Best Place to Perform in a Concert According to the Sound Engineer
I hate concerts, but I’ve been to hundreds, standing in a sweaty pit of people who demanded to get closer to the stage.
In general, it is good for me to stand in the back – where there is access to alcohol and a toilet. But is there a better place to get up if you’re just trying to enjoy the music without standing next to the stage?
I spoke to Dave Swallow , a UK-based sound engineer who does mixed tours like La Rue, Corinne Bailey Rae and the late Amy Winehouse, about why you shouldn’t be standing against a wall and the benefits of standing away from the speakers. …
Find a place near the center of the venue
By Swallow, usually the best place to stand in a bulky place is in the middle of the crowd, but just outside the center. Why?
Placing equal distance from both speakers, he says, produces more bass, which may not always be the best sound quality. If you’re at a music festival like Coachella, a good marker is anywhere in front of the deck where you can find a working engineer – although this varies, you’ll usually be in the center of the venue here. …
However, if you enjoy a ton of bass in concert, then centering is best.
Don’t get too close to the stage
Standing in front is perhaps best for visual purposes (after all, you’re here to see them perform live), but if you really want to listen to the show, you shouldn’t get too close. “You need a small distance for all wavelengths together to make a coherent sound,” Swallow said.
The closer you are, the more likely you are to hear one sound frequency more clearly than another. You may also notice a lack of clarity from this point of view. For obvious reasons, this is also bad for your ears – according to Noisey , sounds from 100 to 120 decibels are usually heard at concerts, and just two minutes of exposure to 110 decibels can lead to hearing damage. (Be sure to bring your earplugs wherever you stand.)
If you are too far behind, it also comes with a fairly large set of audio problems if you are interested in quality. “Although it depends on the size of the venue, usually as you go further and further back, you start to hear more and more ‘room’ and acoustics and less direct sound from the speakers,” Swallow said. “When sound comes out of a speaker, it hits walls, floors, ceilings and other objects in and around the room, even people — that’s acoustics.” What this can lead to is subtler or otherwise compromised sound quality.
And, of course, it’s worth noting that these rules are entirely venue-specific; you may find that you have no choice but to stand in front of the speakers in a basement show, or the sound system is designed differently or differs from place to place.
Do not stand against a wall or under a balcony.
A good general rule of thumb in large venues, Swallow says, is to avoid standing under any balcony, against a wall, or in any corner.
“If you get close to the wall, you will hear the sound twice when it comes closer to you, and again when it hits the wall,” he said. “Our brain understands this as distance.” Sound bouncing off the walls can appear unbalanced, Everfest writes, and the balcony can limit your ability to hear speakers high up in the hall that transmit higher frequencies of the performance, which can result in a muddy or fuzzy sound.
Nighttime performances can provide better sound quality
Let’s say you are at Coachella and are trying to figure out if you should skip the day’s show because of the night’s rage. Interestingly, according to Swallow, the sound quality could be better at night.
“It’s about weather conditions, air density and temperature,” he said. “Sound flows through the air at different speeds. During the day, what usually happens is that the sound goes into the sky. It is much more uniform at night. You get much better long-distance clarity. In the desert, where it is dry and less humid, the distance will be even greater. “
But let’s face it: if you’re attending a concert of your favorite band, sometimes it’s worth sacrificing a little sound quality when standing in front of the stage, as Swallow said, so keep that in mind when you’re looking for the ideal. place. “If it’s not a band that I really want to listen to, it doesn’t always have to do with sound,” he said. “It’s also about just being there.”