Just watched the blu-ray.

The Sound is dreadful.
Drums are loud but cymbals are not.
Guitars are often too low, sometimes barely audible.
The audience has phasing problems.

The mix on the Acoustic set is a joke. You can barely hear the guitars and the bass drum is louder than everything else.

I'm guessing the Stereo mix is a fold of the 5.1 and not a true Stereo mix.
The person who mixed this is clueless and should not be used again... by anyone... ever!!!

I also disliked the mixes on the Stripped box set.
Guitars also often too low, sometimes inaudible. Things getting cancelled out etc.

What a pile of crap.

The sound is awful. It never comes close to the Bob Clearmountain mix from I Go Wild live in Miami 1994.11.25 (1995 Single Version I Go Wild).

It looks like the ears of the Glimmer Twins are getting worse by the years. Ever since Bigger Bang their production/mixes sound thin, even on Blue and Lonesome.


Still, Not Fade Away is a fantastic opener! What a thrill!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-11-16 21:26 by Muddyw.

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vudicus
Just watched the blu-ray.

The Sound is dreadful.
Drums are loud but cymbals are not.
Guitars are often too low, sometimes barely audible.
The audience has phasing problems.

The mix on the Acoustic set is a joke. You can barely hear the guitars and the bass drum is louder than everything else.

I'm guessing the Stereo mix is a fold of the 5.1 and not a true Stereo mix.
The person who mixed this is clueless and should not be used again... by anyone... ever!!!

I also disliked the mixes on the Stripped box set.
Guitars also often too low, sometimes inaudible. Things getting cancelled out etc.

What a pile of crap.

I totally agree. Both VL Uncut and Totally Stripped are bad mixes, especially regarding the guitars (especially Keith's side, I must say). I can't say I'm looking forward to hearing the Atlantic City 89 release: if the mixes are the same, you won't even be able to enjoy Kiff's solo on SFTD (which is something I would like very much, considering the way it was mixed on the Swinging Pig release)...

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GivenToFly15

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vudicus
Just watched the blu-ray.

The Sound is dreadful.
Drums are loud but cymbals are not.
Guitars are often too low, sometimes barely audible.
The audience has phasing problems.

The mix on the Acoustic set is a joke. You can barely hear the guitars and the bass drum is louder than everything else.

I'm guessing the Stereo mix is a fold of the 5.1 and not a true Stereo mix.
The person who mixed this is clueless and should not be used again... by anyone... ever!!!

I also disliked the mixes on the Stripped box set.
Guitars also often too low, sometimes inaudible. Things getting cancelled out etc.

What a pile of crap.

I totally agree. Both VL Uncut and Totally Stripped are bad mixes, especially regarding the guitars (especially Keith's side, I must say). I can't say I'm looking forward to hearing the Atlantic City 89 release: if the mixes are the same, you won't even be able to enjoy Kiff's solo on SFTD (which is something I would like very much, considering the way it was mixed on the Swinging Pig release)...

Totally Stripped didn't bother me...I haven't watched the blu-rays in a couple of years but the accompanying audio CD sounds pretty good to my ears.

So did San Jose '99...but this?? I had major issues as soon as I hit 'play'.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-11-16 21:26 by keefriff99.

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StonedRambler

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GivenToFly15

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StonedRambler
Compare VL Uncut to Totally Stripped, that's a difference like day and night.

Not a big fan of VL Uncut, but Totally Stripped is not such a good mix. Just compare the Stripped version of Angie with the mix of the same song on Totally Stripped (Olympia) : it is awfully bad.

Well, it's much more reverb on Totally Stripped than on Stripped because Stripped was mixed very dry to fit to the other songs from the studio sessions. In recent years they mixed many live albums with a lot of reverb and I even contacted Bob Clearmountain when SF Live came out and he wrote that Mick wanted it to sound that way. I think that's just a thing of preference. I really like those mixes when listening with headphones, not so much with speakers. But muddiness and phase cancellations that you can hear in VL Uncut are not a thing of preference. These are just signs of bad work.

It's actually not a matter of reverb. SF Live/Fonda has reverb, as you said it yourself, but the mix is spectacular. On the contrary, Totally Stripped has both reverb AND bad mixes. For instance, there are numerous riffs from Kiff on "Angie" that are barely audible on Totally Stripped. It's a shame since once of the highlights of that version is the way the guitars intertwine. I know there was a lot of overdubs for Stripped (especially on Angie...) but these riffs were played live.

