Low Volume Songcrafting

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

No matter how much advice I got to turn down at rehearsals, I always MAXED OUT the VOLUME when JAMMING with my buds & SOUNDPROOFED THE HELL OUTA MY STUDIO to do it.

We're in the recording process now tho & had a great breakthrough tonight.
The guitard in my trio pushes us to DEAFENING SOUND LEVELS & wants to run my P.A. Mono instead of Stereo so IT'LL BE TWICE AS LOUD!!
I told him NO, my ears have been ringing enuf as it is. >sheesh<
Well he was too tired to play tonight, so Joe & I left the windows & shutters open & played low volume---strongly but gently!!
We laid down 4 BASIC TRACKS & got a PERFECT MIX with the playback sounding Just Right with the vocals unstrained & LOUD an' CLEAR & predominant, instead of screaming at the top of our lungs & still being drowned out.

Joe & I are becoming a really SOLID RHYTHM SECTION!!

I recommend working with your drummer alone from time to time, low volume, without the static of a damned guitard. ....especially when you're laying down Basic Tracks for recordings!!!
QUANTUM LEAPS!!!!

We could BREATHE & understand my lyrics!!! ...& no neighbors complained & no cops showed up!!

[SKATE RAT]

the guitar player in my band just had a baby,so over the last few weeks he's missed band practice a few times.you are absolutely right.jammin' just drums,bass and vocals has made us much tighter as a unit.but i don't think we played any lower than before.recording at a lower vol. is good but i like to play loud both at practice and shows.your instrument just feels more alive.

[rahock]

I grew up in LOUD mode too and have some degree of hearing damage myself, probably about the same degree most of us here have . I guess there should be a lesson in that..........I wonder what it might be .

When I do an acoustic or electric acoustic night and keep things at a much more reasonable volume, my vocal control and technique is greatly improved , as is my endurance .

Electric nights are a whole different story. I'm always on the edge (or over the edge) of blowing out my throat and I have to be careful to keep songs in the proper order of  soft vs. scream so I still have some pipes left later in the evening. The worst thing is when you push too hard early in the evening. Once I cross that threshold I'm pretty much shot for the night. The ability of the PA isn't really the issue either, it's more a matter of someones' instrument continually inching its' way up bit by bit through the night and then me playing catch up by pushing just a little bit more to compensate. I know what the problem is but it still happens way too often

When you can keep the volume just a bit lighter you can still get the hard hitting vocals done with  a little technique (other than screaming technique), and still have the juice to get the soft stuff done regardless of the order of the songs.

Rick

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

This evening we added backup vocals & percussion tracks to what we laid down last week. Couldn't get the guitarist/recording engineer to add guitar or Edit what we did last week, so we just recorded over the flubs & screwed up verses & tonight's session went real well.

Then I finally got my bud Steve to Edit it all & we've got 4 great songs, over a half hour total!!!!

YES!!!! I'm very happy with the progress we're making....

Can't wait to hear these scratch tracks completed with guitar & keys.
One is a real cool Funk groove. I luvvit! Makes you wanna get out on the floor & get funky with ya bad self. haha
The lyrics are CLEAR! ...for now.
We'll see what happens to 'em by the Final Mix...

[Barklessdog]

I would seriously invest in some custom ear plugs, because you're permanently damaging your ears.


I wish I had. I have a fair amount of Tinnitus all the time.

Tinnitus is the ringing, buzzing, crackling, or hissing sound heard inside one or both ears. Tinnitus is a result of the brain attempting to "rewire" itself when the ear has become damaged, resulting in a ringing noise. Sufferers of tinnitus can experience a wide range of noise creating a minor annoyance to debilitating pain depending on its severity.

[chromium]

Tinnitus came on this year for me.  Not sure yet what the cause is/was for me.  A number of things can contribute to it.

In the process of getting checked out, I found that I have a big notch at 4000hz - probably due to "environmental noise" (aka loud music).  My hearing looks a lot like this - but both ears are the same, and the loss is all in the "normal" range, but right at the bottom of that range at 4000hz:



http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000501/2749.html


I have some musicians earplugs that I've used for a long time, but I didn't always use them consistently - and all it takes is once!  They work pretty good, and let most frequency ranges thru - something like these:

http://www.westone.com/index.php?load=catalog&page=ety&group_id=ETYHP

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Wow~ Lots of sympathy to you guys with hearing damage.
I've been lucky. I must have ears of IRON. Better be careful tho.
I've stood right up front at Deep Purple & White Zombie with their songs blasting out so LOUD it was almost PAINFUL!!
I've experienced RINGING in my ears that lasted halfway thru the day after a show, but fortunately it always went away.

These Summer sessions with no air conditioning REQUIRE windows & shutters wide open in the studio, so we GOTTA play low volume, & it's working out GREAT so far.

We might even record an UNPLUGGED cd.