Retired professor of Sound Engineering here. I totally agree with your analysis. Both “live” performances used the exact same recording of the vocals. This is not technically debatable.

As a former musician can say he's 100% correct. And yes, it's a big deal that such a big band deceive people. It also hursts the industry. If you wanna watch real musicians go watch local bands!

My friend, you have no need to feel bad for exposing this. You are an honorable musician and we appreciate your knowledge. A fellow musician

Don Henley is already preparing to lip-sync his rebuttal to this -- but first he needs to have it pitch-corrected.

The hilarious thing is that the audience's performance is more real than Henley's.

I continue to be glad that I came of age in the 1970s when concerts were wonderful REAL experiences. And affordable.

For anyone to debate Fil’s analysis is laughable. He is on target and completely honest about the performance by the Eagles.

I am starting to wonder if my Alvin and the Chipmunks records might not actually be real chipmunks.

Fil has always been truthful and a honest guy! Thats one reason i love watching him ! Fil is awesome!!!!🤘

I think the bottom line is: If you go to a live show, you wanna hear a live show.

I’m an electronics-guy and musician. I completely understood your first video. But I was also in the legal field for decades. I likened this “duplication of voice analysis” to handwritten signatures. I busted one company for fraud because they pulled a signature from the web and “pasted” it in a contract. The “overlays” were IDENTICAL. You can’t sign your signature EXACTLY the same. Small variances are noticeable to the trained eye. Great work, Fil.

It was Thursday, June 16, 1966. I was only 14 years old and went to see the Dave Clark Five at Ty Cobb stadium in Endicott NY. They were very loud, the singing and the instrumentation were flawless. The screaming girls were at times deafening. Two days later I was at another event where I was helping with the public announcing. It was a boating event and did not include live performances but the sound system was used to broadcast announcements for the marina at Geneva, NY. The audio engineer was Clair Yeager, and he told me that I was using the exact same microphone Dave Clark had used 2 days earlier in Endicott. Clair was the one who set up the stage at Ty Cobb Stadium. Most of the sound system was his. Clair and my dad were very good friends and I was fascinated with audio equipment. Anyhow, I talked with Mr. Yeager about the details of the DC5 show. He told me that back stage they had 2 open reel decks. One deck had all the music pre recorded and the other deck was a loop of girls screaming. A tech who traveled with the DC5 was at a sound desk and he controlled the music playback deck, the mute switches on vocal microphones, and would ride the fader of the scream loop to keep it varied. Nothing in that show was live except for the chatting between songs. Even though I was only 14 at the time, I knew enough about stage volume as a guitar player to know that guitars are were too difficult to control without feedback at that volume and I was already suspicious that something was not as it appeared.

People now just get angry at other people for the crime of possessing knowledge about something they love that they themselves don't possess, and further, would never bother to learn. So don't even bother with these haters. I love your channel and I've learned a crazy amount about sound engineering from it. Please continue!

I understood the first time, & I'm gutted. I saw the Eagles in '22. I can't help thinking now, there's a reason why it was as good as it was. 🙁

Great work! It is clear that Don Henley was still singing in 2015 timeframe. Anybody who thinks he restored his voice to near perfection over the past 10 years is delusional.

You may be the most patient KZfaqr of all time.

There's no need to explain it again, Fil - your original video was very in-depth and clear.

Thank you for discussing the facts without making it personal. You’re just reading & interpreting the information with civility & grace. 🤩🤓🤘

paying concert ticket prices to sit and listen to recordings is just criminal.

You explained it perfectly the first time. And now a second. It's pretty obvious we pay $100s ($1000s?) of dollars to hear a recorded track, but still see the real person on stage.

I went to an Eagles concert a few years ago with my wife. I said to her that it was just like listening to a CD, now I know why!

As a man who used to repair two way radios and examined many waves using oscilloscopes I can attest the only way you can have two duplicate waves is when they are synthetic, meaning it was either created by a tone generator / oscillator or a recording. Keep up the good work Fil.

I am every time happier that my band is 100% live playing. All and everything we do on stage is live, from vocals to keys (me 🙂). We don't have even a 0,00001% of the followers of The Eagles but, well, we are not cheating and our public values that!

Whether a performance is good, mediocre, or bad it should still be genuine in a live performance. Some "artists" have made a lot of money lip-synching their way through concert tours repeatedly. There is a difference between a "concert" and a "show", and "live and in-person" should be changed to "singing live". Your analysis is purely educational observation, not criticism. Thanks again, Fil!

Milli Vanilli Henley. I saw Aerosmith about 22 years ago and when Steven Tyler introduced the bamd he made a point of saying that an additional guy supplimenting the band was "singing his ass off" because maybe he could hit some of those high notes that Tyler couldn't anymore. Did i feel cheated? No. It was a whole band performance with credit where credit is due.

Huge respect to you Fil for exposing this. Zero respect to Henley, his reputation is in the bin.

Expert analysis! Never make apology for exposing deception or fraud! Much respect!

Recordings and performances that have been pitch corrected etc should be forced to advertise the fact.

With the money they charge for a show they should be ashamed to perform. Great video Fil as usual. I think this one explains it quickly and easily!

I think it's extremely important that you've identified this, Fil. I did a little searching on this subject, and I guess I must be very naive because I was reading that it's not that uncommon to do this these days. Somewhere someone wrote, "Notice how they don't advertise 'live and in concert' anymore." Then I guess people who saw your analysis went and studied Eagles videos because I also found a couple of videos made just this past week showing the Eagles lip-syncing at their concerts. I still think that the average concert-goer isn't aware at all that this may be done. I've seen plenty of clearly live concerts by some of my old favorites who can't always hit the notes or remember the words. But that's real! That's what makes a live concert unique and wonderful and human! Why should we pay exorbitant ticket prices to hear recordings we can listen to at home for free?

Congrats Fil you blew up the internet. Two additional videos on this topic have popped up in my feed; one referencing you specifically. Another gives a close-up analysis of Don and Joe's position while singing into the mic. Strange that their voices don't change when they pull back from an inch away to a foot away. Zero drop-off in volume, haha.

In the last few years, I attended concerts by Brian Wilson and friends, and Felix Cavaliere and friends, both of which featured their respective bands' classic hits. In both concerts, many of the vocal parts originally sung by the headliners were taken by other people in the current bands, hired explicitly for that purpose. No one in the audience objected, to my knowledge. We got to hear good live performances of beloved songs, overseen by the composers who were there, sang parts they could still sing, and talked to the audiences. Why other classic bands don't also do this is beyond me.

Hello, everyone - what I'd like to explain is the reason Fil has a big audience, a large group of fans, and a dedicated team of patrons. It is because we all love music! Great music is life-enhancing, and Fil is immensely talented in creating music, singing, production, performance, human biology, etc. Fil has nothing to prove. His analysis is robust and scientific, using digital technology, and he is simply stating the truth without judgment. It's important to respect performers who do many things at once - singing, dancing, playing, performing and entertaining - often for a couple of hours, and possibly with nerves too. It's a lot to ask, and therefore, backing tracks and vocal recordings are often used and Fil has proved it here. Unfortunately the audience often buys expensive tickets believing it is totally live. We just need some honesty and respect for the difficult craft of live performances so that we all know what we are paying for. I would truly respect any artist who openly stated their performance was supported in this way. It is honourable and respectful to fans and still wonderfully pleasurable to watch. As AI becomes more advanced and prevalent, this is a timely issue. We cannot always believe what we hear.

Anyone who is on the fence or has doubts about your motion should look at other videos you have done. You are obviously a massive fan of almost all music. You can't hide your admiration for many of the acts you annalise. It's actually what keeps me coming back to your channel. I see you in awe of them at times. Like you I am a massive fan of the Eagles. I have seen them live twice. What they don't seem to realise is that most people would rather see a live band not being perfect all of the time rather than a perfect recording. Ignore the nay sayers and keep up the great work. I truly love to see you smile in admiration at the artists you cover on the channel

I saw Jethro Tull in the 70s and Ian Anderson in the 2000s. He didn't cheat, he hired a guy to hit the high notes. Props to him for not cheating.

I've been to a few Eagles shows over the last 20 years. Always thought they sounded so incredible. After seeing your last couple of analysis videos, I feel completely ripped off by those concert experiences. It's like an athlete taking steroids. Cheating...is cheating.

I think Freddie Mercury would LOVE you, and he'd never scam his audience. Keep going, Fil! Love you!

