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In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with Product Manager and Smaart Instructor at Rational Acoustics, Chris Tsanjoures. We talk about sound system tuning time saving techniques, microphone placement for main+sub alignment, and the biggest mistake new Smart users are making. I ask:
- Why should I care about the physics of audio and sound system optimization? I’ve got a good ear and I don’t need robots to tell me how to do my job.
- What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to Smaart?
- How do I save time in sound system tuning? What are some time saving techniques or shortcuts you can share with us?
- Thinking about the most common sound systems that we run into on a day-to-day basis, what is your guidance around microphone placement in the horizontal and vertical plane for main+sub alignment?
- What’s in your work bag?
- What are the new SPL features of Smaart?
- From Facebook:
- Kevin
- Is he using FIR and IIR filters in his live system tuning? Does he believe there is a future in their applications for an end user system tech?
- Has he seen FFT system tuning techniques being accepted by a wider audience of engineers in recent years?
- Is he excited about any specific developments in the world of system processing or speaker design that will make system design and system teching easier?
- What can we do as end users to encourage loudspeaker manufacturers to develop a proper standard for generating and publishing speaker specifications?
- What’s his favorite subwoofer and why?
- Jonathan
- What’s next for Smaart ? Send and receive OSC ! Gain tracking on the Octa-Capture?
- Rory
- How to measure and read tonality or timbre of loudspeakers. For example at x-over freq two driver playing the same tone at the same magnitude and phase sound completely different! A progression of this is how to measure the ability of speaker system to convey the emotional content of an artists performance and connect with the listener.
- Russell
- What does he always recommend as the absolute minimum you should do? Which steps should you never, ever leave out.
- Kevin
If you’ve already set your subs up left/right, then you’ve already made a decision that you don’t care about coverage. –Chris Tsanjoures, Smaart Ninja
Notes
- All music in this episode by It Prevails(Chris Tsanjoures, Lead Guitar).
- Why Smaart?
- Hearing is subjective. You like one song while I like another.
- Hearing changes. What if you wake up with a cold?
- There is proof in analysis. You have data to support your claims.
- Speed. How do you recreate that sound that you love in a completely different environment in 5 minutes?
- Biggest mistakes made by people who are new to using Smaart.
- Lack of practice in a controlled environment where you get used to looking at the data.
- So how do you practice?
- Get two matching speakers and an output processor. Put them next to each other. Splay them apart and find the point of equal time and level.
- Get two unmatched speakers and try to make them match.
- So how do you practice?
- Lack of practice in a controlled environment where you get used to looking at the data.
- Time saving techniques
- The day before, look at the design to determine where you’re starting, ending, and what your target is.
- Create a checklist of polarity, time, response, and level for each system.
- Order of operations – download Chris’ personal system alignment worksheet
- Verification: Does it work? Do all of the outputs arrive where they are supposed to?
- Main systems. Everything else will then be set relative to the main.
- Do symmetrical systems sound the same?
- System response measurements and matching.
- Level
- Polarity
- Time
- Microphone placement for main+sub alignment
- Where’s the person who can do the most damage? Is it at FOH? Where is the bulk of the audience at this EDM thing?
- Make sure you are phase aligned not only at the crossover frequency, but 1 octave up and down from it.
- Chris’ workbag
- (6) Y-cable
- (5) Measurement mic (Earthworks S30, Behringer ECM8000)
- (1) PC
- (1) MacBook Pro
- (1) iSEMcon SC1 Microphone calibrator
- (1) Manfrotto Micro microphone stand
- (1) Smaart IO
- (4) 1ft polarity inversion cables
- short XLR cables
- any adapter you can imagine
- Hardware: Roland Octa-Capture
- Quotes
- If you are out there actually putting things together, you learn a lot faster.
- Any analyzer, they’re just tools. They are going after the same goal, which is good sound.
- If it takes you 2 hours to get [the system] to sound good, that’s not acceptable to me. If you get that system up and ready to be used in 15 minutes, you’re a hero.
- If you’ve already set your subs up left/right, then you’ve already made a decision that you don’t care about coverage.
- Nuisance monitoring is basically LF measurement. C weight to keep track of LF level, A weight to keep track of loudness that could cause hearing damage.
- If I start a show off at 98 dBA/106 dBC, I don’t want to end too far away from there.
- I’m a subtractive mixer. If you can’t hear the guitar, it’s because something else is in the way.
- Sound is linear. What’s not is our human hearing mechanism.
- The first two steps don’t involve an analyzer. You are the analyzer.
- Smaart is just a tool. It just makes data. You are the one analyzing it.
- Any idiot can make squiggly lines on a computer. The skill is in making data that you can rely on or make meaningful decisions from.
- Part of the skillset for a system technician is being able to operate an analyzer. You definitely get paid more.
- A good engineer can make a bad system sound good. And a great engineer can make a good system sound great. And an excellent engineer can make a great system sound transcendent. -Jim Woods
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