Live PA - Degree of "liveness"

Degree of "liveness"

A topic of discussion amongst listeners, critics, and artists themselves is to what degree a performance is actually "live". A possible determining factor could be the degree to which the performing artist has real-time control over individual elements of the final musical output. Using this criterion, an artist who mimicks the playing of instruments whilst simply playing a CD or stereo audio track, might not be considered particularly "live" by some. On the far opposite end of the spectrum, some artists choose to take only an idea or motif (e.g. a bassline, rhythm pattern, or chord progression), realize it from scratch with electronic instruments on-the-spot, and then build upon it, modify it, and continue in this way for the entire performance. This requires a degree of discipline and creativity to achieve.

Some might argue that the visual aspect of a performance would be sufficient to call it "live". Codifying what defines "live" and what does not has been an ongoing topic of debate for many years. To date, nobody has successfully created a definition with which everyone involved seems satisfied.