OFFICIAL: MADONNA: Sticky & Sweet BD Thread

[CCTM2000]

Figured I'd start up this one. Has anyone seen any preorder information on this or spec information as well? I have high hopes for this one since its been sooooo long in the making and may make or break reissues of past M concerts on BD.

[KilloWertz]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-mo...hlight=madonna
https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-mo...s-blu-ray.html

[jjbsn5192]

Originally Posted by CCTM2000

Figured I'd start up this one. Has anyone seen any preorder information on this or spec information as well? I have high hopes for this one since its been sooooo long in the making and may make or break reissues of past M concerts on BD.

oh great Ray of Light is on it!

ill be getting that!

[nametag]

It's a shame that it doesn't appear that any of the songs from the changed setlist from the second leg of the tour will be included (as extras, or clips, or whatever). Replacing the god-awful rock version of Hung Up with what looked like a great update of Frozen was certainly a good move, but sadly it would appear not represented here, as Argentina was in the first leg.

Oh well, we'll always have YouTube.

As a sidenote, I'm guessing this is virtually the same as the Sky1 broadcast a few months ago. Some of the mixing especially the vocals which sounded part re-recorded and part auto-tuned to death was a bit problematic for me...

Still though, it was a great concert (Like a Prayer and Into the Groove especially phenomenal) and first Madonna on blu (unless we count Die Another Day)! God, let Evita be soon, that's the thing Madonna-related I'm most craving to be upgraded.

[Blu350z]

I would like Confessions Tour on BD.

[TheManInBlu]

Originally Posted by Blu350z

I would like Confessions Tour on BD.

Same here. A much better tour than the Sticky & Sweet one in my opinion.

[Teabaggins]

Madonna stopped being sticky & sweet a while ago.

now she is more like "dry & sour"

[masoud90]

Does anyone know the setlist for the BD?

I want Confessions also...but any Madge concert is good.

[benzgrl]

Originally Posted by Teabaggins

Madonna stopped being sticky & sweet a while ago.

now she is more like "dry & sour"

Really? Is this necessary? Let's see how you look when you're 52. If you don't like her, don't thread crap!

[kianlaw]

Originally Posted by masoud90

Does anyone know the setlist for the BD?

Intro/Candy Shop
Beat Goes On
Human Nature
Vogue
Die Another Day
Into The Groove
Heartbeat
Borderline
She's Not Me
Music
Rain/Here Comes The Rain Again
Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
Spanish Lesson
Miles Away
La Isla Bonita
Doli Doli
You Must Love Me/Don't Cry For Me Argentina
Get Stupid
4 Minutes
Like A Prayer
Ray Of Light
Hung Up
Give It 2 Me

[masoud90]

Mostly excited for the Human Nature/Gimme More collaboration.

[rljnunez]

Originally Posted by masoud90

Mostly excited for the Human Nature/Gimme More collaboration.

1 line doesn't make it a collaboration or mashup..

[nametag]

Originally Posted by rljnunez

1 line doesn't make it a collaboration or mashup..

It's also one of the ones where she straps on an electric guitar and sounds pretty awful. the others where she does the same are Borderline, Hung Up (the worst offender) and Ray of Light. She also goes acoustic guitar for Miles Away and You Must Love Me but they aren't so bad.

The highlights of the performance are definitely Like a Prayer, Into the Groove, La Isla Bonita, She's Not Me, Music and Vogue. also, on that setlist, Get Stupid, Rain/Here Comes the Rain Again, Die Another Day are all video/dancers interludes.

[moonstruck]

Originally Posted by benzgrl

Really? Is this necessary? Let's see how you look when you're 52. If you don't like her, don't thread crap!

I'm a Celine Dion fan so you're getting off easy. You've got to develop a thick skin because they just want to get to you. That being said...I hope the S&S blu ray is excellent for the fans that enjoy Madonna.

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by nametag

As a sidenote, I'm guessing this is virtually the same as the Sky1 broadcast a few months ago. Some of the mixing especially the vocals which sounded part re-recorded and part auto-tuned to death was a bit problematic for me...

That's what her live shows are, essentially. A mix of live vocals, recorded, and auto tune goodness all wrapped up by a big computer and then sent out over the stadium. Gone are the days when she either lip synched or didn't (though she was one of the first artists to record a "live" version of the song to sing along to on stage, unlike people like Mariah Carey who still haven't learned to do that), it's this weird monster of vocal scrubbing now.

It will be interesting to hear what they sound like on the finished BD. I've got a bunch of audio recordings of S&S which have the qualities you mention - as do recordings/boots of just about everything from Drowned World on. They are engineered to sound best in a stadium environment, but not neccesarily for recording and reproduction. I'm sure it will sound great, but probably not as "authentic", for lack of a better word, as hearing the computer-fused vocals live.

[nametag]

Yeah, but still the Confessions Tour DVD vocals sounded more, well, 'authentic' than the S&S broadcast...even if they were just as edited, they just sounded like they had a bit more of a 'rough' quality to them and a bit more depth, I dunno...

But I didn't think that literally every song was a mix of backing/ pre recorded vocals and that they can be auto-tuned live? Technology these days, eh. Still, You Must Love Me, for one, sounded 100% live (and great) when I saw her. But then, it's easier to sing well when you're sitting down singing a slow song as opposed to using a jump rope or whatever!

The recently-leaked rough cut DVD of the re-invention tour and the drowned world tour dvd in general have vocals which sound more like they really are live...even if the same sort of process happened on those, it's a shame S&S doesn't sound a bit more like that. Hopefully a lossless audio track will make everything sound better than the broadcast anyway!

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by nametag

Yeah, but still the Confessions Tour DVD vocals sounded more, well, 'authentic' than the S&S broadcast...even if they were just as edited, they just sounded like they had a bit more of a 'rough' quality to them and a bit more depth, I dunno...

But I didn't think that literally every song was a mix of backing/ pre recorded vocals and that they can be auto-tuned live? Technology these days, eh. Still, You Must Love Me, for one, sounded 100% live (and great) when I saw her. But then, it's easier to sing well when you're sitting down singing a slow song as opposed to using a jump rope or whatever!

I think you'll find that comparing the Confessions DVD to the S&S broadcast has one key difference - mix time. The broadcast version goes out live, with little time for mixing for home use. I bet if you compare a boot of the S&S broadcast and the mix on the new Blu, you'll definitely hear a difference. I have quite a few Confessions shows, and you hear the same thing - but not on the slicked out DVD they had time to mix for home viewing months later.

I don't have the specifics as to what song has what type of tech/mix on it, but it's become pretty well-known that she has a whole computer team working on the real-time mixing of her shows. In fact, she schedules the tours around the availability of the people she trusts to do so. So while she is singing the entire time, it's getting mixed live for the stadium. Now, when you record that mix, adding another dimension of recording, it doesn't sound as good because it's the sound intended for the stadium to hear, not a sound produced for optimal recording quality.

You can really hear it on some of the high quality Confessions boots. When recorded, and listened to in stereo, you can pretty clearly make out the different sounds making up the overall mix. You can hear the live voice, the filter put on top of it, and the mix of both. On some songs, it's quite striking.

All that said, I love Madonna so please don't take this as criticizm, because it's honestly not. I just find the production of a show like that fascinating and read/absorb/ask all the questions I can about how it's done, and this is my current understanding of how the vocals are handled on her tours these days.

I'm sure the mix on Blu will be awesome, but I don't expect it to be an accurate historical recording of what the audience heard - I expect it to be a beautifully mixed version of it.

[nametag]

Ah I see, I find it interesting as well so thanks for enlightening me - I don't read it as criticism. I love Madonna as well but she isn't the strongest singer in the world (though she is better than some critics give her credit for, particularly in the last 15 yrs), and singing and dancing at the same time like she does must be really hard and plenty of other pop stars do the same (many, I'm sure, in a cheaper/simpler way). It is interesting how there isn't a lip-synch/live either/or these days though - in the case of shows like this, you can't really say the vocals are entirely one or the other.

Looking forward to this blu though. I hope we get more Madonna on blu in future, maybe eventually my dream Madonna HD boxset of every tour (including the unreleased-on-DVD RIT and BAT), and every music video (including unreleased ones) she's made, will be released. Plus Evita. I can dream...

[gazza1975]

Great to see people discussing Madonna here ! I'm looking forward to this Blu-Ray too, it's just a shame that it's of her weakest tour both song wise and image wise. Yeah sure the stage and screens looked good(But serioulsy she looked awful apart from the Gypsy Segment of the show) but all the old songs were remixed(A rave version of Like A Prayer !! What was she thinking) badly and the new album(Hard Candy) is pretty mediocre(Apart from Devil Wouldn't Recognise You and Miles Away which were the highlights for me on this tour) I'm just so glad that Re-Invention finally leaked in all its uncut, no fast paced cutting and overdubbed sound. Would love to see all her Tours on blu-ray and while were at maybe some decent extra's like the backdrop video's and not those bloody photo galleries which is all Warners ever seems to put on as extra's.

[nametag]

Originally Posted by gazza1975

all the old songs were remixed(A rave version of Like A Prayer !! What was she thinking) badly

Seriously?! That was the best performance without a doubt for me, when I watched it it was so dramatic and practically sent shivers down my spine! Everyone went absolutely crazy for it. I think it was genius to echo LAP's 'feels like home' with the track, 'Feels Like Home', it kept all the power it ever had (and it's my favourite song of hers, like, ever) whilst making it really different..it was like soul-rave, haha. I think it's great that old songs are reinvented with each tour. Into the Groove and Music were almost just as well done, with Vogue coming just behind.

The problem is when she does 'rock remixes' - these rarely ever work, which is what makes Hung Up and Ray of Light so bad, and what ruined I Love New York and Ray of Light on the Confessions Tour for me as well. I don't mind the acoustic guitar strumming, or bits where she chills out with a ballad or whatever, but almost any time she's strapped on an electric guitar in the past 10 yrs the song is never made better, and her vocals suffer for it too. She actually fixed a couple of the weaker tracks with the second leg of the tour, replacing the awful Hung Up with a new version of Frozen for one - I would loooove these performances to be included as extras, but I wouldn't count on it.

I'm back and forth on how good I think this tour is compared to others. It's actually a lot more extravagant than Reinvention tour, which I've only recently seen in full, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Not as good as Confessions, which was more consistent and coherent. At least this time the ham-fisted political message is limited to one interlude, as opposed to a cringe-worthy cover of Imagine, or the preachy self-crucifixion with videos of African children dying of AIDS in the background that was Live to Tell on Confessions. I agree Hard Candy is a pretty mediocre album except for the songs you say - but we got pretty good performances from Heartbeat and Give it 2 Me, not to mention She's Not Me which is delightfully self-referential and featured her basically throwing a massive hissy fit on stage, which is always a good thing. I love the Miles Away track but the performance of it was pretty blah - I'd take the brilliant Like a Prayer one over that any day! I agree she didn't always look that great - particularly in the 'rave' section of the show, she looked like she was from a 50 yr old sci-fi film or something...