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Why do many mixers at concerts clip the speakers?


BobK

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I've been to many concerts and I am getting tired are good bands having the music ruined by 1 guy that does not know how to mix.     These are mixers that are not part of the band but work for the venue.   They have one speed.  Clipp the amps and distort sound to the point where anyone can be playing and they sound the same, distorted.

 

I drove 5 hours to a concert yesterday and had paid for great seats and eveyone in row was complaining.  I found the mixer and had a conversation with him.  He fixed it for 2nd half but if I did not say anything it would have been bad all concert.   I don't think the band even knows because they can't hear what the crowd hears.

 

Is it because they don't give a F...?  Not paid enough?   I talked to one that knows what he is doing and cares. he said he puts a mic in the expensive seat area, one in middle and one in back then does testing to make sure the sound is not distorted for high paying customers.

 

Why don't most of them do this?

 

 

 

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I'm going to see Todd Rundgren tonight and I hope I don't experience this. 

Especially since he's playing at one of the best acoustic rooms in the world, The Palladium in Carmel Indiana. 

Rundgren always had pride in the great sound of his shows, but I've never seen him at a venue like this, I'm excited :D

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So you basically missed half the concert and suffered through what you knew was smokin' hot voice coils. On the brighter side, you did educate the mixing guy so unless he is just sadistic, no others will suffer again by his mixing.

 

If I were a road crew I wouldn't let some local-yocal touch my stuff without standing over his shoulder. 

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I saw Joe Bonamassa last week and my ears hurt for 24 hours afterward.

Sound was super hot and LOUD.

Had dinner with friends 3 days later and they asked if my head hurt too cuz theirs did.  So I'm not a total wuss I guess.

 

It sucks that I couldn't hear what I went to the concert to hear, a great guitarist at his craft.  Instead I got Charlie Brown's teacher.

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I saw Joe Bonamassa last week and my ears hurt for 24 hours afterward.

Sound was super hot and LOUD.

Had dinner with friends 3 days later and they asked if my head hurt too cuz theirs did.  So I'm not a total wuss I guess.

 

It sucks that I couldn't hear what I went to the concert to hear, a great guitarist at his craft.  Instead I got Charlie Brown's teacher.

I hate to hear this. I know many performers strive for good sound. John Mellencamp will do a 3 hour sound check for a 3 hour concert. He will walk all around the place checking out how it sounds from different seats and making adjustments.

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Only two artists I've ever heard that actually sounded great was Tom Petty and James Taylor.  James Taylor wins though because that was a crappy auditorium with known electrical issues while Tom Petty was outside at a very nice place.

 

Honorable mention to ZZ Top here locally, it was almost on that same level.  

 

Worst was Ryan Adams in the Ryman, got stuck on the ground floor towards the back under the balcony.  I might have understood two words all night.  

 

Second worst was the Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters back in the 90's at the arena at Southern Illinois Univeristy.  At the time the Foo Fighters thought they were a heavy metal band it seems.  Just awful.  

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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There needs to be laws enforced about "concert level sound". I took my wife and my young son to a Sir Paul concert , trying to give him some history and my wife who once hated the Beatles, I cant find a ? she doesn't know the answer to about them. It was so LOUD, we had to leave after about an hour and we were about 375' back from the stage wearing ear plugs. We tried to escape to an upper deck, as far from the stage as possible and still no relief. As we were leaving they were blowing off fire works and you couldn't hear them, the good thing was outside the open air baseball stadium walls, it sounded ok and we sat on a bench and listened to the rest off the show. Nothing like going to a concert and wearing ear plugs and having your fingers trying to close off your ears and its still to loud.

Edited by juniper
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I don't get it, either. Most large tours have their own crew to run everything, and I can't imagine why they would do that. We have a series of free ouutdoor concerts in Chattanooga every Friday through the summer. Sometimes it's a local company guy running the sound (terrible), while other nights, it is someone traveling with the group/performer (almost always good). Years ago, they had Cyrus Chestnut (piano) with a bass and drummer. The sound guy wasn't paying close attention and kept trying to turn it up like they were rockers and not jazz musicians. The bass player, who was playing standup bass, almost came off the stage, heading for the mixer at one point.

 

Chestnut told him to stand still, told the mixer to turn down the mains and talk to him through the monitors and listen to what he had to say. He pretty much told him to get in line with the program and how to set everything. It was a nice head slap for the mixer dude and the rest of the night was great.

 

Bruce

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I was an a loud concert years back that was outdoors and featured multiple rock artists. Before Buck Cherry came on stage we left because I don't like that group. We couldn't get out of the parking lot because it was stacked, so we sat in the truck and waited. With the windows up, and a mile away, the music was so loud we could hear it as if it were playing on the radio. Using inverse square law and figuring the closed truck must be at least 12db down, and thinking the music must have been about 70 db in the truck at a mile away comes out to 150db at the source. Of course with boundary gain, that would be high. But still, that's nuts!

