Get Started with Sound System Tuning

Are you a live sound engineer interested in sound system tuning?

Maybe you have seen other people use Smaart on their shows and you want to do the same. Maybe your mixing skills are improving, but your show results are not. Maybe you just bought SATlive and you’re trying to figure out what all of those squiggly lines mean.

You’re in the right place.

This free introductory course will help you build your own audio analyzer and take your first measurements so you can start practicing at home right away. Sound system tuning can be strange and overwhelming at first, so take small steps and let me know if you run into any problems.

If you make it through this introductory course on sound system tuning and want to go deeper, I have books and an online course to help you.

Contents

1 – How to build your own 2-ch audio analyzer for FREE

You don’t need to spend $4K+ to run Smaart, SATlive, SysTune, or RiTA. You can do it for free or cheap with components you already own. The most important thing is to start practicing as soon as possible, not to build the best rig in the world.

2 – How to build an audio analyzer the wrong way

Buy a $1,000 measurement microphone.
Buy a $1,000 audio interface.
Buy a $1,000 piece of software.
Don’t practice at home.

3 – Which measurement microphone is best?

Answer: Whatever you have available so that you can start practicing ASAP.

Microphone correction curves make this even easier.

4 – How to make a $50 Behringer ECM8000 sound like an $700 Earthworks M30

With microphone correction curves!

Just another reason why you don’t need an expensive measurement microphone to get started with sound system tuning.

Download the correction curve calculator.

5 – Which audio interface is best for a Smaart rig?

Or a SATlive, SysTune, or RiTA rig?

Just another reason why you don’t need an expensive audio interface to get started with sound system tuning.

Notes:

6 – Should I buy Smaart, SATlive, or something else?

4 options: Mac, PC, Free, and iOS

Just another reason why you don’t need expensive software to get started with sound system tuning.

Software discussed:

6z – ZOID: Smaart vs SATlive vs RiTA vs REW

This cute little Facebook chatbot is going to help you shop for software and decide between Smaart, SATlive, RiTA, REW, and Transfer Function.

Try it out here: https://m.me/zoidchatbot

Type “shopping” to get started.

7 – Get setup to take your first measurement in Smaart DI

If you just installed Smaart DI for the first time, this video will walk you through all of the initial settings to get your first measurement going.

8 – Get setup to take your first measurement in Smaart8

If you just installed Smaart8 for the first time, this video will walk you through all of the initial settings to get your first measurement going.

8.1 – Smaart: Optimal settings to avoid micromanagement

These settings for magnitude, phase, transfer function, view presets, and zoom presets will help you work quickly and avoid micromanagement.

9 – Get setup to take your first measurement in SATlive

If you just installed SATlive for the first time, this video will walk you through all of the initial settings to get your first measurement going.

9.1 – Optimal settings for SATlive

If you just installed SATlive for the first time, this video will walk you through all of the initial settings to avoid micromanagement.

10 – Get setup to take your first measurement in RiTA

If you just installed RiTA for the first time, this video will walk you through all of the initial settings to get your first measurement going.

11 – What is the difference between Smaart, SATlive, SysTune, SIM3

Amit asked: What is the difference between Smaart, SATlive, SysTune, and SIM3, and which one should I buy?

Which software to buy

12 – Stop Smaarting the Sound System

Smaarting the sound system has turned into a bad word. It refers to a quick and easy sound system tuning procedure that can ruin your show.

Here’s how to Smaart the sound system:

Buy audio analyzer software.
Don’t practice at home.
Take a single measurement of the combined system at FOH with 1/3oct smoothing.
Insert 50 EQ filters to make the trace appear flat.
Don’t use your ears. Base all of your decisions on the graph.

Download the Sound System Tuning Roadmap

13 – How do I know if I have good data? Check your physical IO

The first step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to check your physical inputs and outputs. Label everything!

There’s also some specifics in this video on using the X32 as your system processor.

Download the Verification Checklist

Hardware used:

14 – How do I know if I have good data? Headphone test

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to check that all of your microphones are patched correctly.

Download the Verification Checklist

15 – How do I know if I have good data? Software settings in Smaart DI2

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to check your settings in Smaart DI2.

