2016 bootlegs sound quality insight

TL17761

So...the 2013 and 2014 bootlegs sound quality is one of the best tour (s) for crisp, clean sound quality. But after seeing 4 shows this tour I bought Jacksonville and Grenville bootlegs and the sound quality sucks for what it should be. Eds vocals are not very loud and muffled..quieter songs are better, but rocking songs are a huge disappointment considering these are released by the band. I want to get acouple other shows from this tour but wondering if all shows are like this. I assume they are but if anyone has any insight as to this it would be a huge help as to which shows are up to par sound wise.
Thanks!

2-feign-reluctance

What are you using for playback?

TL17761

cd player...mac computer..mp3

TL17761

that sould make no difference..its in the recording

AmherstJammer

I have only listened to the 4 Florida shows, but they are my favorite sounding bootlegs from any tour… that includes 2003… A+ boots in every way.

steved

AmherstJammer said:

I have only listened to the 4 Florida shows, but they are my favorite sounding bootlegs from any tour… that includes 2003… A+ boots in every way.

Miami has terrible distortion throughout the show! "Tremor Christ" is a good example of a song that is completely unstable and crackles. I think the actual mixing has been great.. Drums are louder in the mix and guitars are balanced well, but there have been technical issues with Miami, Greenville, and Hampton with distortion similar to the South American 2015 shows..

TamaDrummer91

Aside from some very sporadic distortion/clipping, the 2016 boots sound phenomenal to me.

EM194007

TamaDrummer91 said:

Aside from some very sporadic distortion/clipping, the 2016 boots sound phenomenal to me.

X2!! At least we get these SBD recordings, can't expect 100% perfection from any live recording. It's a hell of a lot better then relying on audience recordings, that most are not that great.

AmherstJammer

steved said:

AmherstJammer said:

I have only listened to the 4 Florida shows, but they are my favorite sounding bootlegs from any tour… that includes 2003… A+ boots in every way.

Miami has terrible distortion throughout the show! "Tremor Christ" is a good example of a song that is completely unstable and crackles. I think the actual mixing has been great.. Drums are louder in the mix and guitars are balanced well, but there have been technical issues with Miami, Greenville, and Hampton with distortion similar to the South American 2015 shows..

I bought cd's and I'm not getting the distortion that's been mentioned.

iwasatpj20

The Greenville and Columbia recordings sound fine. Didn't hear distortion on the Greenville and Columbia CDs. There are some warts on them, but we are fortunate to have soundboard recordings. Clipping is questionable, but I expected that.

tbergs

I've been very impressed with the quality on most of these boots. I think every tour has it's ups and downs. I've been perusing Nugs and cannot find any pattern to why certain boots/locations sound better on any given tour since 2010. A few have sounded a little less solid, but I love the Tampa, Jacksonville and Greenville mixes from this year. Even the New Orleans boot sounds really good. I was impressed with how good SOLAT sounded to start that show.

There is some crackling on Greenville and a few others, but very minimal. I actually can't get over how good Present Tense on the Greenville boot sounds. When Matt's drums kick in on the second refrain, it's amazing! Just listened to the '98 Washington DC show and couldn't believe how musically lacking Present Tense sounded on that boot in comparison. I think that's more attributed to the bands' playing though because Act of Love is pure heaven on that boot.

HesCalledDyer

I have a couple pops & clicks on my Hampton CD's but nothing to really worry about. More annoying is that someone in the crowd had to be a douchebag during Lightning Bolt and cause Ed to not sing the first 1/2 of the song.

PJNB

tbergs said:

I've been very impressed with the quality on most of these boots. I think every tour has it's ups and downs. I've been perusing Nugs and cannot find any pattern to why certain boots/locations sound better on any given tour since 2010. A few have sounded a little less solid, but I love the Tampa, Jacksonville and Greenville mixes from this year. Even the New Orleans boot sounds really good. I was impressed with how good SOLAT sounded to start that show.

