I went to the opening show and loved every minute of it. However the sound to my ears was very muddy.Has anyone noticed an improvement yet? Im a sound engineer so this stuff bugs me.

Thanks

I'm not a sound engineer but the sound was good from where I was on Friday and Saturday night.

The lighting however, was rather laughable and certainly amateur! The spotlight trying to follow Prince around the stage? Terrible and frankly, unacceptable.

I had a fantastic time both nights (as did my other half), but the lighting was really quite poor.

themellowone said:

So you're a light engineer then?

I know what you mean. I went to the 3rd Aug concert and found the sound muddy. So bad I couldn't figure out what Prince was saying and mid range sound was muffled so could not hear his guitar as well as I would have liked. I hope the engineers realise there is a serious issue with the sound. I was located in BLOCK 106 Row X not sure if other blocks hadthe same problem.

dinx said:

Definate issues wid sound quality....have no technical knowledge,but know what ears tell me..n'they were n't happy. went 2 fri n' sat shows. Problems seemed dependant on possition within da stadium, but regardless... several time i could not distinguish lyrics, which certainly contributed 2 a "muddiness"...quite dissapointed and amazed since Prince is such a perfectionist...woe betide his soundmen!!!!!

I went on Friday and sat it block A3. Loved the show but thought the vocals sounded like a train announcer. Am sitting in C2 tomorrow and I'll see what it's like there. Might be how the speakers are placed. Saw the Scissor Sisters there (stage one end) and the sound was fine.

I was at the first show in block 115 row B, and the sound from there seemed very good. When the 'lights up' encore started I rushed down towards the stage (must have been around block D3) and the sound down there was awful. I couldn't hear what Prince was singing it seemed too loud and distorted (but a fan singing/screaming next to me might have had something to do with it too!)

Wednesday at the back of block 102 it was kinda muddy, but Friday lower down in Row Q of Block 114 (behind the stage) it was massively better. I think it's down to the 'in the round' positions of the speakers.

I was in block 118 Saturday & the sound was very muffled. Bizarely the sound desk was at the back of our block, so thought they'd have noticed really!

remko said:

I was in the upper tier/nose bleed seats and the sound was very muddy up there. I couldn't understand everything he was saying between the songs because of it.

Hi, I used to work as a sound and light engineer (honestly!)

I went to the first 3 gigs, Fridays sound was a slight improvement on Wednesday, but Saturdays gig was dramiatically better...both in terms of clarity, and just getting the cues right and turning up the guitar on the solos! There is still room for improvement, but I was much happier on the Saturday.

The lights were also better on the Saturday. They were basically just brighter more of the time. And the spotlights were better than they had been (but still not great)

I'd kind of hoped it'd be perfect from the outset, but I know how hard it is to get the sound right...musicians never play the same at the show as they do in the soundcheck, and the sound can alter dramatically when you wheel in the crowd...allthough I'd have thought it'd help by absorbing some of the mush in a place as big as the O2!

But, in my opinion, Saturday was a great improvement, I'm glad i'm going to some of the latter gigs too

(for the record, i still enjoyed all 3 gigs immensely...and i thought the sound in the indigo on wednseday was fantastic)

Tonight was the best yet, but again, I'm not sure if that was due to the location of my seat or a general improvement... I guess until you find someone who has sat in pretty much the same seat on successive nights, you're not going to tell really.

stereoboy said:

true...I was wondering myself how much the sound varies around the arena..I was actually in the nosebleed seats on Saturday, so I was expaecting the sound, to be worse....but not so!

most of my seats are around the 105-118 area though,

I was in 111 tonight and the sound was a lot better than last week, when I was only a stones throw away in 107.

The sound was much, much better tonight. On Wednesday I struggled to hear a lot of what he was saying and often the songs were a couple of lines in before I even picked up what they were.

I don't think the difference was down to seating position either. Both nights I was in block D2, only this night I was one row further back and a few seats further down.

maceoparker007 said:

I was in 108 row k & it was excellent from where I was!

themellowone said:

Oooo you have me worried now... I am also a sound engineer, at a prince show I would expect nothing but first class sound! I shall be deeply dissapointed if this sounds worse than one of my bands lol! I think the problem these days is they try and make things look too nice, hide the speakers get away the smallest possible.... Also have too many delayed repeaters round the room instead of some decent sized FOH. The way the O2 arena is set out you have a problem before you even begin due to the fact the stage is directly centre. I imagine anyone not in coverage of a top cab will get a terrible tin can sound. Ive not seen the arena yet but i would expect above that centre stage a complete circle of large mid/hi cabs covering each seating tier. !! Anyone one know the system used in there?

shaneukcouk said:

Was lucky enough to have front row on Sat 4th and when Nikki Costa was playing even though at front couldn't hear very much. Sound engineed then came around and was taking readings with laptop and realised speakers weren't on..switched on and hey presto quality sound...during the shows constantly walking around stage making checks
[Edited 8/10/07 5:42am]

mattj said:

Now im worried!!!! lol

shaneukcouk said:

It will be great...They seem to have ironed out all the first night problems

mattj said:

Exactly my thoughts! On Sat 4th the sound varied during the show as the engineers fine tuned (or not so fine as it seems!) it around the stadium, started out 'muddy' but by the time she hit 'Crazy' it was fairly tight. And I was in C2 on tuesday and it seems to have worked because the sound was great; crisp vocals, thumping bass, sweet as a nut mate.
Evidently getting it right is still work in progress, but look on the bright side, it'll just keep getting better!!