Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Live album shenanigans


Nail Soup

Recommended Posts

Deep Purple's 'Made in Japan' is just a terrific recording. It cost pittance to record, no overdubs, and captures the band at the very top of their game. It is sonically sensational, though to hear it at its very best, the 'Porky' vinyl cut is a must listen on a proper turntable.

It is nearly 50 years since it was recorded, and begs the question what went wrong?, when one listens to many modern rock recordings, that are subjected to brickwall mastering resulting in a sonic mess.

Lizzy's 'Live and Dangerous' is also a killer recording. There are definitely overdubs on it and and Visconti's claims about the level of overdubs and fixes is hotly disputed by the bands members. Regardless, it sounds terrific. 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, leroydiamond said:

Visconti's claims about the level of overdubs and fixes is hotly disputed by the bands members. 

Ha ha, indeed, can't think why :)

Robbie Robertson on The Last Waltz anyone? OK, it was first and foremost a Scorsese movie, so perhaps some artistic license is forgivable, but I remember hearing a guitarist saying that you can tell he's not playing the solo simply by watching his fingers, which perhaps isn't 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 26/09/2020 at 09:18, pst62 said:

There's a lot of consternation aimed at Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East album, people claimed all the vocals were studio takes due to Rob Halford not being able to hit the highs notes. Maybe they were, but I called Bullshyte on that claim that he couldn't hit those highs, as I saw them on The Killing Machine tour in 78 and again at Donington in 1980 and he certainly had no problem hits those notes.

 

Halford has admitted that he re-recorded all the vocals on Unleashed due to having flu at the time of that tour. 

https://www.loudersound.com/features/judas-priest-eastern-facts-unleashed

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's be objective about this stuff, at least the original performances - those that the audience experienced - were live, and most of the post-hoc overdubs were authentic. Hard to know what you're hearing live these days, even at gigs/festivals, but certainly on TV. I watched a TV talent show with my kids last night, those contestants that weren't miming completely (given away by poor lip sync and in one case it appeared the wrong words) were pitch corrected to the point of the Cher Effect

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first decent band back in the early 90s did a live EP that got single of the week in RAW magazine. The screaming crowd were taken (stolen) directly from a Prince concert.

One of my bands now is in the process of putting the finishing touches to a live album (thank you Covid-19). This one is completely live so just a really good desk tape. The listener can enjoy slightly frantic versions of the songs where the ride cymbal is way too loud in the mix!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My main band Headsticks did a live album a while back. There are no overdubs at all. I might have tuned a couple of vocals here and there but otherwise it's just as it was on the night, less one song. 

We've been doing "live" sets for people to watch online, and these are recorded live but without an audience. All the audio is totally live, just a couple of dodgy notes fixed on bass and vocals

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in the day, I only recorded live once.The record/management company had sponsored a festival and put all their acts on. We all got one track and we were pretty disappointed to discover they had used our studio version instead and added a rather tacky applause track! 

We recorded a gig about 10 years ago and took the data files to a studio to tidy it up. We only kept the bass, keys and drums. Much to our amusement, the guitar and vocals were so bad they had to be re-recorded! On that occasion, the audience was very real.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, leroydiamond said:

Deep Purple's 'Made in Japan' is just a terrific recording. It cost pittance to record, no overdubs, and captures the band at the very top of their game. It is sonically sensational, though to hear it at its very best, the 'Porky' vinyl cut is a must listen on a proper turntable.

Absolutely this.  Probably still my favourite album after all this time. 

Another cracker was Humble Pie: Performance Rockin' The Fillmore.  Raw and energetic.  I saw them live at the Kursaal at Southend around this time and they were just SO good, albeit playing a disappointingly short set..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 26/09/2020 at 18:15, chris_b said:

Most of my favourite albums are live. From The Band's Rock Of Ages, several from Little Feat, inc Waiting For Columbus, Delbert McClinton's Live From Austin and Live from Bergen, Keb Mo, Edgar Winter, BB King, Bonnie Raitt the list is a long one. They all benefit from that something that a live performance brings.

Waiting For Columbus is a prime example of post production fixes. Still a great album though. The Rockpalast recordings from the same tour are well worth checking out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to see the Red Hot Chilli's love in 2012 at Knebworth. The vocal was inaudible for a lot of the gig and Flea did all the audience chat in between songs which I thought was weird. They released it on mp3 a while later and the vocal was actually pretty good. Either it was engineered to bring up the level... Though surely they'd have done that at the actual gig?!?! Or there were shenanigans. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, uk_lefty said:

I went to see the Red Hot Chilli's love in 2012 at Knebworth. The vocal was inaudible for a lot of the gig and Flea did all the audience chat in between songs which I thought was weird. They released it on mp3 a while later and the vocal was actually pretty good. Either it was engineered to bring up the level... Though surely they'd have done that at the actual gig?!?! Or there were shenanigans. 

If the mp3 was pretty good vocally, then almost certainly there are shenanigans. Kiedis has been not pretty good every time I've seen them 😂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

If the mp3 was pretty good vocally, then almost certainly there are shenanigans. Kiedis has been not pretty good every time I've seen them 😂

Off topic but... The whole experience was bad that day. The only band that have ever really disappointed me. Wish I'd seen them quite a few years earlier. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, leroydiamond said:

Deep Purple's 'Made in Japan' is just a terrific recording. It cost pittance to record, no overdubs, and captures the band at the very top of their game. It is sonically sensational, though to hear it at its very best, the 'Porky' vinyl cut is a must listen on a proper turntable.

It is nearly 50 years since it was recorded, and begs the question what went wrong?, when one listens to many modern rock recordings, that are subjected to brickwall mastering resulting in a sonic mess.

Lizzy's 'Live and Dangerous' is also a killer recording. There are definitely overdubs on it and and Visconti's claims about the level of overdubs and fixes is hotly disputed by the bands members. Regardless, it sounds terrific. 

 

 

Made in Japan - the way the Bass (Glen Hughes ??) comes over on that album !! Time to dig out my vinyl - haven't played it in ages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...