Noise Level

Donate To GopherHole
GraniteCityGopher

GraniteCityGopher

Drive-By Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
140
Reaction score
16
Points
18
What was the sound level down near the field? Up in Section 209 I could hear the student sections clearly, but didn't get a sense that we generated a lot of noise during some crucial 3rd down plays. Wondering whether the Bank holds any noise.
 

Anyone else have trouble hearing the band well from the Upper Deck? We were in row 20 of section 232 and the sound wasn't great when the band was on the field pre game or at halftime
 

MaroonGold1 said:
Anyone else have trouble hearing the band well from the Upper Deck? We were in row 20 of section 232 and the sound wasn't great when the band was on the field pre game or at halftime
Click to expand...

I am in row 23 of section 212 and thought the sound was very quiet. Other than the PA guy and piped in music, the band and roar of the crowd weren't what I expected. If the goal was to have the sound loud at field level, they probably accomplished it, but to me in the middle of the second deck on the 30 yard line, I want more noise!

BTW, kudos to my section (at least around me) for an outstanding job of standing/sitting and yelling!
 

I'm in 138 and the "crowd" noise was loud, but the Band wasn't as loud as I expected, kinda dissapointed.
 

The crowd was loud enough to drown out the noise made by four Air Force F15 fighter jets on a low level flyover. I talked to a friend who was on field level and he said it was loud.
 


The spell-outs were loud, as was the fumble return.
 

I thought it was loud, in general, in the upper deck...much louder than 99% of Gopher games in the Dome (obviously). One major concern was how hard it was to hear the band. I was really surprised because I've been to other outdoor stadiums where the bands are heard much easier.

I can only think of two solutions...Mic the band and MORE BRASS in the band!! Do other major college stadiums mic the band? I know the others have a lot more brass (compared to woodwinds) than we do.
 

Agree 100% on the need for more brass in the band! In addition, the band seems to prefer "tight formations," which seem to me to muffle the sound, whereas bands that spread the field sound louder. There is also a problem with the band's compact seating area, which also seems to muffle the sound.

Another curious thing is that when the band does its pre-game show, a large number of band members are used to unfurl the large American flag, which reduces the band's size and sound. It would be nice if they could recruit some student volunteers to handle the flag duty and let all the band members particitpate in the pre-game show.

Perhaps there's a band member out there who can comment on these issues.
 

It can be solved by elevating the bell level of the instrument

There going need to play with a little more exagerated bell level for the sound to carry upward. It isn't just adding more brass they are going to have to coordinate playing horn and woodwind instruments more eleveated even the tubas.
The best example I could make is pointing the bell ends of the horns a little more to the box because there is no reverb off the open end of the stadium. Playing straight forward with bells of the brass is not going to allow the sound to carry and the acoustics are poor. Everyone is right the band sounded great outside the stadium but inside the stadium it was very difficult to hear them just like the dome for that matter it was about the same on the open end of the stadium. When they were playing the pre-game and the rouser. Almost 300 musicians you should be able to hear the sound a lot better than that. Either that or they are trying for a really controlled sound. I'm not looking for blatting or extra loud screeching, but they need to amp up the volume by doing some more running and breathing exercises, or they are going to need to mike the band because the sound just was not there on Saturday night.
 



The band had small mics in the seating area, but that was for BTN commercial transitions. The band will never be mic'd to the PA because there is a terrible 2 second delay. You couldn't hear the band during pregame because people were cheering all the time. But that's a good thing. We have never had over 40,000 Gopher fans in the seats to watch pregame. Generally at other football stadiums, bands are naturally quieter in the seating areas. It just the way acoustics work. But on the field level it is quite deafening. When I wasn't playing drums and just watching in front of the band during the fumble recovery, I thought I was going to rupture my eardrums. As far as I have heard, the band was fairly loud on the field if you sat on the sidelines.
 

gopheraddict said:
Agree 100% on the need for more brass in the band! In addition, the band seems to prefer "tight formations," which seem to me to muffle the sound, whereas bands that spread the field sound louder. There is also a problem with the band's compact seating area, which also seems to muffle the sound.

