None of that is applicable to this situation, though. James is very clearly singing along. The harmonizer is just there where it is on the albums. It's not like the harmonizer is singing the hard parts for him or something. He actually seems to be using it on parts that are probably really easy to sing, just to make them stick out more. Honestly, this harmonizer is so much better than that phaser effect James was using to fill out his voice on the last two tours.
Oh, I know. But the topic kind of got expanded into those other areas, so I was just giving my two cents. Again, I have no problem with James or any other singer either using a harmonizer or (more likely here), a backing track.
...although I guess neither of these scenarios take into account a situation where you have a singer that has an unexpected voice issue and can't sing. Do you cancel the show, go on and fake it to a backing track, or go on and sound horrible? I don't know what the right answer is.
Go on and sound horrible. Apologize profusely. Come back at the end of the tour for a free makeup show. I've seen it happen several times. The fans don't get let down the day of a show they've been waiting months for. They get to see a special show with the band trying to make up for a rotten singer. They get to see a second show later with all the stops pulled out.
Yeah, that sounds about right for an established band that can do that. But I was more indirectly thinking of myself, since as of the time I posted that first post, my voice was completely gone and I was having violent coughing fits, and I am set to do a show in about 7 hours.
I'm very against anything being non-live, except for maybe some non-vocal sound effects triggered by Jordan (thunderclaps for example). The simple reason is that that kind of crap is what you expect from flavor-of-the-week pop bands and smutty teenage "singers", not talented professional rock bands.
Has you bothered you when, in the past, Dream Theater has had the beginning of songs like Metropolis, New Millennium, etc. completely triggered, instead of playing them live?
Kev, I side with you, but since you mentioned the beginning of Metropolis, I'll add two more cents to that topic as well: Does it bother me that they don't play the intro live? Nope. Do I wish they
would play it live instead of sampling it? Absolutely.