Prince has a habit of underpaying every single person that has anything to do with him. He also tries to not pay whenever possible. This is likely why he has had lackluster musicians playing with him since the late 90's. Kirk Johnson was not the best drummer in the world, but he came cheap. Just ask anybody who's ever worked for Prince.

Ironically, for me, at Hop Farm in the UK this year the sound was the best I've heard in a long while on a Prince tour. It really was good. He obviously had no time for a soundcheck either (except the first song when he was telling the engineers this and that on the mic).This was an outdoor festival in a field so no reverberations or any sort of echo problems with indoor venues (or outdoor venues like stadiums with stands). So I feel fortunate really to see him where I did as sound problems seem to have cropped up with other venues.

The worst sound I ever experienced was Prince at Earl's Court in the early 90's. Jeez that was bad!

Anyway, as regards other stadia and indoor venues - Prince obviously with his experience knows that what he hears on stage is not the same as what is heard all around the arenas (for the benefit of all) so I don't quite know how he decides what he turns up or down from a stage -only perspective stage or not. It must be really difficult to do - because one place in an echo-laden stadium is not the same as 50 yards further back.

I saw a documentary on the new Wembley stadium recently and interestingly just for 'atmosphere reasons' (that I would think include pop concerts) - they angled each glass cover of the VIP boxes in different ways so there would not be 'hotpsots of echo' in the place. Interesting indeed.

during 'gold experience' he was mixing sound in the house himself,in a private boot onstage

sound is a teamgame

numerous people with different tasks,sometimes very complex

also money and time is crucial

a bandmixer task is just 2 balance the band,he is not resposible for the tuning of the sound system

ihatephish said:

Re: sound problems- that's a shame. I was surprised whoever he had in LA was able to make the forum shows sound good. Place is notorious for bad sound.

I think, it was the round stage. Not any long distances to create circulating basses, echoes etc.

I still don't think the sound was that terrible in Finland. Not "great", but reasonable good. It didn't ruin mine or majority of the audience's experience. You can tell, when you see 10 000 people dancing their asses off.

PasiKullero said:

ihatephish said:

Re: sound problems- that's a shame. I was surprised whoever he had in LA was able to make the forum shows sound good. Place is notorious for bad sound.

I think, it was the round stage. Not any long distances to create circulating basses, echoes etc.

I still don't think the sound was that terrible in Finland. Not "great", but reasonable good. It didn't ruin mine or majority of the audience's experience. You can tell, when you see 10 000 people dancing their asses off.

I loved every second of the gig and the sound was very good overall, except on Stratus and a few songs after that (too much bass). It was not terrible at any point.

My original post was more about the communication between Prince and the sound engineer, and if maybe that could be a reason for sounds problems here and there. I dunno. He does communicate a lot with the sound engineer during concerts, at least that is true.