Ever wondered how loud a rock concert really is? – PINK?

Pyroay · 17-05-2007, 09:56 AM

Ever wondered how loud a rock concert really is? – PINK?

Ever wondered how loud a rock concert is?
Should you listen at high levels for extended periods?
Should you wear hearing protection?

I had the pleasure of attending PINK in Melbourne on Tuesday night and I took the liberty of taking along a few instruments with me to examine the sound set-up.
For those of you who are conversant with lighting I also took the liberty of noting the lighting arrangement as well.

My Equipment
1 x Phonic handheld real time analyzer with peak hold + avg function etc…
1 x DBX precision flat response measurements condenser microphone
(looks strikingly similar to the F1 Status Alpine mic, I would even hazard that DBX supplied Alpine with them)
1 x pair ears
1 x pair eyes

Stage Equipment
Audio
Mixer = looked like a Yamaha PM1D (nice little $130,000 desk)
2 x front arrays consisting of 14 mid boxes (2 x 12s ea I think) + 12 high boxes
2 x half side fill arrays consisting of 7 mid boxes + 6 high boxes
?? x subs (you could definitely hear them, although to their credit they were pretty balanced)

Lighting
70 x Martin MAC2000W
38 x Martin MAC2000S
10 x Atomic 3000 Strobes
20 x ACL Beacons RED
18 x 4 way moles with DWE
All controlled by my favorite 1 x Whole Hog II.

For those who don’t know lighting that’s a lot of moving yoke lights, well over $1.5m AUD @ RRP

Position
I was sitting off to one side of the stage in the first tier about half way back so a nice middle position.

Measurements
The first thing that stood out to me was that the sound was very even across all frequency’s. There was the obvious high end roll off form 16k but other than that the sound level was pretty flat. I had expected to see a hole in the midrange and then a massive bump in the sub bass but that was not apparent and I found the balance overall to be very good.

There also seemed to be 2 distinct levels during the concert.

The quieter / slower songs were consistently around 100db – 102db never dropping below 100db. Audience applause and screaming at the end of songs was around the 104db mark.

The faster louder songs (most of her hit songs) were around 110 – 113db.
The maximum measured for the night was 115.4db.

The Concert lasted approx 90minutes although I did not time it exactly.
Below is a table showing noise levels and recommended exposure levels before haring loss can start to occur.

As you can see at 100db 2hrs is the maximum time while at 110db it drops to

OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure
8hrs - 90dB
6hrs - 92dB
4hrs - 95dB
3hrs - 97dB
2hrs - 100dB
1.5hrs - 102dB
1hr - 105dB
.5hr - 110dB
.25hr - 115dB

To give some perspective I listened to PINK on CD in my car and found 95db to be a good loud listening level.

Some interesting points to note.:
• One-third of the total power of a 75-piece orchestra comes from the bass drum.
• High frequency sounds of 2-4,000 Hz are the most damaging. The uppermost octave of the piccolo is 2,048-4,096 Hz.
• Aging causes gradual hearing loss, mostly in the high frequencies.
• Speech reception is not seriously impaired until there is about 30 dB loss; by that time severe damage may have occurred.
• Hypertension and various psychological difficulties can be related to noise exposure.
• The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4-43%, in rock musicians 13-30%.

Obviously individual hearing is different and the choice of weather to wear hearing protection is up to each individual; I know I wore it for most of the night but on my favorite songs it got the better of me and off they came.

One thing I would say is if your going to wear some form of hearing protection as a musician (or concert lover and I am both as I am a drummer) I found it is a worthy investment to get protection that simulates the human hearing curve, that is most sensitive at 4k and tapering off either side of that.

That way you still hear all frequencies the way the sound engineer intended (or instrument) but simply at a lower level.

It is a bit like turning down the volume on a home stereo as opposed to putting a blanket in front to f the speakers. Sure both quieten the sound but the blanket affects different frequencies differently whereas the volume should attenuate all frequencies to the same degree.

WOLF · 17-05-2007, 11:32 AM

I find that not listening to pink at all is the best solution. No hearing loss, no irritation & no loss in quality of life

Pyroay · 17-05-2007, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR8Rob

I find that not listening to pink at all is the best solution. No hearing loss, no irritation & no loss in quality of life

LOL, personal opinion i suppose.

I went to Silverchair the other day (because i was there for something else and got in for free) and had no interest at all, and yet others there loved it (probably the ones that linned up from 5:30am and paid $100ea for tickets)

70caprigt3k · 17-05-2007, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR8Rob

I find that not listening to pink at all is the best solution. No hearing loss, no irritation & no loss in quality of life

Legend!, Couldn't have put it any better.

jcxr · 17-05-2007, 11:45 AM

Silverchairs latest cd is absolute crud, only one track worth listening to. My cd in the car at the moment is The Killers, recommend it.

SpooN XL · 17-05-2007, 11:53 AM

Nice post Pyroay!. As a musician I found it very interesting.

I attended the Pink concert at Newcasltle it was a great show.

:

atec77 · 17-05-2007, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyroay

Ever wondered how loud a rock concert really is? – PINK?

