Live Album!

[Sheriff John Stone]

And, I don't think Brian's vocals were especially strong on the reunion tour. Some vocals such as "This Whole World", "You're So Good To Me", "Sail On Sailor", and his part on "Add Some Music" were a bit shouty. They could use some tweaking. 

You are Joe Thomas and I claim my five pounds.

No, seriously, hypehat. I was at one show and saw many of the YouTube videos. While I loved Brian's 100% attendance and participation during the reunion, I was not overly impressed with his vocals. Brian's vocals on the Gershwin and Disney albums were improved, mainly due to his reverting to a somewhat tender voice. Other than that Rolling Stone acoustic performance, I didn't hear that tender voice. And, on some of the upbeat songs, the shoutiness was back, mainly because his 2012 voice is no longer suited to 1964-70 songs such as "You're So Good To Me" , "Do You Wanna Dance", and "This Whole World".

[hypehat]

But what would auto-tuning achieve? The main problem with them doing it on the early dates was that, because Brian's vocals were shakey (that's just BW live, as you well know), the software threw the pitch everywhere. Whoever's producing might have the dedication to sift through every single Brian vocal and fix each little fluctuation that Brian does when going for Heroes & Villains, but if they can't do it for singles (see Isn't It Time, Brian's lead jumps all over the shop) it doesn't look good.

I would rather they just accept it's essentially unfixable, but it's also not broke.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Whoever's producing might have the dedication to sift through every single Brian vocal and fix each little fluctuation that Brian does.....

Actually, that's what I'm hoping for, to meticulously go over every note. That's their job in preparing a live album. Hey, how many songs or notes are we talking about anyway? But, I'm not as opposed to auto-tuning as most, as long as it's done "right", whatever that means. Somebody mentioned McCartney's recent Live In New York CD. Yeah, you can tell it was worked on - Paul ain't THAT good anymore vocally - but I enjoy it nevertheless. I stopped trying to figure out which vocal was corrected...

[guitarfool2002]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

[runnersdialzero]

Whoever's producing might have the dedication to sift through every single Brian vocal and fix each little fluctuation that Brian does when going for Heroes & Villains

It's possible, but no one in the Beach Boys/Brian camp seems interested in making a vocal sound good anymore. Too much money? I don't know. Whatever the case, they just throw an autotune filter over the entire vocal and somehow always deem it appropriate and well-done when it ain't.

[runnersdialzero]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

Both would be cool. Give the casual fan the doctored, ideal listening experience that gives the best representations from the tour and sell manufactured-as-needed CDs of individual shows for the people who went to them.

I don't think they'd ever go with the latter option, though.

[seltaeb1012002]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

[Sheriff John Stone]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

That's ^^ exactly what I want. From 1976 onward, we've lived with Brian's vocals keeping his various songs from reaching their full potential. If, on this live album, that can be prevented tastefully, I'm all for it.

[runnersdialzero]

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

30 minutes is too long for these folks given the sound of some recent things.

[Justin]

Paul Simon just released a live album from his last tour this week...2 CDs and 1 DVD of the concert performance.  They removed the three/four cover songs Paul performed in the show.  The bummer was that the companion DVD was in stereo--no 5.1 mix.  Shame because it was shot absolutely beautifully.  Impeccable cinematography. 

The Beach Boys can easily release a 2 CD live set.  Will they, though?   It's possible.  They had a massive  live set on this tour.  I can't see them knowingly playing it down by shrinking it down to just 1 CD.

[seltaeb1012002]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

That's ^^ exactly what I want. From 1976 onward, we've lived with Brian's vocals keeping his various songs from reaching their full potential. If, on this live album, that can be prevented tastefully, I'm all for it.

