Sound limiters are the spawn of the devil

Muzztone · Post by **Muzztone** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:51 pm

The band at my wedding was messed up by one of these bastards, and now (some) years on my band's performance at a wedding was!
We'd been warned in advance. An 85DbA limiter with red yellow and green lights and autocutoff if we were too loud.
Venue forced us to plug into their limited sockets, despite our attempts to run a long power cable to an alternate one.
Some (ahem) other manoeuvres failed to take care of the nasty little box on the ceiling so we were forced to soundcheck with it on.
Sure enough, half way through our loudest song - bang, the power goes off.
Totally impossible to get the levels low enough, and we have never been told to turn down anywhere before. Limiters with only three lights, impossible to even estimate your loudness.
So what did we do? Nice chat with the manager - are we too loud? No was the answer. Could you turn off the limiter then? Ok!
I started googling UPS power supplies, but then I decided - never playing a venue with a limiter again.

Derek Cook · Post by **Derek Cook** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 7:35 pm

Oh, yes

In the old days we used to gig in places with those, but with a bit if judicious searching, we usually found the 13A outlet for the cleaner's vacuum cleaner, which would never be on that circuit ...

It is frustrating though, when venues have to do such things. E.g. there used to be a wonderful venue in Cardiff called "The Point" - an old church with brilliant acoustics. We saw many great bands there, until some pratt moved next door, and then complained about the noise

. Despite all the money the venue spent on isolating the noise, it had to fold.....

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:03 pm

I think it's close to impossible to play at less than 85 db. Especially if you're a rock band. An acoustic duo, sure, no problem. But that would be unplugged! I'm 61 and I like it loud! I do wear earplugs but that's just for protection. I used to wear condoms too for the same reason!

do these boxes from hell actually tie into the mains? Why don't they work on the P.A. and just be gain control. Hmmmm.

aron · Post by **aron** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:11 am

So is it fed off a mic? When it gets too loud it shuts off power?????
Never heard of this. Terrible.

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 8:41 am

I think in the Netherlands it also happened at some times. However, there it might even be worse: lots of venues were not even allowed to have live music at all, so the number of venues (especially for amateur/semi pro rock bands) has been decreased a lot. The result is that in the other venues there is an overkill of band requests, so we play for barely nothing, and professional bands suffer from it too.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 10:26 am

There are a bunch of places we don't play anymore for that reason. Anything under 90dB is impossible for a party band. And we play with in-ear monitoring for everyone, a drum screen if we have to and a professional sound company. We always warn prospective customers to check with the venue. Many venues pretend it's not a problem or even don't mention it until the last possible moment which I feel is really unfair to the customer who expects to have a party. It's possible to play at 90dB but it won't really register as dance music. Just a loud background to drink your wine to.

Regardless, using a UPS is a good idea.

runningman67 · Post by **runningman67** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:10 pm

I only play at home.
My noise limiter is the 'death stare' from my wife.

Trust me it, you think you have problems.

Derek Cook · Post by **Derek Cook** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:34 pm

runningman67 wrote:I only play at home.
My noise limiter is the 'death stare' from my wife.

Trust me it, you think you have problems.

Reminds me of the old house where the studio was in the attic right above the bedroom. I was practising late one night with headphones on, so thought everything would be fine, when suddenly a slipper whistled past my ear!

The missus gave me "that stare" and said she had been telling me to stop playing for ages, as all she could hear was the clackety-clack, clackety-clak of the keybed....

As yelling at me hadn't got my attention, it was time for a projectile...

pedro5 · Post by **pedro5** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:44 pm

Thanks for the previous two posts which made me laugh….

Regarding the clacking a keyboard makes(that can annoy others…)…is there anything that can help reduce the noise ?
(Although I may appreciate good humored replies….some practical advice would be helpful…please).

voip · Post by **voip** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 8:03 pm

I think the Roli Seaboard is pretty much silent in operation.

.

runningman67 · Post by **runningman67** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 9:05 pm

pedro5 wrote:Regarding the clacking a keyboard makes

'Clanking' my wife calls it 'Thudding'.

The weighted keybeds are loud. I Midi my Blofeld up when Coronation Street is on. Earphones on. That's my only advice.

Getting back on track, when I played in clubs late 80's, Decibels Were not even invented. We didn't mix we Maxed everything.
We still didn't get as much attention as the Bingo Caller though.