Forgive me Father.. aka confession of audio heretic..

Seriously? I mean the dude is talking about premier symphonic spaces, not soldiers field.

 

Yeah man seriously.
Not all venues are created equally.
Again no offense.

I’ve played violin, piano and guitar for a long time.
Most venues are not good.

yeah some concert halls are amazing though. I’d rather listen there than my system for sure. Not to mention the vibe.

 

That's all I'm saying, we've all been to ****ty venues with crappy sound, which I agree are more the norm than the exception, but when we're talking about high quality acoustic spaces with zero electronics in the middle, then I say that's just going too far.

 

Plus you are never going to sit in the best sounding seats in the house either.

 

I have! More than once, but less than 4 times And it was awesome each time. Nothing comparable imo.

 

Depends.
All venues and concert halls have their own sound sig.

I agree with you man. Some are marvelous.
Depends again who’s playing and where you are sitting.

I’ve been to a few that were really nice.
And yeah it’s the magic of being there which to me tops everything.
It’s not about sound quality. Why most musicians don’t care about high quality audio anyway.

 

Cool. Yeah sometimes you might get lucky. Or have the cash.

 

Older cousin high on the food chain in the corporate music world.

 

Well, 20th row at Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden sounded pretty darn good to me! Give me electric guitar blasting out of a stack of amps anyday!

 

See you back here in a few years discussing your tinnitus...

 

Yeah and there's that too...live performance can simply be magical regardless of the listening conditions, because you are a part of it. That's why the dead had such a loyal following forever, although the wall of sound was nothing to sneeze at. But I remember listening to a trumpet solo in a crappy bar with ****ty acoustics, but I was right in front of the trumpet, got a little wet, but jeez man wouldn't trade that for anything. It was in NOLA listening to a band called "Rebirth"

 

OK Grandpa

 

I mean seriously people complaining about violins sounding too much like violins? Where are we going here?

 

Been to many hundreds of rock concerts of just about any band you can think of. No hearing damage at all for this 58 year old dude. I do feel for folks with tinnitus though certainly.

 

What? Can you speak up?

 

Where do you want to be, on your couch or at the preservation hall listening? Give me a break this is idiotic.

 

As a collector of thousands of GD recordings(and over 100 shows attended), I can tell you none of them sound as good as being there from a sound quality perspective. Sure, direct soundboard recordings can be awesome but the visceral impact isn't the same. And sometimes they really had sound problems...for sure. Wasn't a big fan of stadium shows.

 

I know. Jinxed myself for sure on that one. Wouldn't trade all the fun I've had for anything though. Hell, even Aerosmith (loud concert!!) sounded better live than they do on their albums.

 

I lost count at 100 shows, and I concur 100% on the visceral, transcendent mystic crystal revelations. Never really liked the stadiums either especially later on when the cops were on horseback in the parking lots.

 

I always thought their PA system (the big hanging stacks) were awesome sounding. Sure, you needed to get in a good spot which was always my 1st priority heading inside. I did help my buddy often in the tapers section and even took solo duty a few times (portable DAT, Schoeps microphones). That was too much responsibility for me though!

 

About my only gripe with this mostly wonderful state is the government's view on weed. We are surrounded by legal states. At the least we need to decriminalize it.

 

Yep. And as much as I love those soundboards (and I do) what you say is true. Not the same visceral impact as a live Dead show.

But I'll take it.

Bill

 

Dude, it's Idaho...I'm guessing you didn't move their for their liberal views.

 

At the concerts I remember everyone was flowing. You didn't have to push you could just weave and bob your way to wherever you wanted to be at that moment. I split my time between as close to the band as I could get, without looking at their asses from back stage, to positions in front center to back center from the sound boards. What fun playing like that was.