Just listened it from Spotify. Sounds like an old VHS via Youtube. No punch at all.

My copy has not yet arrived, but all the concerns expressed about the audio quality are exactly what I was afraid of. The audio on the original broadcast was muffled and almost unlistenable with no dynamic range. I taped it back in the day and almost never watched it in favor of the Meadowlands VHS which was sold at some later US VL shows. I still own a sealed copy of that VHS. Maybe time to break it out.

HBK

Hmm, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about. To my ears and eyes this is an improvement over existing bootleg audio and video. Plus it's cheaper than those to my memory. Someone mentioned maybe in another thread about how The Stones never seemed to care for their legacy by using quality methods. Maybe this is the answer? Anyhow I'm pleased with the bluray and looking forward to the Tokyo release, which I believe will be a stronger showing. My two cents.

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frankotero
Hmm, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about. To my ears and eyes this is an improvement over existing bootleg audio and video. Plus it's cheaper than those to my memory. Someone mentioned maybe in another thread about how The Stones never seemed to care for their legacy by using quality methods. Maybe this is the answer? Anyhow I'm pleased with the bluray and looking forward to the Tokyo release, which I believe will be a stronger showing. My two cents.

It's definitely DIFFERENT from the VHS/DVD copies I have...and slightly better, but still very flawed.

The drums are crisper and louder but it seems to be at the expense of the guitars and horns, and Mick is so far out in front of the mix that he sounds like he's performing on a different stage.

And Keith's botched SFTD solo is still skillfully excised.

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keefriff99

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frankotero
Hmm, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about. To my ears and eyes this is an improvement over existing bootleg audio and video. Plus it's cheaper than those to my memory. Someone mentioned maybe in another thread about how The Stones never seemed to care for their legacy by using quality methods. Maybe this is the answer? Anyhow I'm pleased with the bluray and looking forward to the Tokyo release, which I believe will be a stronger showing. My two cents.

It's definitely DIFFERENT from the VHS/DVD copies I have...and slightly better, but still very flawed.

The drums are crisper and louder but it seems to be at the expense of the guitars and horns, and Mick is so far out in front of the mix that he sounds like he's performing on a different stage.

And Keith's botched SFTD solo is still skillfully excised.

So not quite so UNCUT afterall!

deleted

I listened to sympathy for the devil: the out of key-solo is still audible, but far in the back. There is another guitar durinf the same time much louder, maybe ronnie. So its really uncut, but kinda polished.

On the other side, the dysfunctional harp in the beginning of virginia is loud and clear...

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deardoctor
I listened to sympathy for the devil: the out of key-solo is still audible, but far in the back. There is another guitar durinf the same time much louder, maybe ronnie. So its really uncut, but kinda polished.

On the other side, the dysfunctional harp in the beginning of virginia is loud and clear...

Yeah, the solo is longer than on the edited release, but it sounds inaudible and chopped up at the beginning, which is when he screwed it up. The second half of the solo (which was on the edited release) is actually quite good.

I can't find it on YouTube anymore, but I remember seeing the full PPV version with no edits and it was truly brutal.

Heartbreaker: I never thought that I would ever say this: chuck is not loud enough in this song. I prever the mix of the boot.

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deardoctor
Heartbreaker: I never thought that I would ever say this: chuck is not loud enough in this song. I prever the mix of the boot.

Oh my God can’t believe it!!!!

Always I loved the wonderful Beast of Burden version in Miami on different bootlegs. Ronnie's solo there is one of his best on BoB. Powerful and loud. Yesterday I heard the new mix on iTunes and Amazon Music Unlimited. The brilliant guitars (Keith, too) are barely audible. And this is pars pro toto: The sound quality is all over disappointing. What have they done with the Miami 94 concert? Mick is too much in front, and I thought that the Stones are a guitar band. Where are the guitars? Angie? A mess of noise ... and so on ...

Agreed, RobertJohnson, this is one of their best live versions of Beast. Unfortunately, this mix does it no justice, nor does it any of the songs.

To echo another comment, and I also can't believe I am saying this, but Chuck is TOO low in the mix. Especially on Heartbreaker. Is this some kind of revenge for him being all in our faces on San Jose?

