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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?

oliver_reid

Showing 1 response by richopp

richopp
760 posts
 

Good topic.  I say it is the sound board person.  I attended an outdoor concert a couple of years ago.  Cheap Trick, Heart, Joan Jett.  Sat dead center about 20 rows back.  Cheap Trick was a total mess--could hear NO vocals, the guitars were a smear, and the bass was non musical, only gut-thumping.  Then came Joan.  PERFECT sound mix, dynamic range, was like listening to the recordings live.  Then came Heart, one of my fav bands.  Again, a total mess--vocals, which are obviously their strong suit, were not intelligible, the band mix was terrible, and there was no definition of the instruments, just a wall of loud noise.

SAME PA system, SAME board, terrible mixing.

Saw Steve Miller band a couple of years ago indoors.  SUPERB sound.

Went to an indoor concert not long after for a famous female vocalist.  HORRIBLE sound, no vocals that could be distinguished, and a terrible mix of the band.

I would agree that the sound board person is at fault.  I refuse to attend any more live concerts, and I have seen almost everyone since 1962--I keep the ticket stubs and remember them.  Good ones--Beatles outdoors, Stones both inside and out, Hendrix indoors twice, etc,. etc., etc.  Even the Dick Clark Caravan of stars outdoors in Raleigh in 1964 was excellent with over a dozen DIFFERENT acts including Gene Pitney and the Supremes--totally different sounds.  Great sound from equipment that was NOT digital or advanced.

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