Maybe this is their new method of stopping bootleg recordings; playing so loud that everyone's phones will distort 
This isn't meant to be a crack on JLB, I love his vocals, but have been thinking about this lately. How he sounds so good live in person and then on recording you can hear the nuances more. Maybe the loudness is part of the reason behind that?
It is a major contributing factor to why JLB sounds a lot better in person, but I don't think that's the motivation behind the volume. Tbh, I think the sound guy is just going deaf.
Is this perhaps why that live album sounds like it's a 5.1 mix played on a stereo setup? And the crowd sounds awfully doctored.
This was ear-splitting live between the high average sound levels that DT has had for the past 5+ years and the fact that Opera Houses are designed explicitly for a person's voice to clearly reach from the stage to the nosebleeds. Putting high SPLs into such an acoustic environment is straight-up stupid. And yes, it was ear-splitting. I was there.
I can tell that they use the same clips of the crowd over and over again; there's a high pitched giggle in the left ear that plays every few seconds when there's cheering. I think the crowd is probably too subdued on the bootleg, but I haven't listened to it in years. It was certainly subdued being there; my dad thinks that a lot of the people in the upper mezzanine with us were Berklee parents.
I don't think that the audio was problematic on the source recordings for any reason. I think that the release sounds extremely artificial because that was the aesthetic they were pushing at the time. Live at Luna Park is one of the fakest-sounding things I've ever heard. I don't even like to watch it. Even the studio version of DTXII sounds pretty robotic throughout.
And just think: JP he stood right in front of those 4x12s during the encore. And this was just at the one show that I saw. He does this night after night.
I often wonder how much those in ear monitors block, if anything.
I have Etyomtic IEMs with triple-flange tips which block out more than the Heroes High Fidelity (and various Vic Firth/Zildjian rebadges). I would think that custom molded block out at least as much as them.
On-stage is actually not nearly as loud, as I understand it. Most of the time, JP's stage cabs were dummies; they were disconnected, and his real cabs were off-stage. Beyond that, they were mic'd. They run at a much lower volume than you may think.
In the nineties, though, back with the old-fashioned monitors, I believe that MP remarked that it was as loud on stage as it was in the audience.
Dream Theater at the Oakdale in CT on the Train of Thought tour was the loudest thing I've ever experienced, and that includes the time at Pratt and Whitney when I got to hang out in the jet engine testing facility. I was was legitimately disoriented walking out of the venue.
I know we discussed this elsewhere on the board, but my Dad has corroborated a similar account for the previous tour, the one with Queensryche.
CT/Oakdale this year was not particularly loud, btw, but it's been tolerable at every show I've seen there in at least ten years. Wallingford NIMBYs may have something to do with that. My cousin, seated under the balcony, thought it was pretty loud, but I dunno if he really knows what "loud" is yet. I was seated towards the back of the section directly afront the stage, and thought the levels were fine. I thought the same when I was directly in front of Petrucci for The Astonishing. I don't remember how loud the 2009 show was; I was eleven, but I think I'd remember if it was unbearably loud. I do recall a bit of short-term tinnitus after Worcester 2010.
Personally, I bring a set of the Heroes high fidelity (except I think they're Vic Firth branded rn) to concerts. Unfortunately, when I saw MP's Shattered Fortress in NYC last year (quite a loud show IIRC), I found that the sub-bass still reverberated through my skull, and so things still felt muffled. I wore them for the opening act (sry Max) but let MP's drums enter my ears raw. Couldn't hear much in the subway afterward though.
Few pro concerts have been as harsh on ears than kids in a large basement playing shitty punk. I think my brass snare drum and cheap B8-alloy high hats, played with teenage vigor along to music via headphones, have done more harm to my ears than
any concert. That got a lot better once I discovered IEMs.
Topic: Public service announcement for those attending shows this tour: BRING EAR PLUGS (Read 8884 times)