revolutionboy said:

Have heard of poor sound and issues at the LG gig last night. Anyone confirm this and have there been any issues previous shows? I know he has been plagued by sound issues in recent years but thought he would have learned by now, or was this just a one off??

in Manchester it was brilliant!

Thursday at the LG (block 16) for the first half the sound quality was very poor.

Both Manchester shows had good sound, Friday was slightly better.

Thursday at Birmingham wasnt good.

Last night in Birmingham the sound was better than Thursday but not was good as Manchester.

LOUD! Top tip - buy yourself some of these. They take the extremes off and make the sound much cleaner, but you can still hear everything, including people talking to you. Dead comfortable. I wouldn't go to a gig without them, basically because I don't really want to go deaf just yet.

Sound at the two Manchester gigs was good. A few glitches here and there, but pretty good all the same.

First 20 minutes of both LG gigs was poor from 2 different seated blocks for me. Then things drift from crystal clear to poor. The gritty distortion sound Prince wants adds to the pain when its going bad.

last night "cool" was just a shriek of noise, from a £135 seat. I knew the song but many others may never have heard it before. I Imagine my ears were probably giving up by then.

Is it that difficult to have consistantly good sound for all?. Maybe Prince doesnt pay well and gets rubbish PA staff.

YowMaScroow said:

Well, opening night from a £125 seat, the sound was as bad as I've ever witnessed. I'm really glad it was much better at Manc and hoping Leeds acoustics etc are as good as they say. Birmingham felt like everything was jsut turned up to 11 with a big muffler on it. It was shite from where I was. Others on the floor seemed to think it was OK though, so maybe position was poor too.

Apart from it being Four King loud the sound had been spot on for me, but I've been standing front and center every time.

Back from the O2 it was clear to have good sound you needed to draw a line from Prince/The stage through the sound desk to the back of the arena and as long as you were near that line the sound was OK.

The Prince team could learn from shows like Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds arena tours, they're set up specifically for arena and are live mixed in Dolby Surround sound, all very clever and works as well as is possible in big spaces with echoy corners

Birmingham, first night was horrendous IMO. Sounded like I was listening to a bad bootleg. I was half to 3/4 back from stage.

Manchester second night was much much better. But I was practically on the stage.

So this is largely due to my proximity to the stage I would imagine.

The smaller the venue the better for this band.

Anything bigger than 15-20K and people will start asking for their money back...

[Edited 5/21/14 5:21am]

The distortion Ida uses on her bass can be really, really loud and grating (not a fan of it) but apart from that the sound was pretty good at both Manc shows. His vocal mic distorted sometimes and his choice of tone for solos can be quite piercing. The kit sounded absolutely amazing though on the Friday! The snare was just delicious.

jasontate said:

Well, opening night from a £125 seat, the sound was as bad as I've ever witnessed. I'm really glad it was much better at Manc and hoping Leeds acoustics etc are as good as they say. Birmingham felt like everything was jsut turned up to 11 with a big muffler on it. It was shite from where I was. Others on the floor seemed to think it was OK though, so maybe position was poor too.

Leeds has always been excellent when I've been.

jasontate said:

Well, opening night from a £125 seat, the sound was as bad as I've ever witnessed. I'm really glad it was much better at Manc and hoping Leeds acoustics etc are as good as they say. Birmingham felt like everything was jsut turned up to 11 with a big muffler on it. It was shite from where I was. Others on the floor seemed to think it was OK though, so maybe position was poor too.

i was at the back on the corner block 11 and it seemed alright

revolutionboy said:

Have heard of poor sound and issues at the LG gig last night. Anyone confirm this and have there been any issues previous shows? I know he has been plagued by sound issues in recent years but thought he would have learned by now, or was this just a one off??

.

I can't comment on the shows, because I wasn't there, but it's not a matter of him learning. He is not one of the engineers, that is their job, to make the band sound as good as possible, in the particular space they happen to be playing in.

.

I'd send email feedback to Prince's management, the venue and the live production company if you were disappointed and hopefully they'll take it on board.

revolutionboy said:

Think if he actually paid top dollar for sound tech's then he wouldn't have so many issues. I've seen various acts in arenas and they never have the sound issues Prince has. Is this because it's coming out of his own revenue/pocket rather than a record company picking up the tab for a tour and hiring quality sound techs? Glasgow as great as it was at times the sound was awful and feedback and white noise made me wince in pain!

I know what you mean about money coming out of his pocket, but at the price of the tickets for these gigs, he should be paying top dollar for the tech crew.

This also comes down to the quality of Prince's management to engage the best companies to provide the technical services, I can't see Prince ringing around to find the tech crews for a tour, so allot of the blame must lie at their door.

[Edited 5/25/14 12:41pm]