While I am glad to have an official release of this show, I have to agree the sound basically sucks: it's almost all Mick and snare drum, very little guitar. I am hoping St. Louis 97 has more kick to it when it's released.

This will fall into the category of played twice... I like Keith’s spot but the mix is terrible. A few songs might get more plays but the Guitars have no edge to them and Micks singing on this tour always bugged me. Now I’ve clarified with The Stones that they don’t give a @#$%& about my opinion and we’ve all moved on.

Just watched Blu-Ray. My favourite band in my favorite city! Sound is bit boomy with drums upfront. I just closed my eyes and imagined Charlie in front of stage and rest of the band behind him - fixed!

Why is Blondie Chaplin mentioned in the booklet as backup singer/percussion?
Or has this been covered already? I missed it.

I am just glad to hold a big Uncut Voodoo Lounge Vinyl in my hand altough it doesnt sound too good. Along with the re-release of the real Voodoo Lounge it is really nice to have. Now - let's move on and bring on the tour. And then finally the new EP and in the winter of 2019 we will have a nasty

NO FILTER LIVE
WORLD TOUR 17-19

I think I mentioned something about the sound on the first page... (this re-release is better but the original source was bad to begin with. Of course you can polish a turd. But sometimes even that is difficult...).

Thanks to all for the reviews. This was the first one I've held off on and reading them makes me glad I did. Pass.

Chuck too low in the mix? You mean there's no "ONE!, TWO!, ONE TWO THREE FOUR!!!"? Definite pass.

Ugh, this mix is really an abomination.

Just started watching the blu-ray, and Not Fade Away sounds miserable. The guitars and organ are both buried...it's just a soup of background music with Mick's vocals overpowering everything. Even Charlie's Bo Diddley tom beat is de-emphasized.

About the only improvement is that the snare is more prominent, which was always my biggest gripe with old VHS/DVD. I swear, I might go back and watch my nearly 20-year old DVD just for comparison.

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bleedingman
Thanks to all for the reviews. This was the first one I've held off on and reading them makes me glad I did. Pass.

Chuck too low in the mix? You mean there's no "ONE!, TWO!, ONE TWO THREE FOUR!!!"? Definite pass.

I guess with Chuck's keyboards, it's a case of, "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." He is almost inaudible at times.

I think a lot of bad reviews about the sound are due to the fact they had to deal with a low quality recording to start with.
As someone mentioned earlier there's not much above 15kHz. It's about the quality of a mp3 file. Drums and Jagger's voice are both upfront and everything else seems to be stacked in the background. This is possibly due to the nature of the original recording.
This said I appreciate that the mix/mastering is not too hot (ie with squashed dynamic range). They obviously tried to preserve some dynamic range (contrary to what they did on Havana Moon for instance).
So there's a certain lack of definition in the guitar and horns department but it's still enjoyable when listened on good headphones. And that's a great set list. I really recommend to everyone to give it a listen or two before deciding if it's that bad.

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frankotero
Hmm, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about. To my ears and eyes this is an improvement over existing bootleg audio and video. Plus it's cheaper than those to my memory. Someone mentioned maybe in another thread about how The Stones never seemed to care for their legacy by using quality methods. Maybe this is the answer? Anyhow I'm pleased with the bluray and looking forward to the Tokyo release, which I believe will be a stronger showing. My two cents.

Agree..,

I’m enjoying the triple vinyl this very moment. I’ve got great gear, but don’t engage or have the time to dig into DR values, etc...

Just enjoying the music. And yes, seems to surpass boots of long ago just fine.

Maybe my ears are just adjusting, but the guitars in YGMR and Rocks Off sounded really good.

But now the HORNS are buried too! That's a song where loud horns are a key part of the charm.

And I know for a fact that horns at the end of Tumbling Dice on my old DVD are much louder. That was a conscious choice on the part of whoever mixed this.

Good post...agree the DR seems fantastic to these ears. On side one, record 3...Sympathy

I, for one, am completely fine with a mix being screwed up that brings Micks vox out front, especially from this tour. Imo, his vocals were extra fantastic during this period.

The frustration in some opinions on it's sound is justified. The live I Go Wild on the 1995 single is from the PPV and ALL of it is in your face.