U2start.com | What do you prefer, Good Audience Boot or Soundboard?

What do you prefer, Good Audience Boot or Soundboard?

Hi,

happy new year to all!

My question in the Title. I ask you, cause i found great audience-boots in the past of all artists i like. For me, i don't need any soundboard-recording anymore (in most the audience is bad). What do you think?

MirrorballBoy

15 years

Of course that differs per show or recording quality, but generally I like the audience recordings more

germcevoy

15 years

i'm an audience man. Cant beat a broadcast either though

superkev

15 years

I absolutely love a good raw sounding soundboard. Something on the lines of ZOOTV Washington.

U2Freak999

15 years

I heard 2 Depeche Mode Audience recordings from Alysha (2009-12-06, 2009-12-07 Zürich). The sounds fantastic an the audience also great! Same by every U2 360°-Gig. So i don't need soundboard recordings anymore. The "Live"-Feeling is MUCH better in ervery audience bootlegs.

And if i do matrices...

emiel

15 years

i prefer audience .....There is so much atmosphere in most of those recordings .....
sometimes anoying but most of all fun ...

yuri31

15 years

I go for audience recordings if the quality is good. They are more likely to capture the atmosphere.

Risto

15 years

Mixed, i cant stand a muddy Edge or low Bono in the mix.

But there are many excellent AUD boots this tour

Alex

15 years

1 - Broadcast
2 - Soundboard / Audience Matrix
3 - Soundboard
4 - Good Audience
5 - IEM
6 - Bad Audience

Only a few Audience boots have yet been able to be on par with good soundboard recordings for me. One example would be U2 at Saitama.

Alex

hoserama

15 years

Depends on what we're talking...lets say we're sticking with U2 so the mixes will be a full mix (as opposed to a small club show where anything goes)

A straight dry board with a PA mix will sound very clear and crisp with very little crowd noise. Can't beat it for clarity. However as everybody has touched on the only crowd noise will be what is picked up from the vocal mics (and a little off the drums). This mix is not designed for listening after the show, except for maybe the band reviewing playback.

Now there is a broadcast/webcast, which is a side mix with is designed for more of a audience outside the show. These can range from absolutely fantastic (Dublin 1993 + Dublin 1989 come to mind) to fair (Sydney 1993 + Sarajevo 1997) to trash (Pasadena 2009). The sound is completely dependent on a combination of the mixer truck + whatever broadcast medium is being used.

Then there's all the wireless which I would lump in with the soundboard category because it's a line feed. These can have everything from clicks + static + counts, however the clarity (at least whatever the mix is highlighting) is fantastic, and a good stereo iem actually captures a lot of the crowd. ALD mixes are similar to the dry soundboard, and they will almost always be mono and have a bass rolloff. Not to mention any possibly FM-related interference.

So I don't think its really fair to just say Good Aud vs Soundboard. I'm sure there are some that honestly do like a straight up regular mics in crowd audience recording, and that's cool. But a solidly mixed soundboard will always blow away an audience recording. Because if you think about it, it's all sound reinforcement. A good soundboard will have ambiance mics mixed in, so it should have the "live" feel coupled with the clarity of a straight board. That being said, it all comes down to the mixer.

As a personal aside, I'm always trying to keep things clear while still retaining that audience feel while mixing. But it depends on the sources. If its a junky audience recording...it'll stay lower in the mix. If the board feeds are not that great, audience goes up. If I've got a full multitrack of everything then it's time to play!

Risto

15 years

Originally posted by Alex:1 - Broadcast
2 - Soundboard / Audience Matrix
3 - Soundboard
4 - Good Audience
5 - IEM
6 - Bad Audience

Only a few Audience boots have yet been able to be on par with good soundboard recordings for me. One example would be U2 at Saitama.

Alex

2009-07-07 is 1000x better than saitama

U2Freak999

15 years

Originally posted by Risto:[..]

2009-07-07 is 1000x better than saitama

Did you hear the audience-recording from 2005-07-29 Gothenburg? That's fantastic. I never heard a better audience-bootleg like that. Maybe it's a matrix? I don't know.

What do you prefer, Good Audience Boot or Soundboard?

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