[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Noise situation at the DebConf dinner



Santiago Ruano Rincón <santiagorr@riseup.net> writes:

> There will be music and dancing from 20h to 21h.  If you feel that
> the music is too loud, I think you will be able to find a quiet place
> easily.

If that's live music, might it be possible to ask the musicians to be
unplugged, or at least to not try to completely swamp the area with
sound.

It has been repeatedly the case that musicians when told the size of the
crowd, seem to think that they need to hire significant amplification.
In the case of Extramadura, that involved the (brilliant) Flamenco
singer managing to overwhelm the amp, which had been turned to 11.

It seems that I'm particularly sensitive to clipping in sound systems,
and it quite quickly results in my stirrup muscles twitching in my ears,
which makes me even more deaf than I already am, and makes sure that
I've no idea what anyone is saying around me.  Since this is just the
way things are for me in loud places, I'm pretty good at tolerating it,
but I would prefer to be able to have a chat without everyone having to
shout over the music (which of course makes the problem worse).

At some point the extreme loudness of the band caused local residents to
call in the noise control officers, and the band was shut down which was
a blessed relief to pretty-much everyone that was there.

At some point in this I had become irritable enough to complain to the
band, which had also helped a bit.

If your intention is to aim at provoking a level of noise-caused
irritation that is just less than that which causes people to be moved
to complain, that will probably ensure no complaints, but might not be
the route to maximum happiness.

Because the band were stopped from playing at the event, they offered us
another performance, at the venue, and were persuaded to do it unplugged
which was absolutely brilliant.

In hindsight, they could have saved themselves the effort of setting up
the crappy sound system, and everyone involved would have been much
happier.

Cheers, Phil.
-- 
Philip Hands -- https://hands.com/~phil

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: