ive been to a few shows at diff venues this week - my first bout of gigging for a while - and was surprised/shocked at how shitty the sound was at almost all of them from koko to the barfly. the actual 'fidelity' is good, and in the case of the barfly, i like the boxy sound, but its just too fucking loud. i like loud music as much as the next man, but walking out with bleeding, muffled hearing shouldnt be the measure of a good live experience. more than that though, i just find the mixing pretty terrible - vocals are unintelligible or not clearly audible, kick drums tower over all else, its all super super loud midrange and not much else. either the guys behind the desks dont give a shit, or they just cant hear properly anymore, i dunno.
― titchyschneiderMk2, Friday, 26 October 2007 20:13 (eighteen years ago)
you got it
― sexyDancer, Friday, 26 October 2007 20:15 (eighteen years ago)
bad things happen to your ears when you do live sound for a living.
― Display Name, Friday, 26 October 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)
bad things happen to your ears attitude when you do live sound for a living.
― Davey D, Friday, 26 October 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)
Yeah, I have this issue here in SF. Although there are some nice venues with good sound (Fillmore, Independent, Great American) there are lots of venues with shitty sound (Hemlock, Thee Parkside, and Bottom of the Hill depending on who's doing the sound). Sucks when you want to support lesser known acts because you know you will go home disappointed by shitty sound/ and or bleeding ear syndrome.
― oscar, Friday, 26 October 2007 21:12 (eighteen years ago)
You're just not drinking enough!
― Soukesian, Friday, 26 October 2007 21:33 (eighteen years ago)
I usually like the sound at small clubs much more than the sound from even great home hifi systems. Maybe I'm not discerning enough; or maybe I'm lucky to frequent clubs with decent sound.
Arena sound, though, usually bites.
― collardio gelatinous, Friday, 26 October 2007 21:42 (eighteen years ago)
You're just not drinking enough! -- Soukesian, Friday, October 26, 2007 4:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
OTMFM
― stephen, Friday, 26 October 2007 22:39 (eighteen years ago)
cuz people have shitty set ups with too much mid range. (cheaper)
this leads to loads of frequencies you can't even hear that still wreck your hearing (that's sometimes where the "loudness" comes from). decent house/techno nights tend to have the best systems, s'all about the eq and how well they can handle bass without jacking the mid range to compensate for a lack of low end "oomph".
― pc user, Friday, 26 October 2007 23:00 (eighteen years ago)
Totally on the money throughout, but I'll add. Please! I want to actually hear the kick drums/bass, not a giant swamp of bass. When will people learn more bass does not equal better.
― mehlt, Saturday, 27 October 2007 15:03 (eighteen years ago)
that's usually because they've got a system that can't handle those really low frequencies, so they boost the mid-bass to compensate. if you've got a decent set up and an sound engineer with half a brain, it's not a problem.
― pc user, Saturday, 27 October 2007 15:49 (eighteen years ago)
the sound at koko is always shitty
― emsk, Saturday, 27 October 2007 16:28 (eighteen years ago)
The real problem is that clubs are primarily designed to sell alcohol and music is a necessary evil used to bring people through the door.
― Display Name, Saturday, 27 October 2007 16:59 (eighteen years ago)