Eagles
New Meadowlands Stadium, E. Rutherford, NJ
June 10, 2010

01-Seven Bridges Road
02-How Long
03-Take It Too The Limit
04-Hotel California
05-Peaceful Easy Feeling
06-I Can't Tell You Why
07-Witchy Woman
08-Lyin' Eyes
09-One of These Nights
10-Walk Away
11-Boys of Summer
12-In The City
13-The Long Run
14-Band Intros
15-Life's Been Good
16-Dirty Laundry
17-Funk #49
18-Heartache Tonight
19-Life In The Fast Lane
20-Take It Easy
21-Rocky Mountain Way
22-Desperado

Sat on the field, right of center, about 200 feet from the stage. Core-Sound High End Binaurals to Sony PCM-D50 (48 kHZ, 24 bit), WavePad Sound Editor to chop and FLAC only.

I need your help. This was the first outdoor show I've ever recorded, and I learned the hard way about wind noise.

Lately I've been double recording every show with Core Sound cardiods and Core Sound High End Binaurals, both clipped to my glasses pointed forward, running to dual Sony PCM-D50's (clipped to my belt with Noah Photo camera holsters- if you don't know about these check them out, they're great). Ever since I've got the cards I've usually just worked up that recording: I prefer the brighter, crisper high register and the minimum crowd noise the cards provide to the slightly muddier sound of my old Core Sound binaurals.

For this Eagles show the cardiod recording sounded very good, but at several points there was rumbling like thunder. It doesn't occur in every song, and it never completely overwhelms the music, but when it does happen it's pretty distracting. I did a little reading and my conclusion is that it's wind noise. I also read that cards are more susceptible to wind noise than binaurals, so I worked up the HEB show, and it's utterly absent on that recording. That recording actually sounds very good although there is quite a bit of crowd noise on it and it's pretty bass-ey. When I equalize it by ramping up the treble and rolling off the bass on my car stereo it sounds excellent: better than my old regular Core Sound cards anyway. Maybe pointing the binaurals forward gives the highs a little more definition.

I'm posting both recordings so people can check it out. What I'd like to know is if anyone knows how to work any post production magic here. I'm really a rookie at this, but if somebody can advise me about either minimizing the wind rumble in the card recording or doing a useful treble boost, rolling off the bass and maybe minimizing crowd noise in the binaural one I would really appreciate it. My previous attempts at eq haven't sounded very good. If anybody feels like working on it themselves and reposting, I'm cool with that: just tell me what you did. Looking to learn here.


Now, about the show itself: I know all the reasons I'm supposed to hate the Eagles . . . How they have the souls of investment bankers. And their crimes against Randy Meisner. And Don Felder (I really do miss Don Felder.) And how they're just a cynical greatest hits circus squeezing the top concert dollar out of a bunch of semimoronic rubes who don't really know nothing 'bout no music.

But that's not the show I was at. New Meadowlands Stadium is a VAST venue. It makes MSG look like the Beacon Theater. And it was full, totally full, of people of all ages (I went with my 17 yr old son) who were more excited than I've probably ever seen at any other show. Everybody stood the whole time, everybody sang along to every song, and the Eagles played for two hours and never played anything less that a megahit. Lots of those songs were written almost 40 years ago, but more people than lived in the town I grew up in packed into a football stadium to hear them played. These songs mean something to people. This show was a crowd PLEASER. It pleased me too. I believe in popular culture, and I love the Eagles. I can't help it.

And, incidentally, I like Joe Walsh even more than the Eagles, and this show really featured Joe. I've always wanted to see him solo, and now I almost feel like I have.