Complaints about the sound at Glade 2008

[penexpers]

One thing I was glad of is that Overkill finally got the Function 1 system this year which I think improved things alot in that tent. But having said that it was very quiet and in some cases the mix of sound coming through was pretty horrible (plenty of bass, not enough high end) so maybe they should consider different sound engineers? I understand that the organisers hands are tied with regard to sound levels and I do believe they are genuinely doing their best given the circumstances. The risk though is that the artists themselves become disillusioned with Glade festival and don't bother playing it anymore.

[rocky]

Did Glastonbury sell out?

Yep. On the Friday (If I remember correctly), bronze control over radio to all units "all tickets have now sold, repeat all tickets have now sold".

[Beatmonkey]

Yea some of the sound engis were utter bollocks, some of them made quiet a good job of very difficult systems to mix on though.

[yohankiwi]

Just couple of points to add....if they can get the sound right on Liquid Stage where there was very little spill maybe Breaks/Overkill + Origin should stage in similar designed tents with damping properties so volume can be cranked to people's liking-I practically lived around the Liquid /Glade Stage all weekend...

Liquid stage on friday night was a tiny bit better than the other stages, but it was still FAR below adecuate raving volume IMO.

+1 to gleek, soudclash and liggins.

I really think glade has so much going for it as a festival. As some of the people in this thread mentioned, there's really no other electronic festival in europe that can match glade in terms of (the variety and the quality of the) line up, vibe and appearance (especially in the lights and visuals sides of things.) However, other festivals are creeping up, improving and getting bigger all over the place and if glade continues to suffer from these problems on sound issues and doesn't offer a REAL solution to them then IMO it won't be long until it loses its place on the throne of electronic music festivals...

Also, just as a summary, these were the points of the festival where i had notable issues with the sound levels. And this goes for all of the people I came to glade with (around 20) as we were all walking around together and all complaining about the sound levels at the time:
Friday night: Everywhere I went. The worst were: Pogo's set at Origin, Frequency 7 and Slam in Vapour, Bang-face at Overkill and Breaksday. Liquid was a little better, but still annoyingly quiet
Saturday: Jeff Mills in Vapour (although SPOT ON in overkill that night)

[joe_techno]

i must have been standing in exactly the right spot for Jeff Mills cus i had no problems. Unbeleivable set with pretty sweet sound set up, imo.

[kai]

Speaking as a Glade virgin who went for the Overkill, the Bangface night, the Vapor and some of the main stage acts I have to say that if anything spoilt my weekend it was the later on volumes in these tents.


Yes I will (probably) be back next yr as all in all had a fantastic weekend - but is rival festivals can put on line-ups like the Overkill and Vapor stages had and provide volume then no matter how nice the site is I know where my vote will go - the music has ro come first.


I think one thing that stnds out in this debate is that the people who were pissed off by this are the Overkill crowd and the techno crowd - at least 50% of the best acts provided for this crowd were on after midnight - hence the sound issues are considerably more of an issue for us.

Yes I enjoyed the days - some wicked acts like Dubfire, Pendulum (i know, i know) and Meat Katie etc really impressed me, but for the highlights of my weekend to be exploring genres I dont normally listen too rather than enjoying the acts I came for said a lot to me. Ok I did enjoy it on that level but most fans of techno, gabba etc would have been dissappointed and will likely vote with their feet and not come back - as a sizeable amount I spoke to were saying!!

I think a lot of these complaints would be allayed, if improving the sound after 12 is not an option, by having a proper Vapor stage for the techno crowd so at least some techno would get played over the course of the weekend at a decent volume rather than just the occasional daytime set through the festival such as Lukes Anger, Ans & Allanby or Billy Nasty provided.

At least the Overkill crowd got decent sound during the day. The techno crowd were very hard done by.

Also, for many the highlight of the Overkill weekend was the Bangface nights line-up - many people come purely for this and again the same thing applies to this crowd.

Fans of other genres are probably less concerned by this as they get the daytime tunes of their particular persuasion.

Perhaps a schedulng rethink would spread that happiness with sound levels to the Bangface and techno crowds too!

There again I can see the scheduling issue with the Bangface night - by its nature gabba and the rest of the Bangface vibe is best scheduled for night so maybe there isn't much that can be done on that front.

