical issues with sub bass making my laptop's non-SSD hard drive skip when playing backing tracks at a gig back in 2015), I've since reduced my own live rig to a single synth and a looper pedal that plays backing tracks through a much smaller mixer going to FOH. The looper only contains drums, bass and sequences, everything I can play is played, using splits and layers on the synth. The only drawback is that I have to approximate some sounds, but it does make things simpler technically. As an observation, I do find that most negative comments about live electronic acts come from the traditional bass, guitar and drums crowd. Bands that use technology don't have this attitude. I think Gary Numan and his band do what is needed to translate the album sound as closely as possible.

Long time Gary Numan fan, but have simply missed the social media pages devoted to him. No loss. Thank you for this great video post/explanation, which was more informative from a vocalist standpoint than about Gary. I know this much, I made a real pilgrimage this past week to see him, front row. Goodness Gracious. As an industrial vocalist myself, I had a truly moving experience watching him. Gary & Band were nothing short of mesmerizing. Wonderful packed crowd in Dallas, TX. Beautiful, beautiful. Happy to subscribe to your channel here, and thanks for suggesting Gary's patreon page.

as long as the singer is actually singing and the players are playing most of the songs who cares about what they had to put some backing stuff in there. I'm getting ready to see Gary Numan this September and really looking forward to it. Thanks for the producer view on his work.

I echo the emotion in Numan's picture above, "Hells yeah!!" Thanks Vaughn!!

Numanoid since 1980. I'm super excited to see Gary next month in Phoenix, Arizona. His live performances have never disappointed me.

"...favourite male solo artist of all time..." ME TOO!!! Fantastic post thanks Vaughn. How lucky we are to have all your attention with Gary, Ade and alike videos. Cheers

All well said and explained Vaughan . Loved it.

When Gary Numan sings live he sounds like how you would expect Gary Numan to sound like. He is uncannily like his recordings yet you can hear that it's live as well. I fell for his music in 1979 and saw him just before lockdown at the Cliffs Pavillion, Southend-on-Sea. It was fantastic! Thank you for making this video and explaining so eloquently. You can tell you're a fan.

Fantastic video with understandable explanations and examples. As a bass player turned intermediate keyboardist playing in a classic Numan tribute act, we’ve tried to play as much as we can live, while still sounding authentic to the records. Telekon, however, is requiring some tracks. Even with a second keyboardist and our singer being a third on some songs, we just can’t faithfully reproduce the four songs we do off that amazing album without a couple backing tracks. Yes… 2 hands can only do so much and there is a lot of other things to think about, buttons to press and knobs to turn, etc., as well. I thank you for this in depth look into Numan’s stage situation. Cheers!!

I've just attended to a Numan gig at John Dee in Oslo (30.05.2022) It was a little venue, no more than 300 persons. I was at the very front just 1/2 mts from him. He was singing during the whole show. I love being a Numanoid

Absolutely enlightening! Really enjoying all this!!🎸🍄

I have been a fan of Gary sinxe 79, and am just gratefull to see him live when I can.

Seen him around a hundred times, great show. ❤️

Hi, I really liked your video and just like you, I am a huge Gary Numan fan and have been since 1979!! I've seen him live many times over the years, including at Wembley in 1981 and I'll be seeing him live again next year!! Can't wait!! I had to laugh when you mentioned Gary screaming because I met him for the first and only time in 2011 at a paid for meet and greet in Nottingham on the first date of his 'Dead Son Rising Tour!!' He was totally amazing and really engrossing to be around!! To be honest I got very star struck and because of this, my mouth seemed to take on a life of it's own and I said a couple of silly things which I deeply regretted as soon as I said them!! If you know the live version of his excellent song 'Bleed' which is featured on his brilliant 'Hybrid' remix CD set, you'll know that Gary absolutely screams his head off a couple of times during the song and I love it!! So, with that in mind, I mentioned to him that I love the way he varies his vocal style quite a lot on different songs and it really shows how groundbreaking and original he really is in that, he can sing anything from really soft to all out screaming and I could tell immediately from his expression that, with regards to the screaming comment he was really offended!! He paused and replied quite disgusted: "Screaming?? Oh, ok, thanks a lot for that!!" I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, but I DIDN'T mean it offensively, I meant it as a compliment and was referring to the cracking live version of the song 'Bleed!!" So word to the wise, if you're going to mention Gary Numan and screaming in the same sentence, be very, very careful he understands what you mean or else get ready to be face to face with somebody you've just really upset!! Peace!!

