Sound Limiters

[stingrayPete1977]

Yep, big modern estate pub full blast until 12, farm miles from anyone sound limiter installed, been there a few times.

[TimR]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1469732559' post='3100764']
Yep, big modern estate pub full blast until 12, farm miles from anyone sound limiter installed, been there a few times.
[/quote]

That's because people move to the countryside on the mistaken belief it's a nice quiet place like you see on the telly.

Not an outdoor factory with animals, machinery, guns, church bells, smells etc.

They get quite annoyed when they find out about all these things.

[taunton-hobbit]

Had an interesting conversation when these things were a new invention.
Venue - 'by the way, we have a device that cuts the stage power if it all gets too loud'
Me - 'That's fine, I use valve powered kit which thumps when it turns back on - if one of my
Tannoy Gold Speakers blows, it'll cost you around 500 quid and I use six on this rig'
They found me alternative power...........

[4stringslow]

No speaker protection circuitry in the amp then, or were you bluffing?

[taunton-hobbit]

Nope - these were large OrangeMatamps - amazing kit, but basic - I was so not up for taking the chance.
Venues take the p*ss - they don't have to stump up for the kit, nor haul it around.
One reason I stopped working was that I got tired of being treated like some kind of serf
(nearly used the 'other' analogy of banana boats there)............

[Phil Starr]

[quote name='Westie9' timestamp='1403760300' post='2485939']
Sounds like its going to be a great one!!! We'll try and get a power source from outside the room in case it does go...

As a rough guide I'll monitor it via an app I've found but 98dBs does sound very low... Hopefully as mentioned above it has a traffic light system so at least I can see something during the gig.

Can't wait......
[/quote]
There's a possibility it won't be too bad. Most bands operate at around the 100db level as their on stage levels. If the limiter is a few metres away then the sound falls away 6db every time the distance doubles. On the down side it depends upon how the software is set up. At this level peaks are going to go above 120db so if it works on peaks then you've no chance. If it on average sound levels over say a few seconds you'll probably be fine. Ive always looked for another socket to bypass the limiter on the principle that my first duty is to the client and not the venue

[NancyJohnson]

I played a place a few years ago with a single limiter, it was a fairly plain unit, albeit some distance from where we were playing.

Apparently, the venue did a load of gigs with bands setting up in a certain area and the limiter was installed in that vicinity. After it was put in, the venue simply moved the staging area about as far as they feasibly could from the unit. They also told me they'd worked out a way of switching it off (!) and blocking it somehow (with a strategically placed plastic ice-cream tub with a towel in it).

[dontregartha]

Had my first experience of this last night.

Did a return booking with my Funk/Disco band.

It was a noisy town centre pub - listening back to the recording (I record everything all the time on my Zoom) - we are just holding our own over the crowd noise and chatter.

But we play stuff like 'we are family, boogie nights, run free, good times, celebration' - how the hell are you going to get the audience to sit down and listen... they want to get up and 'get down on it'

Boom off goes the limiter.... 4 times.

As john Cooper Clarke once put it... "Like a death at a Birthday party, you spoil all the fun"

[Les]

Haven't encoutered onf of these in this band but we only really do pubs. Limiters have been arounf for donkey's year and never worked well. I'm surprised technology hasn't moved on with these things to make them usable in a live music situation at a realistic volume.

[markstuk]

We've either bypassed them in the past or in one notable incident, covered the mic with padding and gaffa tape :-)

[dontregartha]

I shall certainly look for the mic next time!

[Delberthot]

The one thing wedding venues very rarely disclose but are meant to from day 1 is if they have a noise limiter. A band turning up on the night to be met by a hotel manager telling them that there is a noise limiter and anything over xdB will trip it is far too late IMO and have every right to refuse to play. Few will but the threat of this is enough to make most venues more accommodating.

We've all spent a lot of money on our gear and we'd like to have the opportunity to say no if we're asked to play a venue with a limiter. Valve amps really don't like being switched off before they've had the chance to cool down and regardless of damage or not I like to decide when I switch my amp off.

There is a venue near us and I only found out it had one when I read about it in the local paper. It was set at 85db which is close to the level of a domestic dishwasher.

We played our quietest set ever and the audience loved us as we managed to get through the entire night without tripping it. A band who played there the week after us who I had depped with in the past ripped the microphone out of the ceiling and cut the wires to the traffic lights. They won't be playing any venues in my area any time soon and I'm glad I wasn't playing with them at the time.

We're fortunate enough that we're busy so we can politely refuse the ones with sound limiters most of the time. It's not about playing as loudly as you can, it's about being able to play at a volume to suit the venue, not a neighbour 2 miles away.