On Ben Folds and Audio Levels

[mmaestro]

So, having been to my first pop/rock concert in a couple of years (and I never went to that many before), I find myself wondering if there is a real problem getting levels correct? It was Ben Folds, and it was BassTastic(TM). Normally, this would just be slightly annoying, but with Folds, it's a chronic problem - a piano has a wide range of harmonics, a huge range, and the higher notes really need a strong treble, but for much of the concert the whole sound (even the vocals) just descended into bassey mud. There was zero definition, and the higher range stuff that Folds was playing was completely inaudible. While I appreciate that it's way, way easier to make bass carry over a screaming crowd... that doesn't mean that you should at the expense of the rest of the sound. It's the sound engineer's job to, as best he can, replicate what music would sound like without amplification and make it louder. In this endeavour, he completely failed. Even in Folds' solo piano work, when the rest of the band wasn't present on the stage, it was bottom heavy. With bass and drums.. I find it very hard to believe that there isn't something that can be done to mitigate the bass overwhelming everything else which is going on. I was there to hear the pianist, not the bass guitar.

Other observations:

• Although you may have a particularly lovely, shapely ass, I came to see the concert not it.
• If you do a good impression of a wolf, this doesn't mean you're obliged to show the world every 30 seconds. In my ear.
• "Brick" is a rather heartfelt song about Folds' highschool girlfriend getting an abortion. It really isn't suitable material for you to joke about and slap the backs of your friends over.
• While I don't mind concerts starting a little late, an hour is taking the piss. Some of us have work to go to tomorrow.
• I really, really need to get some acoustically tuned earplugs if I'm going to start to go to concerts. Ow!

That's all. For all the bitching, it was still a reasonable concert. Not great - mostly a product of the levels being fucking awful and the annoying people in front of us - but it was still nice to see Folds live. Only one new song, mostly a diatribe against self-serving SUV drivers, but I won't be sorry to hear it on the next album, so the preview was nice.

Now: bed.