MR

Deen’s energy will wear you out but this is a pretty short conversation. Near the end he discusses Neal and Jon’s relationship and the addition of the wives to the team. And it sounds pretty good!


https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jeremy-white-show/id1218868456?i=1000647179144

Neal just turned 70 years old on the 27th.

Yeah, Deen’s energy always seems over the top…

I find the drum triggers chat interesting. Way back when, Allen Craft (AlienC) was talking about different setups and I asked him why not use drum triggers to get other sounds. Guitars are processed. Keys are synthesized. Why do acoustic drums have to be solely acoustic? I guess there’s now a Journey need to do just that. Whether it’s something new for stadium setups, Neal needs to hear the snare better, or they’re attempting total control through the mix, triggers are real this tour. (I never liked all the dampening screens around the drums anyway.)

DC says they’re using samples from the Escape album. So while he’s hammering away, “playing through the drums”, all he gets is a dull thud. But what the crowd gets is Steve Smith. (Is SS getting royalties from this tour? He probably signed everything away.) Click tracks and backing vocals have been a form of programming for quite awhile. Will all this ‘live’ automation lead to more and more show programming? Maybe. I guess, in a way, Jon Cain has been doing this for years already. He once said in an interview that he programmed a new keyboard with a cassette tape of effects from the 80s. So while he IS playing, the crowd hears something from 40 yrs ago, no? And now we get drums from 40 yrs ago.

Btw, I don’t really think this is deceptive, just interesting.

(Alex VanHalen has been playing e-drums forever. His massive stage kits were all mostly props. And Def Leppard? Rick Allen is a different story altogether.)


later~

Using triggers also helps the singer in smaller arenas...the live drums don't overpower the stage sound.

There was some talk about Arnel having an easier time since they got a new soundman.

Arkansas wrote: DC says they’re using samples from the Escape album. So while he’s hammering away, “playing through the drums”, all he gets is a dull thud. But what the crowd gets is Steve Smith. (Is SS getting royalties from this tour? He probably signed everything away.) Click tracks and backing vocals have been a form of programming for quite awhile. Will all this ‘live’ automation lead to more and more show programming? Maybe. I guess, in a way, Jon Cain has been doing this for years already. He once said in an interview that he programmed a new keyboard with a cassette tape of effects from the 80s. So while he IS playing, the crowd hears something from 40 yrs ago, no? And now we get drums from 40 yrs ago.

That is pretty bad ass! I remember a few years ago for the 30th anniversary of Metallica's Black Album they did a few songs from that era on the Howard Stern show and Lars used samples from the studio when they recorded the album way back when while playing them live, and it was a really cool effect! They spent a LOT of time on recording the drums for that album under the direction of Bob Rock, and having those drums, especially that angry massive sounding snare is something I wished they would have taken on the road with them to tour with, but I think they just went back to the normal live drums without the triggers. I'll need to listen back to a few concerts from that tour to make sure.