Ken Tamplin isn't who we thought

[Mountain Man]

I've been an admirer of Ken Tamplin for quite a long time and used to regard him as one of the few real-deal, no BS vocal coaches on YouTube, where "The proof is in the singing," as he always likes to say. Well, recently, a number of definitive analyses of his "live" performances have been making the round on YouTube, and it seems the guy has actually been faking it for decades.

First, there's Fil who performs under the name Wings of Pegasus who has made a name for himself doing objective, in-depth breakdowns of recordings and live performances to see if they're live, or if there's trickery, and he was recently asked to take a look at some of Ken Tamplin's videos. What he discovered is that in a 2020 live stream, and a 2024 concert, Ken lip synced to a track from an album he released in 1990. The evidence is undeniable:

https://youtu.be/jZCYAhMA_ak?si=nMKBocDwrSOpfwBV
https://youtu.be/mZWMwmzlhkg?si=a-C-nsyZ2nle_1l1

This was followed up by a fellow named Marc Ajax who discovered that Ken has been doing this sort of thing since at least 1989 where he and his band played "live" at Cornerstone but, in fact, were just miming to an album track:

https://youtu.be/fg58ajNVU7Y?si=L4gMVWMvnL_84lVe

And if you've ever watched any of Ken's YouTube videos, you might notice that comments are nothing but fawning praise. There's a reason for that: he, or more likely his PR team, actively deletes any negative comments, even if it's only polite mild criticism. And on videos by others who are critical of Ken or his singing course, you'll often find numerous comments that all say almost exactly the same thing, and in some cases, those comments have been traced back to accounts that Ken owns. In other cases, Ken has threatened legal action and filed dubious copyright claims against videos that say anything negative about his singing course. And then there are the Reddit users who post glowing commentary in defense of Ken, and then never post anything else ever again.

His behavior is bad enough in of itself, but what makes it worse is that he openly identifies as a Christian. Needless to say, my respect for Ken is pretty much gone at this point.

[Dan]

I always thought something was up with that guy, the videos he puts up a definitely auto-tuned . The comments section.... never any push back.

[Mountain Man]

Ken responded in a video posted to his own channel, and all he did was deny, deny, deny without directly addressing any of the evidence proving he lip synced. He then admitted that he does use backing tracks in concert but then claims that it's okay because everybody does it. You can see him in all of his smarmy, manipulative glory here:

https://youtu.be/ElD5SHiIQmM?si=fVSPq-mGMZvFPA1X

Then in a comment that has since been deleted, he let slip that the backing tracks actually did include lead vocals, but he insists that he was really singing all the high notes, too:

https://imgur.com/a/ken-tamplin-comment-reply-8baUla1

[Mountain Man]

Fil just posted a follow-up video in response to Ken's:

https://youtu.be/FhM-wrP9PpQ?si=vcOYeG3y7VQbiZoY

He doesn't have much new to say about Ken's lip syncing which was definitively covered in the first two videos, but he does point out that Ken has been deleting comments and videos from his own channel, presumably to suppress the evidence that other people have used to bust him.

Fil concludes by taking a look at two more of Ken's videos where he claims to demonstrate that he can sing and play guitar at the same time, but as you've probably guessed, he's just miming to an album track, and in one instance, you can hear a note that the guitar he's holding can't produce because the neck is too short!

The shame of it is, Ken just released a new four CD boxset of remastered tracks going back to his days with Shout plus 22 new songs, which I would have jumped at before this mess came to light. Now, I'm not so sure I want to support him. The irony is that some of the secular artists I listen to have likely done worse than lie about lip syncing, so perhaps I'm being hypocritical.

[Dan]

Wow, it was lead backing tracks for 30+ years what a grifter. His follow up videos have all the charm of a used car sales man.

[brenthandy]

I'm going to step in it.

That Fil dude gets some tech stuff wrong. You can use any of the top auto-tuning plug-ins and none of them will analyze the same piece of music the same way twice.

