Live Concert sound

[Akira]

I attended Tina Turner's concert last night and I would have to say the sound was a little disappointing. There was a piercing crunchy sound around 1.8K and a shrill in the 6K range. Even prerecorded music displayed these qualities. I don't know the make of the array system they used since I have been out of the live business for 7 years now. The venue was the Air Canada Center (Toronto) which has reasonably good acoustics. I worked on the Celine Dion tour there with Meyer MSL 5's and the sound was amazing.

Since all systems are array designs these days, do you find the fidelity any better? Yes the throw is better, and the bass seems to have better impact than in the past but, I have never heard superior hi fidelity enveloping sound. And, I have heard excellent sound even with some of the old S4 systems of 30 years ago. Arrays often sound thin and piercing to me, but again I have no experience working with them.
How do you find concert sound these days?

[keith141]

I attended Tina Turner's concert last night and I would have to say the sound was a little disappointing. There was a piercing crunchy sound around 1.8K and a shrill in the 6K range. Even prerecorded music displayed these qualities. I don't know the make of the array system they used since I have been out of the live business for 7 years now. The venue was the Air Canada Center (Toronto) which has reasonably good acoustics. I worked on the Celine Dion tour there with Meyer MSL 5's and the sound was amazing.

Since all systems are array designs these days, do you find the fidelity any better? Yes the throw is better, and the bass seems to have better impact than in the past but, I have never heard superior hi fidelity enveloping sound. And, I have heard excellent sound even with some of the old S4 systems of 30 years ago. Arrays often sound thin and piercing to me, but again I have no experience working with them.
How do you find concert sound these days?

I, too, attended Tina Turner's concert at GM Place in Vancouver, similar to AC Center in Toronto, a few years ago. I had the same impression about their sounds as yours. I guess they brought in their own sound system but the quality of sound was rather disappointing. Harsh HF and MF made me very uncomfortable. No one was complaining though.
I never attended the live concert before so I thought that is the normal sound at all concerts.
I decided to buy DVD music videos instead ever since.

Keith

[Andyoz]

In the majority of cases, the overall sound quality at concerts is probably worse than it was 10 years ago.

I put it down to the financial drive to make concerts profitable now. Record sales can no longer support a tour that loses money. Promoters want the minimum amount of gear on the road to cover the maximum audience and that means line arrays! It's all about SPL level and coverage....actual fidelity seems to be further down the list than ever! Most mix engineers seek the "smilie face" EQ curve - loads of bass and high for "impact" apparently.

The days of bands touring with systems with massive amounts of headroom are over. That extra 5dB headroom may mean adding another lorry to the convoy and no one wants to pay for it.

[Hoerninger]

That extra 5dB headroom ... no one wants to pay for it.

Often I would like to pay for with reduced max sound pressure level.
____________
Peter

[Andyoz]

Often I would like to pay for with reduced max sound pressure level.
____________
Peter

The point I was trying to make is it is always nicer to listen to a system with headroom even if the mix engineer doesn't use it. At the moment, most touring systems sound harsh on peaks such as snare drum hits, etc. With the current touring systems, the coverage and SPL is calculated and very little "headroom" is left as that costs and it's a competitive industry. Many live systems are being run to within an inch of their limits and that doesn't sound nice....!!!!

[Ian Mackenzie]

Could be her voice was just ..well past it.

But seriously,

There is alot of debate about arrays being better ..because everyone is doing it.

I think of it as lots of piss arse Bose 801's