Former VH Drum Tech: Band Filmed Shows with Multi-Cam

[Silexxx]

https://www.vhnd.com/2023/09/25/former-van-halen-drum-tech-says-band-filmed-shows-with-multi-cameras-video/

He mentions that MSG show was filmed and also possibly Tokyo Dome.

[Silexxx]

Here he talks about it at 26:40 mark

[Terry]

Meh.

Listened to several tracks off the Tokyo Dome album online for free...competent musicianship and - to be sure - the vocals were live, so there's something to be said for that, I suppose. Nothing I heard made me want to hear it again or actually purchase the album. My reaction was more along the lines of a head-shake: "after all those decades of the band not releasing any live stuff with Roth - and after multiple live releases with Hagar - the band puts out a live album from the ADKOT tour, with Roth well past it and Ed's kid in the band?" Tokyo Dome came off to me more like an insult with a raised middle finger, yet another 'take it or leave it and go fuck yourself either way' just like the Van Halen III album, the 2004 tour and BOBW tunes with Hagar and Ed chucking out Anthony and getting his kid in the band.

There's enough phone recorded video of the Mach 4 lineup out there...I would have zero interest if a pro-shot vid of the 2007/2012/2015 shows was put out. Well, maybe not ZERO interest, but I wouldn't qualify any unreleased pro-shot shows from those tours as a "treasure trove": were pro-shot footage of those tours never to be released I can't say as I'd give a shit. Not in comparison to the CVH years/tours.

[Seshmeister]

I've only bought 2 or 3 albums on my phone because I just stream everything and one of them is the Tokyo Dome album. Sometimes this means when I'm driving or whatever it will come on playing something like Jump and I find myself scrambling as fast as I can to switch it off in same way I do when the Spotify algorithm decides I would like to listen to Dreams.

I can't find the heart to delete especially after spending real hard cash on it but it's an odd situation. I think I would prefer them to release video from the first tour if they have a sober Ed one because although the setlist is less interesting, Dave had made far fewer dumb 'rewrites' to his vocal melodies back then. Plus we already have good footage of the last tour.

[Rikk]

I personally really enjoy TOKYO DOME. It's a raw performance. The musicianship is excellent. Dave is...well, Dave. I've listened to MANY a boot from the classic days and watched many a pro-shot from the classic days. To me, the band's live peak was still the first couple of tours...in terms of everybody just having so much energy and Dave singing a ton. But by 1984, even though Dave was dancing more/singing less, I still think it was amazing. What a show.

Van Halen were like KISS...very much a visual band (though much better musicians and they made less mistakes than KISS).

TOKYO DOME is standard reunion fare. It's not perfect. Dave completely forgets the middle-eight of HEAR ABOUT IT LATER. They didn't overdub anything. It's completely live. But that's one of the things I love about it.

I saw that reunion band three times (2007, 2008, 2012) and I loved every show. So TOKYO DOME is like a nice souvenir. The version of AIN'T TALKIN' 'BOUT LOVE is truly awesome...with some nice jamming, Dave rapping...

One of the reasons I detest LIVE: RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW is not just because it's Sammy. Honestly, that's the least of the album's problems. It's because RHRN is completely overdubbed/re-created in the studio. All of the spontaneity of a good live performance is destroyed. It sounds like a crappily-mixed studio album.

I could actually sit and watch LIVE WITHOUT A NET today and still enjoy it. At least it's almost completely live (except for some of the backing vocals)...and even though it's Sammy, the band is still really good.

RHRN is an abomination. It's one of the worst live albums ever made...partly because it has no mistakes...and no heart. (And a terrible setlist...God, I hate FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. Worst Van Halen album ever.)

TOKYO DOME is the band still being a good, professional live unit...spontaneous. It's fun.

[Rikk]

And by the way, one of our posters made the edit of that last concert Sesh posted. And it's a GREAT live video. I've been working on a sort of special edition, trying to take the mono soundboard and isolate the instruments so that I can make a stereo mix (but it's taken a long time because, well, who has time?). If I ever finish it with the stereo mix, I'll find a way to post it here.

[Hardrock69]

The Hollywood Bowl mix is in stereo.

[Hardrock69]

The soundboard recording was originally mono, but the audio track of the above video is a 16-bit 48k stereo matrix (AUD + SBD), as the audience recording was in stereo.

The audio is a mix of soundboard and audience recordings direct from the masters. The taper was in a good spot, so the audience recording could almost be mistaken for SBD.

My only real issue is that turning up the low end on the soundboard recording causes the kick drum to overpower everything else.

I suspect most people came to hear Ed, not Alex's kick drum.

As it was, I had to do a lot of work just to get the soundboard recording listenable.

The audience recording had low end for days, but again, if you turn it up too much, everything sinks into the mud.

So I added just as much low end as I thought it needed. Most people have this thing on their audio device.....it is called a "knob" and it has "bass" written above it.
I figured if people want a more muffled sound, all they have to do is turn the knob up.

My main goal was just to provide a clean recording with a good mix.

I am sure separating the instruments is a difficult task, Rikk. If you can pull that off, more power to you.

I always second and third-guess all my mix and editing decisions, and am my own worst critic, so the video above pretty much is as good as it can possibly get.

The only thing that could be better would be if the band (ha!) released a line cut of the video they were shooting that night with a nice stereo mix,
but somehow I doubt that will ever happen.

That was my motivation to begin with. I figured the band would never release an official recording, I had the two audio recordings and a flock of youtube video, and I figured I could make a great multi-cam video with great sound.

Now I feel that making such a good bootleg almost made it certain they will NEVER release an official video.

Why would they spend the time and cash to do so when it has already been done? Though when right in the midst of
doing such projects, I tend to figure the artists will generally ignore my efforts anyway.

I finished it in late December of 2015, gave DVD copies to some friends who forgot about it also, and then shelved it.

In August 2020, I decided "If I die tomorrow, nobody will ever see the HD version". So I upped it to youtube.
Less than 2 months later, Ed died instead.

How was I to know that was going to be Van Halen's last show? I just thought I was making a video of the last show of the tour, NOT the last show EVER.

I have done a lot of interesting things in life, but the above video currently has almost 629,000 views, making it the largest audience I have ever reached with
any of my creations.

The crazy thing is.....it is not just a video. It is an unintentional major piece of rock history.
At one point after Ed died I almost took it down, as I did not want to be seen as taking advantage of Ed's death, but then I did this just to give away to rock fans anyway, and so I finally decided people would want it left up.
Like Indiana Jones says... "It belongs in a museum where everyone can see it".

And so there it stays.