Roger Waters of Pink Floyd - The Wall = Canned Music

[robertbartsch]

I saw this show this past weekend and they used flown JBL equipment inside a 20K seat hockey arena. I will try to post some pics later.

After seeing lots of recent inside concerts with very bad acustics, I made a pledge not to do this again but I don't regret this one. The sound quality was remarkably good - not much sound bouncing off the venue walls.

Anyway, what surprised me was the amount of "canned" music in the performance. I'm pretty certain about 50% of this show was recorded and played back without much assistence from the band on the stage. At one point during one song, the drums, and stage amps and musicians were moved off the stage but the music continued!!!!! I suppose this means Roger does not care about using canned music at a live performance - BOOOOOO!

Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt it. The cartoons flashed on the stage had lots of canned voices and sound effects.

In the two dozen performances I have sen in the last few years, I can't remember much "canned" music, so this was dissappointing.

[hjames]

Completely agree - I go to a live show to see a live show, there have been too many shows lately with "Sweetener tracks" or canned stuff involved.

Its gotten so all I'm willing to pay to see lately is smaller venues with honestly live folks!

Festivals and that sort of thing qualify in spades ... music in your face!

[robertbartsch]

I don't know how they got this flown JBL system to perform well in a cement hockey rink but it demonstrates that with good sound equipment and good engeneers that this can be done.

EVERYTHING I have seen lately in a big inside stadium has been a loud muddled mess and vocals could not be understood - sound bounced off the walls like tennis balls. This event was the lone exception to that expereince.

The entire performance sounded EXACTLY like all tracks on the Wall Album from the early 1980s, so I would not be surprised if the entire band was "fake" and merely there to look like it was live music - UHG!

Question for sound engineers: Would playback of recorded music in a 20K seat hockey rink be much easier to reproduce than a live band playing "un-canned" music?

Thx...

[jerry_rig]

I saw The Wall performance two weeks ago in Madison Square Garden. We were waaaaay back and up pretty high (location-wise). My friends who attended with me and I are in a Pink Floyd cover band and cover much of the material from The Wall, so we know it cold (as does everyone else on earth).

Roger kept pretty much true to the album except for a few numbers (including Mother). No doubt much was canned -- most obviously the sound effects. But he seemed to have everything timed and choreographed closely. Not much spontaneity happening there.

My complaint with the sound was that, although it started out at a reasonable level, by the middle of the show it was way too load. The bass, in particular really reached down there and hit you deep in the chest. My guess is that little was happening below 40 Hz. But what you heard really moved you around.

All in all it was a good show, if a bit of a spectacle.

Jerry

[Robh3606]

But he seemed to have everything timed and choreographed closely. Not much spontaneity happening there.

I was lucky to get a seat in the Nassau Coliseum that was in the 100's section right next to the stage so I saw it close-up at stage level. It was similar to the original I also saw there 30 years ago. Much of the TV and sound bits were obviously canned then as well. It was very closely choreographed and from my perspective most of it was a mix of live and canned. All of his vocals were the real deal and close up even though the band was behind the Wall we could see them playing through the holes almost the entire show.

My complaint with the sound was that, although it started out at a reasonable level, by the middle of the show it was way too load.

Comfortably Numb got really loud but most of it wasn't that bad.

Not much spontaneity happening there.

He was actually working the crowd with us. I was surprised he seemed to be having a really good time doing the show. He even did the stop singing and point the microphone at the crowd bit which to my surprise came off really well. We were all singing a bit louder than we thought. "13 channels of SHIT on the tv to chose from"

Rob

[jerry_rig]

He even did the stop singing and point the microphone at the crowd bit which to my surprise came off really well. We were all singing a bit louder than we thought. "13 channels of SHIT on the tv to chose from"
Rob

Yes, he did exactly that with us as well. And I'm sure he'll do it at every other show on the schedule!

[Robh3606]

Yes, he did exactly that with us as well. And I'm sure he'll do it at every other show on the schedule!

LOL Well he certainly was playing us!

Rob

[robertbartsch]

I live in Westchester NY but traveled to Hartford Ct. to see the show in the cement hockey rink.

Anyway, the flying pig, the airplane crash, the cartoons and wall building/busting was a bit much for me. I would have been happy with a non-canned performance with no recorded BS.

I thought the members of Pink Floyd, principlly David Gilmore, were not crazy about the fluff and puff that Waters likes so they split. The origninal organ player died last spring so they will likely never unite as Floyd.

Is it true that a system that is too loud in a big echo chamber kills the sound quality? This system had two flown racks on each side of the stage and one flown stack in the back.

