Interesting "LOUD" thread on another forum.

[Bryan316]

Ministry and Meshuggah, at the Emerald Theater in Mt. Clemens MI. Ministry's "retirement" tour. My friend is a huge fan, and my brother wanted to check em out. They were up in the balcony. They weren't even up in front.

 

It was so loud, they left after 3 songs. They couldn't tolerate how loud it was. Unnecessary loud. Unenjoyable loud.

 

I cannot imagine, say, Dream Theater or Iron Maiden, being so loud I would actually LEAVE THEIR SHOW from it. So for my friend to leave his favorite band like that? Crazy.

[Zeromus-X]

That should be a lesson though -- he walked out on his favorite band over a problem that could have been fixed by spending $1.99 on earplugs and having them in his pocket in case he needed them.

 

It's also easy to blame the sound levels and not the guy who didn't bring the earplugs, but consider that if 51% of the crowd didn't walk, they obviously weren't playing too loud for their crowd and made a good business decision. I love loud shows and can't stand it when bands that should be loud, aren't.

 

I remember seeing Fear Factory at a venue with a 1,500 capacity and an L'Acoustics V-DOSC system and they were so quiet the mains were hardly working above the ambient sound level of the drums on stage. You couldn't hear the band at all because the crowd's noise (either yelling or singing along) was louder than the sound at FOH. On the flip side of that, the last Dethklok show made your pants move in the back of the room (same venue).

[W. M. Hellinger]

Which again, is a self-resolving problem....dummy doesn't protect hearing, goes deaf or can't hear anything but the ringing in his ears, and is eventually run over by a cement truck. Don't be run over by a cement truck; protect your hearing! :D:D

I'll suggest this situation won't last... similar to what happened to muscle cars in the early '70's.

[Miko Man]

 

I've heard of clubs where ear plugs are required to be available to all the clients. (Don't know where, but I'm sure it's some town law.)

 

 

OT somewhat, but I try to carry disposable foam earplugs in my bagpipe band gig bag, and if we are playing indoors, like in a restaurant, I offer them to folks who are seated near us. Some folks want them, most don't. The ones that do are always appreciate them. Mark C.

[kmart]

 

It's also easy to blame the sound levels and not the guy who didn't bring the earplugs, but consider that if 51% of the crowd didn't walk, they obviously weren't playing too loud for their crowd and made a good business decision. I love loud shows and can't stand it when bands that should be loud, aren't.

 

 

I have inside-knowledge enough to be able to say that the chances ANYBODY associated with Ministry was thinking in terms of making a 'good business decision' were approximately nil.

 

They were stupid loud because the primaries, by and large, are stupid.

[Telecruiser]

Bruce Hornsby. He was playing in downtown San Diego in a venue that I cannot remember the name. It was a former movie theater. It was so loud that I had to go out into the lobby. I looking at the wall separating the concert area from the lobby and I swear it was moving almost a 1/4" from the SPL. My ears rang for a couple of days after that.

[WynnD]

Wouldn't that get you kicked out of the cool guitarist's union or somethin' ?

 

Don't play guitar. I know one song on the instrument and I don't play it well. (I do play bass, keys and trumpet. Pretty strange.)

[Marko]

I guess I never endured a loud show, but I never attended rock concerts.

 

Once with a few buddies in the bar area where Blue Oyster Cult was in the other room, but I didn

[agedhorse]

 

The loudest concert I have suffered through was when I was working backstage (SL wing) for a Leon Russell show back in the 1990's. 33nnr foam earplugs under double muff ClearCom headset and it was still painfull. Leon had a pair of Peavey 12" columns (three speakers each) on either side of him, and a pair of 15" Yamaha monitors at head height. Deaf much, Leon? I have no idea how the crowd could stand the FOH level. IIRC, lots of folks left early. 800 person auditorium/theater (raked seating) in a local middle school. Mark C.

 

 

I did some Leon Russell and Edgar Winter shows during that exact time. It took a lot of PA and it was loud.

[bbrunskill]

 

Pretty odd for subs only rated down to 25hz......:poke: .

 

 

Haha, my thoughts exactly! I'm sure it was low and bone crushingly loud though. Actaully, when subs couple, you do tend to get a bit more low end extension out of them, so it was likely to be below 25 nz.

