Big truck music killing sound of steel
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Big_truck_music_killing_sound_of_steel-118292739.html
March 19, 2011
THIS is an open letter to the Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston "Gypsy" Peters and the general executive of Pan Trinbago
I am writing with concerns about the disastrous and frustrating situation that took place on Carnival Monday and Tuesday on the road with our steelband, which was forced to become totally silent.
The steelband, which is one of the first throughout the years, after the tamboo-bamboo to supply music and entertainment for masqueraders and onlookers on Carnival days, went silent. From as early as the late 50s and 60s people would line the streets to listen to the sweet music coming from the steelband playing classical music written, composed and arranged by masters such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mantovani and Chopin, just to name a few, together with our local writers, composers and arrangers, who thrilled the nation with their sweet calypso and soca renditions.
That was not the case this year. On many occasions the steelbands were totally silenced, engulfed by a sea of big trucks with their humongous high-pitched loudspeakers. It was a total embarrassment and frustration for panmen and women, who practised for months —night and day — to perfect their tunes. They wanted to execute their music and showcase their talent, but had to stop playing because they could not hear themselves and no one could hear them. The panists had to push or pull their pans for hours without playing a single note (what a situation!)
Many of the masqueraders and supporters of the steelbands found themselves trapped amongst the big trucks and the powerful speakers and became very frustrated. some sat on the pavements bewildered, not knowing what to do; some drifted away from the steelband and wandered about like lost sheep. Others, in order to find some kind of enjoyment, ended up jumping up with the same big trucks which, just a few moments before, they found very annoying .
To you, the powers that be, one of my suggestions is to create a separate route for the steelbands so that people who are playing mas with the steelbands — their supporters and pan lovers — can be comfortable and enjoy the carnival days as it was designed to be.
Even in areas that were designated steelband competition areas, the DJs invaded, playing so loud that you could hardly hear what the steelbands were playing.
To the powers that be, you have to come up with some solution to ensure the continued playing of the steelbands on the road.
Steelbands will not survive much longer among the big music trucks, or is it that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of pan on the road?
What a dismal picture for the steelband movement — pan really in danger.
Andre Cabarr
Port of Spain
Replies
If everything gets louder the result is sonic chaos but perhaps more dangerous is the damage that will happen to all the human eardrums. There has to be a more reasonable way to deal with the problem. Anger probably won't accomplish anything permanent.
JL
James,
Sonic chaos is nothing new. I expirienced it in the late 50s and early 60s when steelbands passed each other on Park Street J'ouvert morning. The atmosphere was electric. That was when you knew if you could really play or not. Just keeping to your own tune and arrangement was an art and a feat of drunken concentration.
Ha! Ha!
Yes sometimes they did fight but that would not happen now. We are beyond that.
I have a solution.
Big trucks must play a steelband track every other tune.
The tune must have been recorded for the current season not at panorama performance speed
It must be at least 10 mins long, but good chipping rhythm. Those powerful amps and huge speakers should be enough to keep the largest band happy and chipping to proper music instead of these 1 line chorus and verse chants that modern day Soca artists produce.
Yes that's it - Recorded Steelband Music played by the Big Trucks
Better yet, Randi, there is enough good recorded pan music available, even at "chipping"speed, and many people still like to "chip" along with a steelband.
How about steelbands adding amplified trucks to their presentations?
These truck could be used to amplify the steelband and also play recorded pan music when the band rests.
And it doesn't have to be restricted to this years tunes, either.
Bands could even pre-record their own music for that purpose.
This is what I mean about trying new ideas.
instead of putting the burden on the steelbands, the big trucks need to be regulated. i did observe jouvert morning this year, big trucks being respectful and turning off the music when they crossed a steelband. 3canal took it a step further and gave each passing steelband a shoutout by name and welcomed the 3canal revelers to take in the panside's music...
but amplifying the bands - that's a whole other cost the bands would have to incur to get on the road. i think you'd see fewer bands on the road as a result. think about it - the extra truck, the speakers, the ampifiers, the microphones and the sound technician - cause as we are all reminded year after year, poorly miked, mixed, and amplified steelpan is disastrous
GRJ
I whole heartedly agree. The reason I suggested this years music was because I wanted them to focus on current music. We all know some of the best arrangements and compositions came from the "golden era" 1975 to 2000 and these should not necessarilly be abandoned. There are several young arrangers with an abundance of talent who can create classics of the future.
The pan sides need to be much louder to drown out the sound from the 'big trucks'. Amplification perhaps?
The following is from an article from Delancyplace (delancyplace.com) on why 100 instruments only sound four times as loud as one.
Just replace the word glokenspiel with the word steelpan.
