Topic: Low End Blowout

[mterry]

One thing I’ve notice since getting back into taping, are bands just throwing some absolute bass bombs. I had this happen to me in 2023 at Goose in Spokane and Phish in Nashville. I was taping FOB both shows, and for the phish show, I wasn’t the only one who suffered from massive distortion. Has this been more of an instance the last few years? Is it the curse
Of running up front? What is everyone doing to mitigate this shit storm of low end distortion that can’t be helped???

[grawk]

peak at -18 instead of 0

[nulldogmas]

I've noticed it at a few recent shows, but specifically with the kick drum. In both cases I ended up having to split the recording to stems and then apply an insanely aggressive EQ curve to the percussion stem only.

I can only assume this is venue sound engineers thinking it's their job to make audience members' teeth rattle, but I don't have any further info. (Similarly, I don't know when sound engineers started cranking the Shitty Reverb slider up to 11 on all vocals, but they can stop now, thanks.)