Turn it down in club land

[atomlow]

Hi,

I know this is a little off topic but I need some advice.
My band has been playing in some clubs and I've noticed that they want to turn us up way to loud. How can you tell clubs to turn you down a little so people's ears aren't bleeding.
I like music to sound good and when it's at that volume it becomes white noise. I would take sound quality over loudness any day. Any thoughts on this would be great.

Thanks

[Sennheiser]

It's probably going to sound a lot louder to you for two reasons.

You right there at the stage speakers, it's going to sound loud to you. And two, the club manager(s) get used to the initial sound level after a while and then it doesn't sound as loud as it did an hour ago.

They keep perceiving the sound as getting quieter, or not as loud and want it pushed up. The same with the crowd, though they may or may not be paying as much attention.

The same thing can happen while you are mixing.

When you are hearing this sound so close your brain essentially just turns it off and that's why you hear what you do. White noise.

[regebro]

Turn up the bass instead. It will be perceived as loud long before it becomes damaging.

[atomlow]

I'm not saying it is loud for me it is the people that go and see us (the audience). I think people leave because they can't take the volume. Would it be rude to tell the sound guy that we don't want to be excessively loud?

[BrettB]

Originally posted by atomlow
Would it be rude to tell the sound guy that we don't want to be excessively loud?

Absolutely not! It is his job, that's the least he can do! I did some small PA jobs, and hints by the band are even needed to know what they exactely want.

Btw, a good mixer never mixes too loud. Roel also gave me that advice: If you mix at a decent level, you'll be better than 75% of the live mixers around.

[atomlow]

BrettB,

Thanks I'll say something next time we play

[TexRoadkill]

I hate overly loud shows. The first time I saw the Dead at Shoreline in CA the music was so low you could talk over it in a conversational voice and the music sounded awesome.

One thing bands should realize is that 80% of the sound guys in clubs suck royal ass. Don't let them bully you around and if possible bring your own engineer who wont get pissed off when you ask for more vocals in the monitor mix.

[Roel]

Originally posted by BrettB
Btw, a good mixer never mixes too loud. Roel also gave me that advice: If you mix at a decent level, you'll be better than 75% of the live mixers around.

Yup, I said that. And that's true.

Mix too loud and you'll never get a clear mix. You'll never get a good seperation in between the instruments, kinda like your ears are dirstorting. So, a guy that mixes you too loud won't have it sounding good. Because you can't have it sound good that way. And too loud is unpleasant listening even if the music is great and sounds good.

[barefoot]

The sound quality of the system can make a huge difference to the perceived "loudness".

I’ve built some rather unorthodox PA speaker systems based around hi-end 'hi-fi' components. The sound is so distortion free and uncompressed that even at high sound pressure levels where the music is tickling your liver it never sounds "loud" and there is still space between the notes to hold a conversation. It’s pretty amazing if you every have a chance to experience such a thing. Of course, sound like this is very far from cheap.


This might have been what Tex heard at the Dead show?... High volume, high accuracy sound.

barefoot

[atomlow]

I agree with that! That is a good point, good sound shouldn't seem as loud because of less distortion. I think that can be a major problem in clubs because they don't always have the best systems.