Audio Video News

THX & Eighth Day Aim to Improve Concert Sound

SV Staff  |  Nov 8, 2016

How many times have you gone to a live concert and been thoroughly appalled by the quality of the sound? The bass is super boomy, vocals are muffled, and those intricate guitar fills you long to hear are lost in what comes out as sonic mush.

THX and the sound-reinforcement gurus at Eighth Day Sound have joined forces to bring “best-in-class” sound to live performances through the THX Live! certification program that kicked off in April with Beyoncé's Formation World Tour.

The companies will work together to optimize state-of-the-art audio systems. THX is creating a reference standard for system architecture and audio presentation for live music and Eighth Day will handle system installation and implementation in large concert venues around the world.

Limited to “select top-tier artists,” the program aims to deliver a wider "sweet spot" with improved vocal quality to every seat in the house.

COMMENTS
pw's picture
Submitted by pw on November 9, 2016 - 2:42pm

That's why Roger Waters Reigns Supreme.. His quad + Sound Systems (Meyer Sound I Think) are unbeatable. He can "tune" his system to most any arena or local. The Oakland Oracle Arena is a terrible sound hole (Gaga, Black Sabbath , The Who) but when Roger plays it it sound perfect. Did you know that Pink Floyd invented Surround Sound ? (1968)..

zoetmb's picture
Submitted by zoetmb on November 9, 2016 - 5:49pm

The major problem with concert sound are overwhelmingly loud levels. That's why the mixes turn to mush and are highly distorted. Unless this THX venture takes levels into account, it won't accomplish anything. And loud levels are a product of insecure artists who think they'll sound better if they blow the audience out of the auditorium, technically obtuse artists who don't realize that they're standing behind the audience speaker systems and bad sound mixers, whose ego is invested in 'being in control'. In almost every concert I attend, the second half of the concert is way louder than the first half. Why? Because fatigue sets in and the sound mixer can't hear anything anymore so he keeps turning it up. And also because we've had bad sound for so long, few know what good sound is supposed to sound like. We were far better off with the PA systems weren't capable of such power (even though higher power should provide lower distortion). The sound at the Fillmore East in 1969 was better than most concert sound today.

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