Touring Gigs

[Stuart91]

I cant hear a 15K testtone

 

Neither can I - but of course I know not to go boosting 15k all over the place.

 

Dave Rat's got an interesting article here about trying to mix when your hearing may (temporarily) be less than perfect. The gist of it is, if your hearing is unreliable, you need to have other reference points. The same way as we might regularly glance at a dB meter to ensure that the level isn't running away in the excitement of the show.

[drsound]

I cant hear a 15K testtone - though people still like what I do behind a desk.

Equally there are many examples of people who can hear as well as bats and dogs but still can't mix a decent gig.

 

Going deaf didn't do Beethoven any harm :P

[subsOn]

I cant hear a 15K testtone - though people still like what I do behind a desk.

Equally there are many examples of people who can hear as well as bats and dogs but still can't mix a decent gig.

 

Going deaf didn't do Beethoven any harm ;)

 

 

Unfortunately, the harsh reality is this:

Having been a live sound engineer for 16 years, I have seen quite a few shows. One thing I can tell you with confidence is that there are an awful lot of people who work as band and system engineers who are not very good at it.

 

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of shows where the sound has been faultless, and these have all been mixed by the world's best.

 

It cannot come as a surprise that when one goes to see a band in a small venue, such as the earlier post about the Camden Barfly, and finding that the sound is not good, is surprising in itself. I doubt the band were serious experienced professional musicians who are making a comfortable living out of their band, any more than the venue sound engineer was of a similar calibre and getting paid £200 a day plus pd's for his or her trouble. So you are unlikely to hear a perfect mix, or even anywhere close.

 

The thing about mixing live sound is, it's not easy. In fact, it is incredibly complex and difficult. Not everyone can do it, and it although it is accessible to anyone at entry level, it isn't something that everyone can do well.

 

SPL levels at gigs are often dictated by the volume of the backline, especially in smaller venues, but also in larger ones. Unless you can convince the bands to play more quietly, it's unlikely that gigs will get quieter.

 

At larger shows, there is no real need for massively high SPL, although Tony Andrews of Funktion One has a lot to say about the physical experience of hearing music, and for certain types at least, it is common for listeners to want to be immersed in the experience, which they only feel they can become invlolved in if the music is above a certain level. It also has to sound good. It's hard for people who don't enjoy this type of experience to imagine why people do enjoy it, and that's why being a system tech for a DJ system and making it sound good is a whole skill set in itself, (and one that I am only just beginning to learn myself).

 

So, often gigs are too loud, often there are contributory factors beyond the person behind the desk. Some people enjoy high SPL, some don't. Unless anyone can add something new to this, like the headphone disco, let's not keep rehashing the same tired old arguments. If you want to stop excessive SPL at gigs, firstly you have to define it. Assuming you could actually achieve that, next you would need to enforce the restriction on all persons involved in the process for it to be effective, including the artists. Then you would need to find a way to keep all the people who enjoyed gigs before you banned the high SPL happy, or face all that lost revenue.

 

The most effective way to stop high spl levels or bad sound at shows is to complain to the people who have employed the engineer who is mixing it. You're wasting your time if you think complaining while at a venue will actually get back to the artist or their management, and in any case, they aren't likely to do much about it as you are only one complainer out of a whole audience of happy customers. (bands have egos, remember). These days it would be much more effective to use the internet to make your point, persistantly if necessary.

 

Hopefully we can continue to improve people's experience of going to see a live act, something which seems to have slowed somewhat in my opinion.