Se7en said:

I love them. I happen to have a soundboard of Detroit 2015, the last concert I ever saw of his. When I listen to that, I'm transported back to that day.

I was at that show Weirdly enough, I thought the show was good-but-not-amazing when I was at the Fox, but later, when I heard the soundboard recording, I realized the show was a lot better than I thought when I was present. Don't know if that makes sense -- It barely does to me. Anyway, I listen to that recording a lot.

I love them. some artists such as Phish nowadays use a soundboard feed with a live ambient mic fee to blend the 2, so you get more ambience.

For me the soundboards of rehearsals are most interesting, his humor and youthful energy were very apparent, like the Phili 84 circulating now, he had such a great sense of humor.

Best

AA

To answer seriously, yes, the soundboard makes it sound like the band is performing in a closet for themselves. But normally a little bit of open air house mics are mixed in... like they do for the official Prince concert releases, or live boradcasts of perfomances.

As a music production fan, I do like hearing dry soundboards myself. To clearly hear what is going in with arrangements and musicianship and vocals.

But the fact is, or at least the facts in my head, the soundboard is not mixed to sound correct in itself. They are mixed to sound right coming back out of the speakers at the venue to the audience. So the reverb and changes to the tone from the speakers, the air and shape of the venue are missing when we hear a bootleg soundboard.

But correct me if I'm wrong!

Bootleggers could subtly mix in an audience recording to a soundboard release just like the pros do.

dustoff said:

Se7en said:

I love them. I happen to have a soundboard of Detroit 2015, the last concert I ever saw of his. When I listen to that, I'm transported back to that day.

I was at that show Weirdly enough, I thought the show was good-but-not-amazing when I was at the Fox, but later, when I heard the soundboard recording, I realized the show was a lot better than I thought when I was present. Don't know if that makes sense -- It barely does to me. Anyway, I listen to that recording a lot.

I have the same reaction. I think the fact that Prince is gone now accentuates that experience (in my mind) because I also remember it being a bit average at the time.

But - one thing I was wondering - that show had some sound issues. You can even hear him calling out to the soundboard guy to fix it many songs into the concert. Judith Hill's set was completely blown out to me. Would that messed up sound also sound messed up through a soundboard recording? Or would the soundboard sound pristine and it was it only messed up when it went out the audience speakers? Legit question, I don't know.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

hahahah.

too easy.

They weren't challenging you, they were asking a question for the discussion. I don't think anybody doubted you'd have some examples.

lustmealways said:

i'll usually stand in between my speakers

What lustmealways said.

I agree with the original poster, a good audience recording can be better than a soundboard for me. Its always a bit strange where theres meant to be some audience participation and you just hear silence or a very low mumur which is often the case on a soundboard recording. I'm actually worried about the Utrecht show on the upcoming SOTT reissue because one of the ealry review said the audience are vey low in the mix and barely audible.

The energy in soundboards is different from studio

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

Genesia said:

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

omg I know which show you're talking about. She was sooo fucking irritating

Genesia said:

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

And kudos to those who recorded the 02 shows. They sat quietly through every song, never said a word as not to be that person in an audience recording.

But yeah, in general, audience recordings are something I don't typically fuck with.

Yeah, audience recordings can be a gamble. There are some very good ones though, but many a great show has been "enhanced" somewhat by certain audience members exuberance. But if that's the only option...

Soundboards really are a mixed bag. Some of my favorite bootlegs from any band, not just Prince, are matrixes where they take a dry soundboard and a good quality audience recording of the same show and blend them together so you get the soundboard clarity and the ambience of the venue

TrivialPursuit said:

Genesia said:

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

And kudos to those who recorded the 02 shows. They sat quietly through every song, never said a word as not to be that person in an audience recording.

But yeah, in general, audience recordings are something I don't typically fuck with.

That's us English for you. We internalise our enjoyment more and give a middle ground cheer, clap and sing-a-long.

I can't stand many of the U.S. audience recordings as there is usually someone who prefers the sound of their own voice over Prince's and screams a 'Wooooooooah' every thirty seconds.

Genesia said:

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

They are a mixed bag too for sure. Although sometimes there comes an audience boot that is so stellar it beats all soundboards like the famous Led Zeppelin audience bootleg of the LA Forum 1977 gigs

Joke's on all y'all.

I SIT.

In the driver's seat.

Also, it's a weird question because I have a lot of live Prince bootlegs and most of them sound like shit so of course the (few) one's I have from the board are preferrable. I wish he'd done that more - something similar to what the Greatful Dead and Pearl Ham did where they let/encouraged fans to record and trade shows in high quality.

And WTH is wrong with soundboard recordings?!?

.

Excuse me, but you must have a stereo engineer that knows what he/she is doing behind that mixer to get a good sound for recording[s].

[Edited 9/12/20 22:36pm]

I enjoy soundboards if:

- they are of a show I was at

- they are historically important (ie First Ave 83)

- the show had songs that weren't often performed

If it doesn't fit that criteria, it's less interesting to me. I like to have one from every tour, but I don't need every single show from every tour.

Exactly.

Genesia said:

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

biznis said:

Exactly.

Genesia said:

I hate audience recordings (in general). Why would I want to listen to some drunken bitch "Wooooo"ing at the top of her lungs and drowning out Prince?

Or just BAD sound quality? I own a ton of live recordings that are almost unlistenable because they were recorded by some dude with a walkman hidden in his jacket. The amount of live boots I have directly from the board are small but WAY better.

Shit, it's like watching some of the live stuff on YT where a lot of it is from some yahoo holding a cell phone compared to a few that are at least semi professional.

embmmusic said:

You say you want a discussion but are then rude, dismissive and insulting when someone disagrees with you. That isn't a discussion.

Make him a mod.

Genesia said:

I wanna hear the Dirty Mind Tour from Buffalo NY!!! Mom would NOT let My Sister take Me!!!!

mynameisnotsusan said:

I think it is horses for courses, there are some awesome audience recordings out there, and some thin unbalenced soundboards. There are also some really great soundboards that sound immaculate. I basically like whatever I can get hold of in the best quality available

mynameisnotsusan said:

I do have to say I prefer some (most?) of the ONA tour audience boots to the official release. And I've played the Prince Josh Cora boot far more than Indigo Nights cd.

I know what you mean

But I also think that's because those performances are arguably better than the officially released ones.

Content aside, I'd take a soundboard over an audience recording without blinking. Besides, there's hundreds if not thousands of all kind of audience recordings out there. Soundboard ones are way more scarce, hence more desirable, at least to me.