Playing A Silent Disco @ Music Festival This Summer...

[mdcdesign]

The thought of wearing headphones that hundreds of other people have worn is just... argh, I don't even wanna think about it lol.

[donstone]

Its like i thought.... you dont like them because you dont understand them. Thats human nature though. You've COMPLETELY missed the point of what silent disco's are about. Let me tell you though that it has NOTHING to do with noise levels and wanting to keep the residents happy.

Actually most festivals incorporate them exactly for noise ordinaces. I own a few hundred pairs and rent them to local festys here and this is always the reason given. If they could have sound all night, most festivals would. You can also rent ALOT more speakers for the price of renting 500 headphones.

Most areas of the country do have noise ordiances and even though they do allow festivals to got later than the ordiance, it is rare where you'll find some town that is going to allow 100K watts of sound at 5am. So silent disco's make perfect sense.

Miami is one of the worst places for noise ordinace. 've been to Nikki beach countless times where they've had to have the sound turned to to a very minimal level. Ultra ends it's sound at midnight so there are no issues with it's sound.

Yes we clean the headphones before giving them out before.
The headphones we use also have a gree and blue led on them so you can actually tell what the whole crowd is listening to. So if you're DJ A and have blue led and see a sea of green leds, it might be time to switch up the tunes.

When I've dj'd them, I usually keep a pair of the silent headphones around my neck and then DJ split cue in my regular headphones and check the silent headphones randomly.

[kooper1980]

Actually most festivals incorporate them exactly for noise ordinaces. I own a few hundred pairs and rent them to local festys here and this is always the reason given. If they could have sound all night, most festivals would. You can also rent ALOT more speakers for the price of renting 500 headphones.

Most areas of the country do have noise ordiances and even though they do allow festivals to got later than the ordiance, it is rare where you'll find some town that is going to allow 100K watts of sound at 5am. So silent disco's make perfect sense.

Miami is one of the worst places for noise ordinace. 've been to Nikki beach countless times where they've had to have the sound turned to to a very minimal level. Ultra ends it's sound at midnight so there are no issues with it's sound.

Yes we clean the headphones before giving them out before.
The headphones we use also have a gree and blue led on them so you can actually tell what the whole crowd is listening to. So if you're DJ A and have blue led and see a sea of green leds, it might be time to switch up the tunes.

When I've dj'd them, I usually keep a pair of the silent headphones around my neck and then DJ split cue in my regular headphones and check the silent headphones randomly.

That's bullshit mate because EVERY silent disco I have been to has occured adjacent to a full scale festival tent. Creamfields in the UK has a silent disco that lasts all day and night. Doesn't scream noise reduction to me!

[donstone]

That's bullshit mate because EVERY silent disco I have been to has occured adjacent to a full scale festival tent. Creamfields in the UK has a silent disco that lasts all day and night. Doesn't scream noise reduction to me!

That sounds like it is there for more of a novelty as opposed to being useful.

The noise pollution issue is not bullshit.
1000 headphone setup in the united states rented for 3 days costs about $8000.
Why would a festival spend extra money on something when they already have a sound system rented for 3 days?
Who would rather listen to headphones other than the super awesome sound system the festival had?
What hillbilly town in the United States doesn't have a noise ordiance past midnight?
Any festival that can have sound all night would much rather run their actual sound systems than just have a tiny silent disco setup late night.
Festivals that have noise issues add silent discos so they can keep playing music late night

The whole concept is built around having a party when noise is an issue.

you can even read about the whole damn history of them on the wiki where it plainly says they were started to avoid noise pollution. lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_disco

I've been performing at and running silent discos for 5 years now. This is the MAIN reason they exist.
I have never had a promtoer say to me, "Hey I want to rent your equipment and still run my main stage sound all night to", It's always "Once we have to turn off the main stage, we want to have a silent disco to keep the party going"

If it's not for noise pollution, then what is the meaning of them? What benefit does a silent disco have over an actual sound system?
I'm curious, maybe I'm running the business incorrectly.

[tgcasals]

I'm surprised there's so much resistance to this on the forum. I don't think they're something spectacular but at least its different and it mixes up the gig a bit so why not? If people have demonstrated willingness to cover the increased cost, who cares? Its not like its going to ruin the good ol' times of huge stacks that shake the ground.

[loverocket]

Its not like its going to ruin the good ol' times of huge stacks that shake the ground.

Yes it is.

It's a great excuse for the authorities. Channel 4 news will have Captain Gonzales saying "we gave them a viable option and they resisted, therefore we had no other choice then to shut down the concert."

It's NOT a viable option to speakers.

>

[donstone]

All I'm saying is that most of the time a promoter hires a silent disco company is because the live sound system is not an option.

It's definitely a rare occurrence when a promoter will run a silent disco at the same time as all their main stages and if they do chances are the silent disco goes on after all the other stages shut down too.

[kooper1980]

That may be be how you run YOUR business but it definitely isn't what happens in the UK. Creamfields, Global Gathering, SW4, Glastonbury, V Festival, Reading Festival ALL have silent discos that run concurrent to their main stages. As I said its definite NOT noise reduction that makes these popular.

[Sam Hulley]

I do these quite a bit. Great at getting round noise restrictions, and really good when there are multiple channels with multiple DJ's.

My advice would be get used to mixing in your headphones, and also, make sure you are given a set of the silent disco headphones when you arrive, so you can keep checking what everyone else is hearing and set your levels correctly.

[bisco]

great feed back thanks guys.
also I was unaware of the built in LED's.