DVD music concerts

Some "crank this baby" suggestions

Some more with excellent sound
Black Eyed Peas - Live from Vegas to Sydney (Sydney has amazingly good sound for a concert, Vegas sucks!)
Robbie Williams - Live At the Albert Hall (Swing music)
Eagles Hell Freezes Over (amazing sound - aging band)

Other great concerts but not such great sound
ACDC Live at Donington (original crew but poor sound)
ACDC Stiff upper lip live (better sound but Brian Johnson and aging crew)
Queen Live at Wembly (Queen at their peak)

Wow six recommendations for Gilmour/Waters/Pink Floyd DVD's...all done by James Guthrie.

Either this is age related (Floyd peak period fan effect) or James Guthrie has indeed become a great surround mix/mastering engineer, as indicated by the audiogon votes so far...

...it is worth paying attention to who does the console work when it comes to DVD audio quality!

I played last night again; BEP Black Eyed Peas - Live from Sydney to Vegas (Sydney has amazingly good sound for a concert, Vegas sucks!).

I compared it to Pulse ( a highly rated DVD in these and many threads ). While I prefer the music of Pink Floyd, there is absolutely no comparison to modern 5.1 recording techniques from this Floyd 1994 concert re-mix to last years BEP concert tour (with multiple Grammy award winning engineering behind it).

I also got my sound meter out to figure out what was going on. It was such a startling difference and I am not one easily given to hyperbole!

While you may not like Pop-rap you owe it to yourself and to test your sound system with what engineer Tal Herberg has achieved on this BEP DVD; a new gold standard in concert recording...absolutely astonishing dynamics and clarity!

The sound SPL meter was all over the place (I could not find a comfortable position for the ratshack meter, as it was consistently indicating either too Low or too High!)

This is one of very few recordings WITHOUT compression. Microphones sound just like live microphones do at a real concert (no doctoring). Normally compression is always used in Rock/Pop to even out the dynamics of drums versus guitars, so music never sounds anything like it does at a real live event. Not so in this case! You are there.

If you go for it and crank it just be careful....this BEP DVD has the type of dynamics that can easily BLOW speaker drivers if you are not very careful. Unlike the usual compressed stuff, it will not sound loud or harsh even at high volume levels (I found that an average of 95 db SPL at the listening position was best for this concert with peaks about 20 db above this).

I have over 50% of the DVD's already mentioned in these threads. I also prefer Classical, Rock, Jazz, Blues, country, you name it to pop-rap....but a great live recording is a great recording so I feel I must spread the word about the BEP's...especially given how BAD normal pop recordings are these days.

Is there a glimmer of hope that sound engineers and artists might once again begin to give us decent uncompressed music? I am pretty doubtful when it comes to CD's ...but DVD's, well perhaps, finally, after years of frustratingly bad DVD's, there are some signs of hope...

Dave,

Thanks. I saw your post and I decided I must have "Lightning in a Bottle" - you convinced me. It is one of the 50% on this thread so far that I don't have, and it really caught my interest.

I also have Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Down & Dirty arriving shortly. I have been impressed by the natural uncompressed sound of Dirty Dozen's CD recordings (although this indicates nothing, as BEP's last CD is quite compressed and yet their DVD came out so good...

I'll report back if Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Down & Dirty DVD is any good...but thanks again for the lightning recommendation!

I bought "Lightning in a Bottle" shortly after Dave's suggestion - this is pretty good sound and very educational, GREAT music and FUN - I highly recommend it!

Thanks DAVE!

Huey Lewis and the News "Live at 25" is absolutely awesome sound quality.

I have had the CD for a while and decided to get the DVD. Well I am very impressed. This is an extremely enjoyable DVD and the band is very tight. Bill Gibson (drums) is fantastic. The sound quality is beautiful (although some may be disappointed that it is not the requisite bass heavy mix) - you can really crank this and it just gets better and better - an extremely convincing "you are there" sound!

I'll also take the opportunity (while bumping this thread) to mention that Jeff Beck "Performing this Week at Ronnie Scott's" is another awesome DVD or Blu-ray performance and with pristine sound quality. Another good one is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at Soundstage.

Enjoy ;-)

Marty,

I agree with My name is Maceo - It is a great DVD for those who like funk. It is a film documentary that has great music and is also fun to watch - these artists are mostly down to earth yet brilliant performers (a big contrast to Sting "Bring on the Night", where you have this pervasive atmosphere throughout of the most ugly Monsters from Sting's ID prowling around - that guy gives me the creeps).

For those who do not know what they are missing here is a taste.

That ain't Maceo...that's Fred Wesley. A legend on the trombone and it is pretty obvious from this clip why. (If you are not a musician then you may not realize how extremely difficult this is)