Turn down the volume!

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: GUEST,eliza c
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 10:01 AM

Turn it up! And then turn it down again!
I like both. And while I'm sure going to an airport or listening to jackhammers may be loud, they are not musical experiences. Loud music is loud music, it has its' own value. Different strokes...personally, my left-ear partial deafness is from the proximity of my violin to my left ear, acoustic as owt. Acoustic as ouch, even!
x ec

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:42 AM

I'd rather both play and listen with no amps at all, but if I am listening to electric music then I do like it loud. However it is probably less important for folk-type music than for (say) death metal or techno.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:40 AM

I put my left ear tinnitus down to too many years listening to loud jazz bands in small clubs ( I think Count Basie Band in the Opposite Lock B'ham and the Maynard Ferguson Orch. at the 100 Club London, neither club much more than 20 feet wide, probably most guilty- but worth it)but the electric blues bands my club likes to book, rather than the acoustic blues I prefer, seem to combine instrumental volume (usually the bass guitar) with inaudible lyrics and announcements. As the regular "old git in the corner", the club sound man usually checks with me that the volume is acceptable!

RtS

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Strick
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:36 AM

I'm going to a large Celtic Festival next weekend. The last time we went it was raining as always this time of year, and we couldn't stand to be in the tents where the bands were playing because the sound was too loud. We went out and bought ear plugs and always keep several sets in our car for emergencies like this. Only way we can enjoy being there at all.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:31 AM

I wonder if the volume wouldn't be necessary if the audience actually listened to the music, as I do.

Turn it down!

Many churches disguise a bad organist with high amplification. Far too many groups seem to do the same about their bad music.

Turn it down!

Noise hides and prevents communication.

Turn it down!

If you want to feel the vibrations in your guts, visit an airport or run a jackhammer.

Turn it down!

Lots of times you need some amplification, but it needn't be so loud that those in passing aircraft are rendered sterile and deaf.

Turn it down!

A competent person on the sound board can enhance a concert.

Turn it down!

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 09:11 AM

I wear ear plugs to ceilidhs these days. The quietest ceilidh band I know are Captain Swing - as the name suggests they are about swing not oumph - very enjoyable non-the-less.

Tickled Pink are a band I would avoid even if it was in my own town. Their attitude is if you don't want volume don't book us. Falling on deaf ears is probably about the size of it. They are too fast to dance to, the human physique has not changed with technology, gravity hasn't altered, only fashion has any degree of freedom.

The amazing thing is the Simon Care Trio play almost archetypical trad and at a volume that you can tolerate. And a very enjoyable bop. Simon is in both.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: GUEST, Hamish
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 08:16 AM

I know it's a cumulative thing, so earlier Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple gigs did some of the damage, but the gig which made my tinitus permanent was so-called folkies The Oyster Band. :^(

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 10:08 PM

Ah, the pleasure of bluegrass!

Just put that lead instrument right up to the microphone.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 09:12 PM

Many folk venues are so small that there is no need for amplification at all, and it is nothing but a nuisance. I have repeatedly had the experience of being able to understand only about half the words in a song coming thru the sound system, and then, when the performer turned away from the microphone to converse with someone on the stage, being able to understand him or her perfectly.

Doctors have a maxim, "Primum non nocere", which may be freely translated, "First of all, don't make it worse." God knows the doctors need it, and the politicians even more, but the people who sit at those bloody consoles might also do well to inscribe it on the panel.

Turn that damn thing off!

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 06:22 PM

I'm with you, Tunesmith! Many gigs are too loud. I always carry hearing protection. Pathetic, isn't it?

It's a shame that a sound person doesn't have a decibel meter on the board to warn when the sound is dangerously loud.

Last night I went to hear a harp and guitar duo. My companion wanted to sit near the front so she could watch the harper's hands. However, this put us so near that speakers that I had to move. Not only was the sound loud, but is also seemed so artificial that I began to wonder if they were faking it. Later I moved to the back of the house and decided no, it was a live performance.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 05:57 PM

Nice to have a venue where you can still play loud music. Most London venues would get the sound kit confiscated at half time if bands still played at 70s volumes.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 05:45 PM

Fairport doesn't suffer. They became deaf years ago.

Subject: RE: Turn down the volume!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 03:46 PM

Turn it UP!!!!

Or turn it off...

Subject: Turn down the volume!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 03:20 PM

Many amplified folk band these days play at an unhealthy volume. I walked out of a Fairports show because it was too loud. I bet most of that band suffer from tinitus ( or whatever it's called ). A lot of folk bands, today, play much louder that rock bands from the early sixties. It's not the way to go!