Muddy vocal mix at live show

[capitalist]

Gentlemen, our hobby/dad band played recently at a local bar for about 120 people. The lead vocal mix was muddy and with very little high end throughout the night. The instrument mix sounded pretty good. Our sax player mentioned this issue to the sound man. The sound man was unsympathetic and obstinate. My wife and others thought the vocal sound was not a good as usual. Three video cameras were running and confirmed that the vocal sound was an issue. Oddly, this was our third time to play at this venue and we did not have this problem in the past. I learned tonight that some of the horns in the mains were recently replaced. The stage is about two feet high and the mains hang from the ceiling eight feet above the front edge of the stage. Low frequency feedback issue occurred minutes before we began but was quickly resolved. We are trying to solve the problem but continue to speculate. Our theories include the following:

 

1.) Sound man could not increase high frequencies due to monitors and vocal mic being too close to mains.

2.) Mains still have problem with their horns.

3.) Something was wrong with the vox channel on the sound board that evening.

4.) Sound man was over his head and should be working at Arby's.

 

Your input is appreciated!

[techristian]

I would think that a good sound man could have salvaged everything except the first minute or so. It is my guess that this guy/gal lost his/her high frequency hearing. That is why the problem wasn't repaired quickly.

 

Dan

[MikeRivers]

Even a drastic "fix" for low frequency feedback shouldn't make vocals sound muddy. If anything, it would take mud out of the vocals. However, if there was high frequency feedback, either from the monitors or main speakers, he may have attempted to fix that and in the process taken all of the upper midrange out of the system. That would make the vocals sound muddy.

 

Unless it was a really large venue, most of what was going through the speakers would be vocals, so the instruments wouldn't have been affected by an attempt to reduce high frequency feedback. Sometimes you can solve a feedback problem with an equalizer, but most of the time you can't. That's when the sound man, and possibly the band, should be delivering pizzas.

[dboomer]

There's no way to know over the Internet.

[Anderton]

Played a gig once that was deficient in the high frequency range. I went to the sound guy and said "Hey, do you know your high-frequency drivers are blown?"