2. music
  3. 179852-166946

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 ronfruehling

ronfruehling
2 posts
 

Dear Lovers of Live Rock Concerts,

this year together with friends I really enjoyed different Rock Concerts and from point of sound quality I was deeply impressed especially in Munich, Olympia Stadium, middle of the stage, approx. 20 meters away from stage - G n‘ R. Sound pressure was lower than 120 dB (Z) and Axl’s speech intelligibility and instruments (Slash was amazing) were clear with impressive, crisp bass lines. Another nice concert in terms of sound quality (and live performance of Bruce Dickinson) I‘ve alived in Stuttgart at Cannstatter Wasen, seat in 09:30 position, nearly at stage level was this years Iron Maiden show. To safe my ears especially during the performances of the bands before the main acts I wear ALPINE Party Plug Pro Natural earplugs. As you probably know my home Hifi equipment is not the worst so I am able to compare.

ronfruehling

More to discover