I Lost Respect for Pat Metheny

[Rickster71]

Pat Metheny IMO is one of the best jazz guitarists to ever live. What I say below is not easy for me as I've been such a huge fan of his work.

This makes me sick to my stomach. One of my all time favorite musicians shamelessly endorsing Bose as the ultimate speaker he has ever heard!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CEozzi-ng8

Come on Pat do you really need the $$$$ at this point in your career?

Now I'm starting to think that maybe Mark and I had too much to drink when we heard the L1 Model II.
I knew we shouldn't have gone for that second beer run.

Gene what did you think was lacking when you heard those speakers? Maybe the three of us can compare our subjective findings.
While all agreeing we don't like their marketing practices.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Gene,

Let me ease your suffering a little.

He is using them to get a "sound" that he is looking for. In the performance you are hearing them amplified and coming out of other speakers. Much like a guitar player uses a tube fender amp but then the entire concert is amplified by discrete amps and pumped through a tower of speakers. It is all about a certian sound he looking for. Don't worry too much and he is still one of the greats. I guarantee he does not have a set of Bose in his house as his main listening system.

At least I hope he don't Pat Metheny is one of the few things Gene and I have in common

why not try to get in contact with him and discuss it? Maybe if you could introduce him to some quality stuff and teach him about audio and reproduction of sound you might change his mind.

I would not be surprised if he voted for Obama too sorry I just had to add that in

 

[Shock]

Seems to me that Bose didn't stand on his door and throw cash at him to use their stuff. He obviously likes their product. I mean, are we to think that anything with the Bose brand is junk and should never be bought?

How someone can "lose respect" for someone who uses a product they enjoy is beyond me.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

I just watched Steve Miller Band live in Chicago with my Dad last night and I believe I saw some of those bose tower things on the stage. Someone correct me if I am mistaken. I will say one thing and that is the concert sounded really good and had some of the clearest vocals I have yet heard from a recorded concert.

I don't know if it was because of the bose, or the mixing or both or none. But it is a damn good sounding concert.

I do agree with Gene that the orchestrion thing he is doing sucks and I won't see him without the group. As great as he is he has done some things that suck. How about SongX Gene? that sucks with a capitol S!

 

[T2T]

Yesterday, I realized how bad Bose speakers really are. We were donating a bunch of stuff to the Purple Heart military organization. Among the goodies were a pair of very lightly used Bose bookshelf speakers. They were 2-3 years old and barely used by my mother in law. My wife mentioned the speakers to me before putting the stuff outside for pickup - I already knew the speakers were Bose and told her that Bose is not allowed in my house.

Well, go figure ... the Purple Heart group never showed up to pick up the goods. Now, we'll just donate it to the Salvation Army later this week. I guess it'll make someone else happy to buy a pair of Bose speakers for $25 or $30.

 

[woofersus]

The Bose L1 does has some advantages over other PA systems. I'm not going as far to say it's the best PA system, but the product itself definitely has place in the market. PA speakers in general aren't typically very accurate and I could see how the L1 would fit in a jazz environment. They certainly don't sound bad, and they aren't piercing like some PA systems can be. They fit the mold for Pat Methany because extreme high output is not necessary, compact size helps as well as setup, and they have a mellower sound than most PA systems.

At $999.99 the price is a little high, however I'm not aware of a product that is quite like it. I imagine the appeal of such a system is quite high when the prospect of tearing it down and putting it up show after show makes the L1 a candidate for those that can afford to purchase them.

The product itself is not bad. It is unfortunate that Bose is the ultimate profiteer behind it. If only Bose would apply the same level of engineering to their home audio products we wouldn't all have such a big beef with them.

I also don't think Pat would say they're the best speakers he's ever heard, he's certainly saying the sound the best for the application. The size and setup may also affect his opinion, even of the sound.

The thing is, the L1 isn't really a PA system. It's part of the backline. $1k or even $2k isn't crazy expensive for a guitar rig or bass rig for a pro musician, but there are reasons bands don't generally rely on just those to amplify a concert. As an instrument amplifier the sound is as much about preference as anything, as has been mentioned above. However, while it may work well for guitar, which generally has both ends of the frequency spectrum rolled off quite a bit, it's unlikely to work well for bass guitar or drums in most situations. At the very least drums and vocals are going to need to go through some sort of FOH system and then you kind of have to run everything else through there as well unless it's a really small venue. Beyond that, this whole "letting the sounds combine in the air" thing may sound nice to a musician who just wants the show to sound to THEM like a practice session in their living room, but it's a Sound Engineer's nightmare. If the backline is too loud (which it is if the audience is hearing it) the FOH loses control of the mix and volume level, not to mention the difficulty of creating effective monitor mixes in that environment. A live performance is for the audience, not the musician.

There are plenty of companies who use high quality parts making compact line arrays for PA systems. There are also tons of guitar and bass amplifiers using a stack of full range drivers. The only thing remotely interesting about the L1 is the form factor - a tall, skinny column as an instrument amplifier. IMHO that's sort of like trumpeting a waveguide as a revolutionary technology. (especially in the pro arena)