Collected Animals

I was just thinking about this while watching the Sydney Opera House recording on Youtube. Every professionally recorded Panda Bear gig I've watched sounds bad. Like, "Shreds" bad. My working theory is there's something about soundboard audio that makes his shows come off really goofy - most likely a result of mixing live vocals with what are essentially prerecorded tracks. It's all very awkward. You can hear it a little in the sample heavy talk show appearances as well (think Conan, Letterman), while purely "live" sets like the Sung Tong tours are great in every context. Acoustic instruments filling a venue and being picked up by microphones and all that.

Of course Panda's concerts sound phenomenal when you're physically in that space, and fan made videos are ironically a better listening experience because of this. I just don't think they translate very well to directly recorded audio. My two cents.

There are a few exceptions imo (Pitchfork 2019?) but yeah, generally his soundboards sound really bad/limp... And unfortunately when you search like "panda bear live" on YouTube that's the first stuff you get. Pretty frustrating... They're still good but not the third-eye opening experience the boots usually seem to be

For a while, I was searching my brain for a reason he hasn't released a live album yet, and this would make a lot of sense if this is why. I think the ideal high quality Panda live recording would rely on a good mix of well-placed mic audio, which takes more time/money/coordination with the venue than a soundboard recording would

Agreed minus this, which is literal perfection and 100x better than the original

For a while, I was searching my brain for a reason he hasn't released a live album yet, and this would make a lot of sense if this is why. I think the ideal high quality Panda live recording would rely on a good mix of well-placed mic audio, which takes more time/money/coordination with the venue than a soundboard recording would

homebase was a live album, right? it sounds good

lol i was gonna mention that then figured a self-release from 18 years ago probably wasn't suuper relevant

reminder that you can see the eyes though

Yeah this has been a point of contention in the past, even got NYC Taper pretty salty lol!

NYC Taper wrote:

Sorry to disappoint. There were no soundboard recordings made of the Governor's Island show. I had a VIP pass and authorization, but the soundboard engineer would not plug me in. So I ran four microphones from inside the cage. No one else was recording the show. In the long run, I'm kind of glad he didn't, since the sound quality inside the venue was so amazing and I had the perfect spot. Most of you have heard the results. A board feed would have sounded flat and lifeless, as they often do. So I guess you have your answer about the bonus download card.

nah......not really . nyctaper actually has captured it BETTER than a desk mix would .
he's right.
with nice kraut microphones too (thats important) .
I'm gonna do my panda best to master it up 4 u all with my buddy who attended , nick , and make it uber super duper .
fat & full .
very xmas pk x

It's probably not been properly mastered (it's expensive) .
just well recorded ..... I'm gonna master it up . It will not sound exactly like the 'version' u know .
Mastering kind of just takes the original and makes the frequencies make out with each other .
it can induce focus to individial sounds , but also overall cohesion......it's not easy to describe without being boringly technical (see wkipedia or sumwhere) .
But you'll like it .......or you can degrade it all u like if not .haha
hav a good one xx

NYC Taper wrote:

jonisaok wrote:

It seems silly to include a download card for a freely available live recording... I still have my fingers crossed that they made a legit recording of the show.

Love that. A "legit" recording. Some of you people are just complete idiots.

What show is that?

And yes that YCCOM is special

I'm sure most of you have seen it, but this is the pfork one I was talking about. The quality is incredible, will probably go in the pile of shows like Malta that we inexplicably don't have full versions of...

[youtube]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WBlL-WvfQLE&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Damn nyctaper goes hard

What show is that?

2010-09-11
The Beach at Governors Island, New York, NY, USA

honestly i think this is an issue with soundboards in general tbh

people party dvd is an official release right?

idk how it works. straight from the soundboard is usually got awful. i guess they also record the room and add that so you can get as close to hearing what the crowd is hearing

also whats the story behind the 2009 9-11 atp recording? that is probably my fav panda recording (other than the god tier atp demos)

honestly i think this is an issue with soundboards in general tbh

generally yes, but sometimes its still magic. thinking of the 2004 cats cradle AC boot

Someone mentioned it but homebase was also a soundboard recording right? because thats one of my most-listened panda recordings, really incredible. i think the general dustiness of the sounds he was using at the time helps though. compared to the cleanliness of the greaper / buoys sounds

Panda Bear - 2015-03-06: La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, France

seems to be a good soundboard recording, maybe slightly quiet but the vocals are pristene and lots of stereo details I hadn't heard in most boots

It's always kind of hard for me to listen to boots from a tour I missed but that's a mean boot

So my dad's favorite musician of all time was Jeff Beck. He saw him live at least 10+ times. He passed a few weeks ago and we've been talking a lot about him. Recently we found out there was a bootleg from a show we saw together when I was 12 years old (i'm 32 now ). It was a soundboard recording and it was one of the worst mixed live recordings I ever heard.
Everything was very dry and the guitar and snare drum were blisteringly louder than everything else.
I was able to save this recording by adding "stage" reverb and EQ and stuff to mimic the live environment.

It really was the perfect example of what goes wrong with soundboard recordings.
The front of house mixing engineer has to tune everything to the room itself That's such an integral point of the soundcheck. The room acts as an amplifier and resonator. That's why a recording like NYC taper's will beat a soundboard every time because the soundboard recording is a dry snapshot of the sounds being projected out into the venue and not what's being heard by the participants.(NYCtaper also blows almost every other taper out of the water because of skill and equipment). A soundboard recording might be clearer but that's just going to make all the weird things that much more apparent. While NYCtaper is setting up microphones to record what the audience and mixing engineer hears. The venue is a big ass speaker!

Sound is weird as fuck everyone!

The arte one in 2018 (part of the math and bouyes) is fucking perfect

Agreed minus this, which is literal perfection and 100x better than the original

holy shit never seen this, amazing..Lol Jimmy Fallon being like 'thanks buddy' to Sonic Boom is funny...

i got to see the 2 of his NYC shows that tour, amazing. The Masonic temple and Webster Hall, so incredible. Gotta be some live recordings of those around huh?

Slippi's Applesauce wrote:

Agreed minus this, which is literal perfection and 100x better than the original

holy shit never seen this, amazing..Lol Jimmy Fallon being like 'thanks buddy' to Sonic Boom is funny...

i got to see the 2 of his NYC shows that tour, amazing. The Masonic temple and Webster Hall, so incredible. Gotta be some live recordings of those around huh?

I remember clocking out of work late at night when I worked at home depot (lol) right as this started live on TV. I couldn't believe what I was seeing as I didn't know he was the musical guest because I hate fallon. My coworkers were not interested at all. An all-timer.