Is the Live Music Reference Correct?

No. TAS exults live unamplified music instead of what we get from most live perfoemances, hard to find for the music I'd like to hear. The volume is always way too loud for me at most jazz and rock venues even though I listen at what I consider to be loud volume at home, usually in the 80-90 db range. I've taken my radio shack meter to some live amplified outdoor concerts, basically in the park type venues and recorded levels of close to 110 db in open air like twenty five feet away and these guys think it sounds good. I don't stay long. There is some merit to going home and listening to what you like on a quality system.

I have yet to find an experience that matches a live performance; caught Mark Knofler just last week and I'm still in awe. The reference for me? I wanna throw on "Love Over Gold" by Dire Straits, close my eyes, and feel like Mark's right there in my listening room, working his magic. If I have to pick between re-creating studio session or a live concert as a the ultmate goal, the over-mixed, over- miked studio stuff will get the thumbs down from me everytime (even the well done stuff doesn't capture the emotion and artistic value a live performance offers). Enjoy the music, Jeff

I agree Jeff. The overproduced pop music leaves me cold. But that over production can be both live and recorded. I was forced at almost gun point to go see RiverDance live. Now that was an over loud, over produced event. Pretty dancers however. Good jazz and classical events where everything is pure accoustically generated is getting harder and harder to find. Example the Preservation Jazz Hall concert at the Boulder Theater last month was a much smaller venu but still there was a mixing consol between my ears and some incredible musicians. The balance was way off. I purchased their CD set and not until I got home did I hear what the musicians wanted me to hear.

While bad stage managers and technicians can ruin a live performance (I still don't understand why they insist on micing the piano at a favorite (VERY small) venue of mine), I still would almost always rather the visceral experience of experiencing the music being made then I would even a very close reproduction. I think that part of the effect is similar to watching a comedy in the theater versus renting it and watching at home. Invariably, people laugh harder and longer when they're surrounded by other people experiencing the same thing. The emotional group dynamic of watching a live performance can never be encoded (even on vinyl). Then again, I'm still reeling from the Medeski, Martin, & Wood show I saw last Thursday.

The last live performance I went to had terrible acoustics and even worse sound production. I saw the Brazilian singer, now I can't remember her name but I have one of her CD's "Sol Negro", at Town Hall in NYC. I knew in advance that acoustics at Town Hall suck so I was prepared. But the sound system they used just made the concert almost unbearable.

Merkin Concert Hall also does the same thing. I saw an incredible concert conducted by John Zorn. He was not playing. He conducted his Masada series being played by a string quartet, no horns. Amazing. Our seat were off center about tenth row. We had this terrible speaker blaring into our faces from that perspective. Since the concert was far from sold out, we moved to second row center and were treated to the most amazing music direct from the source.

The last good concert I went to was at Carnegie Hall, the Tibet House fund raiser with Patti Smith, David Bowie, Emmy Lou Harris, others and some amazing acoustic performances by Tibetan monks and the offshoot of Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan. That concert was excellent. The production was great.

So, I agree that the venue and the production has a lot to do with the enjoyment of live music. Not every live performance is enjoyable even if the music is what you came for. I would like to attend more small venue, like jazz clubs, but the sets are too late for me, the cost is high, and the drink minimums add to the expense. When you add the factor that to your left and right people are probably talking louder than the music, I'd rather stay home and close my eyes and pretend.

I hope I didn't go on too long.