Full or half capacity venues

[Rob D.]

Do you notice recordings from venues that are no more than half full sound better than those with capacity crowds? I'm not too bothered by the low buzz of chatter through out the bulding but does it have a significant effect on the sound quality? I've taped the same bands at the same venues with the same gear over the years and have noticed this.

[Tim]

In general fuller venues always sound better to me, more bodies in there absorbing the nasty reflections in the room.

perhaps there were different engineers on a given night or the sound system was changed....

[pfife]

In general fuller venues always sound better to me, more bodies in there absorbing the nasty reflections in the room.

This is what I've always thought too... plus, when theres more people, theres more energy in the music... or that's an imputation I put on the recording...

[kindms]

I have found that the tapes sound better with less folks for 2 reasons.


1) less folks means I am a lot closer to the stage (in smaller venues of course)

2) Less folks = less chatter.

so I find that these 2 variables make for a great recording. It doesn't necessarily mean that the show will be any good and usually lack of peeps = lack of energy from the band. The ONLY recording I have that was a small crowd and a HOT show was KDTU 2003-12-05. There was a huge snow storm here in NY and only like 30 people showed up took me over an hour for a normal 20minute drive. But I setup only about 20' from the stage Directly in front of Karl DFC akg 461's X/Y. 1 of my favorites

[John Kelly]

In general fuller venues always sound better to me, more bodies in there absorbing the nasty reflections in the room.

perhaps there were different engineers on a given night or the sound system was changed....

Same here.  I've never heard an empty room sound great on tape.

[Tall Adam]

if anyone has the trey/phish higher ground show (i believe it was 4/11 (today!) last year actually) but trey says something about having read a book about bass frequencies travelling better w/ more heat (so they crank up the heat and bring out gordo ) but that could affect stuff. more bodies=more heat=better frequencies...i dunno...its a thought...

[Rob D.]

In general fuller venues always sound better to me, more bodies in there absorbing the nasty reflections in the room.

perhaps there were different engineers on a given night or the sound system was changed....

Good points, Tim. I wonder if the sound engineers will have the house sound volume lower than they would for a capacity crowd?

[Depechemode1993]

-OR- what you could do is 1. put some earplugs on 2. get your face in one of the stacks and start recording! so there is no crowd almost!

Note: that is what I am goind to do at Kraftwerk so I get the Bass Right in my face!