Sound problems

[mackemlad]

Something occured to me yesterday while travelling down to Sheffield. I was mulling over the sound problems that happened at Glsagow and remembering what happened.

Being on the back rail of the pit I was very very close to the stage so when the sound went of I could still hear certain things.

I could hear Adam's bass through his amps and larry's drums I obviously couldn't hear Bono because the PA was down.

Funny thing is there was no sound from Edge at all.

Check out the link. At 1:06 the sound goes if you listen carefully you can still hear Adam's Bass and some drums but nothing else.

YouTube - U2 Walk on ..Intro... Speakers start to fail Hampden 2009 18/08

Edge has Mics in fornt of his amps to pick up his sound and feed to the sound board to go through the PA. This would then be fed back to his in ear monitors. Even if the PA speakers went he would still hear himself and other band members.

However, surely he would have to be generating a sound in the first place for that to happen. From where I was there was none. Throughout the silence he kept on playing so he must have been hearing something.

He uses vintage amps that have to played loud to generate the overdrive he gets from them. I know from experience an overdriven AC30 can be heard very clearly from 20 ft away.

Can someone with touring/guitar tech type experience enlighten me as to what may have happened.

By the way I play guitar in a band I know how to play and generate guitar sounds from amps. What I do not understand is how it applys in a large concert setting.

A very cycnical "non U2 fan" friend of mine suggested the reason he kept playing was he could still hear his pre recorded sound being played in his ears so he carried on miming.

At the moment our friendship is in dispute at the mear mention of the M word.

Please somebody clear this up, even if you were in fornt of Edge and could hear him post a reply

Thanks

 

[Galeongirl]

As Dallas was soundchecking I could clearly hear the guitar. On other gigs, I was up front near Edge, and besides the PA you could clearly hear the guitar sound coming from his amps.

Recordings don't always catch the noises properly, though it's usually the bass that falls out.

Bottom line is, punch your friend in the face if he claims Edge is faking.

 

[MooMoo!]

Well, I guess the amp just wasnt that loud to cut though the crowd to you, or he had one or more amps done in such a way that it had a direct line out to his earphones. Its possible he had one signal going to his ears and another to the mic even. Unless he just played deaf to keep in time with the others, he might not have wanted or known to stop for fear of screwing up the others.

 

[mackemlad]

Glad to hear someone could hear sound coming from the amps during the silence.
I was convincing myself that had Edge has such Zen like abbilities that he could play in total silence and still be in perfect time when the sound cam back on.

Which lest face it he probably could

 

[gman]

Well...heres my tuppenceworth. The problem started during MLK. i remember thinking at the time that something was wrong. It was like the speakers were being overdriven. My guess was that the limiters on the sound system peaked and they cut out. The reason the band carried on was because their earpieces carry the sound direct from the soundboard and not the speakers and did not know the crowd couldnt hear what they were playing

 

[debz19]

^i think gman has it correct. my dads friend who was at the gig said the same thing after it. He also mentioned that he could hear the problems with the edges gutiar during Pride. Sound porblems aside it was still the greatest gig i've been too.

 

[BB Mac]

yeah it all started from pride edges guitar level going way too high
infact drowning bono out at one point! lol then on MLK the thunder
started through the PA! i knew sumthing wasnt sounding right.
i was in the pit near Adam/bono.there was def sumthing coming out
of the monitors on stage but not much and the IEM too.but being
cool as they are they kept playing on instead of just stopping.
even the crowd sang along and knew it would be fixed soon
soon as it came back everyone was and cheering..

on one of the boots you can hear a guy shout 'we cannee hear ya'
during the walk on drop it.its funny as hell cracks me up every time
i hear it LOL

 

[smileymbcastard]

The limitiers peaked and went to mute to save the amps from basically bottmoing out the spakers. So the sound tech would just have to unmute the limiters. hehe, had a porblem like that once in my early days as a sound tech.
The power went off and the limiters automatically go into mute mode to protect the amps when the power comes back on. I was new to all this gadetry and when the power came on i could see the sound desk was working i got levels on it but nothing forawrs. the amp was as were the limiters. what i did not see was the little red light on the limitier indicating it was muted and i neded to unmute it.
Live and learn

 

[Batfink27]

I saw one of the techs run up behind Larry and start pulling what looked like a cable during the silence.At one point i thought none of the crew knew what was going on.The guys on the mixing desk must have though.

 

[gman]

Its amazing that even a u2 with sound problems is infintely better than anyone else

 

[mackemlad]

One thing I have to say about the whole thing is sound problem or not this was the best U2 gig I have ever been too.

Whenever my next gig will be I will be queing all day to get near the front cos it was awesome.

There is no other way to see the band you love than to be standing with loads of others who are going as mental as you are!!

 

[popshopper]

I was in the Edge side Red Zone and could hear the guitar pretty cleanly, I think I've got a recording on my phone, I'll try to dig it out.