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For those of you with a dB meter, what level do you shoot for as a maximum volume and still have a good tone?

When practicing with a SLM, I try to resist the egotistical impulse to see how loud I can drive it. Rather, I find that a much more useful practice strategy (though not nearly as fun sometimes) is to try to play a musical passage while mantaining a specific volume--say 95db for a MF passage. If you have warmed up with it for any length of time you know that each note speaks at a different volume--even if your ears can't tell the difference. Practicing Bordognis while trying to keep an even volume is really difficult, but I find that my practice sesssion recordings are much more even after having worked with the SLM in this manner.

Also, if you aren't aware of it already, the SLM's will not respond to "pushing." It is an interesting little quirk (I'm sure there is a perfectly good physical reason for it--I just don't know it) that the volume needles will only respond to "good" tuba sound. If you don't believe me, sit down with yours and rip out your best laser tone. You will find that the level will not go much over 100db (the actual number is affected by a lot of things like room size/dimensions, axis, etc.). Then, sit back and try to produce your richest, thickest, broadest, most tuba-like sound at a just a forte dynamic, and you will notice a substantial increase in the level reading from your initial blatt.

Kyle

I wouldn't be surprised if the room resonances affected the meter reading on some notes versus others, too.

Mark wrote:For those of you with a dB meter, what level do you shoot for as a maximum volume and still have a good tone?

I find it more useful to see which notes might be "dead" in a scale. Also helps to see relative dynamics. Bricks of sound can be verified to see if they decay when you might not realize they are decaying.

Lots of potential uses, but don't treat it like a tuner. Too much decibel meter work and your sound can go to pot as you ignore it and instead focus on pegging the meter.

Just spot checks every few weeks or maybe even a couple of times a week if working on appropriate literature.

Where would you buy one of these and what would it cost, ballpark?