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...

[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

[robertbartsch]

I suspect the vocals were live but all the guitars, bass, drums, organ etc, were 100% canned which is unfortunate.

[Robh3606]

All canned? Not the show I went too

Rob

[MikeM]

I saw them in about 1977 at solders field (superbowl of rock) chicago. 5 Channel set up kicked. Animals tour. Rodger played out here this month wasn't about to pay 120+ a ticket unless it was the original band. Sounds like a good idea..

[John]

[QUOTE=MikeM;299571Rodger played out here this month wasn't about to pay 120+ a ticket unless it was the original band.[/QUOTE]

Ya, I want to see the Beatles as well.

[Akira]

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?

While the answer to that is a yes, I would argue the biggest difference is the band, type of music and HOW LOUD THEY PLAY!
Van Halen is notorious for bad sound because the guitar is louder in the singers mic than the singer. Pink Floyd has always been considered an engineers dream and for most the ultimate gig-- controlled, lush, separation between mics and great musicianship.
The biggest difference in systems I have setup is a show featuring 'Theater in the Round' because the wave length starts from the same point and projects outward fairly evenly. Even empty stadiums sound pretty good with this setup.

What I don't understand, (and maybe current engineers can comment) is why do these new line arrays not sound as good as the older systems? I have seen some of the same acts under similar conditions including Genesis and Yes, and sorry but the sound ain't as good. In the case of Yes, their performance 30 years later was exactly the same including the poor backup vocals and the identical timing mistakes by Steve Howe on guitar--talk about consistency.

[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.

[jerry_rig]

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