Re: Altec "Voice of the Theatre" Speaker systems

Bobby Owsinski <polymedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You know, you may be absolutely right about this, but I have to say that
by my ears, the sound quality of SR systems with these type of folded
horn cabinets was far superior to anything I hear now in general
intelligibility within the context of loud music. I can't remember one
concert in the last 10 - 15 years that I went to where the vocal was
intelligible over the dull roar of the bottom end and maybe some
high-end fizz on top (I take it back - McCartney's last couple of tours
were pretty good). But I remember lots of concerts that sounded
fantastic back in "the day".

This is true. But I think 90% of this is due to operators and due to
the various attempts to bring sound levels up insanely high. The concerts
back in the day were not anywhere near as loud as they are today, and
the monitor levels (if they even HAD monitors) weren't up like mad.
Consequently there wasn't huge amount ts of bizarre EQ going on to get
that last bit of gain before feedback out.

And when the levels are too loud, your ear itself becomes nonlinear,
as does the ear of the soundguy mixing it.

On top of this we now have speaker systems that are optimized to be
used at insanely high levels.

I can remember going to a Gary Wright free concert in Central Park about
sort of Altec or Community system (remember the Leviathans?). At least
you could always hear the vocals.

And of course, an entire generation of live mixers learned the wrong
way, concentrating mostly on the kick and snare instead of the quietest
thing on the stage and building around that, and maybe that's the real
problem.

That is 90% of it, and I have no idea where the whole idea of mixing
everything around the kick comes from. I never saw it at all until a
decade ago, and now I am encountering it all the time. If the guy is
a vocalist, the song is about the vocals, you make the vocals sound
good and build the rest of the mix around it. You don't get a slamming
kick drum and then bring the vocals up as an afterthought.

Hate to sound like an old guy bitching about the way it used to be but I
gotta put my 2 cents in here. I really feel that we've been off-track in
the SR world for a long time now.

OK, I'll put the flame retardant clothing on now.

Hey, I do live concert recording, I have to deal with this stuff directly.
You won't hear any flaming from me. Last year, I suggested to the SR guy
for a fairly major act that he might be better off without all those
compressors patched into nearly every channel. He told me that if he
pulled THAT out, he'd be spending the whole night moving faders up and down
to keep the mix under control. Now, you'll have to pardon me, but I thought
that was what the guy behind the console was PAID to do.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
.

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