I would have loved to hear more of your "Down in the Park" improv! That was very cool! Anyway thanks for this informative video! Keep up the good work Vaughn! 😊

Hi Vaughn always a pleasure watching your videos on gary numan. I'd like to say that I already know there would be some backing track for parts that is hard to play. As I've been a numan fan since are friends electric through the hard times still bought his albums. And listening to his new material he is back to his best, that was a great demo on down in the park how hard it can be to play you were great mate great video thanks for sharing it with is great job 👍

Amazing when you play live Vaughan, can we have more please, great video mate 👍

Thanks Vaughn! You explain well! In fact, I for one have never wondered about what’s live or not. I basically don’t care. There’s a recent upload taken from Patreon where Gary and his band play ‘Intimate’ where everyone can witness how well Gary sings and his band can play (Bed of Thorns, Stories, AFE)... I have no doubts about the skills of anyone involved... the added layers is something every big artist has done for years. Apart from Numan/DM I am also a fan of U2, Pink Floyd, Rush and there’s plenty of recorded bits (or should I say sequenced bits) at their live shows. There are documentaries on U2’s “Underworld” that will give some insight. But I do get why some people are concerned about the enhanced vocals on CD/DVD in recent years... I do enjoy Telekon Live (2006), Replicas Live (2008) and “When The Sky Came Down” with Skaparis on DVD though! Great DVD’s... but perhaps they would capture the live atmosphere even better if vocals got less post-treatment than they get now...but saying it would also indicate I know better than the artist... Am I that good? Never! So, it’s his call and whatever the outcome: as long as I enjoy it, it’s all right! And I do enjoy....

Oh great Video as always Vaughn

VG , you re absolutly right !!!!!👍🏻 But the most people dont know the difference between live and studio sessions . Hope your channel helps to understand what it means

Great video, thank you

When you hear the demo....and then the finished product, it has to be really hard to play live! There are so many layers involved if you strip them all back and do it live.....well in my view it would sound shit and basically would not sound like it should! It is the modern way to programme around 80% of music if its of a technical variant! Frankly i thought the Intruder live project was awesome.

I gave a response long ago, but feel to add my recent experience with Gary in Amsterdam. First of all I was pleasantly surprised with a fantastic sound. Everything was clearly audible. The lights weren’t working properly, Numan apologised for that, but gave it everything. This time I noticed far less drumloops and recorded backing vocals. This was a tight playing live band and his voice was audibly live. Only during Pure you could here some more layered backing vocals. And possibly one or 2 other choruses, but definitely not in a disturbing way. It was truly an amazing experience.

looking forward to seeing him in April on the 1st night of the UK tour

Great vídeo, very well explained

We'll. Now THIS is the kind of content I've been looking for! I use Cubase and VST's, been tinkering for 20 years and a huge synth fan! Tangerine Dream changed my life in 1977! I love synthpoo and Industrial music. So happy you talk about music in this way. So appreciated. Yes, I subscribed.💪😎🎙️🥾🛠️⚙️⚒️🎹🖥️

Why do some ideots think he lip syncs he doesn't he's counting himself into the next line.. More so before ear pieces Numan is a real true star he's honnest funny and genuine guy. Iv been very lucky to have been a fan since 1979. I'm in my late 50s now yes seen him live many many times even worked on catering in 1988 tour. But must say Wembley as never been touched nor in my eyes ever will for full LIVE ANALOGUE SOUND performance 1981 42 years ago crikey HELPPPP XX