Ever wondered how loud a rock concert is?
Should you listen at high levels for extended periods?
Should you wear hearing protection?

I had the pleasure of attending PINK in Melbourne on Tuesday night and I took the liberty of taking along a few instruments with me to examine the sound set-up.
For those of you who are conversant with lighting I also took the liberty of noting the lighting arrangement as well.

My Equipment
1 x Phonic handheld real time analyzer with peak hold + avg function etc…
1 x DBX precision flat response measurements condenser microphone
(looks strikingly similar to the F1 Status Alpine mic, I would even hazard that DBX supplied Alpine with them)
1 x pair ears
1 x pair eyes

Stage Equipment
Audio
Mixer = looked like a Yamaha PM1D (nice little $130,000 desk)
2 x front arrays consisting of 14 mid boxes (2 x 12s ea I think) + 12 high boxes
2 x half side fill arrays consisting of 7 mid boxes + 6 high boxes
?? x subs (you could definitely hear them, although to their credit they were pretty balanced)

Lighting
70 x Martin MAC2000W
38 x Martin MAC2000S
10 x Atomic 3000 Strobes
20 x ACL Beacons RED
18 x 4 way moles with DWE
All controlled by my favorite 1 x Whole Hog II.

For those who don’t know lighting that’s a lot of moving yoke lights, well over $1.5m AUD @ RRP

Position
I was sitting off to one side of the stage in the first tier about half way back so a nice middle position.

Measurements
The first thing that stood out to me was that the sound was very even across all frequency’s. There was the obvious high end roll off form 16k but other than that the sound level was pretty flat. I had expected to see a hole in the midrange and then a massive bump in the sub bass but that was not apparent and I found the balance overall to be very good.

There also seemed to be 2 distinct levels during the concert.

The quieter / slower songs were consistently around 100db – 102db never dropping below 100db. Audience applause and screaming at the end of songs was around the 104db mark.

The faster louder songs (most of her hit songs) were around 110 – 113db.
The maximum measured for the night was 115.4db.

The Concert lasted approx 90minutes although I did not time it exactly.
Below is a table showing noise levels and recommended exposure levels before haring loss can start to occur.

As you can see at 100db 2hrs is the maximum time while at 110db it drops to

OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure
8hrs - 90dB
6hrs - 92dB
4hrs - 95dB
3hrs - 97dB
2hrs - 100dB
1.5hrs - 102dB
1hr - 105dB
.5hr - 110dB
.25hr - 115dB

To give some perspective I listened to PINK on CD in my car and found 95db to be a good loud listening level.

Some interesting points to note.:
• One-third of the total power of a 75-piece orchestra comes from the bass drum.
• High frequency sounds of 2-4,000 Hz are the most damaging. The uppermost octave of the piccolo is 2,048-4,096 Hz.
• Aging causes gradual hearing loss, mostly in the high frequencies.
• Speech reception is not seriously impaired until there is about 30 dB loss; by that time severe damage may have occurred.
• Hypertension and various psychological difficulties can be related to noise exposure.
• The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4-43%, in rock musicians 13-30%.

Obviously individual hearing is different and the choice of weather to wear hearing protection is up to each individual; I know I wore it for most of the night but on my favorite songs it got the better of me and off they came.

One thing I would say is if your going to wear some form of hearing protection as a musician (or concert lover and I am both as I am a drummer) I found it is a worthy investment to get protection that simulates the human hearing curve, that is most sensitive at 4k and tapering off either side of that.

That way you still hear all frequencies the way the sound engineer intended (or instrument) but simply at a lower level.

It is a bit like turning down the volume on a home stereo as opposed to putting a blanket in front to f the speakers. Sure both quieten the sound but the blanket affects different frequencies differently whereas the volume should attenuate all frequencies to the same degree.

1976/77 I saw Richie Blackmore and the rainbow show in Brisbane
Now that was loud with over 126.4 db measures .... I was lucky enough to have some earplug but some of my companions suffered some hearing loss for a day or two , maybe forever , as for pink
meh .

colossus · 17-05-2007, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyroay

Ever wondered how loud a rock concert really is? – PINK?

Ever wondered how loud a rock concert is?
Should you listen at high levels for extended periods?
Should you wear hearing protection?

I had the pleasure of attending PINK in Melbourne on Tuesday night and I took the liberty of taking along a few instruments with me to examine the sound set-up.
For those of you who are conversant with lighting I also took the liberty of noting the lighting arrangement as well.

My Equipment
1 x Phonic handheld real time analyzer with peak hold + avg function etc…
1 x DBX precision flat response measurements condenser microphone
(looks strikingly similar to the F1 Status Alpine mic, I would even hazard that DBX supplied Alpine with them)
1 x pair ears
1 x pair eyes

Stage Equipment
Audio
Mixer = looked like a Yamaha PM1D (nice little $130,000 desk)
2 x front arrays consisting of 14 mid boxes (2 x 12s ea I think) + 12 high boxes
2 x half side fill arrays consisting of 7 mid boxes + 6 high boxes
?? x subs (you could definitely hear them, although to their credit they were pretty balanced)

Lighting
70 x Martin MAC2000W
38 x Martin MAC2000S
10 x Atomic 3000 Strobes
20 x ACL Beacons RED
18 x 4 way moles with DWE
All controlled by my favorite 1 x Whole Hog II.

