The bootlegs for the two Pearl Jam concerts that I saw in LA were released a few days ago and today I finally got them.
What I find cool about them is the way the look and sound. They concerts were recorded and manufactured by a company called Kufala based in Paso Robles. Their unique eco-friendly chipboard packaging was the first thing I noticed. Their turn around time from purchase to delivery was super fast (less than 48 hours!). No wonder the band selected them to manufacture all the bootlegs of the tour, and If you are a Los Angeles base artists who is looking for a bootleg recording service you should check them out.
Moving on to the sound quality of the bootleg. Although I was pretty surprised from the audio quality of my videos that I captured using the Ultra Flip HD , the bootlegs sound fantastic which makes it a completely different experience.
Now I am starting a long project of mixing my HD video setlists with this audio. I have a little over 50 songs to work on and hopefully Final Cut Express will make this a fun experience. The biggest pain would be syncing audio and video without a clapper. I will probably master video editing techniques once this project will be completed around the end of the year.
I wish I could share your enthusiasm for the “sound quality” of the recent PJ bootlegs. I have a few bootlegs from the 2000 tour, when they started releasing official bootlegs. I thought the sound quality on these was great. The recordings had a warm, natural sound to them and really seemed to capture the sparkle and magic of the concerts. The MP3s I have of one of the 2006 Gorge shows sound amazing, too.
I recently downloaded the official bootleg of the 2009 San Diego show in FLAC format. I converted it to Apple Lossless Format to listen to on my Mac, and I am quite disappointed by the sound quality. Something about it sounds very digital, flat, thin, and sterile to my ears — not at all what I remembered from being in the audience at that concert. I just don't think they are paying much attention to properly mixing this latest installment of bootlegs before releasing them. That may explain how they are able to release them so rapidly after the concerts. It almost sounds like every channel has been put through a compressor to suppress the dynamic range. Also, it sounds like there is almost no reverb on the vocals. You can't hear the audience response that well, either. It was an amazing concert — one of my best PJ experiences ever — but that recording sure didn't capture what I remembered.
I wish I could share your enthusiasm for the “sound quality” of the recent PJ bootlegs. I have a few bootlegs from the 2000 tour, when they started releasing official bootlegs. I thought the sound quality on these was great. The recordings had a warm, natural sound to them and really seemed to capture the sparkle and magic of the concerts. The MP3s I have of one of the 2006 Gorge shows sound amazing, too.
I recently downloaded the official bootleg of the 2009 San Diego show in FLAC format. I converted it to Apple Lossless Format to listen to on my Mac, and I am quite disappointed by the sound quality. Something about it sounds very digital, flat, thin, and sterile to my ears — not at all what I remembered from being in the audience at that concert. I just don't think they are paying much attention to properly mixing this latest installment of bootlegs before releasing them. That may explain how they are able to release them so rapidly after the concerts. It almost sounds like every channel has been put through a compressor to suppress the dynamic range. Also, it sounds like there is almost no reverb on the vocals. You can't hear the audience response that well, either. It was an amazing concert — one of my best PJ experiences ever — but that recording sure didn't capture what I remembered.