There is some crackling on Greenville and a few others, but very minimal. I actually can't get over how good Present Tense on the Greenville boot sounds. When Matt's drums kick in on the second refrain, it's amazing! Just listened to the '98 Washington DC show and couldn't believe how musically lacking Present Tense sounded on that boot in comparison. I think that's more attributed to the bands' playing though because Act of Love is pure heaven on that boot.

Can not wait for TO 2 mainly for Inside Job and Present Tense. Matt's drumming in PT really stood out to me and hopefully the boot does it justice.

TamaDrummer91

HesCalledDyer said:

I have a couple pops & clicks on my Hampton CD's but nothing to really worry about. More annoying is that someone in the crowd had to be a douchebag during Lightning Bolt and cause Ed to not sing the first 1/2 of the song.

The static/distortion is very noticeable on Sad and In My Tree. Can you hear it on the Hampton CDs?

Lifted

I agree 2013 had arguably the best sounding boots since they've been doing this...but don't understand what you're talking about as far as the mixing for the 2016 boots. I think these are up there with 2006/2013 in that regard. Unfortunately they fall short because of the random static/crackling that others are grumbling about.

Lifted

TamaDrummer91 said:

HesCalledDyer said:

I have a couple pops & clicks on my Hampton CD's but nothing to really worry about. More annoying is that someone in the crowd had to be a douchebag during Lightning Bolt and cause Ed to not sing the first 1/2 of the song.

The static/distortion is very noticeable on Sad and In My Tree. Can you hear it on the Hampton CDs?

Im sure the cds are the same as the downloads. Its the same recording pressed on a cdr and packaged. Sad and in my tree are rough. As is long road and some others.

motorcitymadman

Crowds sound watery, like they were recorded at a far lesser level. They also sound faded in and out, which is very different from the bootlegs of 10 years ago.

Music sounds fine to me, but it plays a little bass heavy. I'm not an audiofile, but compare the Springsteen River Tour bootlegs to Greenville and Columbia, and it's not even close. The crowd in the Springsteen River Tour bootlegs sounds about the best I've ever heard. The crowd in the Pearl Jam bootlegs sounds so far less than FLAC quality, it's disturbing.

They also need not be faded in and out, this isn't Palladia. They just need to be turned up and recorded at the same quality level.

TL17761

Ive been collecting bootlegs since 1992 and have all that there is of sounboards pre 2000... and a few shows from every tour since then to 2016. I bought Greenville and Jax 2016 and in comparison they sound like shit. The first 3 songs of Jax sound like a muffled mess and eds voice sounds like hes in a tunnel. I bought the mp3 download and not sure if the flacs or cds are any better, possibly but I doubt it... but these suck compared to the 2013 tour. As for the person who said just be happy I get them...thats bullshit. Its 2016 and these are released by the band...no reason that they are subpar in sound. As for my original question...does anyone who has any other shows from 2016 have any insight as to if they all sound poor like Jax and Greenville? If they do...great let me know which ones ill try another show, if not its not worth the money. Tour like 2003, 2005, 2013 are good through, tours like 2006, 2010, 2016 sound weak thru and thru...thats usually the pattern unfortunately.
Thanks.

flanosmasseur

I started another thread regarding the Lexington download...the band mix sounds incredible throughout IMHO; it's the crowd that sounds like shit (+1 on the watery/Palladia comments). On par with "Kiss Alive" and "Cheap Trick at Budokan".

Also, the show faded out and back in at the end of each "CD". When did that start with downloads? I understand having it with physical CDs but the last show I downloaded (Gorge 2006 Night 1) did not do this.

TL17761

Awesome to hear..thanks for the insight..I really wanted to get that Lex show too. cheers

dmelliot

i listened to Greenville and Miami again yesterday. (i bought the CDs from tenclub.) The high end has a lot of static and cracking. it's completely noticeable. I am disappointed.

mcgruff10

I ve listened to Fenway 2, msg 1 and philly 1 and they all sound excellent.