Live Earth sound? yikes

[Absolute]

Well now that they used 6 million gallons of gasoline and 4 billion kilowatts to tell us to save energy by using a new lightbulb..hahaha

Maybe someone could do lowmid cut on the Live earth mix

anyone hear this?

The lead instruments sound good but the the songs themselves have no punch whatsoever. very sad

Its getting better with Lenny Kravitz band but the last 4 bands I saw were terrible mixes

[lpkyer]

it sounds awful. highly undefined.

[Absolute]

Originally Posted by lpkyer

it sounds awful. highly undefined.

Yeah..thats a good way to describe it

Im sure the crowd's perspective isnt that bad and I know its not an easy job in such a big place

But you could fix the TV stereo mix in a heartbeat and considering all these great bands are putting out great perfomances the least they could do is give them a sound they deserve

I havent heard one delay and that is a very important element in a live mix

Any live engineers or broadcast Vets have an opinion on what the problem is?

[brandonmangrum77]

Garth Brooks doesn't know how to sing into a mic, that's for sure.

[theblue1]

I don't know who it was I saw but it was such a soulless performance, some rocker chick in front of a bunch of stiff looking musicians separated by thirty or forty feet... the music was some kind of drony, boring alt rock but they had a cellist and a trombonist, sawing and blowing away and I'll be damned if I had any clue where they were in the mix...


Anyhow... what I find problematic with this stuff is that people acutally think it accomplishes something significant beyond reviving a few sagging careers and lining the pockets of the special events industry...


If you want your money to go green -- give it to someone who is doing actual work to help mitigate the damage we've done and continue to do to the planet -- not to the army of special event professioanals and "fundraisers" who'll be taking home some very respectable bank -- because, after all... they're professionals...

[warhead]

The Police were just on, I don't know man I think the biggest issue with them was that there's nobody backing them so it sounds kind of empty. For 3 guys though, still gotta give them props.

Dave Matthews sucked in my opinion, didn't seem into the performance at all.

War

[joeq]

how can anyone quibble about a show that gave us Madonna doing a feedback solo on her guitar, while an assistant in a suit and tie played with the amp's controls?

[picksail]

Originally Posted by brandonmangrum77

Garth Brooks doesn't know how to sing into a mic, that's for sure.

Yet, he's the third largest selling artist in history.

[santibanks]

Even genesis sounded like crap at wembley and Ive been at their recent concerts a couple of times, So I know they should sound perfect...

Hypocrite stuff...

[Whitecat]

The TV mix on the BBC was rubbish. Worse than last week's Diana concert, which at parts was stunningly bad-sounding as well.

Even worse, I think the BBC's coverage was absolutely terrible - if I had the power, I'd fire the director.

They weren't showing full sets of the bands in the UK, instead cutting away to VTs of other cities - so we only saw two songs from Spinal Tap, and then they decided it was more important to show Rhianna in Japan, or wherever she was. They cut back to the last 20 seconds or so of Spinal Tap's last song (with all the bass players on stage, it looked to be amazingly amusing), but that was all we got.

When Metallica was on they cut halfway into Sad But True and cut away to some other rubbish after The Unforgiven.

They cut away from the Beastie Boys after two songs.

The song titles that appeared on screen were frequently mis-timed, frequently outright wrong ('Sure Shot' appeared as the Beastie Boys started playing 'So Whatcha Want,' this is just one example), and often they were missing the strap graphics.

Camerapeople just seemed to be asleep sometimes - during the post-Metallica interview with Lars Ulrich the camera op was focused over their heads on a distant jib for at least a full couple of minutes before they pulled back and actually showed Lars and Edith (the interviewer).

Worst concert I've ever seen broadcast, both visually and sonically. Live 8 had it way more together.

[Chrizcol]

YouTube - Ray Of Light - Madonna - Live Earth

For anyone interested...

Originally Posted by joeq

how can anyone quibble about a show that gave us Madonna doing a feedback solo on her guitar, while an assistant in a suit and tie played with the amp's controls?

We really have no idea how it sounded in front of the stage.

Realistically there were several different companies employed and I can not imagine they all suck.

I suspect nobody wanted to shell out money to rent a splitter and someone to mix for TV or it just didn't happen (the organisation was terrible anyways). This way they just used some alt out from the mains or monitors or whatever they found and it sounded like crap.

[-Noodles-]

I agree with ^^
It's not really all about the live audio feed - it's more about the sound at the venue.

And since it's live, it can't really be relayed via an external truck for mixing and transmission?

I am COMPLETELY in agreement with the cutting to and fro songs.
What was the point in having one in the UK if we're going to watch more of Rhianna's crappy singing (or lack of) and prancing about in Japan?

Annoyed me greatly.

[James Lugo]

That Madonna vid was awesome! You gotta love a woman in a black dress with a Paul.

[GravityRobert]

Originally Posted by -Noodles-

I am COMPLETELY in agreement with the cutting to and fro songs.
What was the point in having one in the UK if we're going to watch more of Rhianna's crappy singing (or lack of) and prancing about in Japan?

Annoyed me greatly.

Yeah agreed. We (Netherlands) got quite a lot of Rhianna footage as well I could think of a dozen more bands I'd rather have seen instead. They ended with about 20 minutes of madonna here as well, I was waiting on Smashing Pumpkins, Roger Waters, Police

[big country]

Originally Posted by Chrizcol

YouTube - Ray Of Light - Madonna - Live Earth

For anyone interested...

I had no Idea!
brilliant performance
-----------------------------
that was a get philosophical with a black truck driver
buy Jagger a beer
make a gay man like girl
swim in some sand
type performance

[yellowrobin]

Well now that they used 6 million gallons of gasoline and 4 billion kilowatts to tell us to save energy by using a new lightbulb..hahaha

So you don't think Cameron Diaz made sure her air conditioner was turned off in her tour bus or trailer before she came on stage LOL, Also on the performance end: Alicia Keys seemed out of key when she started singing with Keith Urban.
Roger Waters was very good.

[big country]

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de ass is hot

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[ootle]

I was at Wembley and where I sat the sound was good and at times great.

By the way: before anyone starts: I swam and walked over there........and tried not to fart.....

[SyncSailor]

It wasn't until yesterday that i came to understand why auto-tune plugins have become so popular. And i'm not just talking about a non-optimal monitoring situation..

[Mind-Over-Midi]

Man you guys have always been really great at sitting on your couch and ripping other folks (who are actually doing something) to shreds. The dark side of Gearslutz? Anyway, I thought Alicia Keys was great. Really good singer. Very, very nice to look at! I told my girlfriend if she calls, I'm going! I just love women with big legs and big ____'s, well I'm a black guy, most of you know what I mean.

[tnjazz]

Originally Posted by SyncSailor

It wasn't until yesterday that i came to understand why auto-tune plugins have become so popular. And i'm not just talking about a non-optimal monitoring situation..

Except for Dave Matthews (obviously). A couple of his bellows in "Don't Drink The Water" were so horribly off key that I started laughing uncontrollably.

I thought the TV sound was OK for the most part. Nothing special, but worlds better than the horrible sound of the Diana concert. That was nearly unwatchable.

What really annoyed me more than anything else was the camera work in London and New York (especially London). I don't have ADD to that extent - I'd love to be able to see an angle for more than a second and a half before they cut to something else. The camerawork in other places (Johannesburg and Hamburg) was much more enjoyable. Too many cuts in short periods of time (especially to flying jibs) makes me dizzy.

[nandoanalog]

YouTube - Metallica Live Earth - Nothing Else Matters=#

That one sounds ok for a tv show....

YouTube - MetallicA 2 - Live Earth Live from London 07.07.2007=

This one is ok to....

[peter_mavro]

i wonder why the new jersey stuff seemed to sound much worse than hamburg and london. that kenna was just god-awful. the whole thing reeked of insincerity. madonna did look pretty hot with theguitar, though. good to see her actually singing.

[toolstudio]

I've seen Linkin Park from the Tokio venue and the singing was way off tune it was really hurting.
And I've seen the yet legendary madonna solo. That was funny, but she still knows how to do a show....

Soundwise I heard better broadcast, but I've heard way worse things.

wolfgang

[theremin]

Originally Posted by nandoanalog

YouTube - Metallica Live Earth - Nothing Else Matters=#

That one sounds ok for a tv show....

YouTube - MetallicA 2 - Live Earth Live from London 07.07.2007=

This one is ok to....

might be youtube, but I see lars pedal foot moving, but no bass drum sound coming out :P

[Nu-tra]

That Madonna footage was great. I know she is rich and all but she has an angst/attitude about her thatI have always liked.

[big country]

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[doorknocker]

Originally Posted by warhead

The Police were just on, I don't know man I think the biggest issue with them was that there's nobody backing them so it sounds kind of empty.

YouTube - The Police Live Earth - Driven To Tears

Sounds good and full to me.....

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Mind-Over-Midi

Man you guys have always been really great at sitting on your couch and ripping other folks (who are actually doing something) to shreds. The dark side of Gearslutz? Anyway, I thought Alicia Keys was great. Really good singer. Very, very nice to look at! I told my girlfriend if she calls, I'm going! I just love women with big legs and big ____'s, well I'm a black guy, most of you know what I mean.

I don't think an orgy of glad-handing, self-congratulatory self-promotion is going to do much except make Joe and Mary Sixpack spend their money (which will evaporate into the bank accounts of the ancillary service providers who are hooked up with the "generous" promoters and who are the real profit centers for these bogus "charitable" events) and go home in their SUV, climb on the ride-along mower, and turn the AC up high... thinking they've done their part.


No particular slag on any particular artist but this kind of thing is a DISTRACTION fromt he REAL WORK and for that reason is often decried by the people actually DOING the real work...

Not to sound overly cynical.

In this biz, no such thing is even possible...

The "special events industry" is a parasitic cancer on the body of people who are actually working to change things.