75dB Volume Level

ICBM

When I was bringing my wheelie bin back in I just noticed that it says "89dB" on it. I assume that's the maximum noise it makes when being trundled around when empty - which is quite loud, in a quiet village first thing in the morning. But you'd barely hear it in a town in the evening. If they really want music to be more than 10dB quieter than that, it's ludicrous.

UnclePsychosis

ICBM said:

Edinburgh is set to bring in similarly stupid limits. I used to live above a pub, so I'm not unaware that excessive noise can be a problem, but I chose to live there...

Unfortunately Edinburgh City Council are only interested in Culture if it means bringing in tourists in August. God forbid us little people who pay our council tax and live here for the other eleven months of the year do anything as vulgar as enjoy amplified music of an evening

gubble

Well it's on for tomorrow night - i'll let you all know how it goes.

At best it's going to be a quiet gig where people won't want to dance etc (nobody likes dancing to a quiet rock band)

At worst our drummer hits a single drum we are told we are too loud, pack up , get paid, go home

ICBM

Bring plenty of old t-shirts or similar, and some gaffer tape - you can put them over the drum heads if you have to. It will sound crap but it might be better than no gig.

Rocker

Good luck with your low volume gig.  Can't wait to hear read how it went

koneguitarist

Years ago I used to play a couple of places with noise limiters, which would cut the power off if you were too loud. We used to use a drum machine so could play a lot quieter than most bands, yet audience clapping used to knock power off. 

gubble

Did the gig and it went much better than expected.

Did the sound check under landlady's supervision.

Drummer used brushes, my HRD was on very quietly. Singer was going through the PA but honestly her voice was just as loud with it turned off. Happy landlady.

2nd half - got asked to turn it up so we did. Nobody moaned and the pub seemed to love it.

Had one rather exciting issue though. A water pipe started leaking and a load of water dripped onto a four way extension, the PA mixer and one of our smaller lights. Thankfully nothing ruined but good job we noticed as they'd got very wet. Had to stop for ten minutes to change over 4 ways and make sure the PA wasn't fried

Plectrum

I'm glad it went well for you

Whistler

Thanks gubble for reporting on how it went; we can all learn something from your experience.

gubble

Forgot to mention.

dB Meter sat on the bar (just a free app on my android phone). So probably 5 or 6 Metres from the bank

75-80dB drummer using brushes

88-92dB drummer using sticks

To put this into perspective Saturday night's gig at a pub that don't mind volume 105-110dB with the drummer really hitting things hard and the HRD running on about 3-4 on the volume.,

So can a rock band do a gig at 75dB - yes they can ! But it's a bit boring.

andyoz

Crowd noise in a busy pub with chatter can be in the range 80-85dBA average

p90fool

One thing I've found useful in these situations is to reduce the low frequencies, especially on the bass amp. 
If you turn the bass knob down you can use a surprising amount of volume, allowing the bass guitar to keep driving the band. 

75dB does sound like some ignorant council knobhead thinks it's 3/4 of the volume of 100dB though. 

HAL9000

gubble said:

Spoke to the landlady who confirmed there's one (new) neighbour who is complaining about the noise.

This annoys me when someone moves into an area with, say, a speedway track or an airport etc and then complains about the noise. If the source of the noise was there before they moved in, then the council should be filing the complaint in their waste paper bin.

andyoz

ICBM said:

When I was bringing my wheelie bin back in I just noticed that it says "89dB" on it. I assume that's the maximum noise it makes when being trundled around when empty - which is quite loud, in a quiet village first thing in the morning. But you'd barely hear it in a town in the evening. If they really want music to be more than 10dB quieter than that, it's ludicrous.

That's probably a Sound Power Level (LwA).  You can calculate Sound Pressure Level (ie. what we actually hear) at whatever distance based on that ....think of a 60w light bulb brightness up close and then far away.

maltingsaudio

andyoz said:

ICBM said:

When I was bringing my wheelie bin back in I just noticed that it says "89dB" on it. I assume that's the maximum noise it makes when being trundled around when empty - which is quite loud, in a quiet village first thing in the morning. But you'd barely hear it in a town in the evening. If they really want music to be more than 10dB quieter than that, it's ludicrous.

That's probably a Sound Power Level (LwA).  You can calculate Sound Pressure Level (ie. what we actually hear) at whatever distance based on that ....think of a 60w light bulb brightness up close and then far away.

Here's a plot for a HK CTA208  you can see the drop in volume over distance

andyoz

People also get confused with this 6dB drop in level for every doubling of distance.  It doesn't work like that indoors.  You do get a 6dB drop up close to speakers but then you hit the 'reverberant field' level and the drop off is much less as you move away.

You get the 6dB drop for doubling distance outdoors for a true point source.  It's the reason that line arrays are so popular live as you get more like 3dB drop for doubling distance and they can cover the audience more effectively with less gear.

IvisonGuitars

stratman3142 said:

I still carry a 30M extension lead.

In a band a few years back I remember a pub manager asked us to drape it over a fence so we could plug into a socket in the house next door.

Yup! I carry the same, although we've never brought it in from next door, its usually from the kitchen circuit which bypasses the 'traffic light' system perfectly.