Another very informative video from VG. Thing is bands like Depeche Mode/OMD and others have been taking this approach for years albeit using tape machines instead of computers. It’s a matter of fact approach to live performances these days and bands that you think are 100% live are likely using backing to fill out their sound. VG great vid 👍

I have seen him live many times, he sings live , and as far as I can hear most of the music is played live . There maybe some prerecorded backing music so that the tracks can be as close to the album as possible. Gary Numan is a legend , amazing performer and his music just gets better and better. My favourite solo artist of all time .

Don't mention the Polymoog, I did but I think I got away with it. Sorry had to get some Basil Fawlty in there. Another great explanatory vid, thanks.

In the 90s, my band was 2 or 3 members and we always rehearsed in weeks before 25 minutes on stage. So what did I do? Wrote down the chords on every song and improvised on a synthesizer. Notes was no problem with recorder, clarined, home organ and drums background. Only problem was hated live nervous as hell...but later it became fun. Cool video by the way! I discovered Gary (I knew him from the Car) with Pure, and really like everything afterwards.

He has used backing tracks since the beginning. Common in the 70's and 80's and up to today where everything is synced. ZZ Top uses backing tracks as well as lots of bands you would never think.

Can’t wait for some VG greatness to improve my day!

I went watching Depeche Mode in Berlin in 1990 - World Violation tour, i was loosely into keyboards back then but that gig made me a fanatic. Strange really because the highlight of the night for me was Alan Wilder taking centre stage and playing a couple of giant Bongo drums when they performed 'Clean' the base thumped through your chest and all around the Arena - Great moment and very live. I've got tickets to go and see Gary Numan in Leeds come what May. 🙌.

Good video and very well demonstrated, hopefully mite stop the haters

I don't understand why people get upset with bands using backing tracks, it's literally making their songs sound as close to the albums as possible. Which is something you would think fans would appreciate, as a musician who has covered songs live it certainly would've been nice to have the option of using them during my sets that's for sure

Hi VG thank you for your teaching and knowledge on the live performance about Gary's band I would happily be Gary's back up singer if he needed one tell Gary this cause I'm like you VG a great fan I do like your style very much too take care bye 😊🌺

Very interesting. Thanks.

I was impressed by the number of keyboard players in the Pleasure Principle and Telekon album tours he did a few years ago. I suspect there was more than the average live elements going on there. Probably because the music was easier to deconstruct into live elements.

I must admit I was a little sceptical as to how much was being played live but after attending a rehearsal session and seeing how it's done (pretty much as described here) it made sense. One interesting thing, during the rehearsal the band repeatedly referred to "Gareths". I asked Tim what Gareths were, he said the click track that they have in their ear pieces has, on some of the older tracks, verbal cues that Gary recorded to count them in to parts of the song. Gareths 😄.

Thanks for explaining this. I saw Gary for the first time last night. The show was so good but the thought crossed my mind that he may not have been singing. My friend said the same thing. It bothered me because I enjoyed the set so much & didn't want to take away from what I witnessed so I decided to do some homework on this subject. Your video caught my eye. I am so glad I watched this because now I understand the studio/live aspects of his songs & why he moves the mic the way he does. I'm not a musician so I thought it was important to do my due diligence before I developed a negative view on his live performance. I am very satisfied with my findings. Having to explain this so much must get tiresome for him. I am happy to say I want to become a proud member of the Numanoids...

WINNIPEG MANITOBA AT THE BURTON...VERY LIVE..EXCELLENT SHOW!!!!

You can use a backing track for duplicated album vocals, but you can also use a duplicator effect.

My point is...I really don't care if he's live or not at gigs VG has explained it very well re the enhancements... I mainly complain about GN fucking about with the live recordings back in the studio.