Another curious thing is that when the band does its pre-game show, a large number of band members are used to unfurl the large American flag, which reduces the band's size and sound. It would be nice if they could recruit some student volunteers to handle the flag duty and let all the band members particitpate in the pre-game show.

Perhaps there's a band member out there who can comment on these issues.
Click to expand...

Regarding the flag and pregame:
In order to keep the marching and musical quality at a high level for pregame there are limited spots that are auditioned for before each game, the band members that are on the flag are the ones who didn't make the pregame "block". In order for pregame to flow well visually and retain a traditional look, the block needs to be smaller than the full band.

Regarding Brass:
If you eliminate the woodwinds, you won't be adding brass, just taking away woodwinds. The band doesn't turn anyone away so just because you get rid of 20 flutes doesn't mean you will gain 20 trombones. The biggest bummer in my mind is that relatively few music majors are in the band, if they could get more of the best musicians at the U to be in the band the overall quality would skyrocket, particularly for the Indoor Concerts.
 

Quality of sound was not bad just the volume was muffeled

Especially what I heard outside for the pre-game, that was what I expected to hear inside the stadium that kind of power and oomph!. You will never hear the same sound when your far away but so far from what I can tell the sound is kind of swallowed at field level. It may be exasperatingly loud down there but even when you get 10-15 rows up in the stands you cannot hear that well when you are across the way even on the home sideline. Now imagine the visitors side and the upper deck, heck at the dome the upper deck hears the best with the exception of the delay and echo of the drums. The sound really failed to travel towards the open end. For battle hymn the horns were pointed towards our side of the field and it was difficult to hear at times, and by the movement of the musicians you could tell they were blowing and playing hard. It can't just the cheering that drowned out the sound it was more than that. IF someone were to do an acoustics check with the fans filling it up they would see what everyone is talking about as far as upstairs and the open end. From what I can tell the quality of the musicianship did not sound bad, it just was not very loud for such a large band. There is something that is just not right with the acoustics into the stands.

The same thing could be said for the scoreboard, when the PA announcer was using the microphone the volume was really loud, almost a little ear splitting, but when the music played for the dance and spirt squads and at other times that was incredibly muddled and sounded really bad. Especially the 3rd to 4th quarter song, that was so potted down you could barely hear the lyrics. It was For the spirit squad and dance-line either there was really poor dubbing of the mix either from the computer that was used, the tape that was mixed or the sound system was potted down way low for those moments, I'm only a couple sections over from the large scoreboard on the home sideline and that was one of the worst music moments of the night when the dance team a spirit squad peroformed the music sound was really, really bad.
 

I thought the crowd noise was plenty loud. I re-watched the game yesterday and it came across as VERY loud on TV.
 



gopherdudepart2 said:
The same thing could be said for the scoreboard, when the PA announcer was using the microphone the volume was really loud, almost a little ear splitting, but when the music played for the dance and spirt squads and at other times that was incredibly muddled and sounded really bad. Especially the 3rd to 4th quarter song, that was so potted down you could barely hear the lyrics. It was For the spirit squad and dance-line either there was really poor dubbing of the mix either from the computer that was used, the tape that was mixed or the sound system was potted down way low for those moments, I'm only a couple sections over from the large scoreboard on the home sideline and that was one of the worst music moments of the night when the dance team a spirit squad peroformed the music sound was really, really bad.
Click to expand...

They brought the music volume level WAY down. At the preview, they had the music cranked up and it was much louder. I suspect they got complaints and toned it down. Probably will take a game or two to find the correct balance.
 

From 211

When I was up in 211, the sound of the crowd wasn't great. However, that's because everyone was in front of you. We were down in the concourse for a big play, and the sound was very impressive down there.
 

At the preview the canned music was ear-splitting. Very happy they turned it down. We already have Viking games to do that.
 



I couldn't really hear the students at all in 105. I could hear the band, but it wasn't very loud at all. Spelling out M-I-N-N......was about as loud as it got.
 

I am in 212. I agree with Maverick that the people around us were great. Stood up on 3/4th down and cheered their guts out. I thought the fans were loud. The band was very hard to hear - something needs to be done about that. The sound from the stadium speakers could be louder. The PA was loud enough. On TV, it sounded great. As others have said. The MINNESOTA spell out is fantastic.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom