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Pro Sound Web: Preserving our hearing is critically important, but that’s not what motivated me to write this piece. Really, I just can’t stand bad sound!
To a certain extent, it used to be somewhat excusable if a live show was loud and didn’t sound all that great.
10 comments:
ZoeW
said...
Recently, I have had to bring ear plugs to every concert I have been to. It seems as though technicians just think that the louder a system is the better it is. I went to a concert last year that was mixed by AB tech; the show was so loud that I got a nose bleed and had fuzzy hearing for 30 minutes afterward. I do not like to listen to loud music by myself and I especially do not like to me bombarded by sound at concerts.
In addition to amplitude a good mix can really make or break a concert and just using good equipment does not make it at good mix. I think that being able to mix a concert is a really hard skill to hone and people mostly tend to just pump the vocals or base or guitar and nothing else really gets through.
It's interesting how the concert industry seems to creep into this article. I have been to numerous concerts some great some not so great, but I will say that sound does make or break the show. When the sound engineer gets the mix just right everything seems to sound natural just amplified heavily. Although, when the mix is bad it literally does make you feel physically uncomfortable and want to leave the show. With my experience going to see both live touring concerts and broadway, I always find that broadway sounds a million times better. If you see a show like Mamma Mia you will notice when the first down beat happens you are blasted with sound. The key there is everything sounds really good and the mix is not completely overpowering. During musical numbers you can clearly understand the actors and what they are saying. This is what truly makes a good sound mix.
I'm sure I've said many times before, but I really wish I had this information when working on sound in high school. I've only recently started to realize my mistakes as I've started attending concerts where the sound was poorly mixed and noticed driving home that my hearing was completely shot. I've reached the point where just sitting in the car in silence feels like heaven after a concert. The ability to create a good mix is a hard trick, but one that many should learn.
This is a great article in that it breaks down the top 3-ish things that usually make a bad mix, and puts them in terms that less-experienced sound people can understand. My understanding is that while theatre is still borrowing from a lot of other industries when it comes to equipment and techniques, concert mixers are starting to take their cue from broadway musicals in terms of how they mix the show. At the end of the day, as previous commenters have said, no amount of gear will save you from a bad mix, but this points out some good places to start.
And yes, as Zoe said, you should always wear ear protection at concerts!
There is a lot of really useful info in this article and I think every sound engineer, especially those who work on concert tours, should have to read this. There really is no excuse for bad sound on a tour. For small venues with poor in house equipment it is slightly more understandable, but not for a million dollar tour. The mix really makes or breaks a show. Even if I love the band, if they are mixed poorly, it's harder to get into a show. If I can't hear the vocals over the distortion of a guitar something is very very wrong. There's nothing worse than a poorly mixed show. I'd rather have no lights or effects and an amazing sound than a crazy awesome light show and crappy sound and that's coming from a lighting guy.
I don't really know all that much about sound, so some of the more technical parts of the article went over my head, but I like the basic idea that the article was about. Sound doesn't have to have to be loud to be heard, and quality is so much more important than volume. I actually have problems when sound is super loud, and I have problems riding in cars with friends who listen to really loud music. I liked that the article discussed the fact that having good equipment is irrelevant if the engineer doesn't have a thorough understanding of how sound works.
I've often wondered about the skill and training levels of sound crew members. While they seem to know the equipment, I often wonder whether they know what sounds good to the audience. What may seem to sound good to them may not to the audience. It's hard to determine what is good sound for everyone but this should be a higher concern. I've also noticed the resistance from older sound people to not want to use and explore new technology which might help out with many of these issues. Theatre is a constantly changing entity and so it everyone involved needs to be vigilant about keeping up with the new technology and ways things are done.
I agree with this article 100%. Its too often that I will go to concert with loud, distorted sound. In fact the most recent concert that I went to was so loud that I had trouble hearing upwards of 20 minutes after the show. I now carry hearing protection to almost all concerts that I attend just in case.
As an aspiring sound designer/ engineer I am guilty of pushing levels a bit to high thinking that that is what the audience wants. Luckily with technology advancing the way it is engineers do not need to push the system nearly as hard to get the same powerful sound in the back of the house as it is in the front row. I think the information in this article is important for all sound engineers to read.
I cannot say how annoying it is going to a show of any sort and having the sound quality be poor. I agree with Tyler, I wonder what kind of training programs are available? I know at our school sound students get the opportunity to mix musicals and such. But what about the rest of the world? And honestly, what if the mixer just doesn't have the capability of mixing well? How does someone go about dealing with those kinds of situations?
Although I didn't fully understand some of the technical details of this article, the overarching concepts sound pretty clear. Technicians should strive to get the best performance out of their gear and always be conscious for how they can improve their work. Just because something was fine previously, doesn't mean it cannot be improved now! I also agree that high quality sound and mixing is just as vital as actually being able to hear the sound itself.
