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In Reply to: tone posted by njjohn on March 5, 2007 at 10:59:42:
The things I am most interested in are tone, presence and dynamic swing. These three things when done properly can trick the mind right to the edge of believing that one is in the presence of live music...right to the edge before you fall back to reality when conscious thought kicks back in......I left those audiophile / hi-fi things such as imaging, sound staging, detail behind years ago. My interest is how close can one get to real fidelity... and is the physical presence of a growing playing together conveyed (not whether it sounds like a live group is in my room). I don't think I could sit and listen to a sextet playing all out in my living room.....
Follow Ups:
There seems to be a lot of talk in these forums about getting the feeling that there is a "live" band or... playing in your room - the "real" effect. Personally, I get moer blown away by amazing things that can be done only in a studio and have little to do with "live" music. Hendrix's studio work comes to mind as well as some of the great hi-fi recordings of the 50's? and 60's - RCA living stereo etc... The great recordings of the british invasion and psychadelic groups. The sound can swirl all around you and the way the instruments are miked and mixed is an art form in itself - presenting a whole other experience than a document of a live gig. I've been to plenty of great live concerts - I don't think they can be completely and accurately reproduced (although I've heard some put out by major labels that are pretty awesome i.e. early/mid 70's Miles). Studio recordings can have a singular magic and beauty all their own and since discovering SET amps I have become totally mesmerized by what can be heard.
So Hendrix did better than what he did at Woodstock?What he did at Woodstock is just an incredible masterpiece. Spurred on I'm sure by the half a million people there.
I've seen master jazz musicians play around the country some. True the traveling band they usually have are not as good as their regular band, but they can bring some really good young talent with them.
But you know what? When they play at the Blue Note, The Village Vanguard, or whatever, it is just the best there. They play their best there.
What Ella did in Berlin was unique to Berlin. It could not have happened anywhere else.What Sonny Rollins did at his first performance of his own band in I think what was the first live recording at the Village Vanguard is a timeless piece of art. Nothing he ever did in the studio can touch it as far as I can tell. Well it didn't hurt to have Elvin Jones there.
That big Weather Report hit when Jaco Pastorius was in the band, was a great studio song. But when I saw the live performance of it, Even though it was at a university, they played it with so much more power and emotion.
In fact, just consider Woodstock. All those groups outdid themselves. It was a unique event considering the political times, the counterculture movement, and just the elements of the situation.it is so unique to its liveless of it all, then it can never be duplicated again. No concert could ever be like it, and nothing in the studio could ever touch it.
sorry John - Woodstock was great but there were some very mediocre (at best) performances - Country Joe and the Fish? How often do you cue that one up? It is well known that Hendrix's band with the added members was not nearly as tight as the original Experience or original Band of Gypsies. If you watch the complete dvd of Hendrix at Woodstock it is discussed by Mitch Mitchell etc.. Of course it was a monumental event but as far as the ultimate in sound reproduction - I doubt it. Outdoors, windy etc... Hendrix was awesoe no doubt and a live event is an experience - the Star Spangled Banner was iconic - but the studio creativity on Axis Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland etc... was where Hendrix really shined and it is also well documented that Hendrix loved the studio work the most and toured to raise money so that he could finance the studio work. Of course you know that Electric Ladyland Studios was a primary (if not the main) focus of his during his short lifetime. All this stuff can be read about many places with lots of testimonials. I love seeing groups live but there are also many drawbacks like idiots who talk non-stop or hooters and hollerers - technical problems etc... I don;t think one can discount the importance of creation in the studio.
Actually, I was thinking about it and "Kind of Blue" was created in the studio. Great things take place there."Electric Ladyland" is something I never really heard and something to look forward to someday.
Country Joe was the bomb. What was the great line? "be the first on your block to have your boy come home in a box". That was one of the most important statements of the era as well as Crosby, Still, Nash and Young singing "Four dead in Ohio". And another great line a bit earlier by Buffalo Springfield: "There is something strange going on here. There's a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware".
The line considered famous by Dylan "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing" was much less important".
They were calls to a young generation that really knew how to fight for a cause.
Unfortunately, Disco and Reganomics were soon to follow - war protests have beeen around forever - All Quiet on the Western Front etc... Many of the "protesters" grew up to drive SUV's and work for the "man" or maybe open a really expenxive organic health food store if they still had a bit of woodstock in them. That's if they didn't od or take too much acid and get put away. Look at someone like Dennis Hopper who stood for a lot that was radical then - what is he doing now? Armani suits and collecting expensive paintings. A far cry from when he was living in a commune in Taos, New Mexico.
The "woodstock generation" voted for, and supported the war in Iraq - ???? Country Joe failed to get through to them and his music was weak as well.
I know what you mean. My interested isn't in trying to duplicate a live band in my listening room. I don't think that is really possibe under most livable conditions. Rather, it is to get a certain sense of presence that makes one unaware of the fact that a streo system is playing. You are aware of the fact that there is an actual group playing togeter as opposed to sound reproduction.
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