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sound quality control (mixing) at live venues

I find the sonic balance at most live concerts/events I'm attending to be atrocious.Everything seems to be turned up almost to the max.
Bass blooming, producing one note bass even though you can see the bassists fingers frantically running over his strings and fret-board. I think this one issue creates a roll-on effect for everything else.
Mid-range promoted to be heard over the exaggerated bass.
Ear splitting high frequencies to overcome all of the above.Vocals maxed to be heard over everything else.
Volume in a nightclub's acoustically untreated concrete room that would be better suited to open-air stadium concerts.
It happens everywhere from cruise-ships and major venues down to the pub down the corner, with very few exceptions.
I always complement the band and sound guy at those exceptions and they seem to appreciate the response to their efforts.Trying to explain to the majority who are producing horrible sound is generally met with hostile or blank looks.

I realise it's new technology being used, iPads and digital programmes to control everything, but that can't be the real issue. Is it lack of knowledge and/or experience? Don't they know what "real" music is supposed to sound like?
I watched one "sound technician" the other night. Everything was as described above and when someone soloed, he turned them up even higher! It was ridiculous to watch as well as listen to. Even if he is doing this job for nothing, he was still a waste of money.
Maybe it's just my aging ears. Does anyone else notice or suffer from the same problems when they go to watch bands or live music?
ianrodger

Showing 1 response by millercarbon

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millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
There's many reasons this can happen. The Eagles in Seattle started out atricious, people scrambling around eventually got quite a bit better but still nowhere near what I know the venue to be capable of. Supertramp in Seattle was a testament to state of the art audio, and this was in the 70's. So its not like this is so hard to do.
For years I was in the habit of taking time at some point to walk around and sample the sound from different locations. Yeah what can I say I'm a audio junkie. There's always differences but nowhere was this more dramatically demonstrated than Steely Dan at the Gorge.

From off in the distance it sounded like any old band. Walking around the edges of the main seating area the sound ranged from crappy to downright painful. I mean it was just awful, and if it was reserved seating I wouldn't stay there no matter what. People did though. From up closer in the main seating area it sounded pretty good. Huge difference.
Finally I walked up and got as close as I could to the little stage they had set up for the mixing console guys. Right in front of them was the best and smoothest and most holographic sound I have ever heard at any concert ever.

So its a crapshoot. Sad to say, considering what you pay....
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