I want to preface this by saying i am no sound engineer, just heavily interested in this topic.

I attended Nibirii festival in Germany last Sunday, and was interested in how the engineers configured the subs to function with this specific stage setup on the unreal stage. As visible in the picture, there was a big area behind the line arrays (K1 I think?) where people could enter the stage installation. I spent most of my time there, they added some A15s to fill out this area, but what I found interesting and leads to my question:

The KS28 subs were built in a cardioid configuration, always one towards the back and two towards the front as far as I remember. But why would you do this in this situation if you want the bass to also reach behind the subs? Behind the stage there is a big lake, so I cannot see a reason why you would want to limit the bass traveling behind the stage. Bass was considerably less behind the K1 hangs, but it was not quiet enough to ruin the fun. I do not understand why you would build a cardioid setup in this situation, so maybe the DSP was configured differently than with a "normal" cardioid setup?

If any engineers have an explanation for this, I would be greatly interested :)

First, let me get this out of the way: I absolutely loved seeing AC/DC live.

I’ve been a huge AC/DC fan since I was a kid, but somehow I’d never had the money or opportunity to see them live, so finally seeing them yesterday was pretty damn special.

Watching Brian Johnson at 78 and Angus Young at 71 rock a stadium of what looked like 50K+ people was incredible. Angus was simply phenomenal. No gimmicks — just loud, sweaty, unapologetic rock and roll.. 🤘

BUT...

As much as I enjoyed the show, I have to rant about the sound.

Maybe I'm completely wrong here because I'm definitely not an audio expert, but the acoustics inside NRG Stadium seemed pretty awful to my ears.

There was so much sound bouncing around that at times it felt like I was hearing the same thing coming back at me from different parts of the stadium. It created this weird wash of sound, and after a while my ears were ringing and I was actually struggling to make out Brian's vocals.

I've seen bands in smaller venues around Austin where the sound was absolutely phenomenal, so I'm wondering — is this just the reality of trying to make a giant sports stadium sound good for a rock concert? Do all stadium shows have this problem, or was something particularly off last night?

The mixing also seemed odd. Angus sounded great, but whenever Brian came in, it sometimes sounded like the PA was being pushed beyond its limits. His vocals would get harsh and distorted.

And finally, Brian obviously struggled with some of the high notes. He's 78 — I expected that and honestly didn't care. But for a massive production and $300 tickets, I kept wondering why they didn't use more backing vocals to help fill in those moments. Not to replace him, just to give him a little support and help smooth out the rough edges. I wasn't expecting Brian Johnson to magically become 30 years old again. I was expecting a massive stadium production designed to make a legendary 78-year-old singer sound as good as possible.

Despite all the above, I'd happily go see them again. The energy was incredible, Angus was unreal, and seeing AC/DC live after being a fan for decades was something I'll never forget.

Rant over. AC/DC fucking rocks. 🤘

But seriously — anyone here with audio/production knowledge: was it NRG, the mix, or just the reality of doing rock concerts in a giant stadium?

Is it too late for Soundcraft to get (back?) in the game? What would it take for them to finally be successful in the middle market?

What are your guys’s favorite ways you’ve learned to communicate with a vocalist mid set? For example, let’s say they want their voice in their ears turned up or down a bit. Other than just rehearsing enough to memorize those parts, do you have any techniques that look more subtle than hand signals?