A complaint on a matter that we already know

[The Holy Tune]

I know that it's been said a million times, JMX isn't as audible as we all would like to, but after this thing I found out tonight, it bothered be really much.

I was listening to Fatal Tragedy from the Happy Holidays release and I wanted to find a video for it. After comparing the two recordings, I found out how quiet JMX was at the concert and how greatly mixed the HH release was. He was playing with a lot of pleasure at the video, or at least I believe that he had pleasure there (there's also a link for all you to see). And I came to a conclusion that we're missing tons of details at most of the concerts, this makes me really sad and bothered.
knowing that we can't do anything about it makes me even more sad!

Yeah, I probably wanted to get this off my chest by repeating the problem which was spoken of for a million times, but I suppose I feel a little better now!

Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eR1polyAFQ

[TheAtliator]

You totally can't hear John Myung live at all, and it is really unfortunate. I agree.

[TheGreatPretender]

I don't know if I trust the sound quality of an audience recording. When I saw them in March, he sounded great in person, and quite audible. In fact, on the couple of songs that I kind of wasn't quite as into because of hearing them too often, or too recently, I decided to focus on Myung and pay attention to the bass, and I could hear it just fine.

[BlobVanDam]

When I saw them yesterday, I could hear JM fine. He maybe could have been a little more noticeable, but for a live mix, those lower frequencies can sound muddy and boomy, so that could be a factor too. But he was definitely audible.
It will also vary by show, venue, and your location in the venue. There are a lot of variables.

[TheGreatPretender]

When I saw them yesterday, I could hear JM fine. He maybe could have been a little more noticeable, but for a live mix, those lower frequencies can sound muddy and boomy, so that could be a factor too. But he was definitely audible.
It will also vary by show, venue, and your location in the venue. There are a lot of variables.

How did you like the show?

[BlobVanDam]

When I saw them yesterday, I could hear JM fine. He maybe could have been a little more noticeable, but for a live mix, those lower frequencies can sound muddy and boomy, so that could be a factor too. But he was definitely audible.
It will also vary by show, venue, and your location in the venue. There are a lot of variables.

How did you like the show?

Nothing unexpected from the show itself, having seen BTFW, but they performed flawlessly, and JLB was in top form. Near perfect sound from the sound area too.

[The Holy Tune]

I heard them live in Turkey in July, and surprisingly JMX was the loudest one. But the sound systems were crap and that resulted in MM's kicks and JMX to be very loud (not in a good way though). I also found many quality audio recordings from countries like England and the US, still he was pretty quiet on most of those. Wish he was as loud as Live at Budokan...

[Skeever]

You totally can't hear John Myung live at all, and it is really unfortunate. I agree.

[Stadler]

How much of this is that idea that maybe he isn't readily discernible, but if he WASN'T there it would be more obvious than it seems?  Does that make sense?

[El Barto]

Then venue they play at down here is capable of producing wonderful bass at any volume. It's also the venue that Yes plays and with Squire being towards the top of the mix it's pretty remarkable how well it all sounds. JMX is rarely noticeable down here, in favor of everybody else, and usually too much JLB. On the occasions where there's a bass passage with everybody else quiet he sounds awesome. It's really a shame and it's also something I have to conclude is by design. Honestly, though, I've never, ever been impressed with DT's live sound. I think they go too much towards a generic "metal" live sound which undermines the individual instruments.

[Onno]

The whole video has almost no volume on the low frequencies. You can't hear the bass drums and the low frequencies on the guitar either. I sincerely doubt that this lack of low frequencies is caused by anything other than the quality of the camera microphone. In the three times that I've seen DT play live, the sound wasn't always too good but I think JMX was clearly audible at all those shows.

[erwinrafael]

If you can not hear the bass drum in BtFW, I think the question mark really is your sound system. The bass drums are very audible, it's part of what made MM's performance in TSF so remarkable.

[Sycsa]

Yeah, the bass drums are loud and fat as hell. Excellent drum sound overall & incredible performance from MM.

[Onno]

To clarify, I'm not talking about BTFW, but about the Youtube link in the OP. Sorry for that.

[PixelDream]

All the times I saw DT, JLB was always lowest in the mix. Like they were trying to hide his vocals. This has totally changed since the ADTOE tour.

[adamack]

Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eR1polyAFQ

Wow, Petrucci actually almost perfectly nailed the Fatal Tragedy solo!!!

I used to think that JP bit off a bit more than he could chew with the one run into the sweep, but he nails it almost perfectly here: https://youtu.be/-eR1polyAFQ?t=6m37s

I just figured that he'd never be able to nail that live.

When I used to be obsessed with guitar, I can honestly say that one run was one of the top 5 hardest things I'd ever try to learn. Not saying I was anywhere NEAR as good as JP, but I usually could learn bits of his material up to speed. This section though, I never even came CLOSE.

Mainly because it is played so high up the fretboard, there is SO little room for your fingers. The sweep occurs in the 20-22nd fret area.

The kicker was that on Live Scenes, he totally just bailed on this part: https://youtu.be/Yr1PwtCZzIA?t=11m19s

JP is amazing, because he has truly improved technically so much over the years. He is always on his game, but he is closer to perfect these days than ever.