16 – Double check your settings in Smaart v8 before you start work in the field

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to check your settings in Smaart v8.

17 – How to set your microphone preamps for Smaart

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to set your microphone preamps.

18 – Turn up the volume in the room without affecting your trace.

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is the fader test. This is a simple test to make sure we’ll be able to adjust the test signal in the room as necessary without applying a trace offset.

19 – How to verify your audio analyzer will show your EQ changes

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is the EQ test. This is a simple test to make sure we’ll be able to measure our system EQ changes.

20 – How loud does the test signal need to be in the room for Smaart?

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to make sure you have the proper signal level to get actionable data.

20.1 – Big input meters on Smaart (useful!)

Am I the last one on earth to discover these giant input meters in Smaart?

21 – How loud does the test signal need to be in the room for SATlive?

The next step in verifying that your audio analyzer is set up correctly is to make sure you have the proper signal level in SATlive to get actionable data.

22 – How to stop running out of headroom in Smaart

New preamp setting procedure for maximum coherence in Smaart.

23 – Expectations: What does a mic cable look like?

Now that we have our audio analyzer set up and verified, let’s measure a microphone cable. Boring, I know, but it’s good to start with something we have very clear expectations around.

24 – Expectations: How do you measure an EQ in Smaart?

Measuring an EQ is a great next step to examine our expectations in our audio analyzer and gain confidence in our tools.

25 – How to create a target trace in Smaart

Don’t EQ blindly. Create your own target trace in Smaart. It’s easy to do by measuring an EQ and drawing the shape you like.

Steal my target traces

26 – How to create a target trace in SATlive

Don’t EQ blindly. Create your own target trace in SATlive. It’s easy to do by measuring an EQ and drawing the shape you like.

Steal my target traces

27 – What does a full-range speaker look like in Smaart?

After you have practiced measuring an EQ, the next step is to measure a speaker in Smaart. Finally!

Download Meyer Sound Speaker traces

28 – What does a full-range speaker look like in SATlive?

After you have practiced measuring an EQ, the next step is to measure a speaker in SATlive. Finally!

Download Meyer Sound Speaker traces

29 – How to set the delay locator to measure a subwoofer in Smaart

After you have practiced measuring a full-range speaker, the next step is to measure a subwoofer in Smaart. It turns out to be a little more tricky, but I’ve got some ideas to help you.

30 – How to use the Low Frequency Delay finder in SATlive

After you have practiced measuring a full-range speaker, the next step is to measure a subwoofer in SATlive. If you don’t have a full-range speaker to set your delay locator, the Low Frequency Delay Finder will estimate the delay for you. Virtual Time Shift is another tool that can help us make the phase measurement easier to read.

31 – How to measure a speaker+EQ in Smaart

After you have practiced measuring a full-range speaker and a sub, the next step is to measure a full-range speaker with an EQ. Practice inserting filters and observing effects to the amplitude and phase.

31.1 – How to find a comb filter in Smaart

Another important thing to practice is identifying a comb filter. We don’t want to try to fix this acoustical phenomenon with electrical solutions.

Find regular peaks and dips (easier to see on a linear scale)
Move the mic

31.2 – How to find a comb filter in SATlive

Another important thing to practice is identifying a comb filter. We don’t want to try to fix this acoustical phenomenon with electrical solutions. It’s easy to do this in SATlive with the comb filter function, which can be set to show regions, bars, or arrows.

31.3 – Avoid EQing a comb filter in Smaart with averaging

Now that we have learned to identify a comb filter in the previous video, let’s talk about how to work around them and still identify the global trends. The two tools I like to use are optical and mathematical averaging.

31.4 – How to use the right EQ shape every time with Smaart

The fastest most accurate way to set EQ filters is by drawing complementary shapes while measuring the EQ output so you can see them right on top of your room measurements.

34 – How to verify main+sub alignment in Smaart

Match main and sub to target level
Identify crossover region
Are phase traces within 60º?

Credit to Merlijn Van Veen for his Absolute/Relative method.
How to make your own target trace in Smaart.

34.1 – How to phase align main+sub in Smaart

Option A: Add delay to the less steep trace until the pictures match.

