Coated Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 I have recently seen two pieces that were overwhelmed by a wall of sound, to a degree where you could barely make out your own thoughts or emotion because your body vibrates forcefully with the sound waves attacking from all sides. For some audience members that seems to create a strong feeling of 'immersion', to me it feels like a cheap manipulation of the senses. All music has the ability to manipulate emotions and most chord are associate with some emotion or other (My favourite being G minor for Discontent) but using sheer, constant volume to get the effect really distract from any dancing that might be happening on the stage. I'm now taking cotton wool to any performances that might turn up the volume to 11. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 I've had the same experience as Coates, with the wall of sound. Also bright lights shining directly at the audience are painful, literally, I end up shutting my eyes as it hurts too much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 You don't think it might be :whispersquietly: an age thing? I am of the generation where I need peace and quiet in order to think. My nieces and nephews do their homework to the accompaniment of loud music, and say they cannot concentrate without it. What appears to be a wall of suffocating sound to me, is probably perfectly normal volume to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Well I definitely couldn't take a Beatles Concert again.....ears were ringing for about 24 hrs afterwards and didn't hear a word they sang!! I usually go and see the international ice dance stars show as luckily they often turn up in Eastbourne(never Brighton incidentally) however in more recent years the music has been getting louder and louder. If the skating wasn't so good I would definitely have left at the interval but then thought I should really let them know it is getting excruciatingly unbearable......but I didn't. So maybe they think we don't mind! I'm sure the skaters will all be deaf by the time they are 40 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Sorry that should have said the Russian All Stars ice dance show!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Also bright lights shining directly at the audience are painful, literally, I end up shutting my eyes as it hurts too much! Bright lights are probably my no. 1 migraine trigger, so you can imagine how delighted I am when a choreographer decides to blind me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Age thing? Are you kidding - I've got tickets booked for Status Quo in December! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Age thing? Are you kidding - I've got tickets booked for Status Quo in December! I love my music LOUD but I cannot stand loud and distorted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Yes that's what happens a bit at the ice shows. We often go to see live groups playing around Lewes in some quite smallish places. Some groups are okay but others are so loud it hurts your ears and I can't stay in the room! They are just over amplified it seems. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Agreed - it is over amplification that is the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 I spoke to my husband about this as he is a musician, and also knows a fair bit about sound engineering. He said it is the quality of the sound system and amplification that matters. For instance, the sound from a good quality PA system of 1,000 watts running at 60% will be far better than one of 600 watts running flat out, although the volume will be essentially the same. He also says that you can't play the drums quietly, so any other instruments/vocals need to be amplified otherwise you just won't hear them! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 (edited) Age thing? Are you kidding - I've got tickets booked for Status Quo in December! Now that is definitely an age thing! Remind me, how many retirement tours have Status Quo had? Don't get me wrong, I like my rock music with the volume turned up, it would be wrong to listen to it any other way. But it does seem to be the case now that in many situations the sound is loud and distorted, or just inappropriately loud. Do I really need to be blasted out of my seat by an advert at the cinema telling me how wonderful a certain brand of drink is? And if I go to the ballet and find myself having to stick my fingers in my ears because I am finding the sound painful, then something is very wrong somewhere, IMO. Edited November 13, 2013 by Fonteyn22 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Talking about distortion, it occurs to me to wonder if younger people are less aware of it because they're perhaps more used to listening to MP3 players - and MP3 is a notoriously lossy format, so they're unused to hearing the full range of sound. (I'd be happy to convert my music into an electronic format if I could find something less lossy than MP3, but given that I listen to a lot of classical music MP3 is a total no-no). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Now that is definitely an age thing! Remind me, how many retirement tours have Status Quo had? Ha - you spotted my double bluff! Alison I also agree with you there. The only way to listen to classical music is with WAV files. You can copy these onto electronic devices but they use a lot of memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Ah, that's what it was - and the reason I hadn't done it. Thanks for the reminder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A frog Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 There are a few other lossless formats, FLAC is the most widespread, Apple has an equivalent as well. They are about half the size of .wav files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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