LOUSY SOUND AT LIVE CONCERTS

Just heard Steely Dan last week in Austin at Bass Concert hall, a rather vast 5000 set venue. Admittedly, we had outstanding seats (4th row just left of center), but the sound quality was some of the best I've heard in 40+ years of attending live performances. You could hear every nuance of every one of the 11 musicians on stage. I suspect I was hearing more of the stage than the PA, but I heard similar praise from others in attendance who I knew.

Lenny, you may know that sound inside Bass used to suck horribly but they closed the place down and re-did it. The sound is much improved. Many thanks to whoever is responsible for this!

Hi Toasty,

Yes I do remember unfortunately and you're correct, vastly improved. I've also heard awful performances (sound wise) at the Moody Theatre which was entirely due to whoever was engineering. Tedeschi Truks band's first performance there case in point. I take it you're from Austin or live here currently?

Lenny,

yes, I've lived most of my life here in "Waterloo."

So this week I'll have an interesting opportunity to hear Lyle Lovett in the same venue from two different seats but within two days so my audio memory should be fresh. This Tuesday I saw Lyle and his "acoustic" group at the Moody Theater from a front row center seat. Most of what I heard was direct from the stage but there was a series of vocal reinforcement speakers 4 of them aligned across the front of the stage. Tonight I'll hear the same concert from an 8th row center seat and let you all know my experience. By the way, the sound was superb, extremely well balanced and not at all perceived as loud.

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

In short, probably the best live sound I've ever heard. Much more integrated and with the Moody Theater's new PA speaker stack, incredibly transparent and dynamic without any fatiguing sense of being too loud. I've heard many comments stating that "my audio system at home sounds better". Well this was like that except that instead, that audio quality was live with the accompanying scale and dynamics of a live performance. Kudo's to Lyle Lovett's house engineer as well!!!

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.

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?????