Rush In Rio - Not Impressed

[Guy Robinson]

I picked this up this DVD at the Future Shop this evening. I am not sure why it was available early. Hopefully it is not the one that will be available next Tuesday. This one does not have DTS, only Dolby 5.1. I thought there was supposed to be a DTS stream? Anyway, it is the worse concert I have heard on DVD. It makes the Led Zeppelin set look like the finest example of live recording technique. Imagine standing in a hallway at the back of the auditorium listening to the concert and that is pretty well what you have here. Maybe I am exagerating but I have done everything to try to balance it. I think there is way too much crowd noise in the front and rears and Geddy Lee sounds way back in the mix. The rest of the instruments sound distant as well. I tried to adjust the center to bump Geddy in valume and this seemed to work somewhat but turning the center off entirely worked better. It mixed his voice into the main channels which increased it. I am not impressed. I will fool somemore with it tomorrow but at this point we still don't have a Live Rush concert on DVD. Who mixed this thing? I would like to put my hands around his neck and........

Also I don't usually have boomy bass but I had to put my sub level below 1/4 and even at that there was way too much bass. Something is seriously wrong with this.

 

[timbre4]

That's disappointing! The first mistake was not including a DTS track, the actual mixing must be the same approach as Paul McCartney's Back In the US. What a shame as this should be state of the art DVD-V for a recent production and all that this makes possible.

We should be able to purchase Show Of Hands or Exit Stage Left domestically by now. Those imports on eBay have been tempting...

 

[Guy Robinson]

Okay I'm not nuts and I am not on any medication. In fact I don't drink or take drugs. I say all this because I am now going to recommend this disc after calling it many things.

I really wanted this to be a great concert and it is better now that I have fooled with it some more. I turned the center back on and set all the speakers to large and turned down the rears to get rid of some of the audience noise AND TURNED DOWN THE VOLUME IN GENERAL and it is now quite listenable. I now think it is worth getting. Both the other times I tried it I had been playing some hi-rez discs directly before it and the contrast between the Rush DVD and the hi-rez discs was just too much. Today I put it on before I played anything else. I think the worse thing about the recording is the amount of crowd noise. Then again it is a concert and I have never seen a crowd get so into a concert. Oh, and the video is top notch. It looks like 1:85

In conclusion when it comes to sound I am very picky and I was expecting the very best DTS sound available when I picked it up and I found Dolby 5.1. Now I realize that it is not reference quality but I am VERY happy with it. The other factor was that Tom Sawyer which starts the concert seems to be the worse mix of the lot which was disappointing as it is my favourite song.

In conclusion I am sorry for getting you guys stired up and perhaps being a little harsh on this title. Go ahead and buy it. Just don't expect it to take over as the best sounding concert in your collection as I expected it to be.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Okay I'm not nuts and I am not on any medication. In fact I don't drink or take drugs. I say all this because I am now going to recommend this disc after calling it many things.

I really wanted this to be a great concert and it is better now that I have fooled with it some more. I turned the center back on and set all the speakers to large and turned down the rears to get rid of some of the audience noise AND TURNED DOWN THE VOLUME IN GENERAL and it is now quite listenable. I now think it is worth getting. Both the other times I tried it I had been playing some hi-rez discs directly before it and the contrast between the Rush DVD and the hi-rez discs was just too much. Today I put it on before I played anything else. I think the worse thing about the recording is the amount of crowd noise. Then again it is a concert and I have never seen a crowd get so into a concert. Oh, and the video is top notch. It looks like 1:85

In conclusion when it comes to sound I am very picky and I was expecting the very best DTS sound available when I picked it up and I found Dolby 5.1. Now I realize that it is not reference quality but I am VERY happy with it. The other factor was that Tom Sawyer which starts the concert seems to be the worse mix of the lot which was disappointing as it is my favourite song.

In conclusion I am sorry for getting you guys stired up and perhaps being a little harsh on this title. Go ahead and buy it. Just don't expect it to take over as the best sounding concert in your collection as I expected it to be.

And Tom Sawyer is probably the worst as the crowd starts out at a peak and the noise is very high at the beginning of the concert and seems to get better as the concert progresses and the crowd settles down.

 

[Guy Robinson]

And Tom Sawyer is probably the worst as the crowd starts out at a peak and the noise is very high at the beginning of the concert and seems to get better as the concert progresses and the crowd settles down.

And now I have listened to most of it. It is worth the price for Neil's drum solo alone. TURN THAT TRACK UP. I had a complaint from my wife 2 floors up that everything was shaking. The sound is awesome when there is just one instrument singled out such as this without much crowd noise.

 

[timbre4]

Glad to hear of these highlights, will make a move. Best Buy is offering the audio CDs and the DVD for $35 total this week.

 

[Gary]

Guy - you were right first time - i was eagerley waiting for this DVD and still can not believe how irritating it is ! The audience is WAY too loud drowning out vocals and even the instrumentals . Tom Sawyer had me sitting there shaking my head !! its a real shame as they are a great live band and its a good gig and good set-list. I tried turning the rears down but it doesn't get any better.. and to think Lifeson is credited with audio mix ! what was he thinking .

 

[Guy Robinson]

Guy - you were right first time - i was eagerley waiting for this DVD and still can not believe how irritating it is ! The audience is WAY too loud drowning out vocals and even the instrumentals . Tom Sawyer had me sitting there shaking my head !! its a real shame as they are a great live band and its a good gig and good set-list. I tried turning the rears down but it doesn't get any better.. and to think Lifeson is credited with audio mix ! what was he thinking .

It seems to get better once the concert progresses and they adjust the sound to make up for that sound check that they weren't able to perform in advance of the concert taking place.

I must admit that I have only listened to it a few times since I got it. I always reach for something else that sounds better. It's hard to be so shallow but sound quality really matters to me. I can't stand listening to something that sounds inferior even if I love the group. I have a feeling that over time it will go the way of my Led Zeppelin DVD (ie-sell it to someone else).