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I guess we have to place a definition on inexperience. Sure maybe the guy can make the mix sound like his car stereo, but that doesn't necessarily qualify as a good mix, and if he is good at what he does, he should know how to handle genres other than his personal favorite.
I think you have very valid concerns. I've found I can come pretty close to estimating the age of the guy mixing, just based on what I'm hearing.
It's far from the pro's. Most of them I've worked with are happy to work with you, if YOU work with them!
Yes, it is the people. I had this argument 25 years ago with my talent. I said, "Trust me to provide appropriate tone and volume." They kept pumping the volume and stomping pedals all night. It's really hard to herd cats, especially in a dirty acoustic environment.
Sound people have fallen in love with subs. Same way some bands feel it's necessary to fill 256 tracks for every recording, live sound is pushing the frequencies that were not heard a generation ago.
My wife and I attended a major Tucson fund raiser this weekend. The entertainment was a top flight corporate band called The Midnight Special out of Hollywood. I take this act to be pretty representative of where live soundstages are headed.
The band was TIGHT. Four outstanding front voices, excellent backing players.
The show sounded like utter garbage. Of course, the stage was ampless. FOH was two elevated 4x arrays and two sub woofers on the floor on each side of the stage. The mixing boards looked like NASA control centers. The technology was there. The sound was awful, and in a way that is concerning. Basically, there was a massive hole from about 90Hz up to about 275 Hz. So, what was projected was ear piercing levels of mainly drums burying everything and prerecorded horn tracks (no horn section). Or, maybe the keys had the the horn patches. Sounded like tracks.
Anyhow, drums were burying the vocals, chordal instruments were mud, and bass was a drone with no content above 90 Hz. Sad to say, this isn't the first time I've heard this kind of live mix. In fact, it seems to be becoming more prevalent. And, I can't tell if it's happening because the modern PA's encourage it, or because the sound engineers are being taught to target that kind of mix, or some of both, or something else.
In any case, the classic Motown stuff does NOT play well in that mix. No groove whatsoever in the FOH, even though it was clear the band members were grooving in their IEM channels. The mix literally destroyed the material.
Some folks dance to it, because they had more than a few and what the heck, they're out for a good time. But, seriously, most hated the levels more than anything; and the fact that the mix obscured the good stuff going on didn't help at all.
Not my band, and glad I don't have to perform in that gig. Not doing the music any favors, that's for sure. Perhaps, I'm too old school.But, it seems to me that we have the cart driving the horse; the technology is usurping the music. I think that's sad. The crowd isn't impressed. As a musician, I'm not impressed. I think it has gotten bad for the music.
