SEP

3

2022

V1

Soldier Field, Chicago

U.S.A.

Audio-Technica AT943 w/ 4.7k mod (Mounted to glasses) + Roland R-07 (+20 gain, PiP on, limiter off, roll-off off, 24-bit/88.2kHz WAV) + SanDisk 32GB High Endurance mSDHC > CD Wave 1.98 (Tracking) > Sony Sound Forge 10.0c (Joined multi-part tracks, volume normalization, minimal EQ, fades, resampled/dithered to 44.1kHz/16-bit WAV) > TLH 2.8.4.185 (FLAC Lvl. 8, FFP) > Foobar2000 1.6.4 (Tags)

Gosh, what an amazing show! Seeing them actually *in* Chicago was a special and an emotional experience for me.rnIt had been 24 years since their first, only, and famously pyro-less show at the Metro in 1998. Between then andrnthis night they've played around Chicago on either Tinley Park or Rosemont, plus once in Bridgeview. And herernthey were 24 years later with their gigantic production for their Untitled tour started in 2019, after two-years' rndelay because of the pandemic, with a full charge of pyro, in Chicago, right along the lake at Soldier Field,rnwith a 60K capacity for the night.rnrnWhat's more is this was my first show since 2017, and I had forgotten the experience of being at a concert. Irnloved being surrounded by so many people who are all there to experience the same band, and express theirrnappreciation of the band and their music. Even during Duo Abelard's opening set of Rammstein piano covers, wellrnbefore the stadium had completely filled, the energy was incredible, and it seemed like a lot of folks felt it.rnPersonally it was overwhelming and I couldn't help but tearing up some at the reality of the situation; me,rneveryone, and Rammstein all there together. I can hardly wait to do it again!rnrnAs far as the show is concerned, it was fantastic. Crowd energy was high and it seemed like the band felt itrnand fed off it. Till's voice seemed reasonably good, and all of the band looked like they were having a lotrnof fun on stage. They made just one pyrotechnic compromise with the absence of the line rockets typically usedrnduring Du hast. I don't know the exact reasoning, but it could probably be the result of whoever performed thernrisk assessment given that this particular pyrotechnic has been inconcistently present at their Chicagolandrnconcerts.rnrnThis recording is very good to excellent. There's some minor phasing due to the wind around Lake Michigan. Thisrnwas my first show with new gear and I am pleased with how both mics and recorder performed. The AT943s havernbeen an upgrade goal of mine for a long while, and I am exceptionally pleased with their performance. Theirrnsound signature is so smooth and close to what I want right out of the gate that they save me a huge amount ofrnediting time. All I really felt the need to do was apply a minor bass roll-off starting at 60Hz and a smallrnhigh-shelf bump starting around 10kHz to counteract the attenuation caused by my hat. Also of note is that theyrndid not overload even just using the R-07's plug-in power. The 4.7k mod is all that's needed. They are stellarrnmics and well worth full price from Sound Professionals. The R-07 pulled its weight just fine. I don't have muchrnto say about it other than it seems a little more power efficient than the R-09HR and is also just a littlernphysically thinner. My only complaint is that it takes a long time to initialize the SD card on startup whetherrnempty or full. Definitely don't wait until the last moment to boot it up.