Post by: gunug on June 09, 2007, 05:45:40 AM
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle1878724.ece
QUOTE
Peter Mew, senior mastering engineer at Abbey Road studios, said: “Record companies are competing in an arms race to make their album sound the ‘loudest’. The quieter parts are becoming louder and the loudest parts are just becoming a buzz.”
Mr Mew, who joined Abbey Road in 1965 and mastered David Bowie’s classic 1970s albums, warned that modern albums now induced nausea.
He said: “The brain is not geared to accept buzzing. The CDs induce a sense of fatigue in the listeners. It becomes psychologically tiring and almost impossible to listen to. This could be the reason why CD sales are in a slump.”
Mr Mew, who joined Abbey Road in 1965 and mastered David Bowie’s classic 1970s albums, warned that modern albums now induced nausea.
He said: “The brain is not geared to accept buzzing. The CDs induce a sense of fatigue in the listeners. It becomes psychologically tiring and almost impossible to listen to. This could be the reason why CD sales are in a slump.”
So your music (and my music) can make you sick!
Post by: Gregg on June 09, 2007, 01:46:26 PM
Might not be a bad idea....
Post by: gunug on June 09, 2007, 02:08:16 PM
Post by: gunug on June 11, 2007, 03:16:13 PM
QUOTE
How loud was the concert? It's hard to say. But a recent story on hearing risks in Mix magazine says that sound engineers—including Prince's—typically keep shows above 100 dB, which audiologists consider dangerously high. Above 100 dB "is where the excitement is created," engineer Chris Rabold told Mix. "I like to cruise around 103, which is not terribly loud, but there are peaks in there—109 easy."
Decibel levels are a measurement of sound pressure, with pressure doubling every 6 dB. So that extra 6 dB may not sound like a lot, but in reality, it's double the trouble. Despite the danger, I agree with Rabold. High decibels are essential to the rock concert experience. The sound waves become a physical, pulsing torrent that vibrates through your entire body. It feels something like standing under a waterfall.
While you connect aurally to the music, you also connect physically to the power behind the sound. In Vegas, I was thinking about the flow of electricity from Hoover Dam, channeled via the electronics on and around the stage, ultimately converted into waves of sound power pushing through the crowd.
Mix says advances in technology give sound engineers increased consistency of volume throughout a venue, where a clean, undistorted PA can seem "deceptively quiet." The sound engineer can tailor the mix so music feels good at extreme levels, dialing out the 1.6k to 3k range that's painful to the ears. As it gets easier to crank it up and enjoy the physical sensation of the live music, it also becomes more important to find ways to lessen the impact on the ear's sensitive mechanisms.
Decibel levels are a measurement of sound pressure, with pressure doubling every 6 dB. So that extra 6 dB may not sound like a lot, but in reality, it's double the trouble. Despite the danger, I agree with Rabold. High decibels are essential to the rock concert experience. The sound waves become a physical, pulsing torrent that vibrates through your entire body. It feels something like standing under a waterfall.
While you connect aurally to the music, you also connect physically to the power behind the sound. In Vegas, I was thinking about the flow of electricity from Hoover Dam, channeled via the electronics on and around the stage, ultimately converted into waves of sound power pushing through the crowd.
Mix says advances in technology give sound engineers increased consistency of volume throughout a venue, where a clean, undistorted PA can seem "deceptively quiet." The sound engineer can tailor the mix so music feels good at extreme levels, dialing out the 1.6k to 3k range that's painful to the ears. As it gets easier to crank it up and enjoy the physical sensation of the live music, it also becomes more important to find ways to lessen the impact on the ear's sensitive mechanisms.
He goes on to talk about noise cancelling headphones and systems and a handheld system, called Ear3, which can judge the actual effects on one's ears in a given venue with good accuracy due to it's artificial ear canal!
http://www.ear3.info/
Post by: kimmer on June 11, 2007, 04:47:18 PM
It was the NOISE level that was the final, final straw for me. It was the second song and I was searching the table for the ear plugs I'd grabbed only to find they were gone. So I plugged my ears with my fingers. Didn't help. My head hurt. My teeth ached because I was grinding them. My neck began to ache from grinding my teeth. I was wedged into the table and couldn't move and had just decided that I was going to crawl under the table to leave when the ... mercifully, mercifully, mercifully ... the concert was over.
I had trouble hearing soft sounds, and my ears throbbed, ached and hurt for several days. My jaws, teeth and neck recovered sooner than my ears.
I will never, ever go back to a live concert.
It's not fun.
Your music experience might be vastly different.
Post by: gunug on June 12, 2007, 05:59:42 AM
Post by: Gregg on June 12, 2007, 12:18:58 PM
I was in the 3rd or 4th row, off to the side. You know what that means! My companions decided it was too loud and went out into the lobby. They said (I think) that they enjoyed the music from there.