The Mix

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The Mix

Postby FamilyMan » Wed Mar 16, 2022 7:25 am

"I'd love to hear his voice again." - Neal Schon 2008
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Re: The Mix

Postby tedpruitt » Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:06 am

Honestly, it's high time someone called out the sound mix. No idea what is going on there. It's not the equipment - Toto sounds spot on. In its heyday - Journey used Clair Brothers and they were cutting edge and as clear as a bell. I also think it has something to do with this new digital age - it's so easy to slap a pile of plugins on a channel and muddy up the mix - whereas in the days of analog - everything in the signal chain had to be well thought out. Another factor (and to be fair, I haven't been to a Journey soundcheck in decades) Perry used to go FOH and listen and have Elson or whomever was mixing make tweaks. This was especially true of the vocals, where they would do acapella runs through 2 or 3 heavily harmonized songs to make sure the mics were all blended perfectly and seated properly in the mix.

Neal is known to read these reviews, hopefully he will take a second to have a look at what's going on.
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Re: The Mix

Postby Gideon » Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:08 am

tedpruitt wrote:Honestly, it's high time someone called out the sound mix. No idea what is going on there. It's not the equipment - Toto sounds spot on. In its heyday - Journey used Clair Brothers and they were cutting edge and as clear as a bell. I also think it has something to do with this new digital age - it's so easy to slap a pile of plugins on a channel and muddy up the mix - whereas in the days of analog - everything in the signal chain had to be well thought out. Another factor (and to be fair, I haven't been to a Journey soundcheck in decades) Perry used to go FOH and listen and have Elson or whomever was mixing make tweaks. This was especially true of the vocals, where they would do acapella runs through 2 or 3 heavily harmonized songs to make sure the mics were all blended perfectly and seated properly in the mix.

Neal is known to read these reviews, hopefully he will take a second to have a look at what's going on.


Preach!

Neal engages with folks on social media, which is great, but the mf is so hypersensitive to criticism (or even innocent factual errors) that I wonder if he'd be reasonable about this.

Journey's sound issues live have been a recurring complaint since the Eclipse days.
'Nothing was bigger for Journey than 1981’s “Escape” album. “I have to attribute that to Jonathan coming in and joining the writing team,” Steve Perry (Feb 2012).'
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Re: The Mix

Postby Onestepper » Thu Mar 17, 2022 2:40 am

I have tickets to the St Louis show this coming Monday, and to be honest, the only reason I hesitated when they announced is due to what I've been hearing about the mix. Yeah, I want to see the show (and Toto), but I also have sat through numerous other Journey shows over the last several years that sounded like absolute crap. I was hoping they'd have this fixed this time around. I see that my initial concerns weren't wrong.

I'll go into Monday though with an open mind. Come on, Neal. We know you read this board. Do something. This isn't aabout criticism, it's your business.
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Re: The Mix

Postby Monker » Thu Mar 17, 2022 12:04 pm

No, there have been sound complaints since the Augeri. There was one concert I saw where the left side of the system went silent for half a song, and continued to pop and fuss for the entire concert. They have always been "too loud"...ridiculously loud, IMO. The vocals are hardly ever mixed right in the mix.

As far as the bass drum goes in this article, it's partially Deens fault for not checking it before they started. It only takes a moment to hit each drum to check it. Example:

https://youtu.be/sbX75IHclAk?t=39

and the comment from the guy doing the reaction:
https://youtu.be/sbX75IHclAk?t=421

Journey has a bad mix from whoever is in charge of setting it up. BUT, Journey also has a bad mix because the band is lazy and does not take a few seconds to check it prior to their set.

Also, if you watch this guy do the reaction to Queen's Live Aid performance, ALL of Queen takes a few seconds to check their instruments before playing. You would not even know this until he points it out. It doesn't take much time to do this.
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Re: The Mix

Postby Eric » Fri Mar 18, 2022 4:08 am

I can't think of a tour they haven't had issues at the start. I don't get it?
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Re: The Mix

Postby FishinMagician » Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:43 am

I just saw them in Orlando and the mix was the best it has ever been. I was very surprised because I was expecting them to sound muddy like usual. TOTO was mixed way too loud and just blasted everyone's ears from playing ballads.

Neal sounded clear and you could actually hear the notes. Not sure if it is because he used his custom strat for most of the songs. I think his signature PRSs sound like crap.
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