We were right up front, and...

[sleepytime]

...it sounded like ass.

Went to a local fest tonight and stood with the bands most ardent fans, right up by the the stage. The band (hats off to Lounge Puppets) was absolutely kicking ass, but all I heard was drums and mud, because the sound was sold out for FOH. So we moved to where we could hear the FOH mix. We could kinda see and it sounded kinda better. Everybody up front (let me repeat, the most ardent fans) was complaining about the sound.

 

[craig.p]

There's only so much you can do dispersion-wise. With little to no stage volume (in the defensible interest of not interfering with the mains), there's bound to be that near-field dead spot you speak of. On some stages they'll have near-field cabs set up to fix that. Even spare monitors can work in a pinch. But it costs money (boxes, power amps, mixer channels/busses, wiring, manpower). Someone somewhere decided it wouldn't net out positive in terms of receipts. Russian proverb: Excellence is the enemy of good enough.

I've gone to some shows where the audio was so horribly atrocious that it was actually better watching from a dead zone because it cut way back on the distortion and the frequency up-tilt that were assaulting the people on the business end of the mains.

 

[modulusman]

Must not have been any front-fill speakers as craig.p pointed out.