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Whats the best live sound you have Heard


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Im just Curious what you thought was the best sounding live show you guys have ever Heard ( not talking about the band but the live sound )

 

I have to say mine is without a doubt TOTO , I seen them at a out door concert in 2005 at the N.Y. state fair

 

They sounded better than a CD !!!!! It was that clean and clear

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Arena: Probably "Yes", inna about '78 or '79.

 

Club: "The Surf Poodles from Hell" in a college town club in about '86.

 

Best sounding band I've mixed: "Black Happy" inna about '93.

 

Concerning "better than the CD": I think most anything live sounds better than anything dead and canned. "If it ain't live, then it's dead." To me a recording studio and a morgue have a lot in common from the standpoint that they're both trying to preserve something that generally has a lot more substance live.:D

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Disturbed with Spineshank around 2000 at the NorVa in Norfolk, VA would probably be at or near the top of my list. It was absurdly loud and bass heavy, exactly the way those two bands should have sounded. It was a free show so the place was packed to its 1450 capacity (ran out of tickets for it within like five seconds and crashed the radio station's site for a few hours). The stage is 32' wide, and they had the front lined with 2x18 subs. The venue itself has a full V-DOSC L'Acoustics flown sound system, and the subs were lined side-to-side across the whole front of the place for the lows. I was at the front rail stage-right and you could literally see people's hair moving when the kick was hit.

 

Spineshank uses a lot of bass samples, 808 hits, etc... and it was almost like you couldn't breathe. It wasn't painfully loud or anything, it's just that the bass was so crystal clear and there was so freaking much air moving.

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I saw a bloke called Israel Houghton play in Birmingham (UK, not Alabama US) a few months ago. One of them black Christian artistes with an all-black band - not being racist, but just pointing out the style (and the fact that they were all phenomenally good musicians).

 

Crystal clear sound, perfectly balanced, and I could hear every single instrument (multiple keyboards and guitars) and vocal doing its thing, just right.

 

AS

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A few that I've worked with come to mind. All of them had nice spacious arrangements in common so there was no fighting for time & space on stage.

 

In no particular order:

 

Trailer Park Trubadores

Doc Watson & Friends

Kronos Quartet

Kate Wolf

David Grisman Quintet

Cab Calloway & Orchestra

John Hiatt

Debbie Reynolds

Mary Wells/Coasters/Drifters/Platters/Inkspots type stuff

Kingston Trio

Limelighters

 

Yes, I tend to do more old school type acts.

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Britney Spears in Toronto 2004. Oh, wait, you said LIVE didn't you...Funny how her voice sounded CD perfect while she was dancing, running around, doing cartwheels and continuously ajusting her mic... Man, that's talent. OK, I'm just kidding. I'm not that big a loser. Best concert sound would have to be MC Hammer. I actually went to see the sound guy and asked him if I could try mixing the instruments myself on his mixing board. He just said, Woooo buddy, U can't touch this.... :D

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Hmmm... tough question. For the most part I've never really enjoyed the live sound at concerts, except from sidestage or backstage. For some reason it sounds much better when I'm not out in front.

 

I like to think I've mixed some good shows, and have had a few nights where people came up to compliment me on the sound afterwards. Maybe the best in recent memory was a bluegrass group called "King Wilkie", a young group doing the one-mic thing. Ended up using one of my own mics, and we got a really nice natural sound. Those guys were great at doing the one-mic thing, along with being really good players and singers.

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Actually I do have to mention one show about a year ago. It was a local beer-tasting event, with semi-local brewpubs and such offering samples. The music came from a regional guy (name escapes me a the moment, alas) who basically does a one-man show with guitar, vocals, the occasional backing track, and a lot of humor. Incredibly good at entertaining a drunken crowd.

 

Anyway, his system had everything bad going for it - cheap acoustic guitar pickups feeding crappy processing, some weird old plastic JBL column speakers, and cassettes for backing stuff. He had a sound guy who'd been with him some ten years of playing clubs - I saw the guy carefully taping down a mic cord with silver duct tape. As you'd expect, it didn't sound very hi-fi. But in a larger sense it worked great - it wasn't too loud, but it did sound like a live show with that concert excitement. You could hear the words and the between-song patter just fine, no problems at all with intelligibility.

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A few years ago I worked a sound gig with the Shirelles... which was amazing. The "Shirelles" was just the 3 gals (all possibly in their '70's). Their backing band was a so-so local band who had never played with them before this gig. I believe the gals had sent out a cassette tape ahead of time for the band to familarize themselves with. Well anyway... this was a pretty big show for the area... and during soundchecks (practice)... I was sitting at the soundboard with my head in my hands... going "man-oh-man, this is gonna be a trainwreck deluxe." The Shirelles gals were doing a great job... but the band just wasn't jiving. Finally, after about an hour of flogging the dog... soundchecks concluded (finished fizzling away). I don't know what happened during the hour or so between soundchecks and the performance... but that ended up being one of the better sounding shows I've ever mixed.

 

Amazing.

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Originally posted by agedhorse

A few that I've worked with come to mind. All of them had nice spacious arrangements in common so there was no fighting for time & space on stage.


In no particular order:


Trailer Park Trubadores

Doc Watson & Friends

Kronos Quartet

Kate Wolf

David Grisman Quintet

Cab Calloway & Orchestra

John Hiatt

Debbie Reynolds

Mary Wells/Coasters/Drifters/Platters/Inkspots type stuff

Kingston Trio

Limelighters


Yes, I tend to do more old school type acts.

WOW! How was Doc Watson?

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It seems like the more rootsy rock stuff tends to get the best ears and capabilities behind the mixing desk,IMO. I've seen Sheryl Crow four times and the sounds was really good at all of them. I saw Elvis Costello at a nice theatre and he sounded stunning. Counting Crows at a typical colloege auditoreum sounded really good for the venue. I did see LIVE at a large disco in the Twin Cities and they sounded really good.

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Originally posted by tlbonehead

WOW! How was Doc Watson?

 

Unbelievable.

 

I worked with him way back before Mearle died, and they were the nicest folks to work with. I have done only a few shows with him and various other players backing him up and it's always a really good time. Definately a class act.

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Originally posted by agedhorse

Unbelievable.


I worked with him way back before Mearle died, and they were the nicest folks to work with. I have done only a few shows with him and various other players backing him up and it's always a really good time. Definately a class act.

That would be a definite high point IMO!

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For a truly electric performance (as opposed to what passes for "acoustic"), it would probably be David Bromberg's 50th birthday party at the State Theater in Portland, Me. It's a big old hall that really doesn't lend itself well to sound, but David & company spent a few days rehearsing in the hall, and it was just "wow" all the way.

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Last year, playing in a tiny little club in Charleston, SC last year. There was every reason for it to sound bad-we were standing within a few feet of the stage, off to one side. The sound was absolutely fantastic! BTW, Mason and his band rocked and looked like they were having fun.

For a "little" more production-intensive gig, Trans-Siberian Orchestra wasn't too shabby...

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a regional guy (name escapes me a the moment, alas) who basically does a one-man show with guitar, vocals, the occasional backing track, and a lot of humor. Incredibly good at entertaining a drunken crowd.

 

 

Pat McCurdy Perhaps?

 

One show that sticks in my mind as sounding really good was Jackson Brown at Summerfest in Milwaukee many years a go- An outdoor non-shed show, which really helps I think. No reflected sound to deal with.

 

Also last year I saw the John Hiatt, Del McCoury, Guy Clark and Lyle Lovett show. Great show, just guitars and vocals. Nice and detailed. Check those guys out if you get the chance.

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