Sound Levels...

[Swine_Glasto2014]

Was quite disappointed with the sound levels on alot of the dance areas after midnight..

Noticed a huge dip in sound at Arcadia, Glade, Blues etc..

Shame restrictions strangle the sound techs after a certain curfew

[dccool]

The blues was the worst had to be within 30 foot of the stage or all you could hear was the crowd around you chatting.

I actually thought the sound from arcadia was awesome, maybe not the loudest but that's to be expected.

[pie_and_a_pint]

The bleed between Avalon and the newly-shifted Avalon Cafe was ridiculous.

[stopwn1981]

Pyramid was pathetic as well.

[Swine_Glasto2014]

And why is WOW the only stage with a Funktion one rig outside?

[Alcatraz]

Heaven's sound may be the worst there is on site

[Bubblecup]

apparently Arcadia had new speakers or different configuration or something this year, I was told but my memory is hazy.  Anyway the sound from where we were standing was awesome

[Scotdy]

Fat boy slim at the blues was rubbish, it was like listing to a phone on loud speaker

[jed123]

Did anyone else visit the metal bar? Was arguably the loudest place I've ever been - heard planes take off more quietly!

[budvar]

Did anyone else visit the metal bar? Was arguably the loudest place I've ever been - heard planes take off more quietly!

Where was this?

[paulo999]

Noise enforcement was stricter this year. But with some flexibility, so if an area was very busy, it could be run louder.

[Harry3]

Blues during the day had (yet again) easily the best soundsystem with the warmest bass, past midnight it and everywhere else was noticeably quieter but was able to cope by squishing closer to a stack.

 

Arcadia was appalling but Ive come to expect that after seeing it 6 times now, couldnt find anywhere to stand where I could only hear music from one source. Kept getting clashes from the other speakers. Was stood right in front of an outside speaker stack for Altern8 and could hear other peoples conversations

 

Pretty happy with most of the sound though.

[Starchild771]

Completely agree. Watched Jus Now followed by Bunji Garlin at the Gully and Jus Now's sound was perfect but then they dropped it (curfew) for Bunji and the music lost all its energy. I think they seriously need to think about whether it's worth having acts that late if they can't turn the music up as it doesn't do the acts justice.

Last year the Blues crowd was seriously annoyed and started jeering "turn it up" during one set that was being taped for the Bbc.

[Starchild771]

Noise enforcement was stricter this year. But with some flexibility, so if an area was very busy, it could be run louder.

Grandmaster Flash started very quiet but had a big crowd. So quiet that when a woman shouted "turn the f.ing music up" everyone heard her and they promptly turned the music up.

[scrippit]

I think both 14 and 15 have been noticeably quieter almost everywhere. Maybe this is the result of the renewal of their licence?

Or maybe I'm getting deafer with age.

[DeanoL]

Noise enforcement was stricter this year. But with some flexibility, so if an area was very busy, it could be run louder.

 

That makes sense - camping in Rivermead we could hear noise (especially bass) on the Thursday from Silver Hayes, and even more on the Saturday, but none any other nights. Saturday was Fatboy Slim so that makes sense. Though apparently some people couldn't hear it when they were right there - it certainly easy to see how it could carry outside the fence though!

 

[monkey1989]

Could hardly hear Craig Charles in heaven on Sunday

[Tuna]

The Beat Hotel was very inconsistent. Bass was awful for FlyLo. Largely very good for my ears tho.

[MiniMarc]

Blues was terrible , circo loco showcase was a disaster on that system. Arcadia has been known for years its not a great system but i think they have alot of technical issues to deal with. Was blown away by volume at Pyramid considering the size of field/crowd. Best soundsystems of any uk festival ive been to for me all things considered

[dicka]

I saw people messuring the sound at the Park Stage this year and writing notes.  This was for the band on before Wold Alice.  

Edited July 1, 2015 by dicka

[tom22]

Remember going into the London Underground on Weds and they had signs up saying they couldn't turn the volume up on Weds or Thurs. It was like a silent disco in there. loads of people, all the smoke & lasers but absurdly quiet music.

 

The Cave on Thursday night was similar although had a great night there nonetheless

Edited July 1, 2015 by tom22

[FuzzyDunlop]

Arcadia was crap. I left Adam Beyer because of it. Obviously better for 2manydjs so I stayed.

Turned down when Altern8 came on though

[Space Shanty]

My one gripe about an absolutely amazing weekend would be the sounds levels in various areas.

The sound at Genosys for Cerrone on Thursday evening was rubbish and it was even worse at The Blues later that night, although maybe that's because we were standing quite far to the side.

I wasn't back at either venue so I don't know if it improved.

The sound at Arcadia is plagued by echoes so it's also got issues.

 

I'm sure there were other cases, in fact all the stages could be a bit better, but the smaller ones are those that stick in my mind

[ImGonnaLive4eva]

One thing I noticed a lot this year was being able to hear other stages while listening to somebody else. We were at Donovan on Sunday night and in quiet moments you could hear another stage thudding away outside.

[___S_o_m_a__]

Arcadia was crap. I left Adam Beyer because of it. Obviously better for 2manydjs so I stayed.

Turned down when Altern8 came on though

 

Only went to Arcadia once for the whole festival on the Sunday night starting with Groove Armada and left lust after Altern 8 came on. The sound for Groove Armada and 2manydjs was the best I heard all festival. We were inside the outer ring of speakers near to one of the stacks.

 

I do think a lot of the time it really is a case of turn it the fuck up. Oh council red tape and noise restrictions? Yeah well sometimes it's so low it's not worth bothering with. Either turn it up or turn it off.