Why might a rock concert in a stadium involve “hundreds” of microphones? When I was a young boy in the 1970s and 1980s, the sound at large rock concerts was extremely unpredictable and generally terrible unless you were at a smaller, more savvy venue or just darned lucky to choose a location where the band and the PA operator “clicked” in a positive way. The worst stadium events were concerts. Why?
I haven’t attended many live shows in the previous ten years, but when I have, I’ve always been blown away by how well a big arena sounds today—when it would have sounded like absolute trash thirty years ago. What altered, why, and when did this occur?
Why might a rock concert in a stadium involve “hundreds” of microphones? Rephrased: Back in the day, a rock band’s primary guitar and bass sounds were produced on the backline using hundreds of watts of beefy amplification from Marshall stacks and other similar devices, while the PA was used for the band’s vocals and drums. Why was that ever necessary, and why is it no longer necessary? Is the distinction due to simply better-trained sound engineers at the venues, a technical limitation that has been removed, or something else?
Why might “hundreds” of mics be used at a rock event at a stadium?
You’re neglecting to consider the following:
Any acoustic instruments (brass, wind, percussion, etc.);
electric instrument amplifiers, which also need to be mixed up if they wish to be able to use their live sound and not go straight into the mixing board, as is the case with most guitarists;
the drum set, which usually needs several mics of its own.
How do hearing aids function?
Why might a rock concert in a stadium involve “hundreds” of microphones? Hearing aids are most helpful for those with hearing loss brought on by damage to the tiny sensory cells in the inner ear, known as hair cells, in terms of enhancing hearing and speech comprehension. Sensorineural hearing loss is the name given to this kind of hearing loss. The harm may be brought on by illness, aging, or trauma from noise or specific medications.
Hearing aids amplify the sound waves that reach the ear. The larger vibrations are picked up by remaining hair cells, translating them into neural impulses and sending them to the brain. A person’s hearing loss will be more severe and require more hearing aid amplification the more harm they have done to their hair cells. Meanwhile, the amount of amplification a hearing aid can offer has practical limits. Moreover, even large vibrations will not translate into cerebral signals if the inner ear is excessively injured. A hearing aid would be useless in this scenario.
