Is it just me or some songs on the Ghost CD are switched? Monsoon is track #3 and every song from there is 1 track ahead until Dark Matters?

The Decon DVD also starts to speed up torwards the end.

Other than that I loved everything. Devy is such a hard working man and he deserves every bit of recognition that he already has.

Thank you Devy.


EDIT: Forget it, checked the other thread and he played Saloon before Feather and didn't play Dark Matters later.

i think decon picked up speed cause he got through some of the hardest songs, and they got more into it.

Got my box set yesterday (shipped it to elsewhere since I was getting ready to move when preorders popped up...had to drive to my hometown to get it )...Listened to the 5th CD on the drive back and watched Decon DVD upon arrival...it kicks arse Looking forward to checking out the rest over the next few days!

[swervedriver]

So far I've only seen Ki and Addicted, but in both cases I occasionally find it leaning too much on the backing tracks. Ki is rather minimalistic, and most of the songs can hold their own without the backing track. Don't get me wrong, its presence can really add to the atmosphere in certain songs but as backing tracks they should either be stripped down more from what is on the studio albums or simply be lower in the mix. Once the backing track starts drowning out the actual instruments/vocals, then that's just too much for my liking. That's also what mostly detracts from the 'live' feel of these recordings.

This also goes for Addicted. Anneke's live vocals are drowned by the backing tracks, especially in the early songs; she starts to shine through from Supercrush onwards, where she actually has solo parts and her live performance is much more prominent. I got the feeling (while I was there in the audience as well) that she has trouble finding her vocal melody in the massive choir that is present in the backing track. As a result she's sometimes hard to distinguish, but I don't think that much touching up of vocals has been done; I'd put that down to the backing track being too high in the mix.

One other thing I don't understand (and also wondered while standing in the audience) is why certain guitar solos are played on the backing track instead of just live. For example, opener Addicted: there are three guitarists on stage, and all of them are playing the rhythm parts! And then the intro solo for Resolve is played live again. Struck me as odd. Also, needs more footage of RVP being a beast behind the drumkit. He's doing awesome things throughout that show and only a few times they're actually highlighted, which is a bit disappointing.



What I must stress though: take these above points as my personal minor irks. For me these dvd's are a nice document of a wonderful long weekend I spent in London with a majority of awesome people, and they do more than a good job to bring back those memories.

[Octillus]

If you listen to the commentary, Pim, Anneke's mic was picking up too much of Ryan's hi-hats

[swervedriver]

If you listen to the commentary, Pim, Anneke's mic was picking up too much of Ryan's high-hats

I haven't gotten around to that. Or the commentary for the Contain Us box. Guess I'm not a commentary sort of guy.

Not even to be fixed by a gate? That's a lot of hi hats, then.

Not even to be fixed by a gate? That's a lot of hi hats, then.

A gate would only work when she's not singing. And then you'd get a fuck-ton of hi-hat extra when she is singing so you'd have to adjust the level of the hi-hat/overhead mics every time she does anything. Such is the problems with smaller stages, sadly

For me, the best individual performances were 3) Pixillate 2) Heaven Send and 1) Radial Highway. In terms of the four shows themselves, I watched my favorite album of the Project and of his career so far really last and it turned out to be my fav of the live sets (Ki). Sure, the first four songs were kinda weak in this set (not just the mistake he made on "Coast", but the performances of "Disruptr" and "Gato" were rather underwhelming. It picked up with "Terminal", though, and "Heaven Send" as noted about is my second favorite performance of the four nights and probably would have been my favorite had Ch

An awesome package - thanks to everyone involved.

I wasn't at the gigs, but several times when watching I gotta say I felt a bit emotional.... you really get an appreciation of the effort that went in and the atmosphere and good times that were had.

Considering the lack of rehearsal, limited budget etc. to play 4 different albums (plus encores) with different bands over 4 nights (on the other side of the world!) is one hell of an achievement... (especially when one of them is Decon)

Excellent bonus materials (love the bit in the clinic where Dev comes up with a new riff he likes and then begins writing a song there and then), the commentaries are also worth the price alone...

We DT fans are very lucky - thanks again!

I think the performance I had the most trouble with was Decon, even though it brought me newfound appreciation for "Sumeria" and "Poltergeist" as I previously found both boring prior to this live set. My problem with Decon apart from the choir situation mentioned earlier is that by TMM I wanted to turn it off and continue it the next day as the set was too overpowering. I felt like an old lady wanting that damn noise to be turned off. Idk, I guess I never realized just how colossal the record is and how overstimulating is, even compared to the SYL albums. Maybe I was just tired...

That's really interesting (although no idea what TMM is). I had a huge underappreciation towards Decon prior to seeing this live thingy. I just felt stupid afterwards ie. it blew me to bits and pieces and back together again.

You're right it IS over-stimulating but I had a nice 3 month cushion of cloudy-pink-unicorns formerly known as Ghost under my belt. Even without that air-cushion for collision between Ghost and Decon I must say Decon is best mixed, best played, best (de)constructed of all on By a Thread.

It's quite the opposite of a favourite on the CDs. 1st on DVD, last on CD.

I think the biggest issue, which has not been completely mentioned yet is that during Addicted!

Sorry to cut your quote here but all that really strikes me weird on this box-set is Addicted (sorry for those who haven't a working copy). Where are the fuckin' vocals??

Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG126BydKHI

super-clear vocals. On the Addicted DVD even Devin seems to be singing/recorded from across the whole venue. So weird and infact a bit disappointing.

Was it me or did Anne seem a bit nervous?

Yeah, Anneke was definitely nervous.

My complaints are pretty much the same as everyone else, in the sense that the backing tracks seem to be drowning everything else most of the time, vocals are not high enough in the mix, etc.

However, I'm confident that there is a reason behind those things. I mean, the way we see it, is like, there's not enough vocals! Bring them up! Easy right? No. There IS a reason why the whole thing sounds the way it sounds, we just don't know everything. Maybe there was indeed a lot of bleed from other instruments in the vocal mics etc. I've heard enough of Devin's productions to know that he has a clue what he's doing.

The performances are stellar in all the 4 shows, and the package was so cheap! 50$, really? It's another great gift from the Dev, just before another CD already, due in September. We are one lucky crew!

Got mine yesterday yay! 936/1000.
watched all four concerts today. my short review from my first watch over is below
Ki: brilliant ive never been soo amazed at a live performance but considering the multiple line-ups they just rocked. absolutely stunning perfect volume levels. Heaven's End was awesome probably my favorite on the disc especally the final jump back into it.

Addicted!: Wow Anneke on numbered at the end stunning. this one seemed to fly by the fastest for me (shortest cd). Devin and the rest of the band were spot on Ih-Ah and The way home( i wasnt sure how it would sound live) were very awesome especally rolled back to back. Also Pixilate bloody amazing easily my favorite on this disc. Kingdom too sneak peak at Epicloud (i wonder if Anneke is singing on that one)?.

Deconstruction: Holy cow... what chaos, i short of agree how the backing vocals were pushed up a little high so you couldnt hear the choir but besides that one thing i thought it was amazing especally since they didnt have long to practice it i read somewhere one practice? . It really shows how complex this album is though especally Deconstruction is just insanity especally the beginning 2 minutes great job on the giant cheeseburger btw. Planet of the Apes was my favorite from this one.

Ghost: The setting is breath-taking.. Wow. Watch You is really great live and Radial Highway was absolutely awesome. The flute was very excellently put in perfect timing. Again the backing vocals got pushed a bit high but otherwise i have no complaints.

Amazed this was this cheap because it could have gone for alooot more we are very lucky.