On Fri, 7 Sep 2012 09:19:12 -0700, Scott wrote
(in article ):
On Sep 7, 4:00am, Barkingspyder wrote:
On Thursday, August 30, 2012 8:17:56 PM UTC-7, Audio Empire wrote:
On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:51:26 -0700, Scott wrote
(in article ):
On Aug 30, 5:37am, "Arny Krueger" wrote:
"Audio Empire" wrote in message
...
Here we are in complete agreement. Why go to hear "live musicians" when
Was this a classical concert? If not then this is nothing new. Rock
and pop concerts have suffered from bad sounding PAs since the
beginning of the genres. Fans don't go to these concerts to hear
better sound. They go to *see* the artists, who are often celebrities,
in the flesh perform what will hopefully be a unique live experience.
It's a lot different than the live classical music experience. Well,
not including concerts at The Hollywood Bowl or other such venues.
Well, I have yet to hear a "sound reinforcement augmented" Â*symphony
concert but I have seen classical chamber music concerts so augmented.
It's just not necessary. I've been to the Hollywood Bowl and heard
chamber music played on stage. The acoustics of the place made them
easily heard in the proverbial back row. Back in the 40's and 50's
night clubs would feature bands playing and the only "PA" might be the
announcer or perhaps the band singer. The musicians playing
instruments needed no such crutches. A few years ago I went with some
friends to a Brazilian nightclub in San Francisco. They had a great
brazilian jazz band playing all the familiar samba favorites from that
country, along with Bossa Nova, Lambada as well as selections that I
had never heard before. They were using this huge PA system and
playing it so loudly that patrons had to cup their hands around the
ears of those next to them and yell at the top of their lungs into
those cupped hands to make themselves heard. It looked like there was
a war going on between the band, who wanted to be heard, and the
patrons who wanted to talk. Before the current sound reinforcement
craze, people would go to night spots and listen to unamplified music
playing while they politely whispered to one another. Now the band
turns up the volume on their sound reinforcement in order to be heard
over the talk and the people talk louder in order to be heard over the
sound reinforcement. Loudness wars.
OTOH, you are correct about rock and some other forms of pop. These
performances were created in the studio where they were recorded, and
essentially only exist as an electronic waveform. For recordings, this
waveform is "cut" to some physical media and is not a performance
again until it emanates from the listener's speakers. To have this
"performance" occur as a "live concert", the studio conditions must be
reproduced. The difference between the concert and the recording is
that the middle man, the physical media, is eliminated and the output
of the "studio" electronics is fed directly into large scale speakers
designed to play loud and cover a large group of people. While not my
cup of tea, that is a legitimate reason and use for sound
reinforcement because, without it, the performance couldn't exist.
If you've been to a classical concert at the Hollywood Bowl since 2007
you've heard sound reinforcement, it's getting better all the time and is
probably why the Bowl and the new dome have been getting rave reviews. The
sound reinforcement has been going on for a long time. Check out the
following links:
http://livedesignonline.com/theatre/...und_with...and
go to Wikipedia to read their brief history of the bowl and its acoustics.
I never knew that Lloyd Wright had designed not one but 2 domes for the
Bowl.
have been to two of them. It may very well be better than it was
before but by the standards of live classical music in proper concert
halls without sound reinforcement the sound is still horrible. Anyone
giving the sound a rave review in that context is not to be trusted in
any matters of sound quality.
Well, when I was last there in the sixties, I thought that the Frank
LLoyd Wright shell and the 'Bowl was excellent acoustically.
Frankly, I would not attend a 'Bowl concert where I knew SR was being
employed. I'd rather listen to a broadcast of the concert over my
stereo system, then to go to a live one where I'm forced to listen to
PA speakers. I know that my speakers are much better than any PA
speakers, and frankly, if I'm going to have to listen to speakers, I'd
just as soon listen to my own in the comfort of my own living room.
In my humble opinion, SR is not what the live music experience is all
about!