Pubs and venues to be protected from noise complaints

[peteb]

52 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I don't know if bands are getting quieter. The quality of live sound is vastly improved from the 70s and 80s, but clearer does not necessarily mean quieter.

 

But it often does. Also, a clear loud sound doesn't sound as offensive or as noticeable as an overly distorted (where its not meant to be) one does. 

 

51 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

This.

 

There's such a big move to modellers / IEMs even for small pub bands. I haven't seen a raging JCM800 for a good decade.

 

I still see people taking out JCMs and the like, but they are not cranking them as much as they used to and only using one 412 (or even a 212), whereas in the past they would have taken two cabs. Also, even if you don't want to take the modellers / IEMs route (and I'm not keen TBH) but think that a JCM is too much, there are loads of quality, lower wattage valve amps available now. 

 

Edited yesterday at 16:01 by peteb

[Lozz196]

In a punk covers band some 15 years ago we all ran amps with 412s - guitarists had valve amps, I had hybrids. But, and a big but, we only played to the level of the drums and the drummer had quite a light touch. So we had a very full sound, but not a loud sound. 

[chris_b]

My bands are getting louder. I can tell, the dB number on my ACS plug filters is creeping up.

 

A friend lived in a village near Newbury. In the 70's they had an influx of people from London. Straight away the incomers started complaining that there was no street lighting and the pavements were inadequate!! The locals hated them even more after that.

 

The Bull's Head at Barns, a music venue since the early 60's, had the Met Police garage next door. When that was sold to a developer, the pub had several meetings where they informed the developer and counsel that  they were a music venue and there was noise, and the builder should take that into account when they designed the flats. Everyone, including the builder, agreed that that would be done.  Basically the developer agreed not to put a window in the wall over looking the pub. Guess what? That's exactly what  the builder did. As soon as the flats were sold the owners started complaining about the noise! Under current rules the pub had no comeback, and had to spend thousands on noise insulation.

[Greg Edwards69]

Just from purely personal experience and anecdotal evidence, I can see how bands might be louder than they were, maybe even just 15-20 years ago. A lot of bands like ours used to use modest backline to fill the room and a modest PA for vocals only. Whilst many bands have embraced modelling with silent stages and IEMs, the PA systems required for this are beefier and include subs to handle the full band, including micing up drums in a pub!. Not to mention, technological advances have made powerful PA systems more affordable.

 

Whilst it makes things more consistent and arguably better sounding, we're capable of going a lot louder than we used to, and louder than we should do. In all likelihood, it's the subs that are causing the noise complaints these days.

[Dan Dare]

15 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

In all likelihood, it's the subs that are causing the noise complaints these days.

 

Good point. Low frequencies are omni-directional and more likely to be structure borne, meaning sound insulation has little to no effect on them. That's why you always hear mainly bass when your neighbour has a party.

[Greg Edwards69]

7 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Good point. Low frequencies are omni-directional and more likely to be structure borne, meaning sound insulation has little to no effect on them. That's why you always hear mainly bass when your neighbour has a party.

Yep. Exactly that. There are at least a couple of bands I know of that use a pair of 18-inch powered subs in the local pub circuit... and they use backline too!  Sounds good, but overkill IMHO. (And yes, I do realise they have volume controls, so they don't have to be loud).

[Cliff Edge]

8 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

Yep. Exactly that. There are at least a couple of bands I know of that use a pair of 18-inch powered subs in the local pub circuit... and they use backline too!  Sounds good, but overkill IMHO. (And yes, I do realise they have volume controls, so they don't have to be loud).

Does any band have to be loud?

[ian61]

"Clearer" does not necessarily mean better either, but too loud for the room was and is always bad.

[ezbass]

28 minutes ago, Cliff Edge said:

Does any band have to be loud?

I guess, for a definition of loud, yes. Acoustic drums are loud and a vast number of tub thumpers don't know how to/won't play softly, or use Thai Sticks (other musicians are sometimes just as guilty with their, "It's how I get my sound," attitude*). Therefore, everyone in the band has to play to level of the drums (or the *plonker mentioned earlier). So that's the loudness of the drums (or *), multiplied by the other members in the band. All it takes is for someone to tweak their volume (either through playing harder or thinking they can't be heard and hitting output knob) and then, more often than not, we're off to the db races. The problem lies in turning up all the time, rather than turning down the offending instrument (often because requests to the party involved result in a huff - this regardless of experience, age, etc 🤦‍♂️). It is a problem as old as music and exacerbated in recent times with the obsession with sub bass (no doubt encouraged by the DJ scene) and miking up the bass drum in venues where the drum kit is already loud enough to stun small animals at the back of the room. Perhaps this is why duos really became popular with some venues, not some spurious licence restriction.

[TimR]

Have a read of the latter part of the Pirate Studios thread. It may be those of us on BassChat are more selective with the gigs we go to and the bands we play in.

Edited 9 hours ago by TimR