From: Janne.Salmi@hut.fi (Janne Salmi)
Subject: Re: Is a certain type of music bad?
Organization: Helsinki Univ. of Tech., Finland
	<1asghrINN6uq@master.cs.rose-hulman.edu>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 22:37:26 GMT

In article <1asghrINN6uq@master.cs.rose-hulman.edu> anderson@cs.rose-hulman.edu. (Claude W. Anderson) writes:

-> What I keep hearing is, "Here are some things you can do to protect your  
-> ears from the concerts."  Back to my original question:  Can a Christian
-> legitimately produce a noise level that is damaging to the hearer?

"Noise" level? I thought we were talking about music.
Anyway, I think the sound guys should have some kind of
responsibility, Christians or not.

Last year, I went to hear Extreme and did I hear them
alright... an evening paper reported they had measured continuous
sound level in excess of 135 dB. I was standing next to the mixing
board, with my hands over my plugged ears, still having troubles and
the sound was so blurred except for the acoustic songs. And the guy
mixing was just standing there, a couple of feet away from the board,
not even trying to do anything to the overall sound. Either the guy
was deaf, or then he didn't have any kind of professional pride.
Although the concert hall was probably the worst place for that kind
of music, I think it could have been handled... 

That's all for ethics. Hit 'n' now if you don't want to be bored by
technical stuff.

-> ...  Is there any legitimate purpose (other
-> than being like many of the world's musicians) for having it loud enough 
-> to hurt?

I've been mixing concerts myself, and there are two basic reasons:

1)   To cover the stage sound, ie. The drums and guitar & bass amp
     tend to "spill" through straight from the stage, which affects
     the sound, especially in the front. Unfortunately, drums can't be
     turned down, and the guitar sound is better if the amp's turned
     up. 

     Plus the players usually want to hear themselves, too. The
     best way is straight from their own amp because often you don't
     have that many monitor lines and not everyone wants to hear bass
     *that* loud. So, you have to push up the masters a couple of
     inches so you'll get a clearer sound.

2)   To cover the audience noise, ie. the volume must be so loud that
     not even the pretty young couple standing against the back wall
     want to start talking to each other. That's because talking in a
     public event is contagious. 

     If the sound volume is the slightest bit too low, soon the people
     are chatting happily with each other, commenting on the bassist's
     long hair and the vocalist's cute nose and the main event you're
     mixing has turned to background music. Keep in mind that five
     people talking over a lunch in a can easily produce 78 dB...
     (yeah, a friend of mine measured it himself.)


Also, if the concert is indoors (as they usually are) you have to be
aware of the acoustics of the room... some places where the band is
forced to play just aren't meant for that kind of sound (some sport
halls aren't designed for _any_ kind of sound for that matter). You
have to try to kill the natural reverb of the room... usually winds up
sounding plain awful.

But on the other hand, if the concert is outdoors, you have to have more
volume because the sound spreads over a larger area... Just don't go
standing right in front of the speaker, try to find a "blind spot"
(deaf spot maybe? :^) or back off.

Hope this helps people to understand us poor public servants... :^)

- Janne