middleaudio.com

Had two funny things happen lately, for the same date. Thought I'd pass it along.

A rider for a touring show specing a system providing "115dbA weighted at the mix". For music 115dbA is severe when playing full range music. This was a show geared toward a youngish, teen aged crowd.

On the date, I had one of the "opening" acts request that I make the FOH, and I quote, "as loud as possible". Yes, I laughed out loud.

I can see wanting to have a system capable of 115 dbA, so that it would run comfortably at 95, but me gets the impression that's not what they were actually going for. As for the opening band, I'd just turn up a bunch of 4k in their monitors and tell them that's the quickest way to make things. "loud".

I completely disagree with an "A" weighting rating for music program.

105db will do 95 easy. 115dbC is tons of headroom. 115dbA is ridiculous.

I run into tons of people who underestimate just how loud an average of 110dbC is.

The crew that asked for "as loud as possible" were talking about the house sound, not on stage. The cared nothing about quality, but volume was their concern.

...and we keep reading articles about young people losing their hearing early in life.

Agreed on all points.

I was just thinking if they think it's loud, and you tell them it's equally loud out front, they might be happy.
Also having the 4k jacked might educated them about not all loud being equal.

They were kids.

I didn't do what they said to do.

They didn't notice or really care in the end.

Ah that makes more sense. I was under the impression that it was someone more established.

Even if they were "more established", I still wouldn't have made it "as loud as possible".