video concerts - am I the only one?

[Trev_VM]

Hi,

I've had a somewhat weird journey with high res audio. Been an avid user of Tidal since end of 2017 and have experimented with full Naim separates, with high-end products from dCS, stupidly expensive cables, etc.
I have really enjoyed the whole experience.

However, in the past 24 months I realized that what I *really* enjoy is to listen to music...by watching concerts. I watch hours and hours of my favorite artists on YouTube music and I recently subscribed to Nugs which is cool. There is something very satisfying about that: facial expressions of the musicians, reactions from the crowds, etc.
Now I am obviously aware of what I'm losing in terms of quality by doing this and indeed, the downgrade is impressive. However, to me the pleasure of watching a show far outweighs what I'm losing in hifi audio experience.
I used to play in a band for 12 years as a teenager and young adult so for me to watch the musicians play together is something special so maybe that plays a big role for me.

I know - to each their own, but I was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar or if no one would ever do that trade-off?

Cheers

 

[voodooless]

Hell yeah

Sadly, I have more time to listen to music than to also watch it. But then still, there are some magnificent live albums out there.

 

[Trev_VM]

coooool and my God that is an awesome live!

 

[JSmith]

A good resource for AV concerts; https://concertsondvd.com/collections/blueray-concerts


JSmith

 

[Trev_VM]

i mean, watching Joe Cocker's With a Little Help from my Friends in Woodstock is just not the same with just the audio

 

[SSS]

No, me too. But the sound quality of live concert videos is sadly not always the best what we understand hi-fi. The visual information does compensate that so the total experience and feeling is better than audio alone.

 

[rationaltime]

I agree. Live performance is a more complete experience.

I have been involved with live music long enough that have given up
on radio and other broadcast music. You might search for some live
music in your area. In my experience bars and restaurants tend to
have poor acoustics and bad sound systems.

To find musicians I want to see I search the schedules of venues.
Then I look for those acts on youtube to hear their performance.
Doing that I have found several new groups I like.

 

[Trev_VM]

i'm psyched to read that i'm not the only one accepting the trade-off!

 

[Rednaxela]

To be honest the audio quality has to be really really bad for me to experience mentioned trade-off watching YouTube live music. It basically never happens.

Video quality however does bug me at times.

 

[MCH]

Live footage of favorite bands (or any good band really) has always been the best thing ever for me.

There were bands that had a very strict control of what was available (i.e. Led Zeppelin comes to mind). I remember the pre-youtube days when watching an unseen 30 seconds clip of some of these bands was close to a life changing experience for a teenager living in a corner of Europe where chances to see the big guys live were very rare.

Then it happened that during the 90s and 00s I watched nearly no tv at all and it was only like 10-20 years later that I first saw the some of these guys I had listened intensively to all of their records. Stone temple pilots, Pavement, wow is that Frank Black?? Hahaha.

One observation I guess you might agree is how bad video tape was from an historical perspective. You can find nowadays film footage of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Bowie, any classic rock band from the 60s and 70s big enough to get filmed, of very good quality, that makes you feel you are there. Try to find something decent that doesn’t suck like a broken VHS tape from the 80s and 90s… two generations of prime historical material “lost” forever…. F*** videotape, really!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Here is one I like for its live feel and the crowd and the reminder of times when I was growing up.

There are hours of good live music from the Isle of Wight music festivals. Going at least back to 1970.

Philip Glass Mad Rush played by Philip Glass. Something special in this performance.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I think it's healthy to be able to enjoy music for what it is. Certainly, I believe in minimising noise and frequency variations as well as distortion in my replay systems, but the goal is to get as close to the music as possible, even if the sound quality of some sources is poor.

 

[TonyJZX]

OP's preferences arent unique here. Many of us truly prefer the concert or live versions of particular songs to the studio version.

However I would note that some concerts have *TWEAKED* audio... eg. its well known that something like Queen 1982 Montreal they threw money and used 35mm film to capture and the audio is of a 'better than studio quality'... and it shows... get the BR and see.

I dont even have to see the footage... the soundtrack is enough.

 

[voodooless]

However I would note that some concerts have *TWEAKED* audio...

Just see how they fucked up the latest Delicate Sound of Thunder "remaster" . They made a horrible mess out of it.

 

[restorer-john]

It's nice now and then to watch a video of an artist I like on the PC with a pair of headphones, but I'm not remotely interested in having HiFi and video together in my listening room.

I rarely buy concert/live video/DVD/blue-rays exept if they come with a CD I wanted. I have a Bob James one here, I only bought a month or two ago, and have only played the CD, not interested in the blu-ray.

I picked this up a month ago and haven't opened the shrinkwrap as I hate cardboard digipacks and I really can't be bothered with Blu-rays. I figured I'd give it to a mate who loves Queen and went to the concert here.

 

[GD Fan]

I listen to more concert audio recordings than watch concert videos, but I do a little of that too and keep a slowly growing collection on hand.

 

[khensu]

I listen to mostly live recordings, but it’s easy to pop in the IEMs and listen away a few hours at a time while working or reading. I also enjoy video, but it’s hard to carve out time to watch, so that doesn’t happen often.

 

[restorer-john]

I also enjoy video, but it’s hard to carve out time to watch, so that doesn’t happen often

I think that’s why it doesn’t work for me too.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I'd say the time to watch video concerts is going to be a focused activity. It is easier to sometimes have music playing while doing other things. OTOH, I mostly listened intently or not much. Prefer not to really have much music for background much of the time.

 

[Krusty09]

I know James Taylor is not everyone s taste not even mine for that matter but JT live from the Beacon Theater is very well done for a live live recording.

It is one of the very first if not first live 100 percent digital end to end concerts ever done. It was for public TV ch 13 ny. It was mixed on a neve cappriacon console all aes ebu and shot on sony 900 cameras in sd-sdi 601 and embedded, we had 10 sony engineers there and like 5 other engineers . It's was recorded beautifully. If you haven't seen it you should.