Has anyone heard about the sound system for the upcoming tour. It seems the Rolling Stones were roundly critized for "bad sound" at certain venues and certain portions of the arenas and stadiums. Technology, supposedly, improves all the time.....can we expect better sound.....I'm not talking about Keith and Ron in higher in the mix......that's a choice they make. I'm speaking about the overall quality of the PA system in general.

Do you really want them to have a crystal clear sound?

I'm assuming you mean clean guitars vs. distorted guitars. I prefer the distorted guitar sound of the 70's, but my complaint about the Licks sound system was the boomy sound that made some songs unrecognizable. I have had seats all over stadiums for 15 Rolling Stones concerts and by far the worst "sound" was the Licks tour in Atlanta. The crowd was great, the Stones were great.......it was a great night......I simply thought the sound in the upper decks were below par.

No one could have worse stadium sound than U2 on this tour - Brussels sucked the big one from almost every point and I was there to know. And I hear GK and Manchester were not much better. The Stone don't have to worry - anything they do will be considered an upgrade to U2

I'm afraid that's a bad sign for the Stones sound system of 2005. If U2's sound is sub-par....the Stones probably will be also. Don't these groups tend to use the same people. With today's technology, how can the sound be sub-par? I just don't understand.

They should buy Macca´s sound system from the 2002/2003/2004 tours. It would make the Stones sound incredible. Loud guitars and still clearness and sharpness...

I agree Tomstones. If they had Macca's 2004 sound system, it would reign supreme. Gritty and loud guitars is a Stones trademark. They'd have that with that system. I still get the shivers thinking about Helter Skelter.

JumpingKentFlash

I think loud guitars is history (guess why?). With crystal clear sound I mean the PA. In these days it's muddy just to burry guitars and others there.

I can't remember which sound system Macca had, but Clapton uses JBL and it's a f§%ing awesome sound. Loud and crystal clear. They used the same sound system for the 4 reunion shows of Cream in the RAH. Also great sound. But don't expect such sound with the Stones.

BTW. forgot to mention, that the Stones sound engineer Robby McGrath got a prize as the best front of house sound engineer (somewhere in 2000). So just think about that?

Stadiums are just not made for musical events. I am sick of all those Mega-Rockshows. I want to see bands in clubs and arenas playing for not more than 5000 people. Yeah, I know that isn´t possible but I can hardly stand stadium shows anymore with their bad sound, bad seats and watching on the screens all the time and paying 250 Euros for that.

Just my two cents...

Aucoin Wrote:
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> Stadiums are just not made for musical events.


That's true. But the problem is that they can avoid much problems by not going to centrain stadiums. For some reason almost every rockband goes to the Amsterdam arena in Holland where you have the worse sound ever. They can also go to the Kuip in Rotterdamwhere you have much better sound and it's just as big. It's a great stadium for a concert every band performed there before the Amsterdam Arena was build!!!!




Cheers,
Wuudy

well i've been to the kuip once. i was on the stands, and above me was one of those speakers to announce something at football games.. i'm not sure but i think they actually plugged those in as well.. it really sounded terrible at places where bobby would play or lisa would hit one of her high notes. i know someone who had gone to the Amsterdam Arena and he indeed told me it was terrible. i think there are more technical abilities in the amsterdam arena.. they can close the roof, because since it's hard to see the weather forcast for a year it might rain and that's not a good thing. the electricity can take the water, but it's terrible for the guitars and everything gets wet. so i think it's because of the weather and maybe the organization is just much better there.

Shawn20 Wrote:
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> I'm assuming you mean clean guitars vs. distorted
> guitars. I prefer the distorted guitar sound of
> the 70's, but my complaint about the Licks sound
> system was the boomy sound that made some songs
> unrecognizable. I have had seats all over
> stadiums for 15 Rolling Stones concerts and by far
> the worst "sound" was the Licks tour in Atlanta.
> The crowd was great, the Stones were
> great.......it was a great night......I simply
> thought the sound in the upper decks were below
> par.


I agree, Shawn. I was in row 30 at Atlanta and couldn't even recognize BS as the opener almost until Mick came in. Had there ever been a concert at Turner Field before the Stones? I suppose it could have been more of a technician problem than a system problem considering a lack of experience there. The sound seemed to get better, though, as the night wore on.

You were on the floor in row 30 and didn't like the sound? That's wild. That's supposed to be premium sound. I recall people bitching about the Superdome sound of the 78 show.....I was down front and it sounded great. If you have problems on the floor with the sound, it can only go downhill for the rest of the stadium.

Shawn20 Wrote:
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> You were on the floor in row 30 and didn't like
> the sound? That's wild. That's supposed to be
> premium sound. I recall people bitching about the
> Superdome sound of the 78 show.....I was down
> front and it sounded great. If you have problems
> on the floor with the sound, it can only go
> downhill for the rest of the stadium.


I'm one of those bitching about the Superdome sound in '78, but I was up in the rafters at that one. '81 wasn't so great either, but '89 I thought sounded very good in the Superdome, as well as '94. Guess you can tell where I'm from! Wish they'd come and try out the new arena here.

I was down front in the crush.......wow what a night. The sound was great down front. How about the 12 year girl who came out for a tumbling routine just before the Stones went on.

Shawn20 Wrote:
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> I was down front in the crush.......wow what a
> night. The sound was great down front. How about
> the 12 year girl who came out for a tumbling
> routine just before the Stones went on.


Don't remember the girl. Do remember waiting an incredibly long time for the Stones to start. Heck, it was 1978! Must have been the disco biscuits I had for dinner that night.

I believe the Stones came on around 11:00 p.m. Do you have any recollection what time Van Halen started?

I just remember a very long gap between the Stones and the previous band. I remember Van Halen being there and weren't the Doobie Brothers or some similar group there as well?

Two comments.....do you think a band that needs to overdub most released live tracks want's you hear what they are realy playing. Get the SAR's boot and listen to what they sound like mixed as a normal band.

Second...you can have crystal clear sound in a stadium (covered) that will capture every sweet note. Problem is the thing takes about two days to set up and is now impractical for stadium set up times. The trick is suspending the the PA from the ceiling around the entire stadium. The speakers face downwards flush with the slope of the seats. The speaker to ear distance is reduced to a few meters, everyone is the same distance from the speakers, the volume may be lower because you are only broadcasting that few meters and the sound bounces off the stands and up into the roof, not the distance of a football field and back to compete with the next riff. It is very cool but have only seen it used once and I have never been satisfied with anything since.