[StratGuy22]

Last night the band was loud. Too loud.

 

The problem starts with the drummer. Great guy, but is a heavy heavy hitter. The snare is mic'd to record, but NEVER comes through FOH. Then the guitars are always too loud. I know it's live, and it's going to be loud, but this is a care of "really guys?" I do think some of it is because in a few venues with SOS for FOH, the guitars feed the crowd, so they have to be louder. Again, I mix everything. So they need lots of monitor to try to get over the stage sound. It sounds great (but loud) when they play, but as soon as it stops the feedback baaaarely starts to creep in a bit. But that's because the monitors are running so hot. I usually run the monitors fairly flat.

 

I didn't have a whole lot of time to play with the system, because I worked all day, and couldn't get there until after 6pm. Next time I'll get there a whole lot earlier and see if I can ring out the monitors first. This is literally their of the first bands I'll have to do it for. I wish I could get through to then, that with a lower stage sound they will actually sound better out front. There was next to nothing for guitars coming out of FOH, bass was pretty good, and the drums were good as well, kinds built the mix around the snare the best I could.

 

Everyone was digging it though, a couple guys commented on how good it sounded and understood that its a bit of a tough room to mix. I ended up popping up to the stage and explaining that I was going to back the monitors off a bit. So that's what I did, and the problem went away. But they had less than they wanted for monitors.

 

Nature of the beast.

 

The opening band was an acoustic trio, easy to mix, 2 guitars, mandolin, and they would trade off on a bass for some songs. Just sounded fantastic really.

 

 

I know they weren't the loudest band ever, but just one of a few bands that are louder than they really need to be. I can always make them louder, but if they are too loud, there's not much I can do.

 

Nazareth was loud a few years back. They played our local small town arena. The sound was complete mush. Indistinguishable noise, from the start of the song to the end. You only knew what song it was, if they told you.

 

Rediculous.

 

Utterly rediculous. They literally sounded like {censored}.

[Imwithpepe]

 

I did some Leon Russell and Edgar Winter shows during that exact time. It took a lot of PA and it was loud.

 

 

I've never worked with Edgar, but I've mixed Johnny in a 1200 seat room where I basically mixed the entire show around his amp. Even then, because of his hearing problems, it was almost unbearable. Lots of mid range dumped out of the amp so that he could dial up the top end that he can no longer hear. However, the loudest shows I've ever worked were when I was mixing monitors for Dinosaur Jr. or Brett Michaels. Dinosaur Jr. was one of the best mixed, incredibly loud things I've ever experienced, and it didn't make my job any easier when Jay barely sings but rather talks quietly into the mic. I finally reached a point where I just had to accept that he wasn't going to be able to hear; I think we were using a D&B M4 monitor rig that night. For Brett Michaels, we used 4 JBL SRX 712Ms on two mixes, each powered by PLX3602s. The four other band members each had a single version of that setup. Then, there was also an SRX 725 over an SRX728S powered by 2 Macrotech MA5000is at each side-fill position. Soundcheck went like this:

 

1. Ring out at a normal volume.

2. Turn up Aux sends 3/4 > sweep stage with vocal mic, passing roughly 2 feet from wedges

3. Notch out frequencies

4. Turn up aux the remainder of the way > sweep stage > no rings

5. Turn up output gain on EQs > sweep stage

6. Repeat for second set of wedges at Brett's mix

7. Repeat for Side Fills

8. Soundcheck

 

It was a very clean sounding stage, but capable of ripping heads off with normal conversation level speech into the mics....

[StratGuy22]

I'm finding most coleseum concerts have the levels under control. Ozzy, Roger Waters, Iron Maiden, Foo Fighters, all loud, but clear and not to the point of my ears ringing for days, like 20 years ago.

[BillESC]

Loudest??? Maybe Hot Tuna but so many shows I worked on were too loud. Back in the day we had a wired intercom system and I would always use my Beyer DT-109 double muff headset. It cancelled 65dB, that's probably why I have most of my hearing today.

[DaBender]

The LOUD thread has been revived on the other forum, and a fellow from Denmark claims its all regulated over there now. From all the reports of ringing ears and hearing loss I've heard on these threads, it sounds like we should head in that direction.