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Thursday, April 14, 2022
Katy Perry’s Vegas Show Is A Visual Feast - But Can We Talk About That Immersive Sound?
www.forbes.com: Katy Perry recently extended her Las Vegas residency through early August. Which means more fans will be able to experience PLAY, a sensory overload in the best possible way that feels like a mashup of Toy Story, a Dali painting, a giant color wheel and a benign drug trip.
5 comments:
Olivia Curry
said...
I have always loved how campy and fun Katy Perry’s visuals are, and they add so much to the experience of her songs. Something that has kept me from seeing huge arena concerts is the fear that I will not be able to properly hear the artist, so knowing that there is technology in the show keeping the sound consistent is exciting. As the article mentions, I have noticed a significant improvement in the sound in home speakers and even Bluetooth speakers, as well as more affordable high-quality speakers. The mention of possible implementation of this kind of technology in nightclubs may be far off due to cost of implementation but hopefully as it becomes more widely used, it will become more affordable as well. I am curious as to how using this immersive sound impacts the recording process for an artist, and whether they have to change their process to make the immersion better.
I have seen few videos of Katy Perry performing live, but from what I have seen the production scale is quite large and I expect the quality to be in quite the same range of that. With how the visuals were described and how over the top they seem just from the description, it truly seems absurd that they would use simple sound engineering to go along side that. The Front of House engineer makes a good point in the article when they talk about the technological developments made in the industry recently; namely how LED Video walls went from “extra to established”. Of course, sound isn’t visual so in my mind there is only so much that can be done to truly make crazy new developments in the sound world, but the immersive sound system being used in Katy Perry’s residency seems to be headlining this technological advance.
This is the type of article that draws my attention t first because its kinda the type of show I’d like to work on at some point, just something, anything really, where designers can go completely over the top and really put something wild together, but whether I’ll get to do that or not is another question. Another thing this article reminded me of is a conversation that I’ve been having over the last couple weeks, about technological progress and different generations and what each is used to, there are eventually going to be people who are used to equipment or grow up with equipment and techniques that will seems completely alien to me, just as some new things seem totally normal to me but break the norms as they have been for years upon years, and looking back its interesting to see and guess what those things have been or will be.
In this article, the quote that stood out to me the most was when Laurent Vaissié, CEO of Paris- and LA-based L-Acoustics says "there cannot be a compromise on the audio experience". That is something that I always knew, but was sort of scary to see written out in this manner. In a Katy Perry type concert with all this pizzazz, though the audience may be drawn to the experience of an immersive performance, the music really cannot mess up. They come to experience the music that they listen to and love, so the performance is what is additive. The base of the music, though performed live, is a cannot mess up must. Of course, if Katy Perry improvises and doesn't work out or misses a line, no one will worry. But if the microphone or music stops feeding or stops working, if there is feedback, that will snap the audience out of the experience so fast. It is so subconscious to them, yet it is vital in keeping them in the moment.
Katy Perry’s residence show in Las Vegas, Nevada is most definitely on the top of my bucket list. I’m dying to see it. For one, it looks wildly insane! As one could expect from the artist that is Katy Perry, there are intricate quick changes, insanely large props, and complicated choreography numbers. I wonder who was on her creative team? I truly believe this product is everything other residents shows wish they were. The article itself descubra it as a “visual feast” and further elaborates on the immersive sound design. Recently, Katy Perry has managed to make her comeback with this and her latest single “When I’m Gone”. I am excited to see in which direction she’ll steer her career going forward. It looks like, at least for the time being, everything is running smoothly! I’ll definitely try to snatch a ticket to Vegas as soon as we have a break.
5 comments:
I have always loved how campy and fun Katy Perry’s visuals are, and they add so much to the experience of her songs. Something that has kept me from seeing huge arena concerts is the fear that I will not be able to properly hear the artist, so knowing that there is technology in the show keeping the sound consistent is exciting. As the article mentions, I have noticed a significant improvement in the sound in home speakers and even Bluetooth speakers, as well as more affordable high-quality speakers. The mention of possible implementation of this kind of technology in nightclubs may be far off due to cost of implementation but hopefully as it becomes more widely used, it will become more affordable as well. I am curious as to how using this immersive sound impacts the recording process for an artist, and whether they have to change their process to make the immersion better.
I have seen few videos of Katy Perry performing live, but from what I have seen the production scale is quite large and I expect the quality to be in quite the same range of that. With how the visuals were described and how over the top they seem just from the description, it truly seems absurd that they would use simple sound engineering to go along side that. The Front of House engineer makes a good point in the article when they talk about the technological developments made in the industry recently; namely how LED Video walls went from “extra to established”. Of course, sound isn’t visual so in my mind there is only so much that can be done to truly make crazy new developments in the sound world, but the immersive sound system being used in Katy Perry’s residency seems to be headlining this technological advance.
This is the type of article that draws my attention t first because its kinda the type of show I’d like to work on at some point, just something, anything really, where designers can go completely over the top and really put something wild together, but whether I’ll get to do that or not is another question. Another thing this article reminded me of is a conversation that I’ve been having over the last couple weeks, about technological progress and different generations and what each is used to, there are eventually going to be people who are used to equipment or grow up with equipment and techniques that will seems completely alien to me, just as some new things seem totally normal to me but break the norms as they have been for years upon years, and looking back its interesting to see and guess what those things have been or will be.
In this article, the quote that stood out to me the most was when Laurent Vaissié, CEO of Paris- and LA-based L-Acoustics says "there cannot be a compromise on the audio experience". That is something that I always knew, but was sort of scary to see written out in this manner. In a Katy Perry type concert with all this pizzazz, though the audience may be drawn to the experience of an immersive performance, the music really cannot mess up. They come to experience the music that they listen to and love, so the performance is what is additive. The base of the music, though performed live, is a cannot mess up must. Of course, if Katy Perry improvises and doesn't work out or misses a line, no one will worry. But if the microphone or music stops feeding or stops working, if there is feedback, that will snap the audience out of the experience so fast. It is so subconscious to them, yet it is vital in keeping them in the moment.
Katy Perry’s residence show in Las Vegas, Nevada is most definitely on the top of my bucket list. I’m dying to see it. For one, it looks wildly insane! As one could expect from the artist that is Katy Perry, there are intricate quick changes, insanely large props, and complicated choreography numbers. I wonder who was on her creative team? I truly believe this product is everything other residents shows wish they were. The article itself descubra it as a “visual feast” and further elaborates on the immersive sound design. Recently, Katy Perry has managed to make her comeback with this and her latest single “When I’m Gone”. I am excited to see in which direction she’ll steer her career going forward. It looks like, at least for the time being, everything is running smoothly! I’ll definitely try to snatch a ticket to Vegas as soon as we have a break.
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