caaudio

Ahh, one of the great quandries of our time. The shows do sound wretched and it is everyones fault. I would be happy to go back and forth on this for a while as there is so much to cover. To kick things off, I was not being flip when I said it was everyones fault. All parties contribute to the overall sound of the show. Here are the broad considerations. I would be happy to expound if interest prevails. In absolutely no particular order: The Venues - Few concerts are held in appropriate venues. Arenas sound wretched but seat tons of people, clubs and bars are too small to have amplified bands in them, and those "acoutically perfect" theaters and concert halls were not built with amplified music in mind. In addition, the emphasis on ticket sales forces sound systems to be placed where they do not affect sightlines and people are often seated anywhere a chair will fit whether or not there has been consideration for sound coverage there. The Promoters/Producers - No one wants to spend money on audio. Sound is a very competetively bid service whose costs have risen 10 fold in the past 20 years but rates have been held flat (once you compensate for inflation.) An emphasis on audio quality is a rare trait on but a few concerts especially if it costs money. Engineers - Here is something I would love to dig into. The person mixing your show may have gotten their position in a variety of ways. Not all of these ways has to do with qualifications. I would love to see a Sound System Drivers Licsense program to keep hobbyists and unqualified people out from behind the consoles. The Artist/Band - It is very likely that the engineer does not have a chance to mix a descent show. Between the monitor rig, whose levels are specified by the musicians and every guitar and bass amplifier/rig, there is no clean audio to be had on stage. As a matter of fact the first 10 - 20 rows of a show can be innundated with this wash of sound sources coming from stage. Do you know that a drummer who is sitting right on top of his drum set will have 2 monitor speakers and a subwoofer or even a full range PA speaker or 2 for his monitoring? Do you know what is coming out of these speakers??? The drum kit, very loud!! The drum riser can have SPL reading of up to 130 decibels from the drum kit and monitor systems. We are often times forces to trigger a sampler for at least the kick and snare sounds just to maintain any show at all. This is a trick I have used quite effectively. To their credit many of the Country acts have been leading the charge with in-ear monitoring and banishment of all the guitar/bass amps from the stage. I have a show coming up in October where we are doing just that. If I can not get a mix together for that show, I will have to surrender my Sound System Drivers Licsense. Have you ever seen one of the engineers at a live show that spends most of or the whole show mixing on headphones. "I'll bet your mix sounds great in there buddy. Now how bout taking those off and mixing for the rest of us!" I know this barely touches on you query but I though I would start with the broad issues. I have tons to unload about each so take your pick. Respectfully, Chris

Jim, thanks for posting my email. Young Buck, Some comments on your gear list. Watch out for the Mackie monitors. They tend to have sloppy bass and the adjustment for this does not fix it. You NEED to have descent monitors. Without them you have no way to rely on what you are hearing. A high quality/neutral monitor will allow you to make good decisions about what you are hearing. There are so many speakers out there and they are really easy to sell because most people have no objective way of guaging the speaker's performance. Plus, we tend to be sensitive to a little "hype" in our listening experience. I believe this can be attributed to the popularity of many of the monitors that are available today. Remeber if you mix on a monitor that is anything but predicable and true your recordings will reflect this but in the inverse (bass heavy speaker yields bass light recordings.) The Meyer HD1s and Genelec 1031s are truly good monitors and have been mentioned a few times in this post already. I got my HD1s used for $1500/pr and had them re-certified by Meyer. If you are going to end up with monitors on which you have no basis of reliance, then you will need to check your work on a few different monitors in different environments. This will help you understand the characteristics of each of these monitors with reference to your work. On second thought, just get good monitors. As far as mics go, it is against the laws of the universe that a $150 mic is going to compete with some of the great mics that are used on the recordings that we love and try so hard to emulate. With budget in mind. I have used the Rode stuff and have been impressed with their cleanliness relative to price. The AT stuff is very popular (once again price to performance). The AKG414 is an industry workhorse and is down to about $500 now if you look hard. NOTHING replaces the Neumanns, Sankens, Sennheisers, Brauners and Schoeps stuff. I know that it would be nice to hear that there is some secret piece of gear out there that is really cheap and kicks total butt. Thank the Sound Gods that there isn't. Get the nicest stuff you can get your hands on. This is the equipment used on the great recordings that are the benchmark that we judge our work by. I think that Greg Mackie and a lot of the gear that you can buy over the phone today has done plenty to dumb down our art and audience (lets see if I have stirred up a hornets nest with this one). Good Luck!!