I understood the first time. No matter how good a singer is, how many times they've sang something it's literally impossible for the human voice not to have variations every single time.

Your work is paying off in a big way. I soured on the Eagles years ago so this does not come as a total surprise to me. The picture that is forming in the publics eye after this scandal will be hard to recover from. Can't wait to watch the fallout from this mess. What a rip off.

When Elvis Costello was inducted into the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame, a reporter suggested there were too many musicians in the Hall of Fame. Elvis said, “well if it’s too full, I’d be happy to leave. As long as Mr. Henley comes with me.”

I studied audio for years, performed on stage in bands, did audio engineering and he is 100% correct about his audio analysis. Even when I would double track vocals and do the 2nd take only 1 minute after doing the 1st take and even trying to sing the exact same all without changing any settings, the 2 vocal takes would STILL not be the EXACT same.

Your test (with the trick question) and singing the same note four times really helps to demonstrate that two different vocals will never look identical on the monitoring software.

I remember a live concert of Joe Cocker in Warschau Poland, which made me more appreciative of him as a person and musician. Apparently everybody was waiting for the high C (?) in Little Help. Joe was clearly adding a few repetitions of the preceding strofe in as in an aborted plain landing. In one of them the note was struck by somebody in the public. And finally Joe also tried and did not quite succeed. I realized this being his iconic blessing/curse combo 40 years after Woodstock. I also appreciated him as a person, not shying away and giving us his best in an otherwise great live concert. Thanks Joe.

Saw Adele start a song on the Grammys (s) she didn't like the start and stopped the song and had them start ahain. That's a live performance! I actually like her live more than recorded. I've heard a lot of older singers who can't hit the notes they used to, but it was okay. I loved the effort and truth. Keep on it, Fil!

Fil, absolutely excellent analysis! I completely understand exactly what you are showing us ! If anyone doubts your analytical skills now, then it is simply that they refuse to accept the proof and the truth ! What a great educator you are ! Well done,Fil💜

Don Felder should buy front row tickets and then sue the Eagles for lip syncing.

I have a friend that had told me the best show he had ever heard was The Eagles, because they spend so much time on set up… hes a very smart person, very nice and honest and also a professional musician..i dont have the heart to tell him

I'm glad you've made these videos. The Eagles are notoriously litigious, so you can expect attorney letters any minute. But the truth is on your side.

Fil, thank you ever so much for educating the public on appreciating music, and learning why music sounds the way it does. Nobody does it better! Now we know why "live" music sounds so good .... 😁

I went off the Eagles when Don Henley and his army of copyright strikers blocked my cover of one of his songs on my tiny KZfaq channel. In about 17 yrs of uploading covers it was only The Eagles and Supertramp I've ever had outright blocked. He is welcome to do so, however as hobbyist musician turns me off. on the positive side taking them out of my listening opened me up to finding many new and exciting independent artists ...

I think you proved your point sufficiently ......... what a slap in the face to the fans.....

Thank you for posting this explanation of how no 2 vocals can be the same, due to the imperfections of the vibrations of our vocal cords. Some fans who didn't understand this before are now much better informed by your video. If anyone still thinks that Don Henley is truly singing live, they are merely in denial now.

Very good vocal illustration. I thought your first video was clear, but this should eliminate any doubt. I'm not an Eagles fan, but if I was a fan and paid a ton of money for a ticket for this, I'd be pretty annoyed.

Great explanation and demonstration. Thank you, Fil. 🎼🎸🤘

As always, detailed observations and ethical questions raised. I know people's voices decline with age and that is fine. Miming to old recordings and passing them off at expensive "concerts" as live is pure bogus. Keep up the good work, Fil, I have been learning from you for several years now and aporeciate your professionalism.

Back in '94, on the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" concert recording, many of the vocals were "fixed" in post-production; not with pitch correction but by going into the studio after the fact and re-recording some of the vocals. How do I know this? I heard tapes of the raw concert audio. I'm a recording engineer who is very familiar with all the techniques in use today, as well what was done back in the day. You are 100% correct in your analysis.

There are so many variables, but one constant is Fil's integrity. I actually liked the videos before all of the on-screen software displays. I continue to watch just because of the passion.

Keep up the superb work! They're discussing your videos over on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum, too, under the title "eagles-miming-video."

