re: Irresponsible Sound Design?

What are your feelings on the state of amplification in theatre today? I think that things have gotten way out of hand and designers are being pressured to just turn things up to unintelligible and deafening levels. There's an interesting interview with Tony Meola where he talks about this- I guess the blame can also be put on directors and producers as well.

http://www.meyersound.com/applications/story.php?type=15&id=308


I've heard horror stories about the sound levels at some shows like "Dance of the Vampires". It's a fine line between good sound levels and bad. I personally try my best to keep levels comfortable yet supportive to the show. I'd rather the audience leave the show without any headaches and hearing damage. It just saddens me because hearing loss is cumulative and cannot be regenerated and yet some people are blatantly pushing levels past what is safe.

I know that this can be dangerous for both audience members and for the musicians in the pit, but can it also be bad for the actors onstage since they are essentially behind the wall of sound? For big musicals do performers onstage have their own monitors or do they just go off of what they hear from the house speakers and orchestra pit? I know there are some pit musicians who post here and I'd really like to hear your input as well!

It's easy for us to avoid obnoxiously loud movie theaters and wait for the DVD to watch it in a comfortable environment, but what about live theatre?

I think the sound problem has a few root causes: older theatre patrons who can't hear very well regardless of where they sit, drowning out young audiences that like to talk and wiggle around and plain laziness. It takes effort to LISTEN, none to HEAR. I appreciate seeing a play that isn't miked.

In defense of sound techs though, when it's a touring show, they have to adjust for EVERY performance and it's much more difficult to calibrate levels in a new venue every day or so.

"Desire" would be my guess.

Of course, most Broadway theatres were designed to deliver unamplified sound just fine. But the changes are everywhere ... audiences are lazier in their listening habits, singers don't have the same technique they used to, staging requirements are different ... it's endemic.

All I ask is to let the lyrics be audible. Last year's tour of EVITA was laughable ... once two people started singing together, not a word was intelligible.

The first time I saw Rent, the speakers were blasting so loudly that you couldn't understand what people were saying.

I had a hard time understanding words in HAIRSPRAY too--I think too many actors and directors often forget the sage advice: "Speak the speech."

The first time I saw Rent, the speakers were blasting so loudly that you couldn't understand what people were saying.

I couldn't hear a word during the title number when I saw it, everything was so loud. It was ridiculous.

The first time I saw Rent (in London) I believe they were having problems with the sound in the theatre. Their solution seemed to be to crank the speakers up as high as possible, which meant that not only was it way too loud, but I still couldn't hear a word. (Every other time I saw it, though, I thought the sound was fine.)

I spent a lot of Movin' Out with my fingers in my ears because I had a rush ticket in the front row...right in front of a giant speaker. Not good times.

The otherwise excellent tour of 42ND STREET (with Mara Davi) had some of the loudest sound levels I have ever experienced. I was absolutely FURIOUS! What would make them think that dangerously loud sound levels would be an appropriate choice for a show like 42ND STREET? (Yes, it was a tour and yes I understand that they don't have the luxury of time to make adjustments to new performance spaces week after week but WHAT THE HELL DOES CRANKING IT AS LOUD AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE ACCOMPLISH??!?!?! The last moments of "We're In The Money" were as loud as a Motley Crue concert!) It was early in the run and the director of the show was actually sitting near the sound board. I knew it was her because she had been talking up the show that morning on a local TV show. I really wanted to say something but I figured that her response would probably be something along the lines of, "Pardon me...I didn't hear you...what did you say?"

OK I'm going to play Devil's advocate (Partially since as a sound designer [currently acquiring his mfa] I'm the devil in this discussion),

let's do the following experiment, somebody (I would if I could, but I'm studying in California) go to a bunch of broadway musicals, with a dB meter (you can find one at Radio Shack) and try to get a seat in the same location of the house every night, and take measurements throughout the show. Odds are the jukebox musicals will peak out at the 100-102 dB SPL A weighted and the more traditional musicals will be at around the mid 90s, with the average level being in the upper 80s to low 90s (for reference, films are generally in the mid 80's) [as a personal experiment, I did this during the out of town tryout of hot feet from the balcony, and it was getting up to about 102-103 {and I personally felt that it was the worst, most bass heavy mix I have ever heard}]. Because everyone will just make the catcall, "It's too loud!" without backing it up with hard numbers, and perhaps we can also use this to figure out some of these generational issues (Earlier in this thead someone made a crack that a show was as loud as a Motley Crue concert, as a person who Has worked in the live rock and roll industry, I HIGHLY doubt that). At the bottom of my post I've given you a link to OSHA's requirements for prolonged exposure to higher spl levels.

The other part of the equation we are missing out on is one of frequency response. I encourage all of you to read up on the Fletcher-Munson curves before we continue this discussion, because frequency response is a major factor in speech intelligibility. And lets consider this physological fact, as men get older, we lose our ability to hear high frequencies, conversly as women ger older, they lose their ability to hear low frequencies.


http://www.elvex.com/facts07.htm

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