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The Who - The Who Live At Eden Project 25 / 07 / 23:

USA - 2026 Ear Music HD Download	USA - 2026 Ear Music CD
Germany - 2026 Ear Music LP (Front Cover)	Germany - 2026 Ear Music LP (Back Cover)
Germany - 2026 Ear Music LP Limited Edition (2,000 Copies). Eco slip cover and recycled vinyl	Germany - 2026 Ear Music CD
Japan - 2026 Ear Music CD

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Album: The Who Live At Eden Project 25 / 07 /23

LPs (vinyl) Sampled: Germany (180 Gram)

CDs Sampled: Japan, USA, Germany CD 

HD Download Sampled: USA

HD Download Comments: Clean recording, but with way too much compression (see sound samples and summary/review below).

CD Comments: The Germany, Japan & USA CD(s) sound almost identical to the USA HD download (see Sound Samples below)..

LP Comments: Odd. The mastering is <slightly> more dynamic than the digital versions, but... Whereas the first several tracks I sampled seem <somewhat> consistent with their digital counterparts, the next bunch of tracks were drowning in bass. It's as if the mastering engineer changed course half way through and said, "Nah... I like it better this way!"

Other Comments: I enjoyed the orchestrated Who performances, dating back to the London Symphony Tommy. This is a great performance, but too much compression was used on the mastering. The sound is still "clean", but the extra compression is a distraction, unnecessary and fatiguing. (i.e. What might sound good by just sampling small sections here and there, can become overbearing and annoying when you actually start playing complete tracks through.)

Summary: Like any other new Who release, I was looking forward to this. I saw several of the orchestrated shows in 2019 at Madison Square Garden and enjoyed them very much. However... While there isn't distortion present (like the Wembley release), this is "old style" (late 1990's/early 2000's) brickwalled (LOUD) mastering. Mastering should allow the music to sound natural and dynamic. What happened here is, lots of compression was used to make the quiet parts louder and the whole thing becomes <too> loud. In real life, music goes from soft-loud-soft-loud-soft-loud, etc, vs. this just loud-loud-loud-loud-loud, etc... it's fatiguing and instead of being drawn to the music, you want to turn it off because it's giving you a headache. Other than collectability, avoid the LPs due to the inconsistent mastering.

This concert is a great performance. However, this is not a great release due to the mastering <described above>.

I experimented with these tracks using Ozone 12's "Unlimiter". The Unlimiter is designed to reduce/remove brickwalled mastering and restore the dynamics of a recording. The results from my tests (at the 50% level) were pretty good, and I will provide an update soon.

Lastly, I recently remixed / remastered the 2022 concert from Sacramento. It sounds beautiful (sound samples below) and I've played it at least 20 times already.

Track Listing: Overture, 1921, Amazing Journey , Sparks, The Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, We're Not Gonna Take It, Who Are You, Eminence Front, The Kids Are Alright, You Better You Bet, Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, Substitute, I Can't Explain, My Generation, Cry If You Want, Won't Get Fooled Again, Behind Blue Eyes, The Real Me, I'm One, 5:15, The Rock, Love, Reign O'er Me, Baba O'Riley

Listen for yourself! Below are 30 second WAV samples from the album titles as described above. From HD Download (24/96): Sparks   Who Are You   Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere   I Can't Explain   The Real Me From CD (USA): Sparks   Who Are You   Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere   I Can't Explain   The Real Me From CD (Germany): Sparks   Who Are You   Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere   I Can't Explain   The Real Me From LP (Germany) (24/96): Sparks   Who Are You   Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere   I Can't Explain   The Real Me From CD (Japan): Sparks   Who Are You   Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere   I Can't Explain   The Real Me From Sacramento 2022 (For Comparison): Sparks   Who Are You   The Real Me Note: Sound comparisons are only as good as your ears and the equipment you are listening to the music with.

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