alistermorton Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 It's interesting that in most of the replies above, people's "loudest gigs" were many years back, when PA systems were a fraction of the power they are today. I doubt that band engineers will have gotten any more sensible as the years have progressed. Is it perhaps that modern PAs have much less distortion, so don't "sound as loud"? One of my "loudest" gigs as a punter was Levellers at Glasgow Barrowlands, autumn 1995. I didn't have tinnitus afterwards, but my ears felt "furry" for at least 24hrs afterwards. But again, the rig had significant distortion and was truly painful to listen to close up. You may have something there, although I do remember feeling my chest thumping to the PA at the Banshees. Afterwards the feeling wa, as someone else said, as if my ears were "furry" - very indistinct hearing, but no ringing. The hearing came back over the next couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 I saw Deep Purple during "that" tour and fugg, that was a loud gig. Rainbow had the same idea, and frankly, if I wasn't so transfixed on the rainbow (the pretty thing with 3000 bulbs driven by a PDP-8, as opposed to a bunch of musicians lead by Mr Blackmore) I'd probably have quit the gig early and saved the tinnitus. But... PAs today are not like the PAs of yesteryear. Those old PAs were entirely horn loaded, and thus efficiently converted electrical watts to accoustic watts. It didn't take a very big pile of DC300As to make a really loud PA. Good job really, as one didn't get many DC300As to the rack. It really was all about volume. Fast forward to today and in one amp rack one has more power than a metaphorical truckload of DC300As, but the speaker systems are less efficient. But hell, they sound so much better. Funnily enough, I was musing this (and not for the first time, either) at a recent concert, Midas desk, d&b line array. The gig started out quiet, but was respectibly loud by the encore, and at some point my mind flipped from being a punter enjoying the show to being a train spotter, brought about (I think) when I noticed was being pounded by the kit, and how did it all get this loud without me noticing. I got all analytical, and I got to thinking just how good it sounded. The clarity was astounding. Back in the day, even bands that had really great live sound for the day (obvious example - 10cc) couldn't come close to this. The difference now to then really is the difference of black and white to colour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nb705 Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 I'm currently system tech for Bellowhead on their 10th anniversary shows. We've got a slightly bigger rig than that in Cambridge corn exchange (it was the house rig that ub40 used, with a couple of extra l'acoustics sb28 subs). I've had two people come up to me in the interval, one to say that it's the best he has ever heard and another, slightly older gentleman complain that the bass was far too excessive. They were sat a few seats from each other, neither in nodes nor antinodes. You can't please all of the people all of the time! Granted, as far as I can tell, no one has a pre existing perforated ear drum that might start bleeding due to high blood pressure, being jostled, or high spl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 most uncomfortable gig was black crows at Bristol Colston Hall - another place which can be tricky to get right. Having said that, they'd done two days rehearsal so you'd think the engineer might have got the hang of the place by then. I think he overcompensated for the damping effect of all the punters and cranked it up a bit - I "did" the houselights from the panel outside the auditorium, (the house tech's only duty on most "pop" shows as we called them in those days) then popped my head in to watch the gig, I had to come out as I could feel my ears pistoning. I was probably seven or eight metres from one side of the PA. Professor Green at the Skyfall party in the Café de Paris was pretty loud, but not as loud as the Goldie DJ session that followed his set. That was pretty painful - good tunes but earplugs definitely required. I went to a gig as a punter a week or so ago at Koko (where we used to go clubbing in the early eighties when it was the Camden Palace) - first time I'd been to a proper full-on loud rock gig for a long time, and I wasn't all that impressed with the sound. Too loud, when the three guitars got going, it turned into a mess of white noise. But then I listened to their first CD in the van the other day, and what do you know, the guitars got going and it turned into a mess of white noise, albeit somewhat quieter than the live version. So maybe the engineer was doing a better job than I thought in reproducing their signature sound! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 I've had two people come up to me in the interval, one to say that it's the best he has ever heard and another, slightly older gentleman complain that the bass was far too excessive. It's always fun when that happens. At one show we had one complaint that it was too loud, immediately followed by one that it was too quiet. We were able to introduce the two complainants to each other and asked them to come back to us once they'd agreed what level we should run the show at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigYinUK Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 We were able to introduce the two complainants to each other and asked them to come back to us once they'd agreed what level we should run the show at. ** laughs out loud ** That I like :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junior8 Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Professor Green at the Skyfall party in the Café de Paris was pretty loud, but not as loud as the Goldie DJ session that followed his set. That was pretty painful - good tunes but earplugs definitely required. Great possibilities here: Unit 1 The Industrial Estate Earbleed Amplification PLC, Unit 2 Earsoothe Aural Protection PLC, both members of the Earenterprises Group! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valooz Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I've had two people come up to me in the interval, one to say that it's the best he has ever heard and another, slightly older gentleman complain that the bass was far too excessive. It's always fun when that happens. At one show we had one complaint that it was too loud, immediately followed by one that it was too quiet. We were able to introduce the two complainants to each other and asked them to come back to us once they'd agreed what level we should run the show at. Off Topic, but doing a gig for The Salvation Army Xmas gig a couple of years back. Just riding the fader for speeches in between and the odd solo vocalist.During the interval, a very polite elderly lady came up to me and said: -"The horns, they're awwwfuly loud... Can you turn them down?"-"I'm sorry, I'm not using any microphones on the horns, so I can't turn them down..."-"Oh, well, maybe you should put some on them then?"She was ever so polite... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 -"The horns, they're awwwfuly loud... Can you turn them down?"-"I'm sorry, I'm not using any microphones on the horns, so I can't turn them down..."-"Oh, well, maybe you should put some on them then?" In a similar vein, I had a customer ask me to supply black gel for their parcans, so they could make the room dark without having to hang drapes over the windows. She seemed quite serious and took a bit of explaining until she accepted that it wouldn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 When mics on guitar amps became de rigeur a late and good friend of mine taught me to always mic up the bass rig but never, ever turn the channel on. "All ze ozzer mics pick the blutty noise up anyvay!" On more than one occasion I have sat with an FoH engineer and broken out the thermos and cheese sarnies as the monitors were so loud we couldn't turn FoH on at all. Mansun brought along a 30K foldback set up for our 12K FoH rig and when I asked why the band replied; "Eh what, pardon?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross1c Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 So now they notice the sound engineer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleah Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 -"Oh, well, maybe you should put some on them then?"She was ever so polite... Maybe she was familiar with lighting, in particular the Patt 45 and how they can be used to 'darken' the stage!!! :D :** laughs out loud **: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 To go along with the thread derail further, we were doing a conference and had a centre screen on the set and at one point there was no AV content and client wanted it to "disappear"We said that we had spare flats or cloth or anything, whereupon he said "Oh - can't you just project a black slide onto it?"He said that -- honest. THATS why he earns the big bucks.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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