Metallica...

2nd tier seating area. I also recorded both shows on audio. Let me know if you want them.

Compared the official soundboards of these 2 Amsterdam shows with my audience recordings.

Drums have been polished, vocals are pitched and auto tuned. The guy in the studio made them sound so much better. Especially Lars benefits from this.

Yeah, I noticed that Until Sleeps also sounds a bit different, I didn't know exactly what.

I adore Livemet mixes. So nice. Sometimes I wish the voice was a bit more emphasized though.

Aloha !

No, I didn't go to the second show. I was practically given these tickets for free so went anyway, fully realizing it probably wouldn't be the best concert I'd see. I didn't expect it to be this terrible though. I've just witnessed the 2 videos Metallica posted on their youTube channel and they're polished up, something I've been suspecting them of for years.

As for new stuff; I like to hear new songs if I think they're great but I feel 72 Seasons is just alright at best. Throwing 3 new songs of 72 Seasons in a 16 song setlist is pretty much the most you can do or your focus will shift towards mediocrity.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Agreeing about this; for my feeling they played too much new songs. Plus the best songs are left out like Room Of Mirrors and Inamorata. Sleepwalk and You Must Burn are not that good.

A fantastic performance in my book.


Audience Recording


Soundboard Livemet



I think it's a pretty fair polish, as they are not manipulating things too much, just benefiting from a more consistent mix with respect to the direct sound of the venue, which seems more patchy and disperse (with those reverberations).




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Well, do the same for 72 Seasons and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I was not there, so I can only compare terrible audience recordings, but I do notice in this one that the acoustics of the place were terrible. And the mix very unbalanced. The instruments do not differ due to an excess of reverberation in the place, was it so?

Audience


Obviously in soundboard audio, they can balance each instrument to its corresponding volume, sounding clearer and polishing both the vocals and the instruments.

SBD

Leaving the performance of the band aside, I would like to know if all this mess is due to the sound technicians not being up to the circumstances or maybe it was due to the venue.

Aloha !

I'd say it's both. The stadium has a very bad reputation in Holland for its poor acoustics with people skipping their favourite artists if they're playing that venue. Yes, it's possible to have great sound there, but you'd have to soundcheck for hours, something I'm pretty positive they haven't done. When I saw Metallica for the first time they played the same venue, had roughly the same seats and it took them an hour to fix the sound.

However, you can't have 4 drumkits or whatever it is and have them sound the same every time either. It doesn't work like that, even if you setup the mikes the same way. Lars' drumkit sounded different every time it showed up. It's a novelty idea they're perfectly aware off isn't possible but they rely on gimmicks because they know their audience doesn't really care for great audio to begin with.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan