[salannelson]

Is it just me or does live music sound awful? These audio engineers are supposed to be professionals. I saw Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston lastnight and the sound was god awful. All I could hear was an indistinguishable rumble from the bass guitar. I could barely make out the guitar and vocals. I am so disappointed. I feel ripped off. Thoughts?
 
tl;dr why does live music sound so bad?

 

[kwitel]

Im seeing them tomorrow night at the Beacon

 
God I hope its not a tour wide issue and more of a venue related thing.
 
Ive seen 50 plus shows in my lifetime and i can definitively say music can sound blissful live.

 

[IPodPJ]

If the equipment used is poor and the acoustics are poor you'll get poor sound.
 
If you see an orchestra playing without amplification in the proper setting, it will sound wonderful.

 

[buffalowings]

if the artists suck...i don't think any amount of tweaking will save them...

 

[salannelson]

Quote:

if the artists suck...i don't think any amount of tweaking will save them...

Let's not get into an argument about music tastes thank you
 
Quote:

Im seeing them tomorrow night at the Beacon

 
God I hope its not a tour wide issue and more of a venue related thing.
 
Ive seen 50 plus shows in my lifetime and i can definitively say music can sound blissful live.

albeit i did forget my earplugs. perhaps it would have sounded better with earplugs. i meant to bring them with me.. :/ but i really don't think you should have to wear earplugs for a concert to sound good. they should know what they're doing.

 

[buffalowings]

Quote:

Let's not get into an argument about music tastes thank you
 

albeit i did forget my earplugs. perhaps it would have sounded better with earplugs. i meant to bring them with me.. :/ but i really don't think you should have to wear earplugs for a concert to sound good. they should know what they're doing.

 I was thinking of other artists, sorry for the confusion

 

[Uncle Erik]

It really depends on the artist, venue and setup.  I recently saw Willie Nelson at the Greek in LA, and he sounded fantastic.

 

[salannelson]

Quote:

It really depends on the artist, venue and setup.  I recently saw Willie Nelson at the Greek in LA, and he sounded fantastic.

heh. i don't know, it seems that every show/concert i go to, the sound is awful. the only exception is the newport jazz festival. they know what they're doing. that event is also outdoors.

 

[paulb09]

It's dependent on venue and equipment, but I would be pretty disappointed with the amount you'd have to spend to see Massive Attack  to get crap audio. It can be done even at the stupidly loud volumes they pump out though; Nine Inch Nails at the O2 Arena in London was fairly well balanced for all it was very loud (I've heard louder, but not by a huge amount), as the instruments were mostly audible against each other and you could follow what they were playing quite well. Yet the first support band at that very same event had rather a distorted sound, and I could hardly tell if anything was coming out of the lead vocalist's mouth, let alone work out words most of the time. So even in a pretty good venue you have to start with good equipment and set-up to get good sound.
The only other experience I've had is mostly with local bands at small venues, and they're usually not balanced particularly well, or have equipment that just can't put out clear sound.
 
Nonetheless, an un-plugged orchestra in a half-decent venue just has a sound you can't beat compared to the volumes pumped out at the majority of amplified performances.

 

[rockopera8]

Ya, I mostly go see metal shows, which are usually at crappy venues with pretty bad sound. But when I saw Dream Theater in a nice theater, the sound was amazing. It really all depends on how much money the venue has to spend on equipment, which relates to how much money they charge to see the show.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Same here, just with indie rather than metal. The venues in the area are the Black Cat, 9:30 Club, Sonar, Metro Gallery and a few others, none of which are really set up for spectacular sound. I just really enjoy having a few drinks and being with friends up close to a band i enjoy, experiencing the music more emotionally than critically.

 

[Sarah]

The Orpheum Theater in Boston is terrible in pretty much every way. I've been to ~20 different venues of that size/type in various cities and countries and it is among the absolute worst. You're paying prices for a fancy theater show and receiving hole-in-the-wall rock club quality. Sorry you had a bad experience there, but don't write off live music just because of that. I went to see a concert at the Wang Theater this weekend (right down the street, almost exactly the same size) and it was gorgeous, beautiful, comfortable, and the sound was great. The House of Blues has a lot of problems but it also has much better sound than the Orpheum.
 
I don't know why anyone plays at the Orpheum, it's a pit.
 
ETA: Please do write a note to the Orpheum complaining about what you experienced, maybe if they get enough complaints from concert-goers they will finally renovate the place.

 

[EYEdROP]

Almost every rock/metal concert ive been to sounded very bad. There is always way too much bass. Ive seen the mixer boards regularly go into the red zone and clip, and half the time the sound guy dosent care. Also, the crowd constantly cheering is very annoying and ruins the music.  
 
The unamplified concerts like jazz usually sound great, even in a crappy environment. 
 
It seems like over done bass is a generally accepted thing everywhere you go. Its like people want it to sound that way. It pisses me off, because when I pay to see a show, I wanna hear the music. For most people though, they want the bass, chorus line, and choreyography instead.

 

[scytheavatar]

Quote:

Let's not get into an argument about music tastes thank you
 

albeit i did forget my earplugs. perhaps it would have sounded better with earplugs. i meant to bring them with me.. :/ but i really don't think you should have to wear earplugs for a concert to sound good. they should know what they're doing.

Most concerts are designed assuming that the concert goers will be wearing ear plugs..... it's the not so clever but the idiot proof way to get good sound, often in places not design for good sound.You have no one but yourself to blame for not wearing them. And it's certainly true that not all artists are equal live; very often artists that sound crap in studio albums are the ones that sound the best live, and the vice verse is not uncommon too. You should visit forums and read up on reviews of the artist's live performance before seeing them, to get a feel of what to expect.

 

[Sarah]

 
Quote:

Most concerts are designed assuming that the concert goers will be wearing ear plugs..... it's the not so clever but the idiot proof way to get good sound, often in places not design for good sound.

 
I have to call BS on that one. I go to a lot of shows and very, very few of them require earplugs. Maybe the bands you like or the venues you frequent tend to be loud, but that is far from universal. Besides - virtually every too-loud show I've been to had very heavy bass and a lack of detail (can't understand lyrics/muffled vocals, etc.) so wearing earplugs would just make it worse - earplugs cancel a ton of high frequencies and almost no low frequencies and it will end up sounding even muddier. The only way earplugs should help the SQ is if they were blasting you with treble.