Loud ambient sound without being actually too loud

[GaudiKuttu]

Hi all!

I am working on a project, and am to create a soundscape for a VR experience.
I need to reproduce the atmo of a massive forge - a Martin furnace to be precise. I can get the atmo from a working foundry.
My question is, how could I make it sound deafeningly loud without actually killing the hearing of the visitors? The noise in this environment was totally unbearable and the workers were using hand signs to communicate, and this is what the visitors will see/do within the VR space.
I was thinking of hiding a high-pitched sine sound in there, to mimic the ear's reaction to painfully loud sounds and also cutting out some frequencies just like your ear does on a concert or etc, but would be happy to hear your ideas, as the knowledge and the helpfulness of this community is always super inspiring.

Thanks,
Balazs

[Angstrom]

VR experience?
I'd not go for volume, but effect. The experience you are building for is "too loud, can't hear anyone talking"

Get noise cancelling headphones to go with the VR headsets, because noise cancelling these will mean that if visitors try to talk to each other they won't be able to hear each other.
Play your audio through the headphones , obviously.

Look into vibration to simulate the physical disruption. If the participants are static you can buy vibrating plates that they can stand or sit on. These are used by bass players with in ear monitoring (on stage) to emulate low end sub rumble.

If the participants are moving around , you can create any number of disruptive audio sensitive vibration devices. You could use an arduino which responds to frequencies under 50hz, so you can encode it into your audio track. For example.

I've used these before - DAYTONAUDIO Dayton Audio BST-1 High Power Pro Tactile Bass Shaker 50 Watts
https://amzn.eu/d/hMgv0Vx


Just off the top of my head.

[GaudiKuttu]

Thanks for your tips.
Makes perfect sense!
Very useful

[nednerb]

One thing, while controlling your overall "loudness" and EQ to be tolerable but at the limit of tolerability when approaching certain objects in the environment could draw the contrasts.

Another thing, echoing Angstrom, the part about not hearing anyone talking. I think of lowering the volume of speakers' voices or otherwise using an effect to mask or distort the speakers with a side-chain or vocoder.

These sorts of things might help make the noise in the foundry seem to distort and hide any other voices, without drastically boosting the volume altogether.

Perhaps, the spots before and after going into the foundry might be able to be toned down to provide contrast, as well.