When it comes to lining up vocals, he needs to focus on matching audio and then doing a polarity flip on one to see what remains. You can't take concert video footage and compare audio tracks to it, and point a finger when the audio doesn't match what is caught on camera. What is caught on camera is real-time. The audio through the PA system is not real-time. There is latency induced by the round trip from analog to digital and back. Some of those plug-ins the engineers use in live sound can have HUGE processor-induced latency. Then, all of the outputs have to be delay compensated so everything leaves the mixing platform at the same time. They also delay audio 9 frames or more to match the IMAG on the large LED walls, screens, etc. So, yeah. Sometimes, audio is not going to match what is captured with a phone.

The Shout concert is no different than what 99.9 of touring pop acts are doing. There is a ducker on the mic of most singers, allowing the singer to override a vocal track, so when they are doing their dancing/posing/running in the wind, they can mouth the words and the tracks will be there. It sucks, but this is the new norm. In the case of Ken, you can hear him take a lower part while his tracks are playing in the background. I would rather have this happen than Ken completely lip-sync. He was still singing. The rest of those old farts never have been able to sing like the record live on stage. He has always had backing tracks. I think you get what you have always had and it's still a good show if you can tolerate the posing and stuff.

Ken still has some pipes. He knows how to keep them in shape. He is an acquired taste. I have spoken with him only a few times. He has the mindset of a winner who works hard. He has lots of singers as proof of his knowledge.

[Mountain Man]

I'm not sure you understand the technique Fil uses to compare audio tracks. It's pitch detection software, and in the case of Ken's live performance versus the studio track, it's a perfect match to the thousandth of a second which proves it's the same audio: Ken was lip syncing to a studio track during a live performance. Fil even mentioned the fact that Ken was singing live for some of the lower parts but then lip synched the high parts.

The real problem, though, is that Ken lied about it, claimed it was all live when it clearly wasn't, and he continues to lie and delete any comments from his videos that are even mildly critical. He also blatantly lip syncs to pre-recorded tracks for his demonstration videos, in at least one case lip syncing to a track directly from one of his early 90s albums (which, incidentally, is the same track he used in concert), but he lies about those videos, too, and claims they're all live.

As for his students, he only ever features attractive young women with low cut tops who seductively preen for the camera, and I assume they're lip syncing, too, just like Ken, in order to deliver a perfect "performance"

Then there's Ken's official biography on his website in which he claims he was asked to sing for numerous super groups, including Journey, INXS, the Doobie Brothers, Motley Crue, and others. Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx was asked about it once and said he had never even heard of Ken Tamplin, and I suspect the other groups would say the same.

So there's a lot of phoniness about the guy.

[brent]

Ken's not lying, though. He was still singing, just not the lead part. I listened on a JBL soundbar and could easily tell when he sang harmony. His neck bulges differently when he is going to head voice.

He has been using the same backing tracks forever. The other guys may be singing but aren't far up in the mix. But they sure aren't singing all of the bazillions of tracks Ken sang in the studio.

[Mountain Man]

Ken's not lying, though. He was still singing, just not the lead part. I listened on a JBL soundbar and could easily tell when he sang harmony. His neck bulges differently when he is going to head voice.

He has been using the same backing tracks forever. The other guys may be singing but aren't far up in the mix. But they sure aren't singing all of the bazillions of tracks Ken sang in the studio.

He claimed he was singing the lead part when he was really lip syncing to a track from a 1990 studio album. So, yes, he did lie. He also lip synched to that same track during a live stream but presented it as if he was singing extemporaneously. That was also a lie.

His whole schtick is that with his instruction, you can learn how to maintain your singing power and range for a lifetime, but then he shows these frankly fraudulent videos as proof. Let's put it this way: if there was any truth to his claims, then he wouldn't have to use "backing tracks" with lead vocals recorded decades ago.