 

Perhaps they are trying to get the music to a point where you can feel it. I don't know.... What I do know is that it isn't enjoyable when it is painful. It seems that if they would arrange the speakers well, they don't need to be turned up to 150db so the people in vehicles a mile away can hear them. 

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Taylor Swift is actually the best I've heard in terms of keeping the volume down.  It was plenty loud to be heard but it was kept down and wasn't painful, presumably due to the kids.  Can't remember any other rock type of concert that was like this.  

 

My daughter's dance class though, my goodness, they crank it to high heavens where it clips like crazy at the yearly recitals.  This year I am going to take a calibrated microphone and my laptop, going to take screenshots of the SPL readings.  We all wear ear plugs and it's still uncomfortable.  Told my wife that if she doesn't knock it off this year then I'm going to cause some trouble.  That's child endangerment as far as I'm concerned.  No reason for it to be that loud.  

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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Taylor Swift is actually the best I've heard in terms of keeping the volume down.  It was plenty loud to be heard but it was kept down and wasn't painful, presumably due to the kids.  Can't remember any other rock type of concert that was like this.  

 

My daughter's dance class though, my goodness, they crank it to high heavens where it clips like crazy at the yearly recitals.  This year I am going to take a calibrated microphone and my laptop, going to take screenshots of the SPL readings.  We all wear ear plugs and it's still uncomfortable.  Told my wife that if she doesn't knock it off this year then I'm going to cause some trouble.  That's child endangerment as far as I'm concerned.  No reason for it to be that loud.  

Just as a joke, you should wear a "pissing off the neighbors" Tshirt when you approach the dance instructor :D

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We all wear ear plugs and it's still uncomfortable. Told my wife that if she doesn't knock it off this year then I'm going to cause some trouble. .That's child endangerment as far as I'm concerned No reason for it to be that loud.

 

Totally agree.

 

The average person doesn't go to an event like that, kid recital, HS BB game, etc and expect such ear damaging SPL.  It really does take someone like you who is hip to SPL and cares about hearing loss to speak up to protect the hearing of children. 

 

Good for you.  :emotion-21:

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I don't think the mixer guy cared, he just said  "I've heard louder, its not bad from back here"  I'm like yea but this is jazz fusion come on.   Plus the bass/drums too loud keyboard so quite was hard to hear even during solos.   

 

The Worst I've heard was Sound Garden OMG so loud you could not even tell it was them.  

 

Best of course are all the jazz concerts I've been to Like Jean Luc Ponty in his prime.  

 

But best big venue with big band was Cold Play, super clear better than U2 at the same place.   Nine inch nails was pretty clear too for a loud techno type band.

Edited by BobK
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The best seats are right near the mixing booth at a concert.

 

Even if i did go to a Taylor Swift concert nobody would ever hear about it.

 

Lots of great block parties around Chicago, while not the best sound ever it is not all distorted sounding though sometimes they EQ up the bass a bit too much.

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I think Don Richard and Bruce have hit the nail on the head, if it is the venue's equipment/sound reinforcement system it is will be their guy running the FOH mixing. It is luck of the draw on that. If it is an expensive system they are going to have a guy to protect it, if not, then it is pretty much someone who sucks at bartending or anyone else they can find.

At the other extreame, traveling megashows, with major cost sound reinforcement have their own FOH mixers. Most major tours/artists rent the sound reinforcement systems through either a sound company or directly from the manufacturer. They will provide their own engineer as well that travel with the shows.

When you are at the level of something like a Meyer Sound System, fully horn loaded system, they understand that you have to have top level people at mixing because the sound is so clear that you can hurt people before they fully realize it.

Meyer is so advanced that when they install a system that sounds incredibly loud at FOH, they use rear firing sound to create nulls behind the stacks which allow crew and others to talk in a whisper standin right behind them.

John Meyer got his start selling Klipsch before running into Steve Miller who needed equipment for Monterey Pop, and he is a major Klipsch fan if you haven't checked him out before.

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Even if i did go to a Taylor Swift concert nobody would ever hear about it.

Her being both one of the finest women in entertainment, as well as simultaneously being one of the very few tasteful acts that you can take an 8 year old to, I have zero shame in saying I went.

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Just got back from a local art and music festival, a psychadelic rock group was playing. Just awful. The sound system wasn't that good but it was up so loud that you had trouble talking to people two blocks away. The bass guitar was amped up so much on the low end that you could tell the woofers were being strained. Voices weren't too bad but any time the singer made an "SSS" sound it was just like fingernails on a chalkboard, then the guitar and keyboard was just piercing. The drums were actually set up pretty nicely. That was literally about the most overwhelming bass guitar mix I've ever heard though, to the point where the tone was completely ruined.

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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The only time I've heard an issue like this were university events. Even the church I attended for a while sounded quite good.

The best by far, was Nick Colionne's performance in October though. You could "feel" it, without bleeding.

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