Elvis at the International Hotel Las Vegas 1969 Box Set

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by emjel, Apr 9, 2019.

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  1. minkahed

    minkahed Forum Resident

    I had/have issues with Ferrante's mixing on this particular release, (On Stage), not to mention, why does it seem like all the tracks run too slow ?
     
  2. minkahed

    minkahed Forum Resident

    My goodness, both times when Elvis was supreme !!!
     
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  3. minkahed

    minkahed Forum Resident

    Even Elvis ...
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    This whole reverb/echo thing is dampening my hope for this set. I have no problem with reverb and delay used as an effect on a studio recording because they are trying to create an effect ... I have huge problems with a wash of reverb and/or delay added to a raw live performance ......
     
  5. JLGB

    JLGB Senior Member

    Location:
    D.R.
    I expect ambience on live recordings (reverb, echo etc). Not a dry (perfect), as in the studio recording. Might as well take out the applause that did not leak in the microphones.
     
  6. minkahed

    minkahed Forum Resident

    So what's your take on The Jungle room sessions ?

    live or not ?
     
  7. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Is the digital reverb there? Yes. Is the sound "reverb laden"? NO!

    To me, folks are making a mountain out of a molehill. Preferences are subjective, but whether you love it or hate it, you can't say that the application of reverb is "in your face". It is subtly applied. In the between song banter it is more apparent. As far as the music goes, you hear it a bit on Elvis' voice. It is most evident of Burton's guitar. But again, it is not heavy handed and, IMO, fits James' style.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
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  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Thanks mate.... that makes me a bit less apprehensive ... I'm having visions of some of the things we've had in the thread where it seems they got a little excited with the signal fader lol
     
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  9. JLGB

    JLGB Senior Member

    Location:
    D.R.
    Live in a house, more or less. :)
     
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  10. KDubATX

    KDubATX A Darby Man Never Says When

    Location:
    Austin
    Very casual fan here. Started streaming 8/21/69 Midnight Show earlier, I have almost certainly heard this one before, or another set from this run with rambling banter that is so similar to this that I am mixing the sets up. Probably checked it out off of another thread on this site as I do not have any of these sets from their prior released versions. Not sure I need to plow through every set in this box, but I have enjoyed playing this one.
     
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  11. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    Monologue with the delay/echo effect:

     
  12. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    For comparison, the first minute or so of this one doesn't have the delay/echo:


     
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  13. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    That is awesome.

    It sounds like the outtakes were sweetened to mimic the masters. Same as the Stax set.
     
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  14. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    And most music simply isn't intended to be heard without any reverb at all. A completely dry-sounding mix is like taking a fish out of its pond and then wondering why it dies.

    Every room has some sort of natural reverberation, and if it isn't adequately captured by the microphones then it's perfectly normal to add some reverb back in during production. Sometimes this will be so subtly done that it's not even noticeable.

    Beyond that, reverb can also be used as an artistic effect to create a more spacious sound, as heavily employed on most of the mixes on From Elvis In Memphis.

    The effect utilised on the Live 1969 set is a related but separate thing: a slapback delay effect. I think it sounds less realistic than the reverb alone (compare the clips further up the page), but it only really sticks out on the spoken sections. I think it was an unneccessary addition to the sound, but not overly problematic.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
  15. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    I agree. Completely dry would be unnatural. As you said, natural reverb is always present. A "Hall" reverb would been more appropriate if used sparingly. The FTD of the Memphis concert is a good example of getting a tad over zealous with the reverb. But, I would rather hear that than the dry Legacy mix.

    All that said, I do dig the slap back on James' guitar. Ideally, the slapback would be added to his guitar only, and then a "Hall" reverb lightly sprinkled over everything else. However, we have to remember that these shows were recorded on an 8 track board, taking away the luxury of being isolate instruments.
     
  16. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    Technology now exists to isolate two or more instruments that were sub mixed by Pachuki on a single track of 1-inch 8-track tape.

    As proof, there are members of this forum who have, via a computer program, extracted instruments from old mono singles and isolated each instrument on an individual track in digital workstation to create a stereo mix.
     
  17. When In Rome

    When In Rome It's far from being all over...

    Location:
    UK
    'Electronically Reprocessed Stereo' will never die! :D
     
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  18. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    The horrid 1960s fake reprocessed stereo is different than software programs that can today isolate and extract timbres of specific instruments to allow a stereo mix to be created from a mono source.

    I only bring this up because on a few of the 1969 shows Pachuki didn’t apparently bring up the mic for Larry’s Fender Rhodes keyboard. It can be heard faintly via mic leakage. In theory, the faint keyboard heard via leakage could be extracted and boosted and added to the mix at proper volume. Presto: Larry Returns!

    This is a tool to fix a mic mishap that Pachuki apparently baked into the original recording of some (not all) of the 69 shows.
     
  19. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    There is still some bleed over and a loss of fidelity. THAT would be a heavy handed alteration, IMO.
     
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  20. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
  21. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    Maybe, maybe not. A skilled engineer could give it a go. Results with respect to restoring Larry’s faint keyboard (on the few impacted shows) might yield an improvement.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
  22. CBackley

    CBackley Chairman of the Bored

    Pitchfork gave this set a 6.1 out of 10. Ugh.
     
  23. CowboyBill

    CowboyBill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Utah
    Didn't buy this set, but i borrowed it from a friend. I had fun comparing to various FTD releases I own. I think the FTD's sound way better! Neat looking package though.
     
  24. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    What a horrible review. Reminds me of that Onion headline, "Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8."

    It starts with the reviewer claiming Elvis sounded "exhausted" when he sang "Burning Love" in 1972 and just gets worse from there.
    Apparently "the strategic nature of a nothing-but-hits Vegas show leaves little room for any of the non-Presley performers to show off their own impressive chops." Elvis is faulted for sticking "to near-identical set lists of guaranteed crowd-pleasers" (how dare he!) and his "moods range from lovable scamp to frazzled kook, making for a colorful display of the singer’s profoundly weird character." The pecksniff reviewer states "Whether these outbursts are a result of drugs or just Presley’s natural state is indiscernible."

    Apparently "Live 1969’s sprawl offers little new insight about Presley’s life, mind, or music...Presley’s Vegas residency was designed to propel his career into a new era, but the show-by-show repetition of the Live 1969 recordings stalls their momentum. Presley had no way of knowing that his comeback would fail within a decade; with a half-century of hindsight, listening to Live 1969 feels both bittersweet and anticlimactic." Note to reviewer: the comeback didn't "fail"--he came back!

    Finally the sage sniffs that "the interchangeable sets of Live 1969 merely skim the surface of Presley’s odd inner life and taxing career, the twin engines that would hurtle him toward disaster." I have no idea what sort of live album would dive (or whatever the opposite of skim is) into Elvis's "odd" inner life and taxing career. But I do know that Pitchfork seems to have inherited the attitude of those 50s and 60s know-it-alls who looked down on Elvis Presley as a freak.

    I give this review 3.0 out of 10. The writer's teleological obsession with Elvis's demise warps the discussion of these live recordings, whose nature and setlists are arguably misrepresented.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
  25. CBackley

    CBackley Chairman of the Bored


    Nailed it.
     
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