[Dixielandjazz] A Good Rule For Volume

Thu Jun 7 20:57:21 PDT 2007

It might be easier to carry a setup like that rather than have everyone lug 
their own amp.

That works very well with amplifiable instruments that basically have no 
sound but what about horns?  There is a point that you just lose it or more 
accurately isn't comfortable or easy to play at.

I went to a church where everything was done that way and the guys in a 
control room made everything right but it was disconcerting to hear the 
drums  and the band coming from speakers behind me and the drummer was right 
in front of me.  It was a very strange sensation.

I had always gone to very traditional churches and while it's a while back I 
was blown away when I did a concert in one of the new mega churches.  The 
sanctuary was a club set up and was absolutely no different from many supper 
clubs.  They had tables and chairs and a stage with everything imaginable on 
it in the way of sound equipment including a light show.  It was all 
controlled from a booth.  If it didn't say church on the outside I wouldn't 
have known.

My daughter's church has minimum three people in the booth with TV studio 
capability.  Everyone is watching screens and has mixer boards.  It looks 
more like the cockpit of a 747.  When she talks me into it I watch the guys 
in the booth work.  It's quite a production and a big buck operation and 
they aren't even one of the mega churches that has a famous TV preacher.

Last Christmas they had a string section with the band.  All together there 
were about 25 musicians on stage.  The vocalists were outstanding and not a 
little gray haired lady with quivering vibrato in sight.  I think I was the 
oldest person there and was very much in the minority.

Times are a changin'
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Allen" <ballen at deltapathology.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] A Good Rule For Volume

>A good rule indeed.
>
> A local group that plays almost all the good high dollar wedding 
> receptions
> in this town puts ALL instruments, even bass and guitar, into the sound
> board, uses electronic drums, and all the musicians wear earplug monitors.
> There is not a single amp on stage; only the mixer and house speakers. 
> You
> can carry on a conversation 10 feet in front of the band stand.
> Although they play "modern" music, not OKOM, I think many of us can learn 
> a
> lesson from them.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "billsharp" <sharp-b at clearwire.net>
> To: "Mr. Bill" <ballen at deltapathology.com>
> Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 3:14 PM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] A Good Rule For Volume
>
>
>> Years ago I left a 50's-60's rock group I was playing in because, as
>> they began getting more and more work, they began thinking that they
>> had to play louder.. Perhaps it was because the  steadily increasing
>> volumes were causing steadily increasing hearing losses. Loved playing
>> the tunes - -hated the volume.
>>
>>   I had begun to notice that people who at one time were able to
>> comfortably talk to one another at a comfortable standing distance were
>> later on in our events, as we got "better" (i.e. louder) having to lean
>> into one another and put their mouths next to another person's ear in
>> order to tell them something, then have to swap ear-to-mouth to get an
>> answer.  Something was wrong with this picture.  The only time I want
>> my mouth that close to another person's ear is to whisper sweet
>> nothings.   ( And these days that's easy for me because I mostly have
>> nothing to say)
>>
>> It was then that I developed the motto I've applied to every group I've
>> had any control over, regarding volume:
>>
>> ALLOW THEM TO HEAR YOU - -DON'T MAKE THEM HEAR YOU.
>>
>> Have the volume set at a level so that perhaps they might want to ask
>> you to turn it up, but never the opposite.
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