Hearing Fatigue? April 25, 2008
Posted by Chris in Audio.trackback
I just got home from the Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood concert tonight. It really was an amazing show. The lights were really incredible. Keith’s set had a 60 ft wide High Def LED back drop. They put live camera shots up on it. It was really quite excellent! The shots were amazing, and in combination with the lights, it really added an amazing dynamic to the evening.
The band was unreal. I mean, what would you expect? He’s got Chris McHugh as a drummer. He alone is a freak of nature and everyone who knows me, knows I loves me some drums!
So the show was great….but what about the sound? Well, to be real honest. It hurt. I really try to go to concerts and enjoy them and not focus on what is wrong but this was quite offensive. The guy who sat in front of me had a face like the angry sound men I spoke of in my previous post. He turned around and said….”The acoustics suck! This just hurts!” I didn’t even know him but he was outgoing enough (or drunk enough) to share his opinion with me, a total stranger.
I, of course, had my trusty ear plugs with me in my concert survival kit, complete with binoculars and a point and shoot digital camera. So I shoved them right in, and all was ok. But here is one thing my analytical mind started to process….
The guy behind the console was really talented. It really was an incredible mix. There was amazing detail, I could hear all the parts, and it really sounded like the record. But it really hurts. I think these guys have been mixing every night on this tour and they are used to this. It wouldn’t surprise me if they think their mix doesn’t hurt because they are not as sensitive to the upper mids as the average audience member.
I went to a U2 concert last year and I experienced the same thing. The mix was good but the upper mids were just unbearable. The only way somebody gets to mix for U2 is if they’ve been mixing live for years (since 1978 to be exact)…which means he is probably experienced some hearing loss. Man, this can not be a good scenario for attenders who pay no less that $60 per seat!
I am a sound guy, if my hearing is not the same as my audience….I’m really messed up.
Does anybody else share my opinion about live concerts? Or am I just “hyper-sensitive” about the upper mids?
This is just about every show I go to these days. The Police had this problem when I saw them. I think it hurts us because of the whole equal-loudness thing. If you look at the Fletcher-Munson curves we have a bump of sensitivity in the 2-4k range–something to do with the resonant frequency of our ear canals. My theory is when they push every other frequency up to the edge of the pain threshold, that 2-4k has already been crossed. I can’t go to a show without my musicians plugs now. I think some of those guys are mixing with plugs now, too, because sometimes it’s not the sound guy pushing for the volume; sometimes it’s the production management.
Sure, I agree. One thing I did notice once i had my earplugs in. You could clearly hear distortion in the horns. They had the clair i4 rig like he’s had at the last 3 atlanta shows with the digico console. Those combined don’t make for the smoothest sound either.
I experienced this the last time I saw Third Day. I could hear everything, but it was all so crunching-ly loud that it was difficult to listen to. I also noticed that they hadn’t punched up the 5k on Mac Powell’s vocal, so he was muffled and hard to understand the whole time.
Chris, you make a valid point. As a sound engineer, if I can’t trust my ears because they are different from the audience; I’m in trouble.
I’m really sensitive to high mids, too, and I sometimes wonder if anyone else is.
I saw some shows in Las Vegas at NAB this year that were pleasant experiences – I carry my musician’s earplugs, too…actually two sets, one for me, one for my wife…but I didn’t need to get them out at Cirque’s LOVE and Blue Man. Blue Man had some loud moments, but the levels varied a lot, and the louder moments were brief. Both shows had nice, punchy sound, but I left with no ear fatigue.
my ears rang for hours after the concert… painful, yes. worth it, yes. but only for keith!!!
Dude – you’re right on! But I did recently experience 2 of the best live sound mixes I’ve ever heard – John Mayer and Radiohead. Everytime I catch John Mayer I’m floored by his sound – he must take a personal interest in it because it’s not as loud as other shows but the clarity is unreal. While we’re complaining about bad live sound, is it just me or is the “tell” of an amateur concert sound guy a kik drum that’s lourder than everything else?