Never forget growing up pre internet, living with the mythological fact that Gary Newman was a pilot! A pop star and a pilot, it was like an urban legend to an 80s kid 🤣🤣🤣

Anyone who makes music knows it’s very hard to recreate live …we might spend weeks in the studio getting something ‘just right’ …personally I don’t have an issue with using ‘playback’ …but …and it’s a big but …I always try and like to hear a live vocal ! There have been times when I’ve been at a gig , Gary’s included ….when a playback vocal comes in…. Million times louder and polished to within an inch of its life ..over a gig that did have a fairly ‘live’ feel up until that point , so although I don’t have an issue with it , and of course if someone is dancing and giving a full on stage show …no one can expect fully live vocals !!! But if artists re going to use playback…get the balance right! So it doesn’t come in and hit the audience like a sonic boom and then leave the rest of the performance feeling flat 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Great information and video. I Liked n saved you

I knew all the reasons why the gigs are the way they are. I fully understood and accept it. However. When it comes to live albums, that is where i struggle. Because sometimes i wonder if Gary has re sang the vocals in the studio when editing the recordings. Because sometimes, not all the time on all the live albums. Sometimes the vocals sound near if not actually the same as on the album. They sound too polished. If that makes sense. As stated by somebody else. One of the last truly sounding live Numan albums was White Noise. Its an awesome album. The live recordings from the Savage tour etc sound like the studio vocals. Im probably totally wrong like. But as a listener, thats how it sounds. At least to my ears anyway.

Some 'fans' tend to over analyse Gary and the live performance as if they're the greater authority. It's pitiful and tiresome. Why not just enjoy the experience of what Gary creates? Why does it matter so much how it arrives into your ears? And you're so on point Vaughn, many commentators on Numan fan sites speak from a supercilious position, bordering arrogant, and using their position to offend others in the group for simply supporting Gary. These types are regular mouthpieces on these group sites, proclaiming to be ardent fans, yet only like three albums over a two year period from over forty years ago, rather than just admitting they like a couple of albums by a guy forty years ago and nothing else since. Self indulgent sanctimony never sits well with the majority of us who simply want to enjoy, not just the past glories, but the excitement of what's still to come. On that front, Gary never fails to deliver, 'Intruder' being an astounding example of how this sixty something can continue to elevate his creativity to immeasurably greater heights.

David Brooks has a great video around his keyboard rig and all this stuff. Think you referred to it. All very clever stuff. It impressed me anyway! Other than that… 27:07…mad men???? ☺️

I saw him in April in Denver, though the mix for the arena wasn't great, it was an energetic and cool performance. Truth be told lots of processing goes on behind the scenes by most bands at this point. I love lots of his old stuff even through the 90s and 2000s his new stuff is good too but not my favorite as much. He still is entertaining and has a message to share, instead of just making music to make money like some old groups. I respect him as an artist and creator. Take him as he is.

I'd love to hear what Gary's contemporary, Mark Mothersbaugh has to say about this. He seems happy to discuss what they need to do to perform a DEVO song, especially when there are videos involved. Not to mention the odd timings of songs, like Jocko Homo with parts in 7/8. Click tracks are essential.