Lastly, I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that better and better equipment is being proliferated every day. In every industry, high grade equipment becomes more cutting edge and cheaper all the time. It seems like the sound reinforcement industry is no different.
10 comments:
Recently, I have had to bring ear plugs to every concert I have been to. It seems as though technicians just think that the louder a system is the better it is. I went to a concert last year that was mixed by AB tech; the show was so loud that I got a nose bleed and had fuzzy hearing for 30 minutes afterward. I do not like to listen to loud music by myself and I especially do not like to me bombarded by sound at concerts.
In addition to amplitude a good mix can really make or break a concert and just using good equipment does not make it at good mix. I think that being able to mix a concert is a really hard skill to hone and people mostly tend to just pump the vocals or base or guitar and nothing else really gets through.
It's interesting how the concert industry seems to creep into this article. I have been to numerous concerts some great some not so great, but I will say that sound does make or break the show. When the sound engineer gets the mix just right everything seems to sound natural just amplified heavily. Although, when the mix is bad it literally does make you feel physically uncomfortable and want to leave the show. With my experience going to see both live touring concerts and broadway, I always find that broadway sounds a million times better. If you see a show like Mamma Mia you will notice when the first down beat happens you are blasted with sound. The key there is everything sounds really good and the mix is not completely overpowering. During musical numbers you can clearly understand the actors and what they are saying. This is what truly makes a good sound mix.
I'm sure I've said many times before, but I really wish I had this information when working on sound in high school. I've only recently started to realize my mistakes as I've started attending concerts where the sound was poorly mixed and noticed driving home that my hearing was completely shot. I've reached the point where just sitting in the car in silence feels like heaven after a concert. The ability to create a good mix is a hard trick, but one that many should learn.
This is a great article in that it breaks down the top 3-ish things that usually make a bad mix, and puts them in terms that less-experienced sound people can understand. My understanding is that while theatre is still borrowing from a lot of other industries when it comes to equipment and techniques, concert mixers are starting to take their cue from broadway musicals in terms of how they mix the show. At the end of the day, as previous commenters have said, no amount of gear will save you from a bad mix, but this points out some good places to start.
And yes, as Zoe said, you should always wear ear protection at concerts!
There is a lot of really useful info in this article and I think every sound engineer, especially those who work on concert tours, should have to read this. There really is no excuse for bad sound on a tour. For small venues with poor in house equipment it is slightly more understandable, but not for a million dollar tour. The mix really makes or breaks a show. Even if I love the band, if they are mixed poorly, it's harder to get into a show. If I can't hear the vocals over the distortion of a guitar something is very very wrong. There's nothing worse than a poorly mixed show. I'd rather have no lights or effects and an amazing sound than a crazy awesome light show and crappy sound and that's coming from a lighting guy.
I don't really know all that much about sound, so some of the more technical parts of the article went over my head, but I like the basic idea that the article was about. Sound doesn't have to have to be loud to be heard, and quality is so much more important than volume. I actually have problems when sound is super loud, and I have problems riding in cars with friends who listen to really loud music. I liked that the article discussed the fact that having good equipment is irrelevant if the engineer doesn't have a thorough understanding of how sound works.
I've often wondered about the skill and training levels of sound crew members. While they seem to know the equipment, I often wonder whether they know what sounds good to the audience. What may seem to sound good to them may not to the audience. It's hard to determine what is good sound for everyone but this should be a higher concern. I've also noticed the resistance from older sound people to not want to use and explore new technology which might help out with many of these issues. Theatre is a constantly changing entity and so it everyone involved needs to be vigilant about keeping up with the new technology and ways things are done.
I agree with this article 100%. Its too often that I will go to concert with loud, distorted sound. In fact the most recent concert that I went to was so loud that I had trouble hearing upwards of 20 minutes after the show. I now carry hearing protection to almost all concerts that I attend just in case.
As an aspiring sound designer/ engineer I am guilty of pushing levels a bit to high thinking that that is what the audience wants. Luckily with technology advancing the way it is engineers do not need to push the system nearly as hard to get the same powerful sound in the back of the house as it is in the front row. I think the information in this article is important for all sound engineers to read.
I cannot say how annoying it is going to a show of any sort and having the sound quality be poor. I agree with Tyler, I wonder what kind of training programs are available? I know at our school sound students get the opportunity to mix musicals and such. But what about the rest of the world? And honestly, what if the mixer just doesn't have the capability of mixing well? How does someone go about dealing with those kinds of situations?
Although I didn't fully understand some of the technical details of this article, the overarching concepts sound pretty clear. Technicians should strive to get the best performance out of their gear and always be conscious for how they can improve their work. Just because something was fine previously, doesn't mean it cannot be improved now! I also agree that high quality sound and mixing is just as vital as actually being able to hear the sound itself.
Lastly, I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that better and better equipment is being proliferated every day. In every industry, high grade equipment becomes more cutting edge and cheaper all the time. It seems like the sound reinforcement industry is no different.
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