In today's excerpt - we do not hear two instruments being played at the same time as being twice as loud as one. In fact, when we hear 100 instruments, we perceive them as being only four times as loud as a single instrument. That is due to two things - first, unless they are absolutely identical, the pressure ripples (sound waves) from multiple instruments partially cancel each other out, and second, our brains operate in a manner so as to protect itself by dampening the effect of increasingly loud noise:
"But, when we hit both instruments, you can bet your life that we don't hit them exactly at the same time, so the pressure ripples from the two instruments won't be in step when they reach the microphone. This means that sometimes the 'pressure up' part of one ripple will be trying to raise the air pressure as the 'pressure down' part of the other is trying to lower it. if the wave patterns were perfectly out of step, the up-down-up-down of one of them would be canceled out by the down-up-down-up of the other - and we wouldn't hear a note at all.
"This is weird but true - it's how some farmers protect their hearing when they are driving noisy tractors all day. They buy 'active ear defenders' which look like headphones. Inside each of the earpieces is a microphone and a speaker connected to some electronics. The microphone listens to the sound which is about to reach your eardrum and makes the speaker produce the same pressure wave - but out of step with the original one. The idea is that when the two pressure waves meet, one of them tries to raise the pressure at the same time as the other tries to lower it - so nothing much happens and the eardrum is left in peace. In practice the sound waves are too complicated for this to work exactly, but it does reduce most of the noise.
"Going back to our glockenspiels, the canceling out is nowhere near perfect because it would be too difficult to organize - the sound waves are coming from different places in the room and also bouncing off the walls, and it's incredibly unlikely that you would hit the instruments at precisely the right times to get the ripple patterns exactly out of step just at the point where they meet the microphone. What actually happens is that we do get more sound pressure from two instruments than we would from one - but there is some interference from the low-pressure bits of one wave pattern with the high-pressure bits of the other, so there is some canceling out.
"If more instruments are involved, the amount of canceling out gets more serious. The pressure of the air next to the microphone can only be higher than normal (pushing the microphone inward) or lower than normal (pulling it outward): it can't be both at once. If we play forty glockenspiels, each of our forty glockenspiels has an 'up pressure' or 'down pressure' vote at any point in time -but a lot of these votes cancel each other out. If a forty-first glockenspielist joins our little party, then his note will be mostly canceled - though a little bit will get
through to contribute to the overall loudness.
"This effect is not the only one involved in our appreciation of loudness. If it was, 100 instruments would sound ten times as loud as one. But we perceive 100 instruments as being only four times as loud as one. This extra diminution in perceived loudness is the result of the way we humans are designed - so let's
have a look at that.
"Why don't our brains add up sounds normally? The surprising answer is that our brains and ears add up sounds in an unusual way in order to help us stay alive. From the times of the earliest cavemen to the present day, we have used our ears to help us avoid danger. This is one of the main reasons we have ears in the first place (although they are also useful for supporting your sunglasses). To
be effective, your ears have to be able to hear very quiet noises (like the sound of someone creeping up on you), but also they must not get damaged by loud noises (such as thunder). It wouldn't be any good if you had excellent hearing for quiet noises but your ears stopped working after the first loud noise you heard.
"Our ears are organized in such a way that quiet noises can be heard clearly but any increase in the volume of the noise has progressively less and less impact. This effect is also true of our other four senses: smell, taste, sight and touch. Six smelly socks aren't six times as smelly as one on its own (even though each of the socks is releasing the same amount of smell) and ten salted peanuts in your
mouth aren't five times as salty as two of them (even though you now have five times as much salt on your tongue). If you light 100 candles one at a time in a dark room you get the same effect as you got with the [glockenspiels] - the first one makes the biggest difference and the eighty-seventh makes hardly any difference. If you are daft enough to stick a pin in your fingertip then it will hurt, but if you stick a second one in (next to the first one) the pain will not be
doubled."
Author: John Powell
Title: How Music Works
Publisher: Little, Brown
Date: Copyright 2010 by John Powell
Pages: 85-87
Good job Mr.Cabarr....We are not going to witness the end of pan if we all stand in unity. We are not going to beg for
anything, we are going to demand it. This is Trinidad and Tobago's carnival, not Brazil, not New Orleans!!!
Unity is strength ------ we are going to make steel talk ----- We must get as many letters to the Minister of A & M to show that we are the people and we must get what is right. His mailbox has to be flooded with mail to prove that this is what the people want.
Allan
This is not a new problem. The steelbands, I presume, have officials to represent them. What are these representatives doing about the matter? We can talk among ourselves untill the cows come home, but it will not help those who are in need.
Have meetings been called to order as yet to deal with all the issues pertaining to Panorama, Big trucks, DJs, etc? You cannot be a player in the "big league" with a "small mind," and a "bad attitude." Maybe it is time to revamp the present system and start over. If nothing new is started today, then next year, the same problems will be rehashed.
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