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LOUSY SOUND AT LIVE CONCERTS

I went to a concert at Bank America Pavillion in Boston last night. I saw Tedeschi and Trucks, and The Black Crows. A terrific concert; The Tedeschi and Trucks Band was especially terrific.

Unfortunately, these bands sound better in my living room than at this beautiful, outdoor venue.

Many venues have extremely poor acoustics and/or poor sound systems. The music is often terribly distorted, details and nuances of the instrumentals and voices are lost. The sound presents as a congealed distorted mess. The art of these incredibly talented musicians cannot be fully appreciated without clear sound. Listening to music in these crappy venues is like looking at masterpiece paintings in dimly lit museums with dirty glasses. The colors, details and brush strokes are indistinct. The artistic genius cannot be fully appreciated. The Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA., Fenway Park and The Boston Garden are just as bad as The Bank Of America Pavillion, if not worse.

I am frustrated with these venues that cannot provide great sound to accompany the great music. What is the sense of attending live concerts if the sound quality sucks. Does anyone else share my frustration?
matjet
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
Hey everyone

I just wanted to share this with everyone.

I saw one of my most favorite bands, Depeche Mode, on September 6 at the Barclay's Center. In the past I've caught them at MSG or in Philadelphia.

IMHO Depeche Mode's sound at the Barclay's Center was the best I've heard in a very long time. Everything from David Gahan's singing, to Martin L Gore's guitar/keyboard playing and especially Christian Eigner's drumming was loud and clear. I left the venue and my ears weren't ringing at all. At the previous concerts I've been in the past everything was just plain loud. I knew the song lyrics because I had heard them over and over before the concert. This time around with the newer DM songs I wasn't so familiar with I could understand the lyrics with no problem at all during the concert.

I was in upper part of Section 109 at the Barclay's Center. For my first show there I didn't want to be in the nose bleed seats.

I won't be to the Barclay's for another concert for some time but hope to be back again for another concert.

I guess my next test for the Barclay's Center sound will be when Slayer or Metallica come around to the NY area.

Thanks
wildoats
339 posts
 
Rock bands should be loud. It's not supposed to be mellow. If they play in a bigger arena the sound has to carry to the back. So, if you are way up front it's going to be really loud. Those seats are mostly coveted for that very reason, those people want to get the full affect. I do agree that if it's so loud in the back it hurts your ears, then it is too loud. On live music in general, worse/better? Live music is the true reality of that moment. If it sounds bad that's because in reality it sounded bad that performance that day. If you have a recording of a poor sounding performance it should sound the same, bad, on your stereo if you want it to sound real. Certainly for rock music, most recordings are compressed. You actually get the true dynamics of the music live. Some people don't like that. What i hate live is when the sound engineer doesn't know what he/she is doing and the vocals are too low/high or the guitar is too low/high etc. A good sound engineer can make it sound good for people in the center anyway, even if you are in a poor acoustical environment. A bad one can make it sound bad everywhere in any venue. That's what sound checks are for. Unfortunately some musicians don't know what good live sound is either.
sounds_real_audio
1,019 posts
 

As I read some of these posts I can't help but wonder why no one is demanding " MORE BASS " Kind of funny the speakers used at these concerts probably go down to only 50 Hz. Seems like everyone on agon wants 24 hz or their system sucks............just asking,,,,,,where is the outrage?????
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