Has anyone been to an indoor arena gig that had good sound?

ToneControl

I haven't been to many, and stopped over 10 years ago, I only do normal "halls" now (like the Apollo in Manchester which has only once disappointed me), the reason being the distance from the artist and the awful sound.

Has this been fixed anywhere, or is it still something to be tolerated if you want to see a mega-successful artist?

viz

Basement Jaxx played at the O2 in London couple of years ago - it was BLOODY loud, yet you could hear people in the audience talking. Completely pure and undistorted sound quality, even though the sound spectrum is pretty huge - low bass, high treble.

spacecadet

Depends on the engineer rather than the venue. I have seen a few people at Nottingham Ice Arena. Pink and the Coors were two of the best sounding gigs I have been to. Savage Garden and the Vampire's Rock show were terrible.

stickyfiddle

The Manics at the O2 a couple of Christmases ago was above-average soundwise. Both Muse and Coldplay at Earl's Court were brilliant too. Must've been around 2004-2005 for those ones.

DulcetJones

Dire Straits in the late 80's in a hockey arena known for it's bad sound(I almost didn't go because of that).  I was amazed!  You could hear every little twiddle AND understand the vocals!  Sadly, this type of thing has not become the norm.

Jalapeno

Think where you sit is the biggest factor.

Danny1969

Yeah where you sit is a huge factor. Generally bass builds up in corners, that's why we bass trap control rooms in studios. If you sit under an overhang then the top suffers as high frequencies are more directional in their detection. 

A lot of it is down to money. A big artist on tour uses people like Clair Bros or Britannia Row etc. These huge companies will give you all the coverage you want in terms of speakers but the more you have the more it cost ..... not just in rental but in load in load out labour, truck haulage. So sometimes an artist has to take a cut in profits to invest in the quality of the sound and that obviously doesn't always happen

I've seen some bands in Wembly areana sound great (Bon Jovi, Def Lep) but a some sounded dire .... to the point you couldn't even tell what song it was ... DLR was one that spings to mind

ICBM

If the SECC counts an an indoor arena, I've only had good sound experiences there despite the reputation it has. I've been at the front, in the middle and at the back on different occasions and it's always been good.

Had far worse experiences in smaller venues, varying from OK to unlistenable.

digitalscream

Satch at Birmingham NEC, around 1992 - we were a fair way back, and off to the right, but it sounded absolutely perfect. I think that was actually the last gig I went to where everything was good.

RocknRollDave

+1 to "it depends where you sit".

I guess it depends on the band and their sound in general. Most of us on here know from our own experience how easy it is to lose definition of different instruments in the mix, especially overly distorted guitars, so it depends a lot of what the band are putting into the PA to start off with, before the sound engineer gets ALL the blame

For example, I saw ACDC at the NEC (sorry, the "LG Arena") in Birmingham and the sound was pretty good, but for a rock band their guitar sound is notably less distorted than the norm, and there is a nice open, airy space in their sound which stops it all muddying up.

I've heard good, bad and awful sound in the same venue, so it's not just the venue's limitations at play here, although I wouldn't discount those as a factor.

I do wish that venues were purpose built for music though! It seems to me that the most thought is put into cramming as many seats in whilst still allowing room for a load of revenue-generating concessions.. There aren't many venues that appear to have any allowances made towards improving the acoustics.

Those funny peppermint-cream shaped things in the ceiling of the Royal Albert Hall, they're there for acoustic reasons, no? So why don't we see things like that elsewhere? Cost the only difference they make to the balance books is in outgoings?

joneve

Mayer at Wembley Arena on Saturday was pretty good!

mike_l

Maiden at the NEC, we were way back, but could hear everything clearly.

Motorhead/Alice Cooper at the same venue, everything was turned up too much and became distorted and unclear.

not_the_dj

I do find wearing my earplugs at gigs really helps with the sound. I use ACS ER-15 custom moulds and just bringing the volume level down a bit really helps to keep everything clearer (especially vocals). 

 I've used these at the NEC/LG arena this year for Neil Young and that sounded great (I was right down the front). Same for Springsteen's stadium shows this summer.

Best sounding rock gig I've been to was The Waterboys at the Symphony Hall Birmingham. The first half was acoustic which was something else then the full band second set just sounded epic, so clear. Of course that's a venue where the acoustic properties were a key part of the design rather than big sheds with the focus on the number of seats. 

EricTheWeary

Yes, the symphony hall is amazing. Seen/ heard country bands, folk bands, choirs and classical ensembles there. At one event they gave a demo on how the mobile acoustic panels work ( they can change the shape of the hall to suit the music).Not seen anyone who could be described as Rock ( although they do have them). Nice and comfy too. Especially compared to having your knees crunched at the NIA.

paulk

The Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam has generally good sound. I saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse there earlier this year and, despite my fears, the sound was great.

Skipped

NEC is not too bad, even high up at the sides.
Many of the concerts I attended as a teenager were at Leeds Town Hall. Making sense of King Crimsom in that particular venue was near impossible.

ICBM

Skipped said:

Many of the concerts I attended as a teenager were at Leeds Town Hall. Making sense of King Crimsom in that particular venue was near impossible.

It's a bit unfair to blame the venue.

fretmeister

Prince at the O2 was excellent.

But to be fair by the time I saw him there, he'd been there for about 3 weeks. Plenty of time to get it right

Bucket

Dream Theater/Periphery in Wembley Arena last year sounded very good. My seat was on the floor, not up at the sides, and it all rang through nice and clearly. Periphery in particular sounded monstrous, really powerful.

By comparison, Children of Bodom's sound at the Forum a couple of years back was dire.

redrighthand

Yeah - couple of gigs (Arcade Fire, ACDC) at the MEN, both times standing, both times sound was excellent.

daveyh

Scissor Sisters at the MEN, sound was superb