[hjames]

Anyway, the flying pig, the airplane crash, the cartoons and wall building/busting was a bit much for me. I would have been happy with a non-canned performance with no recorded BS.

I thought the members of Pink Floyd, principally David Gilmour, were not crazy about the fluff and puff that Waters likes so they split. The original keyboard player died last spring so they will likely never unite as Floyd.
.

They had the airplane crash and all of that when I saw them in the 70s for the Wish You Were Here tour - I think a lot of fans expect that as part of the show, and for acts of that size, I just don't see them doing the band-only onstage thing without all that multimedia ... thats what makes them Pink, right?

I wasn't going to pay the kind of money they wanted for the DC show, so I have no idea if its happened here yet -

[Robh3606]

Hello Rob

Anyway, the flying pig, the airplane crash, the cartoons and wall building/busting was a bit much for me. I would have been happy with a non-canned performance with no recorded BS.

Have you ever seen Pink Floyd?? The plane started at least as far back as the original Dark Side of the Moon Tour. The Pig started with Animals and the original Wall had all of the same types of theatrics as the one you just saw. Frankly it wouldn't be The Wall without them. The graphics, the actual Wall, the marionettes and the sound bits are all an integral part and the show and without The Wall it wouldn't have the same impact.

"Is there anybody in there?"

Have you seen the movie??

I suggest you see either David Gilmore or Roger when he comes back and does his regular show. Lots of lasers and smoke and visual effects but not as much canned back-round material. With those 2 there will always be some canned sound bites as they are unavoidable and part of the songs.

This system had two flown racks on each side of the stage and one flown stack in the back.

We had 5 2 fronts 2 sides and 1 rear. They were doing some surround with us at various points. Especially in the intro when they had the voices playing they were coming from different stacks. I was off to the side but on the floor it must have been a head turner with some of them.


Rob

[robertbartsch]

I saw Pink Floyd only once in the early 1970s in a Jersey City NJ baseball field (outside) when the Dark Side of the Moon album was new. They had a quad sound system (Altec Lansing bass horns, large format compression drivers) that was driven by Crown DC-300s and it was very impressive - one of the best performances I have heard and witnessed in about 40 years of live shows.

I have a modern DVD of David Gilmore and the Band playing live in England from around 2005. Yeh, the recorded DVD performance had lazers and a real church bell. It did not have flying planes, cartoons, giant walls, huge puppets, fireworks, etc.

I thought the band breakup was due in part to Waters insistence on using this stuff which the other guys did not like????

Anyway, it was a good show and the sound system was excellent considering the stadium was a concrete hockey rink (Hartford Ct. XL Center)

[Robh3606]

I saw Pink Floyd only once in the early 1970s in a Jersey City NJ baseball field (outside) when the Dark Side of the Moon album was new.

We saw the same tour back then too. I saw them in the Nassau Coliseum when it was a new arrena back then! I really enjoyed it.

I thought the band breakup was due in part to Waters insistence on using this stuff which the other guys did not like????

That could have been part of it. They had some bad blood for years.

I have a modern DVD of David Gilmore and the Band playing live in England from around 2005.

How do you like it??

Rob

[robertbartsch]

The Dark Side tour in the early 1970s was great! They did have the model plane crash I think, some stage smoke and recorded ticking clocks as I recall, but it was not that big a deal that you came away wondering if you just saw a heavily staged rock opera. I was a fan of their music before Dark Side when crazy Sid recorded some tracks that were not really "music."

My GF at the time of the old concert was hit with an open plastic mustard bottle during the show. My car was busted into in the parking lot and the stereo (quad) 8-track was gone.

Bad blood - yeh I think they all sued each other in the mid 1980s to see who could use the Floyd name.

The new David Gilmore DVD is super; I doubt David will tour again as he is getting too long in the tooth.
Apparently, he was devistated at the death of the original organ player this year.

I am kinda miffed with the idea that Roger Water's sound engineers can perform well in a concrete jungle and no one else seems able to do this. My days watching concerts in big halls with bad acustics is OVER.

I assumed the new flying stacks had something to do with most all of the poor acustics performances inside but, this is not really true. The old stage placed reinforcement systems with bass horns seemed much better in these difficult venues but apperently the flown systems are capable of good performances too.

Who ever did the Roger Waters sound should teach the other clowns the industry how to mix an indoor show with success.

[jerry_rig]

Here are some shots (from my phone) of the MSG show.

[Oldmics]

Question for sound engineers: Would playback of recorded music in a 20K seat hockey rink be much easier to reproduce than a live band playing "un-canned" music?

Thx...

Yes

Oldmics