The Colombo of music!❤

The good thing about using vocal tracks when Henley dies his replacement will sound just like him.

You’re an amazing teacher, Fil, and this was a fabulous way to explain that facts are facts, not opinion.

Having watched the last video I cannot imagine how anyone could believe the vocal track wasn't identical in both performances.

Fil I have been watching you for a few years now. I’ve enjoyed your content and respect you always pay to the artist. As you have shown sadly we are being sold a bill of goods. I guess to some degree we can’t expect that from a recording studio but now it’s being applied to live shows as well. And as you point out most times needlessly. Keep up the good work!

As a fellow Canadian, I can assure you that Neil Young never uses auto tone or lip sync. Everyone of his live performances are out of tone, off key and completely random to the music

In my humble opinion after Don Felder left the Eagles were never the same

Through all the years and their ups and downs, The Eagles are my favorite band hands down. I’ve seen them live 7 times including 4 in the past couple of years. I was always amazed how Henley’s voice was so strong and consistent during each performance and I kind of wondered and questioned how that could happen especially at his age. Sadly now, I believe I have my answer. I have always throughly enjoyed their shows in an arena setting and I guess I’d rather have great vocals than bad or “off” ones, but I have certainly forked out a lot of money (including for travel) and I’m incredibly disappointed if this is all true, which the evidence clearly shows that it is.

A giant clue has been in the public domain for 20+ years. "after the band's breakup in 1980. Henley was asked in an interview about when the band would play together again, to which he responded "when Hell freezes over" - and then they released a "live" album called Hell Freezes over. So much material for stand up comics. Thanks Fil.

I started using wave editors and pitch GUIs in 1994 and have ever since. Pro FOH sound for 10 years, recorded band projects, life long player etc. Without belaboring the point, this is 100% correct. Just the time lining up so on the grid together as a human vocal in amplitude and pitch envelope precisely is not human it's reproduction, full stop. If you're not grasping what this software is showing you and he rephrased 8 ways from sunday to illustrative effect, you're just not going to. You could try another follow-up video with the results of ambience removal restoration tools from the best fan submission samples if the views are good but that might be just getting snarky at this point ;)

Thanks Fil. The Eagles were the band that first got me into classic rock so I can sympathize with people not wanting to believe its true. But it appears to be true, the eagles don't sing desperado live anymore.

The problem with bands lip syncing on some of their songs (even when it's only the chorus or only high part of some songs), is that it makes you wonder when ELSE are they lip syncing, and what is real and what isn't. It also makes you wonder when the band started doing this. Once they fall into the lip sync rabbit hole, you may as well just assume EVERY part could be lip synced at any time, depending upon whether someone has a sore throat that night or whatever. After all, there's big money involved. It should be illegal to lip sync without disclosing it.

Thank you again for trying to clarify for some people who were skeptical. I got it on your first voice “forensic” and this time with four different concert vocals it should be crystal clear.

Thank you for this clarifying video. I have to admit that, although I agree with your analysis most of the time, I wasn't convinced that you were correct after watching the first Eagles video. However, with this follow up video, I fully understand what you are saying, and I agree 100%. Thank you for everything you do, and I will continue to watch/enjoy your videos!

I am dying to hear Don Henley’s response to your analysis. Great work

Fil, you are incredible. Music class has never been so worthwhile and fun. Love your detail love you and everything you have done to increase my life long love and appreciation of music.💛🎶

Fil the most awesome expert and humble humanitarian.

Is it just me that finds it amusing that the song being analysed is Desperado?

I would say that the first part of the 4 waveforms match as well, they are just are lower volume and the varying audio quality caused more drop outs. But, when it goes high in one, it goes high on all of them at the same time. When it goes low in one, it goes low in all of them at the same time. There is just more distortion, but they are still clearly the same performance, just not quite as obvious as the louder parts. Maybe harder for someone who doesn't understand this stuff, but all the same performance all the way through. Your analysis is spot on IMO. Out of curiosity, I went to the eagles site to look at ticket prices, and I have to say they are far higher than I expected. If a class action forms, it will not end well for mr h and co. Hopefully a very negative legal outcome from such a case will cause changes in the industry to either stop these shenanigans or at least require them to let you know before you buy a ticket, that there will be lipsyncing, so a consumer can make an informed choice whether they want to pay to see something that isn't entirely live.

