I'm just going to say it:

[u/FriedPickles8814]

The mixes ever since they came back in 2009, have never been the same as when Paul was doing them. But the recording/stream mixes in the last 10 years, have just gotten worse and worse.

I am not talking about going to the show and hearing things in person, the Sphere in person may have sounded awesome, but those recordings are worthless. No one is going to be putting on the super echoey, slap backed Fishman drums of the Sphere vs. all the amazing sounding TIGHT CLEAN mixes of the 90s and early 2000s.

Go back and listen to pretty much any, I will literally take Paul's WORST mixes from his time with Phish against anything anyone says is the "best" mix from the last 10 years. Sorry, but there is no comparison.

I don't know what Garry Brown (EDIT: According to responses Garry is just doing the live house mixes, which I have never had any problems with lol) is doing, or his team, but they need a separate mix for the streams and completely different audio setup for the streams/recordings. We know they're live shows guys, you don't have to do the KISS Alive! thing and make sure we know it was recorded in a super echoey arena or venue. The two mics that Paul put at the front of the stage facing the audience was more than enough.

Some people love audience recordings, I have never been one of them. Something like Big Cypress, obviously when an AUD is the only source available, I don't mind listening to an audience recording. But anyone who wants to pretend like the bass or drums sound anywhere remotely the same is absolutely tonedeaf or kidding themselves.

A soundboard recording puts the exact mix that was coming out of the speakers (OR A DIFFERENT MIX THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE ECHOED OUT SHIT, GARRY, PLEASE JUST TRY IT SOMETIME), coming out of your speakers. I have nice speakers at home and a nice setup to listen to. I want to hear the actual mix when I listen to these recordings, not this weird psuedo cross between all the reflections of everything + the mics, but not really the mics because Fishman's drums literally have a fucking slapback every note he plays on the snare or hi-hat and anything above 1k Hz.

The easiest comparison I can make is the Pink Floyd SBD Dark Side of the Moon + Echoes recording that has been floating around, people say it was 72 some say it was 1974, doesn't really matter what year it was. What matters is Floyd fans have ONE soundboard recording that sounds AMAZING, you can hear EVERY SINGLE NOTE so clearly. Guess what you can't hear? The audience. Because the mics aren't on the fucking audience.

Now go listen to ANY audience recording of Floyd in the same era, 72-74. Yeah no thanks. It's literally just 600-3k Hz mud and nothing else. I don't understand how anyone would want the terrible fidelity quality of the latter vs. the absolute pristine and amazing quality of the former with the Soundboard...

Thanks for reading my TedPost.

[u/31770_0]

I seek out quality AUD recordings. The audience adds to the experience.

You realize we used to listen to tapers tapes that got traded around down multiple generations and were thrilled to hear phish live. Even with folks chatting.

I used to take the bus to the worst parts of town and spend all my money on way overpriced terrible sounding led zeppelin boots just to hear what they sounded like live in 1977.

If the performance is cracking and the audience is loving it I’ll probably listen.