I mean, I understand not being totally able to reproduce studio album recordings even if the musicians are great. But what I don’t understand is the sheer sound quality of live concerts. Even in big venues with rich famous bands the audio sounds badly mixed at best, or an unintelligible noise-soup at worst.
I assume it has to do with the acoustics of outside with tons of amps vs a closed room with stereo speakers. But idk I just play guitar in my bedroom and I’m genuinely puzzled.
In: Technology
A lot of large multi-use entertainment venues aren’t built with acoustic in mind. Which is why there’s a huge difference between listening to a concert at a dedicated performing arts centre versus one at a hockey arena. The former use sophisticated panels and baffling to muffle echos and shape the sound for the best listening experience possible. Television and recording studios will also use similar materials for their studios.
Another thing with a lot of big concerts is they tend to overdrive the audio. People expect rock concerts to be loud no matter where you are in the venue. So a lot of mixers will overdrive the signal. Which certainly makes it really loud, but absolutely kills dynamic range. Peaks of the signal get clipped off, causing the entire thing to sound a bit muffled.
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