Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBenway
Certainly. But there has been a fair amount of self-regulation over the last couple decades, as I mentioned above. You will often see a dB meter taped to the mixing board, and the engineer will often be seen referring to it and making appropriate adjustments in the house level.
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I've been to more orchestral concerts than I can count, and never has one of them been comparable in loudness (even at the loudest point) to the average rock show that I've been to. Not to mention, as mbhaub said, that orchestras rarely sustain their maximum volume for long periods of time.
Rock shows, while I don't doubt your assertions of increased self-regulations and a gradual decline in decibel levels, are still unnecessarily loud. I can never understand why the groups want to have their music so loud that the hearing of audience members is adversely affected. Even if I don't wear earplugs, it always ends up sounding like I'm hearing the music through cotton balls because of my body's attempt to protect my ears from the aural assault. The music invariably sounds worse because of the volume. I understand the desire for a tactile impact from the sound, but it goes far beyond that.
I think the reason orchestral climaxes seem so earth-shatteringly loud in context is that the audience has been carefully listening for extended periods of time to music at low to moderate volume levels. When the orchestra really lets loose, it is incredibly loud in contrast. But if you took a measurement of that sound level, I bet it would be far below the base sound level at a rock show, to which the audience is subjected for multiple hours without a break.
-Jay