Acoustic advice re live music venues
AR
I run Livewire Youth Project in Saltash Cornwall www.livewireyouth.com now
we have spent loads of money building studio's etc for young musicians (we
are a charity not a commercial venture) we have a massive sportshall which
isnt really used much now, but has the most horrible accoustics you can
imagine, we want to raise money to carry out work to make it useable as a
live music venue for young people, which is great and puts all our other
music activities in to perspective. We need advice on what makes a good
live music venue and possibly a 'friendly' accoustic consultant/advisor.
All the best
Andy
George Gleason
"AR" <jr018...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:WgVPb.3$o3...@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk...
you will get lots of advice here(if people speak up) but you have no way of
evaluating this advice
I suggest any one that suggests a fix ought get first hand experiance in
your facility
you need a local acoustical consultant
perhaps go to a engineering school and get a professor to 'intern " out one
of his pupils, perhaps with the professors guidence you will get a usable
affordable design
otherwise go to a pro consultant outline your goals and budget
and see where it goes
but I would not spend a nickle on any solutuion that does not include on
site analsys of your space
George
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Dave Rowell
Andy
This area is often covered in alt.sci.physics.acoustics
Do a google groups search within that group
Dave
Soundfreak03
>isnt really used much now, but has the most horrible accoustics you can
>imagine, we want to raise money to carry out work to make it useable as a
>live music venue for young people, which is great and puts all our other
>music activities in to perspective. We need advice on what makes a good
>live music venue and possibly a 'friendly' accoustic consultant/advisor.
>All the best
Listen to George. Get someone on site to analyze the room, they should show up
at some point with some measurement equipment before they start work.
Generally speaking though there are a few items that are true most of the time.
You will likely add absortion/reflection devices where needed. Sometimes it is
better to absorb other times reflect, a professional acoustician can determine
that. Only put the sound where it is needed. You do not need speakers aiming at
the wall. And of course keep the volume low. The louder the volume the more
"exited" the room has the potential to become. HTH.
Les
Tim Padrick
http://spray-on.com/ProductInfo/default.asp?strpage=defaultContent
"AR" <jr018...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
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Jodster
plans/blueprints of the facility. Post to the group. Lots of knowledge here
for free.
Otherwise, as the guys say, get a Pro!
Jodster
"Tim Padrick" <Pad...@comcast.net> wrote in message
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GK
"Jodster" <Jods...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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> If money is an issue, you could even take digital photo's or hopefully
site
> plans/blueprints of the facility. Post to the group.
You cannot post binaries to this ng. Post them to some other binaries group
and post the link here.
GK
Roger W. Norman
Americans call a gym or a community center (generally big, open, wood floors
for sports, cinderblock for walls, tall and using big ole honking halogen or
some type of arc lighting) then you may well not have the wherewithal to
handle the problem. If you have 30' ceilings and a 80' X 150' space, which
roughly is the building size of a full basketball court with minimal
bleachers, then it's going to take a ton of work to make it work. Most
likely an experienced acoustical engineer is going to recommend buildout of
a number of smaller rooms, which will entail a number of tradesmen, detailed
plans, a total restructuring of the electrical, and then you've still got
direct acoustical problems to contend with in the new space you've created.
Of course, since it's going to be a live venue, the reason for the buildout
would be to have space for a revised mechanical plant, an office of some
type, probably some type of concession which may include some type of small
cooking facility or simply a number of microwaves, coolers for beverages,
etc. As much as anyone would like to walk into a big open space and be able
to play music live, it's just one tremendous amount of work to get the space
up to snuff. At 12,000 sq ft (my above dimensions) you're talking about
some 15 ms of travel for sound to hit the far wall, and then 15 ms of travel
before you get the slapback. No amount of acoustic absorbtion is going to
tame that, so we're talking about the use of non-parallel walls with
specific redirection of sound, etc. And one thing that's an absolute in
just how you can handle working within the building on changing it's
structure is just how many people you expect to have in attendance for a
live show. Are we working with 150 or 700?
You have to know what your target audience is. If there's only 200 young
people in the community then there's no use in doing changes that accomodate
larger audiences, but then again, if you take on this project it's possible
that you'll need to utilize the building more than just a few evenings for
live music, so you could design it to accomodate both live music and local
meetings of clubs and such. Perhaps local dog shows. Whatever.
I did a build out on a space that we added over to a local cabinet shop I
worked at. The shop had 30' high ceilings and a space of 250' X 300', and
we build the new space with 15' high ceilings, mostly because my bosses'
wife wanted to give back to the community in our small town and build a
place where the kids could go and dance and have fun with live music on
Friday and Saturday nights. But she had no real plans and some of her
assumptions weren't thought out very well.
For instance, we had a cargo elevator shaft built but never got the elevator
installed, so when T-Gard and Van Winkle came in with Bob Seger, the B3 had
to be carried up one tremendous flight of stairs. And I mean over 40' up
these fricking narrow steel stairs. Now that's not planning.
But with real planning and the space I presume you are talking about,
something useful can come of it, but you may well have to step outside of
your initial desire to have a live venue and find a way to recoup some
operational costs. If it's non-profit (US term) in terms of the venue, then
you'll constantly be having the community divvy up more money to support
it's operation. But, again in US terms, if it's not-for-profit then it can
and should support itself, so you'd be better served to figure out a
multi-purpose venue.
However, if my supposition is incorrect, then please provide a little
additional detail about the size, construction, materials and existing
electrical because this is going to be almost anybody's best guess.
--
Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
"AR" <jr018...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
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--
Jim Dawson
ie..plasterboard on brick walls etc and I'll give you a rough idea how you
should treat the room. I've made an excel spreadsheet to calculate reverb
time, room modes, critical frequency etc to aid working out treatment if you
would prefer to do it yourself.
Jim
jim(removethisline)@skelpit-lug.com
"Soundfreak03" <soundf...@aol.comnothanks> wrote in message
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