Vaughan. Have you ever thought about doing a sound design masterclass series video? As I think it would be awesome. I have created from scratch on other synthesizers the universe sound and beauty sound patch from the korg M1. Of also created the staccato heaven. Fantasia and soundtrack pack sales from the Roland d50 on other vsts. Have you ever designed your own sounds? Also like you to do a Gary Numan album review set of videos. Would this be something you'd be willing to do? Also could you do a video of your top 20 hardware synthesizers and your top 20 software synthesizers of all time? I would love to see what your choices would be. Due to the huge amount of channels and sound design layering of today's music tech and recording environment. It would be almost impossible for a band to play each and every part live. Especially now you've got multitimbral synths available for Logic. Ableton Live. Cubase. Fruity Loops. Along with all the other DAW's. Also especially with all the Drum programming the Gary does on his tracks. A lot of that will be impossible for the average drum player to play. Main stages of very good piece of software for preset management and sound layering. Mindstate is basically a synthesizer preset manager. You can call up any preset on any given software synthesizer and I do believe some hardware synthesizers as well within seconds. It is amazing what MIDI and USB connectivity as done for the live music act. You only need 2 or 3 keyboards. A couple of laptops and a couple of hardware synthesizers in a live set up these days. The laptops of the nerve Centre of all the sounds and drum programming. If you run something like logic or Ableton Live? All the processing and effects chains can be used on them in a live environment. You do not need a load of hardware racks that you use to need now we have all the software that can do the hard work for us. Unlike all the original analogue synthesizer Gear. The New Digital software synthesizers do not go out of tune. If you have an old polymoog. Minimoog. ARP Odyssey. Roland Jupiter 4 6 and 8? Dial used to go out of tune so quickly. When Gary did the Wembley concerts in 1981. He said these synthesizers at the time used to break down very quickly and go out of tune very quickly as well. I think temperature variations also was a factor of these synthesizers going out of tune. However today with the music technology we now have. This no longer happens and all the sounds of our stable and could be called up within seconds. So why would you need an army keyboard players nowadays? When it could all be done with mainstage and a d a w of your choice. No brainer the new 21st century music setup is a great idea and a much better way of doing it. These laptops and mainstage are a lot more capable than the whole rack of synthesizers that you used to have to use. Gary has said himself that his studio nowadays is the most capable he's ever had. Yet his studio nowadays consists of a mixer. Two big computer monitors. A kick ass computer underneath and a MIDI controller keyboard. He says all the processing and sound design is done within his logic setup. Along with all of his effects chain processing along with his automation programming. Why would you need a room full of outdated Gear? When his set up can deliver what it does. I think Numan's shows have become better live nowadays than they were when he started. A Numan gig today is 1000 times better than it was when he started. Vaughan. When are we going to get a tour of Ade Fenton's studio? Thank you for uploading this video. Pure.

Unrelated but your intro music almost sounds like his song 'Dance' which is by far one of his best songs

What a great and true musician.. will play both small and large venues. I had the pleasure to see his Berserker and Warriors concerts (a while ago 😉) How many musicians in history, can be credited with lauching an entire music genre..? Very, very few.. Numan is one of them.

The thing to remember is that most musicians *want* to be playing as much as possible and challenging themselves on stage.

Great explanation! I am from Zim , I spotted your southern African accent. Howzit!

Going to see him again in 3 weeks then Nine Inch Nails a few weeks later. Can’t wait.

"The people who make the comments are the people who know the least"...that about sums up social media!!!

Interesting video a lot of electronic stuff seems to be a mix of pre recorded and live stuff which is fine I think. Seen some goldfrapp live stuff though for instance and there seems to be so much non live singing and music that it kinda drowns out the live stuff. A different experience watching on RU-vid though and real life!

Most bands like this use some sort of backing track Who uses synths Duran Level 42 Omd Human league Howard jones tears for fears Etc etc Impossible to play sequencer's arpeggios Or layered with one keyboard player.

