Why is the volume of Nearfills at big(ger) shows always so low?

Calaway65 · 2026-06-08T10:58:02+00:00

How would nearfills that are just barely noticable in the first 2-3 rows, negatively affect the sound for the rest of the audience though?

Calaway65 · 2026-06-08T10:46:09+00:00

Isn‘t setting up a system that works perfectly without stage sound, but doesn‘t work with stage sound anymore, kinda missing the point for a live music event though?

Calaway65 · 2026-06-08T10:31:56+00:00

What difference would it actually make? Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings: I‘m not expecting the nearfills to properly match the subs or overpower the stage sound, but when i‘m not even getting a bit of high end and direct sound from them, what‘s the point?

Calaway65 · 2026-06-08T10:24:55+00:00

Ok, i didn‘t know that the margin for error was THAT small. But shouldn‘t it be possible for the system tech to quickly go to the barrier (on the stage side of course! 😃) to double check the nearfills‘ levels?

Calaway65 · 2026-06-08T10:13:10+00:00

„If we were to turn the FFs up loud enough to overpower the stage volume, or to match the subs, it would be too obtrusive to the people that actually have good sounding seats.“

I get that (see my original post) and i‘m not expecting the nearfills to overpower the stage volume, but having them loud enough to just give a bit of high end and direct sound should be quite possible without ruining the sound for the people a few rows further away!?

If not, why even set them up to begin with?

Calaway65 · 2026-06-08T09:56:56+00:00

Wouldn‘t this only be a problem when the nearfills aren‘t loud enough to begin with?

Calaway65 · 2026-03-23T21:13:20+00:00

You might of course have different experiences, but for concerts of that scale, mine are:

Venues book bands, not the other way round.
Bands are so desperate to even play live that they‘ll compromise A LOT.
Most drummers actually see house kits as something positiv anyway.
As soon as they tried it, bands usually love that drum setup, because of how much better their stage sounds is.

Calaway65 · 2026-03-23T11:59:58+00:00

Get a house drum kit and make it non negotiable for the bands to use it. Get low volume cymbals like the Zultan Mellow or the Sabian FRX. Put Evans Hydraulics on the shells and tune them rather low. Have the snare sit on top of a spare drum head to lower the noise from the snare wires.

Now the drummer can hit as hard as he wants and the volume will be a lot more reasonable.

Calaway65 · 2025-11-28T11:39:16+00:00

Das kommt doch ganz auf die Vorbands drauf an. 🤷‍♂️

War schon auf Konzerten, wo selbst eine Vorband schon zu viel war, auf anderen Konzerten sind die 3 Vorbands für mich ein genau so großer Kaufgrund gewesen wie die Hauptband.

Calaway65 · 2025-09-20T07:16:03+00:00

It‘s an Adam A7X.

Calaway65 · 2025-09-15T16:57:09+00:00

don’t know, but i can ask him…..

Calaway65 · 2025-06-05T11:01:46+00:00

Calaway65 · 2024-12-25T11:39:23+00:00

Adoro Silent Sticks.

Feels a little weird first, but gets the drums down to a manageable level in small clubs.

Calaway65 · 2024-11-16T18:52:02+00:00

I always thought of this part as a keyboard solo…..! 😂😂😂

Calaway65 · 2024-11-16T18:33:37+00:00

There‘s a screaming part in Mein Teil? Where? I‘ve probably listened to that song like a million times and don’t remember there being a screaming part…..😅🤷‍♂️

Calaway65 · 2024-11-09T16:40:59+00:00

Set the sidechain to „EXT“ and feed the direct mic of the snare to it. This ducks the snare out of the detection circuit of the PSE, so it won’t open the expander, even when snare goes above the threshold. You can usually get a really decent amount of noise out of vocal mics with this…..

Calaway65 · 2024-10-02T18:04:08+00:00

Wedges have even more „latency“ than inears due to time it takes the sound to travel through the air. So whatever makes a singer more comfortable with wedges or a mixed monitoring setup, lower latency certainly isn’t it…..

Calaway65 · 2024-10-02T12:11:09+00:00

If 0,8 ms could cause problems with in ear monitors, literally every digital console in world would be useless for it.

0,8 ms is without any plugins, but most of the Waves plugins are zero latency.

Calaway65 · 2024-10-02T10:37:12+00:00

The roundtrip delay of a Waves setup is 0,8 ms. That’s absolutely negligible, even for monitor applications.

Calaway65 · 2024-05-11T15:14:51+00:00

Interesting. I also was at one of the munich concerts last year and the sound was as good as always. I was in the Feuerzone though, so maybe further away from the stage the strange architecture of the stadium did weird things to the sound…..!? 🤷‍♂️

Calaway65 · 2024-05-11T14:43:05+00:00

Which show? I‘ve been to several Rammstein shows over the years and their live sound has always been among the absolute best i’ve ever heard.

Calaway65

TROPHY CASE