Challenges for Good Live Sound

It's really hard to do live sound well, because there are a huge number of factors that make achieving the goals I laid out here difficult, including things like (in no particular order):

• Live shows often take place in large venues (i.e. arenas) which were designed to actually acoustically amplify ambient sound (for example, at a basketball game, you want the crowd to sound loud, not quiet).  When loud concerts take place in these same venues, the system has to be designed to essentially to overcome these issues.
• Live shows often take place in small venues, where the sound coming from the musicians onstage is so loud that the sound system is often used only to amplify things like vocals and other "quiet" instruments.  If the drummer is playing loud, then the bass player plays louder, then the guitar player plays louder, and then the sound engineer has to turn up the vocals to overcome all of those.  It's sort of a nuclear escalation in that case, and the sound engineer doesn't have any fader on their console to make the drummer play more quietly.
• Sound itself is variable (temperature and humidity actually affect the speed and transmission characteristics of sound).
• Bands listen to a different (monitor) sound system and don't have any idea what their show sounds like to the audience. (Explained here)
• Extremely loud monitor systems (for hearing-damaged musicians) actually interfere with the sound that the audience hears, the same way as loud guitar ampfliers or drums.
• Band management, who may have hired the engineer, can tell him or her to do things that actually make it sound worse (i.e. turn it up to painful levels).
• There’s very little time in most concerts to install and adjust the system, and the audience actually absorbs sound and changes the sound in a hall once they are present. So, the sound check can sound different than the show.
• Since the musicians do not hear what they sound like to the audience, they have to trust someone. This might be their management, or an old, trusted, friend who may not have the technical chops to handle modern, high-tech systems.
• Sound engineers may be able to make it sound fantastic where they are controlling the system (the “mix position”). However, unless the sound system itself is engineered properly to deliver good sound to every seat, it’s quite possible that it sounds great at the mix position, and not as good at seats throughout the venue. 

That's a start, let me know other things I'm missing.

Thanks!

John 

Comments

[Mike Glasspool]

One thing that I've found is that if you're not the dedicated mixer for a show (in other words, you're a hired gun or the house tech) is that frequently you don't know what the songs are supposed to sound like.

You might know one or two of them from some pre-job listening, but if they pull out 'one of the oldies', you could be mixing the song a way the audience doesn't recognize as 'good', even though it's a fine mix.

It also means that you spend the first bit of many songs adjusting the mix to fit what you think it should sound like.

[Caroline Bailey]

I think you have to open your piece up with a real scenario of sorts:

"You're at a concert in a big hall, excited to see and hear your favorite band—Live. When they finally take the stage and launch into one of their big hits, all you hear is drum and bass. Maybe the band's not warmed up enough. Maybe the drummer and bassist are showing off? On the second song, the vocals get louder, but the lyrics don't seem very crisp. Is it an off night for the singer? Is it the theatre? Is it your own ears? Or is this another band that sounds better recorded than live? . . ." You get the gist--spell it out for those of us who do notice bad sound, but have no idea who or what to chalk it up too. Before I knew you, I thought bad sound was the band's fault, and then maybe the venue's.

[Sunil Rajan]

I think this was posted on the List before. The "Reverend" Horton Heat, rants about how soundfolks are ruining sound.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=401415&blogID=219574869

[John Huntington]

Caroline Bailey wrote, "I think you have to open your piece up with a real scenario of sorts..."

Thanks, yes I should have been clear about that. These posts are sort of idea fragments, and I'm intending to put them all together (probably this summer) and shape it into a proper article, with interviews and everything. I have a good intro I want to use, but I didn't want to post it yet :-)

Thanks!

John

[Andy]

Interesting Blog. I've been on all sides of the equation - as musician, band production manager, and sound guy - in different venues and scenarios.

I think the biggest challenge in live sound is communication, or lack thereof. Often times, conflicts arise from an inability for either side to express what they need/want from each other, and an unwillingness to compromise. Everyone in the venue who is NOT an audience member has a difficult job to do, and sometimes that job isn't respected. Some examples include the guitarist who insists that every single one of his Marshall stacks be mic'd in a 500-capacity room...the engineer who refuses to honor the band's request for a little reverb because of tast issues...or the deaf bass player who harrasses the monitor engineer.

[Pat]

Many of the problems concerning live sound quality have already ben mentioned. In todays event enviroment we face many demands. The venues are quite often just not made for amplified music. Apart from that the most concert promoters will pay a lot of money for a thousand things before a professional sound company and apropreate sound sysems. I'm working as a live sound engineeer for about 20 years now and deal with these points every day. In my opinion every one of us can emprove that situation by taking some time for a extended system-tuning (tune your speakers to the room!!) and some work with the musicians (use plexglass walls in front of the Drums, turn Guitar amps towards the center of the stage etc.). At the end the engineer also has to understand that with todays audiosystems we can get good dynamics and transperancy out of a system without the need of high SPL levels. This also helps not overdriving the accoustics of the venue. I usually mix shows around 97dB LeQ and get only positive feedbacks on doing so. Maybe some of us have to readjust their minds and need to deal with new technologies!

Pat