The original discussion on this matter was not if Gary was miming or not, he never has to my knowledge mimed to a crowd that were expecting a live gig, the issue was the post production done to DVD releases for example the latest live stream. No one can come on here or anywhere and say that the main vocal for the stream had no been overdubbed with another re-recorded to make it sound the way it did. Now again this is fine I hear you all, well most of you shout out, well f it is stated on the box in the credits of the DVD then yes it is fine, Before we paid for a live gig stream, if we had been told this was going to happen, then yes we had the choice then to say yes or no thanks. What got me slightly annoyed was the way the stream was advertised, first live gig of Intruder tracks, which yes the night it was recorded in the venue it was recorded it was. The vocal Gary sang on that take is the vocal I would have wanted to hear on the live stream. Putting the re-recorded vocal back in then leads to people watching thinking he is miming because the mic technique does not match up to the loudness of the vocals . Plus Gary has always said he is shit with the words but in the last how many DVD's never a word out of place even though there is video footage from phones on the night showing otherwise. So all I would ask for is a note on ay performance this technique is used just to say so. As for what Vaughan is addressing here, of course there will be backing tracks as we call them, David has 2 hands and even though he is very clever at what he does he could never play everything himself. Gary has used backing tracks since the beginning practically, I mean look at Micromusic. You can not seriously believe She's Got Claws is not the multitrack version with live drums and live vocals over the top. No sax player as such and no way Paul (RIP) played that fretless Mick Karn so cleverly crafted. Then moving on to Warriors, John Webb never played a note on the sax so this was all backing tracks, so they are not a new thing. I prefer hearing Gary's vocal as it was on the night, Berserker a great example, The Skin Mechanic and a few more.... So please Gary let us have the original live vocal version of the streaming gig to keep us all happy.... PS keep it up VG love watching your videos, although think you lost a bit credit with your Simon Cowell impressions mate. You were slagging that show for taking the mick out of people and then did it yourself..... just saying like

Gary is headlining at Bearded Theory festival 2023 Can't wait

I saw the show in MN tonight. I'm a musician and also a sound tech. Love Gary, and understand and agree with nearly everything you said. But there were many times he was noticeably out of the dynamic range of his mic, or the bass or guitar were obviously not playing. That said, it was still an amazing show. Ministry obviously used some backing tracks, too. But backing tracks are necessary for this type of music live like you explained.

it's what i call a 'Streamlined' live service , Cherry pick the best moments or you end up with a stage full of keyboard players (most of which will play about 5-10 notes a track) , also it's more cost effective that why

Hello Vaughn, great vid as always, a couple of things if I may, firstly I play 'Down In The Park' 2 tones up hahahahahahahaha, I guess its because I learnt it from a cassette of the Teletour. Secondly if you go back to the early days of Human League, OMD, etc they used to use a tape for certain backing tracks as well, its absolutely nothing new, modern tech has just given us the ability to make it far far easier, my band often used to use a DAT tape for efx and basslines and rhythms, now we also use modern tech, the people who scream 'fake' have absolutely no idea what goes on in the background. Keep up the good work.

I don't disagree with you one bit there, he is the best solo artist in the world, o.k. 👍🙂👍

I would love 8 Gary Newmans coming towards me 😂😂

Numan's backing band have always been great musicians. The doubters/haters should check out the unplugged songs they played together to verify this and actually how strong Numan's song writing skills are... As far as using backing tracks go, there's quite a few songs played at Wembley 81 that are almost 100% backing, ie, Aircrash Bureau, She's Got Claws, Cry, the Clock Said.... Completely off topic question, did Gary manage to have his Les Paul repaired again? Now, that really is a stage prop and I'd be staggered if there are actually any chords coming out of it as Gary strums it, lol.

Youve convinced me I was sketched out by the holding mic back but was pretty sure I never caught any slipups. Plus he had zero banter with the audience moments.

The band are (mostly) live, but the audience is pre-recorded? I put a question mark at the end so it's not stupid.

Kraftwerk in 1981, bringing their entire studio on tour, reached peak level in terms of performing electronic music live, in my opinion. Such masters and true musicians. Go watch their shows from 81; marvellous. That said, I do not understand the controversy in using backing tracks and clever samples of complex parts. This is the beauty of the genre and the whole point is to widen the range of used sounds; I honestly find traditional bass, guitar, drums setups just sonically boring to listen to. The electronic music instruments ARE played, in a way; through programming. There is as much virtuosity in excellent programming as in excellent guitar strumming. In my humble opinion.

