It really is frustrating to not be able to hear what people are saying because the music or background noise is so distracting.

My hearing isn't the best. I can't hear a damn thing when the music is turned up.

Too funny, I use them as well. I can barely make out what they're saying, either I'm getting older (I am) or they are doing something different with the sound. Without subtitles, I couldn't make anything out.

What were the words??

Yep. Pretty frustrating.

Watching rich people pat each other on the back just doesn't seem like entertainment to me.

I thought she was horrible


Glad she went first and now is over.

Ever heard a band where you couldn't understand the words?
That's because the intelligibility of words is in the treble.
They don't roll out the bass, they just crank it all wide open, and wonder why it sounds like mud and has feedback.

of the vocalists were singing. If I were the vocalist, I'd be really pissed.

and they'll probably last me the rest of my days.

miss a lot. CBS is unwatchable for me. Thanks again..

and it's always breaking up. They have some great programs, but the sound engineers SUCK.

A series of dull thuds with faint notes of lead guitar and bottom heavy reverb vocals. Bands I liked sounded awful.

Like everyone talking at once, by the time it hits the ear and registers on the brain.

Music mixed so that you can clearly hear every single word is for old people.

The people the music is marketed to will stop listening and raise their middle fingers the moment they suspect that they are being "told" something.

They're singing their hearts out. Your logic might be that of some of the engineers. Engineers who won't admit that they don't know how to handle the mix.

It is intentional... more than you would suspect.

that type of attitude, but it isn't for where the general public has to PAY for it, and where the artists are put down like that.

If I namedrop, I would end up revealing my own identity here. One record I played on came out in 1997 and went platinum. You can still understand most of the words on it, though.

Can't say I share those beliefs, but maybe I am just "old."

Is this you?

Hard rock music you treat the vocalist as another instrument, its the guitars at the forefront. Folk music you bring the vocals a little out front. Its a fine line, some artists are more difficult to work with than others, and you're not going to make everyone happy.

Or put another way, could the bass be too strong on your TV because you own a good system that is better able to play bass compared to the low end sets that the broadcaster expects people to have?

By which I mean at least forty years. A LOT of movies have that problem. TV shows also. Oh, and simple recordings of songs.

With all that expensive gear and a nice room, a competent sound person could make a live performance sound as clean as a good studio recording.

That and "Hey man, can I bum a cigarette?"

That's what me and my group who were watching noticed. We were wondering if they were doing it on purpose for some reason to make them sound bad?? I don't know, but Miranda Lambert and the guy after her sounded horrible. It was embarrassing it was so bad.

Fun, Justin Timberlake....it was pretty bad all the way around.

Of course the sound sucks. Now, go buy something...

I could even buy some of those clothes that you wash one time and have to throw them out because the fabric is so shabby.

Not so for independents and overseas:

Go on Spotify and who will hear magnificent work by indie and self publishes artists if you are the least bit patient It's the corporate music that is utter rubbish. The Grammies are one big infomercial for big label, millionaire dollar set acts. Very little good "new" music will be found there.
That is why you should just ignore it.......even if you like pop and hip hop. Way better stuff will never make terrestrial radio because it is not music created by the corporation for the
Corporation

Last edited Mon Feb 11, 2013, 02:13 PM - Edit history (2)

like The Who. I ran the Who Quadraphenia sound system for London City Ent. My Mavis desk is at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.



There were a lot more cabinets to that system ...32 JBL 4560's ...4 Olsen tri-folds ...couple of Phaze Linear 700's ...a 16x8 monitor desk ..4 more short throw 2482's

Did you really do that?

I'm still out there slogging away... doing mostly country acts these days as they do mostly weekends. Not sure I could handle a full on gone for 6 months rock tour..

I don't miss the hard dirty work.

i'm a classical music freak. When you learn to sing opera (I took two years of private lessons), you learn to project from your gut. I've been in a couple of plays and had to tell the children about projecting from your gut. So that you don't need a mike. The throat and mouth are supposed to be relaxed. Guts are tight. My teacher was delighted when I told him my back molars buzzed!!!

They use subtle mikes at the symphony.

In the 60s and 70s, I had one ear in the classical station and the other ear in the top 40 station. It was a BFD when everybody switched to FM stereo "album rock" and it was radical to play a 20 minute vinyl side. Cream, Vanilla Fudge, Yes, whatever.
Yeah, I'm old.

I loved The Who because of their amazing bass player and their bad attitude. Three deranged attention-seeking orangutangs jumping around and one guy who didn't move and held it all together.

The Who--the one band who managed to be the best band in the world, the worst band in the world, and the loudest band in the world, all at the same time!!! Now that's talent.

From an old Guinness book of world records 1986, special edition:
"Loudest Pop Group: The amplification for The Who concert at Charlton Athletic Football Ground, London, England, May 31, 1976, provided by a Tasco PA system had a total power of 76,000 watts from eighty 800 W Crown DC 300 A Amplifiers and twenty 600W Phase Linear 200s.
The readings at 50 m (164 ft) from the front of the sound system were 120 decibels."

My recording engineer hubby reminds me that the decibel scale is logarithmic. For every ten points you go up, it's not twice as loud, it's TEN TIMES as loud!!!!!

I saw Bruce in 2000 and was very disappointed at how muddy the sound was. Too many dueling alpha males on guitar--Bruce, Little Steven, Nils Lofgren, Todd Rundgren and maybe somebody else--way too much mud in the midrange.

Bruce's redheaded wife would come out and strum a bit on an acoustic, and all the women would hiss at her because WE WERE JEALOUS!!!

These days artists use in-ear monitors and have no idea what the P.A. sounds like. They may be bitching today when they watch the playback though.

With the advancement in sound technology there is no reason for a bad mix. It usually falls on the engineer. I have heard shows that sound like you are in a tin shack(Taylor Swift) and I have heard flawless P.A. systems where you can hear every note and every instrument with total clarity(Roger Waters).

she seemed like it didn't sound right, like she couldn't hear herself or something.

I have actually toured with Miranda,(I still have a note she wrote me(jokingly) threatening to kick me in the balls if I played anymore jokes on her) she has decent sound guys, but at an event like this sometimes you just get what you get.

Something else, at an event like this, sometimes the artists are not prepared. I worked the iHeart radio festival this year and there were a number of artists who showed up at the last minute with diva type demands, throwing a wrench into a well planned schedule.


I have a few friends who worked the Grammy's I'll see if I can find anything out.

I'm not on Twitter, or I would. The artists should hear about it too, and put pressure on CBS to change their engineering style (or head engineering person, if need be).

If it was so bad that the audience could tell there were issues... ouch.

And I've never seen anyone else comment on it, until this thread. I mean, my household comments on it all the time, but it was particularly aggravating last night, because I wanted to see Bob Marley's kids. And, actually, that act kinda sucked. Not enough Reggae beat for my taste.

They pick up offstage noise. Somebody has an open mike in the wrong place.