loud, Loud, LOUD

Tell us about your experiences with “SPL police” while on tour overseas.

I tend more toward heightening awareness than forcing things upon people. I’ve mixed probably hundreds of festivals and shows with SPL limits over the years, the majority of them in Europe/UK.

I actually don’t mind a reasonable SPL limitation being enforced. My experience has been that rarely do I exceed the limits, and also, I sort of enjoy figuring out ways to circumvent the limits when they’re overly restrictive.

With a few exceptions my experiences with the SPL police are usually positive. I make a point of introducing myself to the officials and asking questions to determine what pressures have inspired the venue/promoter to incur the expense of implementing SPL monitoring, as well as to try to clearly understand the maximum limits and time frames.

In my experience, the overly restrictive SPL limits tend to be the result of either nearby residents and/or businesses being disturbed while the government enforced limits are either reasonable or so poorly crafted that they are ineffective.

If there are volume restriction rules that are venue-based due to off-site noise, I fully understand, and as long as the parameters are clear, then each artist has the option to play or not play that venue. And if they do play that venue, then working within the restrictions is part of the adventure. All good.

Do you have strategies for containing levels at venues where it’s mandated by local law/ordinance?

I deal with each situation independently. My experience has been that many of the attempts to regulate SPL are awkward, misguided, and flawed. One reason is that laws and ordinances just love to use A-weighted measurements, as it cuts out wind noise and focuses on the most sensitive part of human hearing. While this makes sense for protecting humans from exposure to high volumes, it seems that many of the ordinances are driven primarily by neighboring residents attempting to reduce a concert’s “thump thump thump” in their homes.

So the issue affecting the community that pressed for the laws/limitations is actually low-frequency energy that travels longer distances and is mostly ignored by A-weighted measurements. Even if the somewhat more applicable C-weighted measurements are used but measured from the mix position, there is so much flexibility that the mix could be very bass heavy or very bright and still result in the same SPL measurement.

It’s only when the monitoring entity has narrowed down the specific frequency ranges that create complaints, combined with implementing measurement devices in relevant locations, that we can begin to gain true control over the issues. Unfortunately that could also mean that weather conditions and other factors can introduce variables that prevent a repeatable SPL restriction inside the venue from being established.

So just to be safe, the solution can often be to set a very low maximum SPL, which brings us back to wondering if we’ve lost track of the whole reason for the concert in the first place: for people to gather together and share an immersive and memorable experience.

As far as actual hands-on strategies, I have a bunch, ranging from polarity reversing the subs on one side to reduce low-end in the middle where the measurement mic is usually located, to getting the highest level VIP I can find to stand in front of the mic. Convincing production to spring for a nice bottle of wine and sharing it with the noise police actually worked really well at a stadium gig in Italy several years ago.