Need some help with SPL issues

[MarcBass]

Turns out the standard liquor license condition, at least in Queensland, is that the maximum noise level is 75db C weighted using "fast" mode, 3 metres or 10 feet from the source.
I intially took that as it should be measured that distance from the closed door, or building.

G'day Grant,

What you describe there is the old License for venues without amplified entertainment, or acoustic only entertainment. Hence 75 dBC at the source, meaning shop PA speakers playing CDs with the odd .... "no 11 your chips are ready" RSL type announcement.

I used to pull the License from the net for each venue I played in as part of my prep for the gig. (The new gov down here only provides an extract online now. (They want $25 for the full license.)) Venues licensed for live entertainment had a dBC limit at the outer door as you expected. To get that license they had to pay more as well as obtain an engineers report. The document you describe is the acceptable method for developing the report.

Industry blokes I've spoken to from Brisbane describe house PA rigs for live bands in the Valley Music Precinct that have traffic lights at the front of the stage. Green is good, yellow is a worry, red ..... FOH cuts out. Red used to be 95dBC 1 m from the front of the stage. Not sure what they run at these days!!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Red used to be 95dBC 1 m from the front of the stage. Not sure what they run at these days!!

That's absurd. I can get that in my livingroom.
95dbC would be the minimum you'd want to have in the middle of the room. Stupid numbers like this is what you get when the regs are written by politicians, not engineers. OTOH, are they citing motorcycle riders? At an idle you can expect 100dBC from a Harley at 1 meter.

[ncgrove]

Bruce, you might be playing with fire asking the New Braunfels city counsel to write an ordnance.
They might end up banning disposable speakers, and speakers that are too small, and speakers that are too large.

[Bruce Weldy]

Bruce, you might be playing with fire asking the New Braunfels city counsel to write an ordnance.
They might end up banning disposable speakers, and speakers that are too small, and speakers that are too large.

Yeah, it ain't my idea. The current ordinance pretty much lets anyone call in a complaint for anything and the police have to respond - so they are trying to figure out a way to quantify it.

I told the bar owner that he has to really get his ducks in a row, because what they get may be worse that what they have.

I was at the venue last night - truly, the crowd is usually as loud as the music. They keep it way down. The complainer is just a jerk. And he knows he's being a jerk. They had a meeting with him and the DA and the police chief - he went bonkers when they talked about using a decibel limit. He knows that will put a stop to his bitchin'.

[Grant Bunter]

Thanks Grant.

Hell, I can talk louder than 75db.


The funny thing about the guy that 99% of the complaints come from.....ready for this?........he lives right next to a train track....as in, 30 feet from his wall. And he's a full two blocks behind the venue.

Typical.
Sounds like he's fighting the fight he can.
He probably knows he has no chance whatsoever of stopping the trains.
But that live music stuff, that's a bunch of people feeding the devil...

Quite right Marc, that limit is the standard for restaurants etc and not live music. And you can't have speaker cabs or amplified anything outdoors/outside the venue.

Just put it up because the criteria could be adjusted to whatever dB one was aiming for...

[MarcBass]

OTOH, are they citing motorcycle riders? At an idle you can expect 100dBC from a Harley at 1 meter.

Ahhhhh .... motorcycle riders!! That explains the new VLAD (Viscous Lawless Association Disestablishment) laws in Sunny Queensland, where it's illegal for 3 or more motor cyclists to associate! Noise abatement!! 2 Harleys idling at 1 meter would be 103 dBC and 4 would be 106 ....... Way too much for our pristine environs particularly if those bad boys actually rode them on the road!!!!!

[Harley]

... you can expect 100dBC from a Harley at 1 meter.

115 if I get enough onions and beer aboard first

[Tom Smit]

[67baja]

... you can expect 100dBC from a Harley at 1 meter.

115 if I get enough onions and beer aboard first

That, sir, is impressive.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

... you can expect 100dBC from a Harley at 1 meter.

115 if I get enough onions and beer aboard first

That, sir, is impressive.

Not if you're downwind of him.