Option B: Pick a frequency, either in the center of the crossover region (√(f1*f2)) or where levels match. Convert phase to time = ΔPhase / 360 / ΔFrequency.

Credit to Merlijn Van Veen for his Absolute/Relative method.

Download the aiming triangles business card.

You can also go through this procedure step-by-step with ZOID.

34.3 – How to use Live Add Trace and Perfect Addition Trace in SATlive

Features of SATlive to help you with your Main+Sub alignment. The Perfect Addition Trace shows you the maximum possible summation of two traces. The Live Add Trace shows you the calculated summation with current phase measurements. Our goal is to get the Live Add Trace to match the Perfect Addition Trace.

34.5 – How to use Virtual Time Shift in SATlive

Use Virtual Time Shift in SATlive to quickly get some ideas about how to improve your main+sub phase alignment. All you need to do is open the tool to make real time changes to your live measurement. It will even affect the Live Add Trace and Perfect Addition Trace so you can test settings from the Delay Suggestion Tool without needing to blast sound into the room.

Is my course right for you?

Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound
Is it time for you to join?

I don’t know. Only you can decide that, but I put together a video to help.

Don’t have time for the video? Here’s the skinny:

Improve your confidence and consistency by learning sound system tuning at your own pace from anywhere in the world with the highest level of support in the industry, guaranteed.

Improve your confidence and consistency by learning sound system tuning at your own pace from anywhere in the world with the highest level of support in the industry, guaranteed.

I know a lot of people don’t have the time and money to take off from work, fly to another city, and pay for lodging and a seminar that they hope will teach them proper sound system setup and tuning. These are people who are working jobs, taking care of families, and need guaranteed results, not just a fun day with colleagues.

That’s why I created Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound; to fit into your already busy life. You can watch a lesson on a coffee break and do your homework at lunch. You can re-watch a lesson as many times as you need to understand it. You can take something you just learned and try it out at work.

It’s a different way of doing education, for sure, but probably the biggest difference between this course and others is the level of support. Most seminars are an information dump and then you get home wondering how to get started. That’s because information is not the same as understanding and every new idea requires action for real transformation.

Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound provides the opportunity for transformation by allowing you to take action on each lesson in the field to truly understand it before moving forward. But self-paced doesn’t mean you’ll be alone. When you run into challenges (and you will!) me and our our online community will be there 24/7 to answer your questions and provide support. In addition, you and I will meet privately several times throughout the course to dig into your personal projects and make sure everything is running smoothly.

And I know you’re probably wondering: Is this worth my time and money?

Purchasing an online course can be tricky because it’s not like an orange. You can’t just pick it up and taste it. That’s why I include a 30-day guarantee. I want you to try it out. Watch the lessons and do the homework for the first two modules and if it hasn’t produced a noticeable change in your confidence and consistency by then, please ask for a refund because this course is not right for you.

Lessons from Module 1 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound

I front load all of my courses with the best lessons so that if I disappear tomorrow, you’ll still be able to move forward on your own.

Let’s see what we can learn inside of Module 1 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound.

Don’t have time for a video? No problem. Here’s the skinny:

Start a show log to speed up your professional growth.
Use MAPP XT to investigate speaker-to-speaker interactions.
Colleagues are the best resources.

After you join Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound you’ll be forwarded to your profile page. From there you’ll open up the course, which you’ll see is broken down into 5 modules:

Tools of the Trade
Placement
Aim
EQ and Listening
Crossover Alignment

Tools of the Trade is going to give you everything you need to not only get started in the course, but also to start your own self-training practice. This will give you the skills to go beyond my course or any other course by leveraging lessons from your own work and giving you the ability to answer your own questions by running tests.

How do we do this?

First we’ll get a show log set up to make sure that you are maximizing your learning on every live event. Then we’ll get MAPP XT set up so that you can quickly and easily answer any of your own questions by running tests in a prediction environment. Then we’ll put together your audio analyzer so that you can run tests like in MAPP XT, but in the real world. These are the tools that will give you the super power of seeing sound.

I know that getting your audio analyzer set up for the first time can be a challenge so I have included lots of supplemental videos to walk you through it step-by-step. I discuss how to assemble the right pieces and then verify that everything is working properly. It is one of the several mini courses inside this course to give more support to those who need it.

