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Ricesnaps
03-06-2006, 02:47 PM
Guys,

Just set up for a wedding at a local venue in there marquee. The manager has told me that they have been having problems with one of the neigbouring businesses (which is a good walk away as the venue I'm at is in the middle of a huge forrest in the middle of knowhere!). Consiquently they have been told that the council will be on site tonight. I am assuming they will be just there to assess noise levels and as such I have already tested sound at reasonable volume with my sound meter - getting a reading of around 50dB on the dance floor.

Any advice? Anything I have overlooked?

ian8limelight
03-06-2006, 03:07 PM
Guys,

Just set up for a wedding at a local venue in there marquee. The manager has told me that they have been having problems with one of the neigbouring businesses (which is a good walk away as the venue I'm at is in the middle of a huge forrest in the middle of knowhere!). Consiquently they have been told that the council will be on site tonight. I am assuming they will be just there to assess noise levels and as such I have already tested sound at reasonable volume with my sound meter - getting a reading of around 50dB on the dance floor.

Any advice? Anything I have overlooked?


I would be making the same assumption as you, that it would be to do with the level of sound.

I spend a lot of my time working in a venue with a 'sound limiter' and have found that if you keep the Bass levels down, that helps immensly. Also, watch you own mic levels.

Wolfie
03-06-2006, 03:11 PM
just play as normal & forget they are there.

you will probably find it's just one NIMBY anyway who is about 95, deaf as a post, lives 4 miles from the venue but when there is a disco on he can't hear Coronaton street for the noise... but what it really boils down to is the fact he just likes to be a killjoy cos he had a miserable teenage life & thinks it's unfair that teenagers can dance & be happy.

To be perfectly honest, it's not your problem, it's between the venue & the NIMBY, the Council are there just to see fair play & to reach a solution... which probalby means next time you work there you will find a limiter has been fitted & the old git down the road has stopped complaining.

Problem is the NIMBY's win. it's like all these people who buy a house at the end of an airfield then complain about the noise, yet the airfield has been there 30 years longer than the housing estate they have just moved on to. Thus meaning the airfield has to be moved & ther airfield has to run on a curfew & probably spend thousands trying to muffle the noise. I really wish the councils would just start turning round to these windbags & NIMBY's & just start to say tough titty... you moved in knowing full well there was an airfield at the bottom of the garden, so if you don't like the noise you should of thought of that before you bought a house where you did, so shut the **** up & live with it.

BeerFunk
04-06-2006, 03:25 AM
Nimby??

Corabar Steve
04-06-2006, 03:40 AM
Not In My Back Yard

kilmeedyman
04-06-2006, 01:13 PM
Did they turn up?

The council, that is, not the wedding party!

pagan_flame
04-06-2006, 01:34 PM
There was a live music pub in Cambridge that nearly went under - they built retirement flats across the road. Before they had even sold 'em all they got together with a Plan To Stop That Music Across The Road.

Every time we (my old band) played there, just after we started a bloke would pop his head round the door to see if the band were playing, then back across the road to his flat and call the council round about the noise. Out they came, all sound levels correct.

Same again at the start of the second set - and again the council came out, again no problems.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night the same... so when the ents licence came up for renewal they restricted him to one night a week for music 'cos the council were p1ssed off at coming out twice a night for no reason! And added in one of them 'Noise Limiter' sockets which the band is supposed to plug into, cuts the power to the PA if it goes over the noise limit - our drummer used to set that off on his own (but we never had to plug into it in reality!).

...but then there was the time when I had a noise limiter in the hall at a 60th birthday in Lakenheath - while across the road they were firing up jet aircraft... :omg:

Just keep the bass down.

CRAZY K
04-06-2006, 02:32 PM
Sadly its the bass that tends to gives a good all round sound to most types of modern music--even Barn Dance and Country --just listening to middle and treble is a real turn off!

CRAZY K

soundtracker
04-06-2006, 02:57 PM
Except for women apparently! They are attuned to the middle and top, whereas bass is a man thing!

Have a disco
04-06-2006, 02:59 PM
Im afraid old people are the worst culprits for complaining because they are going deaf in certain tones hence all they think they here is bass thumps and tinny shreels from the treble you cant win

But the most annoying things are them sound limiters forever watching them bounce about all night have got to the point of purposely setting them of at some places just to get them removed as faulty, the councils are there own worst enemy. Who in there right mind would allow planning permission for OAP flats to be built right next to a music venue???

Did a wedding the other week at a village Named Lavenham very posh lottery funded village hall with libary. When the caretaker came up asking me turn the music down for the same reason. I quickly reminded him that If you leave the front doors open what do you expect. why were they open to allow people to go out side to smoke and still feel part of the party "yet another new council venue that will not allow smoking inside"???

Wolfie
04-06-2006, 05:13 PM
When the caretaker came up asking me turn the music down for the same reason. I quickly reminded him that If you leave the front doors open what do you expect.....

call me old fashioned. (you're old fashioned) but i really get cheesed off when people come along & ask you to turn the music down or feel the need to complain about the noise.

It's part of the job we do to play music loud.. not being funny but what do people expect when there is a disco going on? People to be all sat round doing thier knitting with the DJ passing his headphones around the room in turns?

I know there are limits that are amicable to reach where we can all say that music is too loud, but as i see it a noise limiter can be tripped just from kids screaming & even at one gig i did I had a load of people shout "whoo hoo" who were stood near the box when i played Song 2 by Blur & just that tripped the limiter & later when i played Jump Around when 100 people were all bouncing around leaping up & down on the spot that tripped it. It's only the egotistic DJ's who turn up at a 80 person capacity community centre disco with a 5k rig & a dozen speakers & i have to say yes i know of a couple who do that but most sensible DJ's will turn up & keep the levels down & take what is needed & to do the job & nothing more.... however if an egotist turns up & bathes the city in bass then it kinda ****s the job up for everyone.

Every so often it's more than likely not the disco's volume level that is causing the problem, yet it is always a case of "that music is too loud" when people complain & even when you have limiters it just makes the job much harder not only because you have to watch your levels & that stupid box all night but added to the fact that you can keep a moderate low volume but if you get the crowd in a frenzy & they decide to wander off into the night screamin & chanting then that doesn't help matters.

pagan_flame
04-06-2006, 05:38 PM
Who in there right mind would allow planning permission for OAP flats to be built right next to a music venue???That'll be Cambridge City Council, who stick houses (that nobody can afford) up in any vacant space.

They are currently building 'Arbury Park', a delightful estate of 700 houses - right next to the A14. :omg:

Have a disco
04-06-2006, 05:43 PM
heard about that really wise move, thought sainsburys were going there as well as an out of town bus depot??? things going housing direction yet again guess whom for Imigrants or scropulous rental kings namely the colleges.....LOL

Ricesnaps
04-06-2006, 06:38 PM
Just got back from the wedding fair, but can now tell you that there was no sign of the council. However, the venue manager was so impressed with both my show, the music and my attitude, I am now her recomended show when clients ask! It all helps!

LastMinuteDJs.net
04-06-2006, 06:49 PM
Limiters annoy the hell out of me and most of them are set when there are NO people in the room. So it sounds loud enough - but fill the room and they absorb the sound and background noise is increased and you cant hear the music at all.

Are limiters not wired into the system picking up the output levels so cant be affected by people singing along or bouncing?