But there is no reason not to have a proper Vapor stage and try to do a bit more for those of a techno persuasion.


I'm kinda rambling now, and as I've said I did have a wicked weekend and loved the festival and its vibe - but while I may well be back next year I think I'll get increasingly pissed off year on year with the sound situation - and many people clearly already have.


Too me the festival is in serious danger of losing a large section of its crowd if something is not done and the organisers need to realise this!

Pains me to say it as Glade as a festival, with the ethos it has, is an excellent forward thinking 'aspect' to the UK dance scene and it would be very sad to see it slowly go down the pan through inaction on the part of the organisers over an issue that is clear for everyone to see!

[Sperge]

Also, just as a summary, these were the points of the festival where i had notable issues with the sound levels. And this goes for all of the people I came to glade with (around 20) as we were all walking around together and all complaining about the sound levels at the time:
Friday night: Everywhere I went. The worst were: Pogo's set at Origin, Frequency 7 and Slam in Vapour, Bang-face at Overkill and Breaksday. Liquid was a little better, but still annoyingly quiet
Saturday: Jeff Mills in Vapour (although SPOT ON in overkill that night)

Bang Face night and Jeff Mills' set in Vapor seem to be the ones mentioned most, and I was present at both and witnessed them for myself. It looks like there was a problem on Friday night in general, going by what you say there.

What I was told by either Ans or Rik (can't remember which at the moment) the following day is that the issue on Friday night was strong winds blowing the sound to a residential area. The Sancho Panza tent was blamed for this by some because of its open walls, which is why the walls were closed the following night. I was also told that noise-cancelling doesn't make much difference if the sound is being blown by strong winds.

Having spoken to others about the Jeff Mills set, there seems to have been an issue with the front left speaker stack (where I was). People have said it was better near other stacks.

So these are the specific questions I'll put to them on sound. I'll also try to get a clear and unequivocal statement about exactly what the decibel limits are at set times. So then everyone will know where they stand - and if they're not happy with the answer, they can vote with their feet in the knowledge that things aren't going to change to their liking next year.

[demetzy]

Sound in the overkill was poor on the friday all I could hear was bass and not the higher end stuff, it won;t stop me coming but breakcore should be LOUD

[machinist]

may i also give my two cents?

the sound levels this year invoked in me the desire for it to be very different next year. i trust that the glade folk will figure this baby.

[shakyjane]

Can I really stress that it wasnt just overkill and jeff mills that had problems. I was in the overkill on friday night and in the breaksday and the breaksday was worse during deekline & wizard.

[shakyjane]

and the winds are an explanation, but not an excuse - there is no excuse for the sound being barely audible - DONT HAVE A FESTIVAL THERE IF YOU CAN'T TURN THE SOUND UP!!

[shakyjane]

i trust that the glade folk will figure this baby.

well they didn't from last year to this, maybe on the saturday night they did tho

[Sir Bill McTory]

and the winds are an explanation, but not an excuse - there is no excuse for the sound being barely audible - DONT HAVE A FESTIVAL THERE IF YOU CAN'T TURN THE SOUND UP!!

No need to SHOUT, young lady, I'm not deaf you know!

[bobbyjoe]

i could hear myself fart in overkill

[yohankiwi]

Having spoken to others about the Jeff Mills set, there seems to have been an issue with the front left speaker stack (where I was). People have said it was better near other stacks.

That would make sense as that was the side of the tent i was standing on when i was watching his set...

[AmbientUpstart]

i came, i saw music, i loved it, no complaints......the sound was definately improved from last year, obviously the lack of mud had something to do with it. i do agree that at times certain tents were on the quiet side but at the end of the day i came to have it and to listen to amazing tunes and i most definately did that....................i'm pretty certain i did anyway

[revenantor]

One of the sound engineers from Overkill checking in....

I agree 100% with all of the comments that sound (on Overkill at least, I cannot comment on the other stages) was of a low volume.

The Friday night, bangface, was especially terrible.

