Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

My wife dragged me to see O.A.R. on Friday night. I'd heard a few of their tunes - alternative music, if yiou wnat give it a genre, but wiht the bonus of a Chicago-style brass section, sax trumpet and trombone.
I've found a lot of alt music (as I hear on the radio) to be endlessly repetitive - the same 1 or 2 chord patterns throughout the song, no bridge, usually no blinding guitar solo, etc.
OAR's songs have a little more going for them, but the sound at the BoA Pavilion in Boston can really suck if they crank it up.
When I saw RIngo there in June, the volume was kept low enough that you could actually talk to the person next to you in a normal tone of voice (I was in row 11) but not so on Friday. The volume was cranked to 11 - lucky we were back in about row 30. The sound was muddy, couldn't hear the words in the vocals most times, and the lead singer/guitarist's acoustic could only be heard when no one else was playing. Many times the lead guitarist would start a lead and his sound would not get turned up until several bars in the lead. When the sax player took a lead, the sound was buried in the mix until he hit the high notes. Same thing with the keys - only during solos could you distinguish them at all.
Yet the huge crowd of 20-somethings loved them. Is this was listening to music on I-devices and earbuds does for people?

I try to stay away from those kind of events. I'm just to old and grouchy to put up with that whippersnapper music LOL! Seriously I only go to see bands I like!

We are just getting old is all I can say! LOL!

I can remember being the loudest guitarist in my area, but Ive changed!

Having gone to a couple of concerts with my son, I can totally relate, but they seem to dig it no matter how horrible it sounds.

I think I shared this before that I went and saw Journey and in my opinion they had the mushiest sound of any band Ive heard in a long time.

jw123 wrote:We are just getting old is all I can say! LOL!

agreed! i read something the other day that i sorely want on a bumper sticker....

It's not that I'm old....it's that your music really does suck!

Is it possible us older ones are experiencing hearing loss at certain Hz's?

With the advent of all these hi-end PA systems it seems odd the music is getting muddier. But it seems that way to me on recordings, too. Dense, thick, heavy production.

Maybe the hi-tech equipment makes it easier to cover up not so sterling musicianship and vocals? Although I would think the opposite.

With todays gear any venue can sound great. The problem is the guy behind the board. Today they have no clue that music and sound is like a art form.

I believe that there is a desire to sound like recorded music..... compressed beyond recognition, in most cases. Perhaps that is the "Professional" sound that they are striving to achieve.

distance micing is a thing from the past..

I don't know. Right now two overheads and kick mics are great for me. Sounds like a real set of drums. And you can do it live with the right mics and shielding.

We used to joke that you need to hire a sound guy to watch the sound guy.

Now it's not even a joke..

Drumsinhisheart wrote:I don't know. Right now two overheads and kick mics are great for me. Sounds like a real set of drums. And you can do it live with the right mics and shielding.

I don't like overheads because when the p.a. starts feeding back 99% of the time its those damn overheads. I like a good set of mics. on the toms, an sm57 on the snare and trigger the kick. I can always get a better sound this way!

We mic the kick, the snare and I bought these two little CAD condensor mics that we overhead the drums with, gets a really good sound. We dont have any problems with feedback these days, probably cause I have cut my volume way down, plus one thing Ive learned is once I set my guitar level I dont touch my amp the rest of the night, I used to monkey(turn it up all nite!) with my guitar amp.

We used to mic all the drums, toms were the worst cause they would hum when not being played, so that lead to putting gates on them, which to me killed thier sound.

So the little 4 mic setup on drums has been working real well the last couple of years.

I guess we have figured our pa out, cause we never get any feedback these days, everything is comfortable and clean sounding to me, or where ever I go in the room.

I think good live sound comes from experience and just keeping your stage volume reasonable, I used to be one of those guys who thought just because it was loud it sounded good, but Ive been converted the last few years. I base my stage volume off of hearing the vocals clearly above anything.

I don't know Slacker can you play like adrunken 50s cowboy
lead picker

I tested my hearing a couple of years ago and was surprised that I still had as much high-end as I did!
I don't think its my hearing at fault - my wife (14 years younger than me) agreed in my assessment of the sound on Friday. She hasn't spent 4 decades in front of loud amps like I have.
Too often I find myself saying "what the hell is that soundman listening to?"
At the Celtic fest I went to in July there was 1 band with 3 girls (elec keys, fiddle and bass) and a guy on drums. As soon as they started I could barely hear the keyboard. I saw the girl tell the sound guy to turn her instrument up after the first song, but he must have only done it in the monitors. After the second song, I ran up to him and told him to turn the keys up WAY UP and he finally got the clue.

'A soundman to watch the soundman' sounds about right!

I'd be curious to know how many bands get "soundmen" who are basically friends of the band, and they just need someone to watch over it, in general, and expect the person to have ears for the job.

Even musicians cannot always tell when things are balanced. I remember boosting someone in the band just so they would hear how unbalanced it was and ask to be turned down to hear everyone else. The person never did. Sounded fine to their ears.

I remember going to a Dennis Chambers clinic in Nashville. The Pearl Rep spent all this time talking about Chambers' drums. Dennis comes out and begins to play and the drums sounded terrible. No attack at all. I could not figure out what the sound guy was hearing.

I've heard bands where the bass was so loud and dominating nothing else could be distinguished. Ruins everything.

Maybe it's the sound engineers whose ears are shot.