I've seen at least one semi-recent live video of an older song where it was very clear that the original recording was playing in the background with little being added to it aside from his vocal. That I did not care for. But using backing tracks to do justice to songs I have no problem with. Did people complain about The Cocteau Twins' reel to reel that they used on stage?

Thank you for the very patient explanation Vaughn. Fair enough. The keyboardist is playing as much as possible - he's only got two hands. But SO much is subsequently on backing and the backing if fairly prominent in the mix. Problem is that GN doesn't change the backing very often. For instance, the backing that you illustrated for DITP has been used for ages - perhaps even the 90s? That's 25 years! The consequence of this is that it becomes boring. We've heard exactly the same thing, with absolutely no variation, for 25 years. Whereas for example if you listen to David Bowie live performances, every single tour the sound is completely different. You can tell which tour is which just by listening. You can even tell very noticeable differences in the same song performed at different performances on the same tour. Through his band improvising. You can tell the same with Nine Inch Nails. Superb musicians. It makes the live performance so much more interesting. I understand the reasons why GN is not the same set up as Bowie and NIN, so to compensate, maybe he should come up with a different arrangement for the backing at least for each tour. Otherwise I would be surprised whether anyone could tell any difference whatsoever between DITP live in 2011 and DITP live in 2021, and that's a pretty sad state of affairs!

Wow, excellent video. But Gary should have 2 keyboard players to keep it looking "real" and not pointing to backtracks. And never heard of Apples App. Thank you so much for that.

What a nice guy

If you want to see live numan music being totally played live then check out Tubeway Days, they are f**kin awesome.

In a word not much is actually played live. The reason being for each tour he has band rehearsals thar last a few days. No one can rehearse a full show in that amount of time. Therefore is stands to reason a lot is on 'tape' or is 'augmented'. A favourite word of Mr Webb is augmented ,he uses it a lot.

David Brooks does a superb in depth explanation with the actual kit here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IubwHpHI1YA.html . Well worth watching as its shows all the kit and goes to an additional level of demonstration and detail. Interested that he says they sampled the Quadrasynth as part of the ditching keyboards before the move to the US - though my understanding is that GN did take one to the US as he likes it as a controller. I recently got a 'Quadrasynth Plus' for £50 from a charity shop so was well pleased with that!

I saw Madonna at Wembley stadium and I guess 90% of the show was playback and when she sang live it was totally out of tune.

Hello VG !!!🤗😍😘😄😃💝💝

This video explains a lot of things regarding live vocals. I did have my doubts. I'm still not entirely convinced about the vocals on the Skaparis Orchestra shows. And this is coming from someone who has seen Gary live hundreds of times. Just my opinon and I hope I am wrong.

I spent ages trying to explain doubling up vocals to some morons on FB … It creates a specific almost phasing effect that can’t be replicated live without adding a track alongside the live vocal.. if he didn’t add the vocal tracks people would moan that it “didn’t sound like the record” . I have been close enough to the stage to actually hear his voice coming from the stage (I was beyond the line array). In the modern day live setting tracks and loops are used ALL the time! As for analogue synths… they go out of tune so badly..

Great video & explanation there Vaughn, I must admit it always makes me laugh & wonder at the mentality of some people when they turn round & MOAN that "this band" (or the this other group) aren't playing & singing every note of the concert .... OF COURSE they're NOT ... songs nowadays are so layered that to play everything "LIVE" you'd need (as you point out in this video) a band of over a dozen people, well, hang on a second .... try touring with that many people, paying wages, food, travel, accommodation for them all, plus all of the instruments for them to play their part ... is it any wonder Gary rarely (if ever) made any profit from his tours back when he started ? And in this day & age (again, as you point out) why not make use of the technology to do the "grunt work" & leave the musicians & singers to do the "special" bits.

This is the David Brooks video I mentioned below ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IubwHpHI1YA.html

That was fucking brilliant mate.