keyboards and sound

[wehideandseek]

I suppose I am prone to expect perfect sound quality when I know the sound Jay and the band are making is exceptional -- why shouldn't it be transferred to our ears as so?... Especially difficult to swallow was when we were treated to a guitar solo by Jay, and yet his sound wasn't very distinguishable from Chris Frames' and the rest...
I respect Jay's desire to expand his sound, but I think these songs stand very strong and sound even better without the keys...
I invite...your thoughts on the quality of the sound that is controlled by the sound guy....

Hey Now Zach,
there's been a small discussion of this here:

http://www.fastatmosphere.com/jayfarrar ... php?t=3660

Live sound is a particular monster.
It doesn't like it's vegetables though it knows it must eat them; it likes to mix it's potatoes in with it's gravy and it always wants desert first.
Sometimes there is nothing that can be improved on when you are fighting frequencies pitched against and atop one another and holding the feedback at bay. Oftentimes the Front Of House is attempting to compensate for compensations /misdeeds conducted at Monitor World.
Perhaps they got too short a soundcheck and never got a chance to see how loud Jay would step-up during a solo. Too many variables to hazard a guess w/o having been present at the show you describe...
I too miss the lap steel and fiddle. But i love a tasteful Leslie sound and Berry did deliver that. In fact there were a few times when "tasteful" became too low in the mix. But that's the creature known as live sound reinforcement: the FOH engineer is tasked w/ recreating and replicating a suppossed stereo image to your ears which does not exist. It's amazing there's amplified music at all..."demon electricity" as the Spankers used to call it before they climbed back on the turnip truck and went wireless
The nice thing is that you can still psycho-acoustically tune your image with your mind and attempt to focus on the good [pick that guitar frequency out from the mud] and straain out the poor [that chatty kathy or Ken next to you] and enjoy the best you can. Relax. Let go. The majority of engineers w/o significant hearing loss will know already that something sounds quirky...trust they are handling it as best as they can!

[zach]

When I caught Son Volt at SXSW in Austin earlier this year, the Wallflowers preceded them. I was centered in the audience, maybe 20 yards from the stage or so. Then the Wallflowers came on, and my ears could not take it. I pinpointed my irritability on the sounds from their keyboardists/organist. It was very loud and, to me, sounded simply like noise. I had to move back to a place from which I could tolerate it.

I understand the organ sound is essential to the Wallflowers style and, though I have never listened to one of their albums in its entirety, I wouldn't expect them to play live without it. However, when played live, I think the keyboards/organ sounds excessively loud and actually detracts from the music.

Son Volt just played Stubb's again, this time with Derry DeBorja on keyboards. The beginning of their set was detracted from by a sub-par sound mix. I even made a trip back to the tent, during "Bandages and Scars", and offered my two cents to the sound guy. He listened, and I returned to the crowd. The sound did improve after that, though I won't pretend to take credit. The sound quality fluctuated somewhat the rest of the night, and I tried to focus on its qualities, rather than what it was lacking. I suppose I am prone to expect perfect sound quality when I know the sound Jay and the band are making is exceptional -- why shouldn't it be transferred to our ears as so? Especially difficult to swallow was when we were treated to a guitar solo by Jay, and yet his sound wasn't very distinguishable from Chris Frames' and the rest. I was eagerly anticipating Jay's solos on Endless War and Chickamauga, and I definitely enjoyed them, but they could be much more powerful when the sound mix is done well.

The other sound element I wrestled with was the keyboards. As the case I described with the Wallflowers, it seems that the keyboard sound has to be turned up so loud to be distinguished that it becomes noisy and a distraction, at least to me. I respect Jay's desire to expand his sound, but I think these songs stand very strong and sound even better without the keys. To me, without keys gives a crisp, clean and raw sound. Jay could have a keyboard on the side for "World Waits for You".

I invite your thoughts. I expect some of you may be big fans of the addition of the keyboards. I also would like to hear, especially from people with experience in the field, your thoughts on the quality of the sound that is controlled by the sound guy.