We had dropped to a limit of 95dBA at FOH mix at about midnight, which is very low, but we tried our best to deal with it... at about 2am it got dropped to 90dBA at FOH mix. Now, at one point, we turned the PA system off. All that was audible was the monitor sound on stage, and the noise from the crowd... we were still reading 95dB.
In between 2 songs, when noise from all aspects of the PA, foldback included, were off, we were still reading 91dB... 1dB OVER what we were supposed to be keeping too. That is, the crowd alone were louder than our sound limits!

I have stage managers wanting it louder, sound control wanting it quieter - when there isn't actually any noise coming from the PA!

We managed to get it sorted a bit for the last hour or so of the Friday night (lots of frequency fiddling to try and make it sound louder than it actually was), but we ended up having a minimum level of 95dBA for the rest of the weekend, which made life a lot less stressful...

Sound control is a very important issue, and every measure possible needs to be taken to remove spill from festival sites. But when it gets to the point where the crowd alone are louder than your limits, a re-think is perhaps needed on festival location, or other ways to keep local residents happy.

In all fairness to the company in charge of sound control, they recognised fairly quickly that we were having problems with containing the level to their requirements whilst still letting "the show go on", and allowed us with a bit more headroom for the rest of the weekend.

[soundclash]

Looks like the volume in Mills was silly even on the opposite side to where i was standing. You can clearly hear the dull drone of conversations over the top of the music. Sorry to go on but you just shouldnt of been able to hear people twenty yards away.
Im hoping someone puts a vid of Claude Von Stroke up as he was even quieter. Great night mind you and loved every minute but yada yada yada yada.............
See you all next year in the same thread

[Ab$olut]

wow... hellfishes set was really low..

[Sperge]

Oh dear, that really isn't very loud, is it?

Thank you, revenantor, for some interesting facts and figures on the limits btw.

I will try and get some more detailed explanations from the organisers about what happened on Friday night in particular and how they're going to address this issue of volume limits for the future.

As I've mentioned before, they don't seem very convinced that sound was a major issue this year apart from the incidents that have already been mentioned several times here (including the Hellfish set). So I wouldn't hold out too much hope of it being good news for those that want 'free parties' levels of sound...

[fletcher]

just to let you all know, i was at a wedding in shropshire on saturday night, held in a marquee in the middle of knowhere. The soundystem was awesome the band / dj were banging out cheesy tunes well past midnight, and i was stood there thinking damn.. something is really wrong here... this is SO much louder than glade a week ago...

still, at the end of the day, i know where id rather be.,...

[kai]

I think the posts from revenator and fletcher kind of say it all really!!!


Trouble is whinging old cunts dont complain about 'happy' occasions like weddings but would love to shut down a festival - wankers!


Having said that how can you have a festival with volume restrictions which mean that the sound of the crowd with no muswic playing is enough to start the noise Nazi's complaining!

If that going to be the case then surely the festival has to be moved, unless the council can be convinced to stop being so draconian or residents can be paid off somehow!

[pd2h]

If that going to be the case then surely the festival has to be moved, unless the council can be convinced to stop being so draconian or residents can be paid off somehow!

on the residents being paid off if the closest few complainers were bungged a couple of hundred quid a piece to go on holiday for the weekend Im sure that would not kill the profits or would it??

[Sperge]

If that going to be the case then surely the festival has to be moved, unless the council can be convinced to stop being so draconian or residents can be paid off somehow!

on the residents being paid off if the closest few complainers were bungged a couple of hundred quid a piece to go on holiday for the weekend Im sure that would not kill the profits or would it??

Trouble is that West Berks is quite an upmarket area and I'm sure it will take rather more than "a couple of hundred quid" to buy off the biggest moaners. There is also the problem that if word gets out about free money being given out, many more people will suddenly find reasons to complain about the festival...

Also, people have been giving the example of Glastonbury to argue for this. But they seem to have forgotten that Glastonbury now shuts down all its main stages and tents by half past midnight and all you get after that is "silent disco" headphone jobs.

[ogriff]

Also, people have been giving the example of Glastonbury to argue for this. But they seem to have forgotten that Glastonbury now shuts down all its main stages and tents by half past midnight and all you get after that is "silent disco" headphone jobs.

Eh? I'm sure the dance village went on later than that in 2007, and the Glade stage and all the stuff up in Lost Vagueness (I know it's gone now, but it's been replaced and the Tilted Disco "house" went on all night) carried on WELL into the small hours.