Hey, y’all!
I listened to the Sirius XM Broadcast of the SPAC 7.2.2004 show this past weekend. I thought the band's performance was absolutely outstanding, and one of the best released shows I’ve heard from them in years. The final mix that was broadcast and subsequently uploaded to DT.org was pretty solid in terms of the instruments sitting well in the mix with a good overall balance, but honestly, even with the “extreme” quality version that was uploaded to DT.org, it sounded a little muffled to me and a bit too heavy in the bass and low mid frequencies. I noticed a few other users in the Sirius XM thread mention similar thoughts about it sounding a little muffled, so I wanted to take a crack at mastering it as a little passion project to share with the community.
I did some light and tasteful mastering work here; a little more needed on this one than those DM shows required to bring my vision for it to life, but always just about enhancing what’s there. I’ll type that process out in the next paragraph. (If you want to read what I did because you're curious about the process or you’re a fellow audio nerd like me, cool! If you’d rather go straight to the files listed below, though, that's all good, too! I just want to briefly share the process so you know what you’ll be hearing compared to the original.)
I tamed the heavy and slightly bloated low end frequencies with a bit of dynamic EQ that moves with the music, so it gently reduces low and low-mid frequencies only when they cross a certain threshold to better balance with the other instruments. (I LOVE a show with solid low end, but the broadcast was a bit much on the low end and it was making the whole mix a little muddy to me.) I think the low end sits really well in the mix now and I tested it across a variety of headphones, earbuds, and speakers. I also brought out a lot of clarity to the high end, and just slightly coaxed out some of the high mid frequencies where Dave’s voice, the violin and Roi’s sax are. Lastly, I did just the tiniest hint of subtle “glue” / limiting to make everything gel together. Keep in mind, what was broadcast on Sirius was likely compressed a little bit before they aired it; they always do that for radio, but the overall dynamics were still pretty well in tact on the original recording, all things considered, which is great! I certainly stayed far away from “slamming” this. As a result, you may notice it’s a notch or two (only 1-2 db) lower in volume than an official Live Trax, for example, but I didn’t want to squash the dynamics just to get the appearance of being louder; if you simply turn the volume up a tiny bit more on your listening device, it’ll feel good and loud, I promise. That’s about it! Oh, actually, one more thing I worked on - there were a few audio glitches / digital noises that I cleaned up and some places in the original broadcast file where the audio volume (during crowd noise between songs) would noticeably drop down or get boosted up just a split second before the next song came on - probably some sort of automatic gain leveling on the Sirius XM end. I went through with a fine tooth comb and evened out those spots with either a slight fade or even shifted the next song to start just a little sooner to better blend everything. It was a lot of detailed work, but I tried to treat this process with a ton of care and love over the last few days because I truly think this is a special release and I wanted to bring everything I could out of it. Again, the basic skeleton was there for me to work with and it was a pretty solid mix - I simply worked to enhance what was there and tried to be as tasteful as possible with the whole thing.
I’m really proud of how this came out, and I’m genuinely excited for you to hear it if you’re interested in downloading!
Final Note: I simply thought this was a phenomenal performance from the band at an incredible time in their history, not to mention an unreal setlist, so I wanted to do another little remaster passion project for the community. I hope whoever wants to hear this enjoys it!
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Link for the remaster:
Dave Matthews Band
July 2, 2004
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
Source: SXM Broadcast
Mastering: Djamieb
Pig »
The Stone
Don't Drink the Water »
Sugar Will
Help Myself
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Hello Again
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Rhyme & Reason »
Good Good Time
Grey Street
Crazy Easy
What Would You Say
Cry Freedom
Joyride
When the World Ends
Ants Marching
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Tripping Billies
Terrific work. This sounds amazing, Djamieb! Highly recommended to everyone: great night, excellent performances, top audio quality