The final lesson gives you access to several important course bonuses, but is also where all of the recorded office hours are stored. This includes over 20 hours of live training and some special guests like Bob McCarthy, Merlijn van Veen, Chris Tsanjoures, and Charlie Hughes.

Lessons from Module 3 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound

How do I aim my speakers to best cover the room?

Let’s see what we can learn inside of Module 3 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound.

Don’t have time for a video? No problem. Here’s what we covered:

Horizontal and vertical aim for single speakers.
Aim and splay for the most common speaker combinations.
Aim and splay of a line array.

Speaker aim is more than just pointing speakers at the audience. There are a series of simple techniques we can use to not only estimate the aim for our speakers, but also verify it in the field.

First we’ll start by aiming single speakers in the horizontal plane through the center of their coverage areas. Then we’ll estimate vertical aim by multiplying the distance ratio by the coverage angle.

Next we’ll move on to aiming and splaying matched speakers in symmetrical spaces. This is an easy process of following the manufacturer’s specifications, but it will get slightly more complicated as we need to adapt to asymmetrical spaces with unmatched speaker combinations.

Our line array design will start by employing the auto set aim and splay functionality of the speaker manufacturer’s design software. Next we’ll move on to fine tuning the boxes per zone and splay to match the distance ratio. And finally, we’ll verify our work in the field by measuring that on and off-axis points match our design criteria.

This module also includes the very important step of verifying that our audio analyzer is set up properly and spitting out good data.

If you have been eyeballing your aim and hoping for the best up to now, these techniques are going to change your life with the amount of confidence they can bring.

Lessons from Module 4 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound

How do I EQ my sound system?

Let’s see what we can learn inside of Module 4 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound.

Don’t have time for a video? No problem. Here’s what’s up:

Tuning is objective. Toning is subjective.
Set EQ filters by observing their effects.
Start with single systems.

EQing a speaker’s response in a room is a lot more than just playing test tracks or yelling “Check!” into a microphone. It involves an objective process to identify interactions between speakers and the room and apply corrective filters towards a target.

First we need to be clear on the difference between tuning and toning. Many of us do both because we work as both the A1 and the system tech, which makes it especially important to understand where the creative process ends and the scientific process begins.

So how do I EQ this thing??

There are guidelines we can follow, like using a target trace and limiting the bandwidth and number of EQ filters we insert, but the most important thing is to follow a clear order of operations. Always start with single systems. Then combine your smaller sub systems. Then combine systems.

For some shows this may be as simple as starting with the single main speaker. Then combining it with the delay and the sub.

For other shows we may need to combine all of the speakers in our main array first. Then combine all of the subs in our sub array. Then put the two arrays together.

If you have been struggling to EQ everything at once up until now, inserting many filters and chasing many unknown problems, this method of organization is going to make your life so much easier. 🙂

Lessons from Module 5 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound

How do I set the delay for my Delay speaker?

How do I align my Main to my Sub?

Let’s see what we can learn inside of Module 5 of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound.

Don’t have time for a video? No problem. Here’s the goodness:

To set the delay for a spatial crossover we need to find the correct acoustic crossover point.
To align a spectral crossover we need to decide on the crossover region.
We can continue to use our audio analyzer during the show to monitor for changes caused by temperature and humidity.

Crossover alignment is a lot more than just playing a click track and adjusting to taste. The point where we focus our attention makes all the difference.

First we need names. Someone listening to a delay speaker may never be in total isolation from the main speaker, but they will with a relay speaker. This will guide our selection of the acoustic crossover point, where one source hands over custody to another. Then we can find the time difference using a laser distance measure or our audio analyzer.

To begin the spectral crossover alignment we need to decide if we are going to create an overlap crossover or a unity class crossover. The former may provide a better blend between systems while the later will be more stable over distance. Next we’ll decide on a crossover region and verify alignment.

Now it’s time to get ready for the show. Once we find suitable show mic positions we will take a measurement of combined systems and use that to find any changes in system response caused by fluctuating ambient conditions.

If you have been struggling to align your main to your sub by ear and setting delay for your speakers using audio myths, this method is going to put a smile on your face. 🙂