It really can be man. If I could get my hands on, for instance, BW's raw verse vocal from "Isn't It Time", I could show with a simple A/B comparison how much more integrity could be left in the performance with some more careful vocal editing. If I had the opportunity to tune the vocals for the live album..  I'd not only get the job done better, but it would cost them way less money than what they would have to pay in studio time / engineering fees to edit vocals at Ocean Way. 35 / hr. Think about it Capitol. First song's on me. You don't like it, you stick with Joe "zero-retune" Thomas

[Exapno Mapcase]

I liked Brian's voice on the NPR show - thought it sounded better than Mike's!  I hope the tracklist is more adventurous than the NPR show, however.

[Rocker]

I liked Brian's voice on the NPR show - thought it sounded better than Mike's!  I hope the tracklist is more adventurous than the NPR show, however.

"Sail on sailor" from the NPR recording sounds terrible. His (Brian's) voice is so heavily autotuned.

I hope we'll get some good versions of Marcella and This Whole World on the CD

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

I liked Brian's voice on the NPR show - thought it sounded better than Mike's!  I hope the tracklist is more adventurous than the NPR show, however.

"Sail on sailor" from the NPR recording sounds terrible. His (Brian's) voice is so heavily autotuned.

I hope we'll get some good versions of Marcella and This Whole World on the CD

Yes! I agree...Marcella kicked major a$$ when I saw them in June.

[Justin]

I'd expect that we'd get a good portion of the obscure songs especially it is Brian who sings lead on most of them ("Marcella" "You're So Good To Me" "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" "This Whole World" etc).  In order for Brian's presence to be made on this live album (and DVD) they'd need to have some of the obscurer songs included.  Otherwise, it's just 2 hours of Brian in the background doing background vocals and playing piano.  Not exactly a selling point for a live album or DVD...

[adamghost]

Whoever's producing might have the dedication to sift through every single Brian vocal and fix each little fluctuation that Brian does.....

Actually, that's what I'm hoping for, to meticulously go over every note. That's their job in preparing a live album. Hey, how many songs or notes are we talking about anyway? But, I'm not as opposed to auto-tuning as most, as long as it's done "right", whatever that means. Somebody mentioned McCartney's recent Live In New York CD. Yeah, you can tell it was worked on - Paul ain't THAT good anymore vocally - but I enjoy it nevertheless. I stopped trying to figure out which vocal was corrected...

Agree re Brian vox.
Agree re method of tuning if tuning is to be done.
Strongly disagree, based on TWGMTR, that Joe T. is the man for the job.

[adamghost]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

That's ^^ exactly what I want. From 1976 onward, we've lived with Brian's vocals keeping his various songs from reaching their full potential. If, on this live album, that can be prevented tastefully, I'm all for it.

It really can be man. If I could get my hands on, for instance, BW's raw verse vocal from "Isn't It Time", I could show with a simple A/B comparison how much more integrity could be left in the performance with some more careful vocal editing. If I had the opportunity to tune the vocals for the live album..  I'd not only get the job done better, but it would cost them way less money than what they would have to pay in studio time / engineering fees to edit vocals at Ocean Way. 35 / hr. Think about it Capitol. First song's on me. You don't like it, you stick with Joe "zero-retune" Thomas

I'll do it for $25/hr.    Doubt that the PTB are too anxious to give the gig to guys hanging out on BBs message boards, though. 

[seltaeb1012002]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

That's ^^ exactly what I want. From 1976 onward, we've lived with Brian's vocals keeping his various songs from reaching their full potential. If, on this live album, that can be prevented tastefully, I'm all for it.

It really can be man. If I could get my hands on, for instance, BW's raw verse vocal from "Isn't It Time", I could show with a simple A/B comparison how much more integrity could be left in the performance with some more careful vocal editing. If I had the opportunity to tune the vocals for the live album..  I'd not only get the job done better, but it would cost them way less money than what they would have to pay in studio time / engineering fees to edit vocals at Ocean Way. 35 / hr. Think about it Capitol. First song's on me. You don't like it, you stick with Joe "zero-retune" Thomas

I'll do it for $25/hr.    Doubt that the PTB are too anxious to give the gig to guys hanging out on BBs message boards, though. 

This guy!

Oh yeah, it's a long shot but what the hell.  I wouldn't be surprised if our collective bitching about BW's live autotune prompted them to kill it a few shows in. "The majors are watching".

[adamghost]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

I'd be all for comping performances, especially for BW. I'd just want them to use Melodyne carefully and not make any pitch correction obvious, leaving things like slides between notes in tact. Honestly it doesn't even take that long to do. I could knock out a solid melodyne'd lead in 30 minutes.

That's ^^ exactly what I want. From 1976 onward, we've lived with Brian's vocals keeping his various songs from reaching their full potential. If, on this live album, that can be prevented tastefully, I'm all for it.

It really can be man. If I could get my hands on, for instance, BW's raw verse vocal from "Isn't It Time", I could show with a simple A/B comparison how much more integrity could be left in the performance with some more careful vocal editing. If I had the opportunity to tune the vocals for the live album..  I'd not only get the job done better, but it would cost them way less money than what they would have to pay in studio time / engineering fees to edit vocals at Ocean Way. 35 / hr. Think about it Capitol. First song's on me. You don't like it, you stick with Joe "zero-retune" Thomas

I'll do it for $25/hr.    Doubt that the PTB are too anxious to give the gig to guys hanging out on BBs message boards, though. 

This guy!

Oh yeah, it's a long shot but what the hell.  I wouldn't be surprised if our collective bitching about BW's live autotune prompted them to kill it a few shows in. "The majors are watching".

Indeed they are!

[Exapno Mapcase]

The bitching about auto-tune (smetimes by people who didn't have a clue but were just jumping on the band wagon) was reflected in some of the reviews by writers who read these boards and also wouldn't have a clue what auto-tune was.

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

And, btw, I liked Brian's vocals on the mentioned songs in YT videos. I don't mind whether he sounds shouty, weak-voiced, slightly off-key and such.

I'm with you on that. I enjoyed BWs vocals a lot on this tour. Some of the rockier songs sounded good, imo, but the real highlight at the show for me, as far as his vocals go, was "please let me wonder." He sounded so great on that.

[absinthe_boy]

I am farily excited by this.

I would like to see a 2CD /3LP set lasting over two hours running through the majority of the songs they've played on this tour. Probably culled from several performances to give us the best performances and best variety of material.

A live DVD or Blu-Ray should be different, maybe one complete concert to give the impression of being there for those who can't make a gig or as a memory for those who did.

my .02

[Jonathan Blum]

Small problem...  A full concert the length of the Sydney one is actually slightly too long for two CDs!

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[bgas]

If it ever existed in the first place, what would be wrong with the notion of releasing a live album "warts and all"? Or else do what bands like Pearl Jam have done for years and make entire live shows from previous tours available to buy officially as full concerts, rather than compilations and cut-and-paste affairs from many shows.

Just an informal poll - would most fans want that "warts and all" option over a sterilized "live" compilation which has been extensively fixed and doctored, and may have songs pulled from a dozen different shows or even individual songs comped from several performances in order to find the best one?

Ultimately it doesn't matter if people get enjoyment from listening, but it's just out of curiosity to find out whether people prefer the sterilized and perfected live compilations over full shows.

Sort of like the planned Single LP In Concert as it exists. ( but then, I suppose all the warts would have been removed before release)

[Micha]

Ugh...I could definitely do without hearing Blondie Chaplin screeching through "Wild Honey."

Agreed give me the raw 1964 Sacramento tapes of the BBs kicking ass with Brian on Bass.

The only BB live recording better than the raw 1964 Sacramento tapes is -IMHO- the 1964 Sydney recording of "What'd I Say". I hope they include that in the coming box set. Their TAMI show performance also exceeded Sacramento, but the recording is drowned in audience screaming.

From the current tour I'd prefer a DVD rather than a CD or double CD.