Great topic, I have been to dozens of shows and thought the same. One puzzle was Pitchfork where a band that should sound good - Spiritualized I had to put in the earplugs (recommended) that tame the high end. Rock also seems mixed in mono, but all is in the hands of the soundboard. That day Noname and Earl Sweatshirt, however, both sounded sublime. One live and one DJ mix but I think they just had the right soundboard people. I also experienced a real Jamaican Soundsystem in Porto, that was the greatest sound ever (look it up, a mountain of speakers all specially tuned). Sheer power, but not really loud. You could stand right next to the speakers and they would suck the air in and out of your lungs. Sheer bliss, but rarely went over 88db. I measured it. Lots of bass though and super tight bass which is likely why big venues suck for way too much bass cancellation. This was outdoors btw which probably helped. Also a clue. If anyone came near, they started dancing. Couldn’t help it. In big concerts, watch. No dancing, normally the sound just isn’t groovy.
Why does rock concert sound suck?
I have been to two rock concert in the past year : Brit Floyd in Bridgeport CT and Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden, NYC (last Monday)
For Brit Floyd I was about 40 feet form the stage and treble end was an ear-splitting distorted sound - the soprano solo on Dark Side of the Moon sounded like a chain saw running at 5x speed.
For Eric Clapton I was sitting at floor level about 20 rows behind the mixing desk - i.e., the opposite end from the stage. In this case the high top end was not so distorted, but the voices were still very harsh - seemingly a massive response peak at ~1500hz. Imagine AM radio with the treble turned up 20db.
I knew a lot of the words form the songs ahead of time of course, and just about recognized them, but otherwise the lyrics were unintelligible. The only exceptions were when he sang a quieter song - e.g., “Tears in Heaven” . Clapton moved back from the mic rather than place his mouth right next to it. Then the sound was quite listenable .
Of course managing the acoustics in such a big venue is no doubt a challenge — but does it have to be this bad?
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- 82 posts total
- 82 posts total