Hey folks,
I've been reading the posts regarding the DVD and I'm thrilled that you are finding it entertaining. It was a challenge. I would like to clear up some of the questions that have been posed regarding the DVD.
The glitch in Down Deep into the Pain was unavoidable. This DVD has a tremendous amount of digital information crammed onto it and we had to use the largest capacity DVD for the concert footage that was available (DVD9), if we wanted the show to run without having to cut it up and put part of it on a second disk. We decided to use the second disk for the additional stuff only.
As a result, there is a point in the DVD where the laser needs to reverse it's direction and read the second layer that is imbedded on the same disk. Inevitably, whenever this is the case, (in any DVD) there is a point at which the video freezes for a short moment. Usually this glitch is hidden in a blank spot or a scene change. When we saw where the authors put the change over, I wasn't happy about it but the option to change it so it was more imperceptible would have delayed the release of the DVD another month and costs would have gone up so I decided to leave it. There is nothing wrong with your DVD player. In hindsight I should have taken the time and spent the dough because I didn't think it would be so much of an issue. Sorry, next time I'll be more careful.
This DVD was composed from 2 shows and sometimes the audio for one night was cheated in over the video from another. Obviously this could work now and then in a few shots and was necessary in order to utilize the best footage. There was a camera in the pit that was moving, a crane in the back of stage left that was mostly on the drums, a locked camera in the audience and a hand help camera who's operator was attempting to be more artistic than the other guys. Sometimes the footage was just not there and needed to be cheated in. That means the video may not necessarily be what originally happened on the audio but every bit of concern was taken to make these particular parts look transparent and un noticeable.
Yes, there is a lot of footage of my right hand. Trust me, when I'm using that angle it's because there is nothing else available. It was out of our control but all in all It works for me. As you can notice the blur footage was someone's attempt to be artistic and is all we had that was workable at those points (in Little Wing). It doesn't bother me too much and after a while I was starting to dig it. Kind of sultry and romantic, bla bla bla.
Regarding overdubs, there are actually very few and I'm the culprit. When I got the guitar for Jibboom it was out of tune so I needed to cheat in audio from a different night and overdub a few riffs that were hurting my ears.
In Incantation, I could not stand what I played for the first part of the solo so I tweaked it. Some of the toms were not miked properly so I had to add a few toms.
The beginning of Liberty, I hit a pretty bad note so I fixed it.
I like the way the audio sounds. We worked pretty hard on it. It's all live and the reason it sounds so clean is the way I mix.
For the drums I went through and took out all the space and leakage in the toms, snare and kick. This took endless days tweezing all the space between every attack but the result is a clean sounding kit. During a live show the drums pick up all the rumble and noise from the stage and this is the only way to make it clean. It's painstaking and most people would not do it but we are freaks here at the Mothership.
I did the same for all the instruments, this way the only ambience you hear is from the audience mics. Some people like all the noise. The noise sounds like noise to me so I had to operate - Dr. Vai you know.
I tried to make the best use of the audio real estate available by instrument placement in the mix, proper mix levels, massive E.Q. and compression etc. But this is the way you mix.
All in all, I'm so glad I decided to film and record these shows as it's a nice little snapshot of that time in our lives and the beautiful audiences that visit our shows.
I wish it all could have been perfect but all in all it's not bad, I actually like it a lot and am very proud of the musicians and the crew for pulling it off.
I am also grateful that you are finding it entertaining because that's what I'm here for.
Peace and the happiest of holidays.
s
Last edited by Steve Himself on Thu Dec 18, 2003 3:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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