For those who don’t know lighting that’s a lot of moving yoke lights, well over $1.5m AUD @ RRP

Position
I was sitting off to one side of the stage in the first tier about half way back so a nice middle position.

Measurements
The first thing that stood out to me was that the sound was very even across all frequency’s. There was the obvious high end roll off form 16k but other than that the sound level was pretty flat. I had expected to see a hole in the midrange and then a massive bump in the sub bass but that was not apparent and I found the balance overall to be very good.

There also seemed to be 2 distinct levels during the concert.

The quieter / slower songs were consistently around 100db – 102db never dropping below 100db. Audience applause and screaming at the end of songs was around the 104db mark.

The faster louder songs (most of her hit songs) were around 110 – 113db.
The maximum measured for the night was 115.4db.

The Concert lasted approx 90minutes although I did not time it exactly.
Below is a table showing noise levels and recommended exposure levels before haring loss can start to occur.

As you can see at 100db 2hrs is the maximum time while at 110db it drops to

OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure
8hrs - 90dB
6hrs - 92dB
4hrs - 95dB
3hrs - 97dB
2hrs - 100dB
1.5hrs - 102dB
1hr - 105dB
.5hr - 110dB
.25hr - 115dB

To give some perspective I listened to PINK on CD in my car and found 95db to be a good loud listening level.

Some interesting points to note.:
• One-third of the total power of a 75-piece orchestra comes from the bass drum.
• High frequency sounds of 2-4,000 Hz are the most damaging. The uppermost octave of the piccolo is 2,048-4,096 Hz.
• Aging causes gradual hearing loss, mostly in the high frequencies.
• Speech reception is not seriously impaired until there is about 30 dB loss; by that time severe damage may have occurred.
• Hypertension and various psychological difficulties can be related to noise exposure.
• The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4-43%, in rock musicians 13-30%.

Obviously individual hearing is different and the choice of weather to wear hearing protection is up to each individual; I know I wore it for most of the night but on my favorite songs it got the better of me and off they came.

One thing I would say is if your going to wear some form of hearing protection as a musician (or concert lover and I am both as I am a drummer) I found it is a worthy investment to get protection that simulates the human hearing curve, that is most sensitive at 4k and tapering off either side of that.

That way you still hear all frequencies the way the sound engineer intended (or instrument) but simply at a lower level.

It is a bit like turning down the volume on a home stereo as opposed to putting a blanket in front to f the speakers. Sure both quieten the sound but the blanket affects different frequencies differently whereas the volume should attenuate all frequencies to the same degree.

Youv'e never had a girlfriend, have you?

j/k

Blue Oval Mopar Man · 17-05-2007, 01:16 PM

And there was this one time , At Band camp...........

DoreSlamR · 18-05-2007, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcxr

Silverchairs latest cd is absolute crud, only one track worth listening to. My cd in the car at the moment is The Killers, recommend it.

I can't stop playing their new cd! i dunno what it is but it's awesome.

HLC · 18-05-2007, 08:32 AM

its safe to say that my hearing is fairly screwed. too many concerts + playing in a metal band + working at a shooting range lol.

falzoony · 18-05-2007, 09:22 AM

Thanks for posting those stats. It was a very interesting read.

XCSEDAN · 18-05-2007, 10:00 AM

go to motorhead.... now that is a LOUD concert!!!! (they hold the record for the loudest live show i think)

Uncle Raggy · 18-05-2007, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XCSEDAN

go to motorhead.... now that is a LOUD concert!!!! (they hold the record for the loudest live show i think)

Col Hatchman is the worlds loudest drummer at least, he set the record at 137.2 decibels playing with Dirty Skanks last year. I saw him play a number of times while he was with The Screaming Jets, he certainly knew how to belt out a tune....

http://www.undercover.com.au/news/20...rtyskanks.html

Bucket · 18-05-2007, 01:49 PM

Impressive!! Shame about the Artist thought ;)
Loudest concert I've been to (due to the venue I believe) was the Live Best of Tour...it was at the Civic Theatre in Newcastle

castek · 18-05-2007, 03:25 PM

isnt the legal limit for a concert 110dB?
anything over that, unless balanced very well, will just sound like noise. i know, i went to a local concert and the sound was terrible (yet the gear was good :S)

so how much did your gear cost you pyro?

Unco · 18-05-2007, 04:24 PM

nice write up, Pyroay. i don't mind pink, she can look hot sometimes, but she can also look quite butch other times. some of her songs are pretty good, i reckon.

Pyroay · 24-05-2007, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colossus

Youv'e never had a girlfriend, have you?

j/k

LOL
Married with a child.

I'm not normally measuring concerts, usually i am either performing in them (i am a drummer) or my business has the lighting and sound contrct (not for concerts the size of pink though).

Just thought it might be interested to take these measurements as a one off for peoples interest sake.