Foo Fighters: Live at Wembley Stadium

[gettodamoofies]

I normally wouldn't start a thread over a particular title that's been out for a while but in this case I have to make an exception and further more it's for a negative reason.

Does anyone else own the AU version of this title. If so, what did you think of the sound mix?

I recently bought this title and just watched it and I am absolutely amazed by the reviews this disc has received (well, the US one for instance). I personally found the mix to be absolutely atrocious and based on the disc specs between regions it appears it would be the same as the US one that has received rave reviews including the official review on this site. Being that live music is something I have plenty of experience in concert releases are always titles I will check out, if not purchase. I purchased this one based on reviews and due to me being a Foo Fighters fan for coming up to 15 years. To say I was disappointed is a gross understatement.

Rather than try and sum it up, I'll just go ahead and mention specific elements of the mix that I had issues with:

Drums: Being a drummer (and been involved in all aspects of recording and mixing) I found the drum mix to be shocking. The kick itself has plenty of "click" in it, but there's nowhere near enough low end. The snare also lacks low end so gets lost in the mix due to it's thin nature. The toms (save for the floor tom) lack presence also. It's like someone sucked a lot of the low end out and hit the "brightness" button on a preset. Fills that Taylor do sound empty and his opening roll in the intro is barely there (again, save for the floor tom).

Bass: Once again, the flavour of the day is a lack of presence. Foo Fighters have never been a "bassy" band, but this is pretty ridiculous. The low-mids to the highs are well represented, but there's a distinct lack of sub frequencies giving the music that solid feel.

Guitar: Where do I start? The high end is so loud the guitars come across as sounding like white noise. They lack a fair bit of body also so riffs get drowned out in the mix by the wall of noise. In addition to this, separation between the 3 guitars is a little average and when someone is playing a lead you can barely hear it (case in point: intro to "Times Like These").

Vocals: The EQ of the vocals themselves is good, but there seems to be a lack of compression and normalisation to help even out the fact that Dave Grohl's jumping around like a monkey means he's not always directly in front of the diaphragm of the mic. I'm not expecting that everything should be compressed with a hammer to within an inch of it's life, but there's a point where doing little is just as detrimental as doing too much. As Dave's such an energetic guy there should be some attempt to smooth out where the deficiencies based on the sound field of the mic have resulted in an uneven capture of his voice.

The overall mix is thin and messy. Due to a lack of presence and low end the rhythm instruments seem distant and low in he mix. I am very disappointed by what sounds to be a relatively amateur mix for a higher profile band.

Compared to The Cure: Trilogy or Nine Inch Nails (or God forbid my wife's Pink BD) releases the sound production is terrible and I am genuinely surprised that people think so highly of it. Does anyone else own this title and if so have you noticed this also? I find it hard to imagine this is a batch issue.

On the plus side the PQ was great, but hey, it's a concert Blu-ray so the audio should be stellar. As for whether it could be my setup, I have correctly calibrated it and all the other BDs I own (both film and concert) sound great - the aforementioned Cure and NIN titles are phenomenal. If anyone can shed some light on this I'd be very appreciative otherwise I'll have a Foo Fighters BD up for trade...