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magic4children Regular user Cheshire UK 127 Posts |
I was booked at a community centre on Sunday and as I walked in I thought oh, no!
The floor was made from a hard resin wood, the walls were all bare brick and there was no ceiling just a metal roof many feet above my head. I have worked venues with bad acoustics before but this was a doozie. A simple “click” of the tong reverberated for over a second. I have pretty nice sound kit as I do a disco and magic package but even the Mackie SRM 450’s couldn’t create a clear sound. The whole show was noisy with muddy sound bounding around the room. In my experience there is nothing to do in this type of venue save make a note and not accept a booking there again. Nightmare! Kids loved it though; maybe I’m just getting old? Does anyone have any advice on what to do when the acoustics are so bad? Or maybe you could share your own acoustic hell story. |
Potty the Pirate Inner circle 4632 Posts |
Funny how synchronicity works. I was in a hall with the WORST acoustics I've ever experienced, ever. Yesterday. Just as you describe above - Beare Green Village Hall. As soon as I walked in, the acoustics frightened me! I couldn't believe how every tiny sound reverberated and echoed around. Not only that, but even a single voice was difficult to hear, because everything sounded muddy and muffled. The ceilings had angled sides, with a flat part across most of the hall. It was a medium sized, rectangular hall, with nothing to deaden the echoes.
The first part of the party was incredibly noisy, but that was fine, because it's the games and balloons, so I actually spoke very little, and organised the kids largely through body language. Then came the show. There were only about 10 adults present (thankfully), but of course, they were talking. I had my PA on, and asked them to please keep their voices very quiet, because of the terrible acoustics. Naturally, they carried on talking, so I had to ask again. This time, they actually piped down, and were pretty much silent for the rest of the show. I spoke in a stage whisper, going up to a loud stage whisper, for the entire show. The kids were MUCH quieter than normal, other than the normal expected reactions and screams. Incredibly, it worked really well. With the PA, and just a whisper, my voice was perfectly audible, and believe it or not, it turned things around - the acoustics actually worked in my favour. At one point, a kid said: "You're echoing"....because it really was so bad....but I think everyone realised very quickly that if there was talking and noise, no one would hear a word I said. So my answer is to keep your voice to a whisper, hopefully have a good PA (mine has a "speech clarity" function which delivers sharper tones, and deadens the bass), and try to keep other folks (especially parents) stumm. At the end of the party, I was amazed at how easy it had been for me - I'd expected mayhem, and to drive home with ringing ears! Potty |
magic4children Regular user Cheshire UK 127 Posts |
Thanks Potty, I think it was the same architect. Good tip on whispering, I will give it a try next nightmare.
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Potty the Pirate Inner circle 4632 Posts |
Stage Whispering, mind - which is very different to actual whispering. A side note about whispering - in the trenches in the First World war, soldiers were taught not to use "S" in any words...instead, they substituted "th". The Sibillant "S" is the most audible sound in our normal speech, and carries further than other sounds we generally make. By speaking with "th" instead of "s", the conversations of the soldiers was much more difficult to pinpoint, or even hear.
Potty |
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