u/ExtraHope

I kind of instinctively made a post about this when I heard the vocal mix for The Lord (not great). I thought it'd be better if I wrote something a little more nuanced and complete.

The vocal mixing (particularly pitch correction) kind of varies from song to song. It's especially bad on The Lord and Graceland, but increasingly less noticeable as each set goes along (though it does return considerably on Rewrite and Spirit Voices). When I saw him on this tour, his voice did have to warm up a bit. However, I'd prefer slightly rough vocals for a song or two over extremely noticeable and robotic pitch correction. The bad vocal mixing even effects Edie a bit during The Sacred Harp. Funny how Colbert's team did a better job mixing that song in about four hours than this team did in 10 months. I'm planning on buying this on vinyl when it comes out in October and really hope this was just a misguided decision from someone in the Hulu/Disney camp. The instrumentals sounded great throughout.

Another thing I thought was kind of strange was the applause at the end of each song in Seven Psalms. Paul has made it clear that he doesn't want applause until the very end of the piece, which makes sense given that Seven Psalms is essentially chamber music. There wasn't applause during the first set at the shows I attended, and I preferred it that way. I'm not sure if this audience actually applauded or if it was edited in. Either way, I could have done without it. The very excited cheering right before Wait was strange and out of place.

I really enjoyed how this was filmed. I thought it captured the feel of the shows well and the band is very prominent, which I loved. That's one of the reasons the vocal mix is so disappointing. The visuals represent the shows so well while the vocals completely contradict what made them so powerful.

They cut Train in the Distance. The film runs at just under two hours, so I guess that was the constraint given to them by Disney? It was performed at both of these shows, so hopefully it makes the vinyl/CD release. It's the only song that was cut. [Edit: Physical pre-orders have started and Train in the Distance is missing from the track listing.]

I don't want to give off the impression that this film is somehow bad or should be skipped. I think it's still pretty enjoyable and would recommend it to any Paul fan. I'd say the big highlights are Wait, Under African Skies, and The Boxer. Any time Edie came out was a highlight, just as it was at the concerts. I would LOVE if they'd finally make that long-discussed duets album and tour it. The film is very joyous and Paul and the band are clearly having a good time. Most of it is perfectly listenable. The reason I'm focusing so much on the vocal mixing is because it devalues what should really be an incredible document of a wonderful chapter in Paul's career by making it feel cheaper and a little inauthentic.

Also some guy LOVES Rewrite.

This just dropped and I'm only on My Professional Opinion, but certain phrases sound so strange and robotic. I saw him 5 times on this tour and though it usually took him a minute to warm his voice up, I thought he sounded strong and appreciated the raw vocal. Really hoping this doesn't persist through the whole thing. Regardless of whether or not it's pitch corrected, the vocal mixing is definitely a little strange. It also seems like they've edited applause into Seven Psalms (unless the audience actually did that, they didn't at any of my shows)? Paul has stated in interviews that he doesn't really want applause until the very end of the piece. Reeeeaaaally hoping this isn't an issue on the vinyl release.