I played the three versions to a pitch-finding app. It was interesting and reassuring to see how all three corresponded exactly with yours. What a time to be alive!

You never have to justify the truth👍🏼

I cannot WAIT for Henley's response to this! That is, if he even responds at all. Will his ego allow him to admit that he's been miming, or will he deny it all? Maybe he'll just stay quiet, hoping it will all blow over. Good luck with that, Donnie. Will he apologize to his fans? I'm not holding my breath on that last one.

Oh man, control freak Don Henley ain't gonna like all this close scrutiny.

You have my condolences for having to listen to this over and over. I hope you aren’t hearing the song in your sleep.

What I don't understand is how your videos are still up and how you are still alive. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad you are. Don Henley is a known beast about anything and everything Eagles on youtube, and the Internet in general. If something happens to you, we'll know it wasn't an accident or suicide. I'm only half kidding.

If I payed the amount asked, to watch a LIVE performance...only to get lip syncing, I would be pretty pissed off. That's ridiculous... Thank you Fil, you couldn't be any clearer on this subject! I myself, love transparency, and honesty! Clearly the "Eagles" are not about that. Again, great video!🌷

You tapped into some incredible truth Fil. This is huge. Its going to be extremely interesting to see what all becomes of all this. And you did it with knowledge and honesty.

I watched your video from last week and reposted it so people are aware. I LOVE that you clarified here by breaking it down even further. No one can possibly refute this.

Again, thanks for more data driven analysis. As a musician, I totally understand these graphs showing the “fingerprints” of the recordings. As plain as the nose on my face (and I do have a big nose), it’s the same recording. Mr H must be miming/lip syncing. Good detective work.

A little story you might know about Randy Meisner. When on his final tour with The Eagles he’d been unwell for several days (his story) partying heavily (Eagles story) and refused to sing Take it to the Limit as he couldn’t reach the high note at the end that the fans loved so much. Great pressure was put on him to sing it and a row broke out. As a result Randy left The Eagles. (As told by Glen Frey disparaging in their tour documentary)

Hi Fil, This was an extraordinarily detailed video. Loved the trick “held note” question. Very interactive… and a good way to really test the/your ear. I think for me the layering of seeing the vocals really sealed DH’s fate here in these performances. But the miming was also pretty clear in the first Eagles analysis video you did of these performances. You are a Super Sleuth and an amazing teacher! Thanks for a great learning experience. Debbie☮️

The technology made avaliable to artists to precisely correct vocal recordings is now being used to show the paying fan that what you are buying is an inserted vocal recording. Reminds me of an old commercial with Ella Fitzgerald, posing the question..."Is it live, or is it Memorex?" Thanks Fil👍

Musician and home sound recordist here. As much as it hurts to accept it, you are absolutely right: those recordings are undeniably one and the same. I saw them perform at Earls Court back in 2001 and I hope he was still singing live then! But, on another note, since Mr Henley's people had my instrumental cover of 'Boys of Summer' taken down a year ago and YT slapped a 90-day copyright strike on my channel, I am pleased that he's been exposed as a fraud.

I'm glad your sticking to your guns on this. I love the Eagles but I'm not paying those ticket prices even if the vocals were live. They are touring with Steely Dan whom I love as well. I can tell you that Donald Fagans vocals are live. He doesn't suffer from the same avarice that Don Henley has, sad to say. Thank you for your content, Fil

7:20 it was closer to the second. Good trick question.

On their last Aussie tour my ears told me it was just to right to be right. My brother would not be convinced.

Hey Fil, you are spot on. I have been in music engineering, production, broadcasting and concert promotion for going on 50 years and so many enhancements were and are always used to sweetin' up the audio to present a package to sell to the masses.

Very clever, Fil. The quiz with you holding the note for the third time was a perfect way of getting your point across! 👌

This couldn't be any clearer. Very well explained and easy to understand. I still like the Eagles and I respect this honest analysis.

Its crazy that someone even noticed this to bring it to you, awesome job for catching it!!!!

Remarkable. I watched both of your videos on this topic. Remarkable. I'd be irked if I paid more than a buck to see that song performed & then found out it was bogus.

You've opened a can of worms with this ... which is rather excellent ... and also about time someone (as in you Fil) who's credible explaining the process.