Sound Design Live

Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer

If Poor Speaker Choice and Placement Were a Crime, We’d All Go to Jail

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with principle teacher at Synergetic Audio Concepts and a co-author of Sound System Engineering, Pat Brown. We discuss the motivation of mistakes, finding clients through retail work, investing in high quality tools, practicing at home, and the biggest mistakes in sound system design and optimization.

I ask:

  • What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?
  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • Looking back on your career so far, what’s one of the best decisions you made to get more of the work that you really love?
  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to sound system design?
  • If you could wave a magic wand and make it so, what is one concept that you wish all sound system designers understood better?
  • Tell us about the biggest or maybe most painful mistake you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
  • What software do you us in your seminars?
  • What’s in your work bag?
  • What is one book that has been immensely helpful to you?

If the FCC prosecuted sound system designers for poor array design, like you would for a for RF antenna design, they’d be putting us in jail for how we spew energy into rooms.

Pat Brown

Notes

  1. All music in this podcast by Nataly.
  2. Course 50: How Sound Systems Work
  3. Software: GratisVolver, CATT-Acoustic, ReflPhinder, SketchUp, FIR Capture
  4. Books: Handbook for Sound Engineers, Sound Systems: Design and Optimization
  5. Workbag: impedance meter, polarity tester
  6. Quotes
    1. I had just screwed up a system really bad. I wanted to know what I did wrong and was glad to find out I had done everything wrong.
    2. The key is to do it enough times to where you don’t have to think about the steps each time.
    3. Everyone should have to do retail for a while.
    4. The music store makes a great front end for a contracting business.
    5. I get that call all the time: OK Pat, I’m out in the room, I’m got my mic up, I’ve got my USB card hooked up. Now what? And I always say, “Pack it all back up. Go home. Lock yourself in your living room. Get a couple of little sound speakers and learn how to drive the thing.”
    6. If the FCC prosecuted sound system designers for poor array design, like you would for a for RF antenna design, they’d be putting us in jail for how we spew energy into rooms.
    7. You have to minimize the excitation of the room because you are creating your own interference if you are not thinking about that.
    8. I’ve never been impressed by market share. Just because something is the most popular thing out there for doing something; that’s never been a good enough reason for me to use it.
    9. The thing about acoustic modeling programs is that you can be way off. It’s always necessary, if possible, as a sanity check, to compare it to measured data in the room.

Real World troubleshooting tips for wireless microphone and In-ear-monitor dropouts and interference

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with touring monitor engineer and RF technician for the Eli Young Band, Stephen Pavlik. We discuss troubleshooting tips for wireless microphone and in-ear-monitor interference as well as RF best practices to avoid dropouts.

I ask:

  • What is one RF myth you would like to never hear again?
  • One of the most common wireless issues that everyone asked about during Wireless Workshop is how to avoid drop outs. At the beginning of your presentation you said, “There is no one solution. There is no magic box. We need to maximize efficiency and properly deploy every device and step in the chain! Only then can we blame the video guys.” If that’s the case, could you help me get started by giving me a prioritized checklist of things to look at to help me track down my wireless dropouts? What are some common pitfalls at each stage of the signal chain?
  • Tell us about the biggest or maybe most painful mistake you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
  • What’s in your work bag?
  • What is one book that has been immensely helpful to you?
  • What podcasts do you listen to regularly?

Every point in the signal chain can affect gain. Too low and you have dropouts. Too high and you have overloads.

Stephen Pavlik

Notes

  1. All music in this podcast by Steve Knots.
  2. Part 74 license: Legally you can shut down other unlicensed operators causing interference. Operate at 250mW. Must use a minimum of 50 channels on a regular basis to qualify.
  3. White space devices: use unused TV channels.
  4. LPDA: Shark fin. Wideband directional antenna. 7-9dBi of gain compared to an omnidirectional antenna.
  5. Wireless Workshop: Wireless Crash Course for Monitor Engineers
  6. Tips to avoid dropouts:
    1. Have the right cable. Video cable (75ohm): big debate, but you will experience some loss. Make sure the center pin is not extruding past the connector. Use RG8X or RG8 and you’ll be fine.
    2. Make sure you are wired correctly. You cannot cascade active antenna combiners. You must use a passive combiner.
    3. Antenna location: Line of sight and away from metal and power.
    4. Insure that SMA antenna connector is secure. If you see both A and B antennas stop receiving at the same time then you have a problem with the transmitter.
  7. Dropout: low enough signal that the squelch engages.
  8. Workbag: spectrum analyzer, Wilkinson power divider, tunable filter, KC901s, TTI PSA 2702, Signal Hound SA44B, Senheisser A1031U, Professional Wireless LPDA, Lectrosonics SNA600, battery powered antenna distro PSC RF multi
  9. Books: Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook, ARRL Antenna Handbook, Secrets of RF Circuit Design
  10. Podcasts: This Week in Radio Tech
  11. Quotes
    1. Don’t be afraid to leave a good thing in hopes of something better.
    2. You cannot take the output of an antenna combiner and cascade it into another one to get more channels.
    3. Every point in the signal chain can affect gain. Too low and you have dropouts. Too high and you have overloads. The most loss is in the wireless path.
    4. Make sure the antenna doesn’t touch skin because that will take out another 20dB.

If you’re using audio over IT, but you don’t know how it works, you will fail.

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with sound engineer, producer, and trainer on network technology and Lake processing, Bodo Felusch. We discuss practicing using your audio analyzer at home without a PA, identifying a comb filter, and the importance of understanding the network your audio is traveling over.

I ask:

  • What is your favorite test track for checking crossover alignment between main and sub?
  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • In your exercises for FFT (The Ultimate System Tuning Homework) you suggest that I shouldn’t be wasting my client’s time learning how to use my audio analyzer in the field, but this is one of the biggest challenges with learning system tuning, how do I practice at home when I don’t have a PA?
    • One of the very first things I learned from your FFT self-guided homework is that I can find the frequency and the time period of a comb filter by 1 / Frequency of first dip / 2. So if I find the first dip at 50Hz, that would be (1 / 50Hz / 2 = 10ms. How does this information help me in my sound system setup?
  • On coherence you say, “Now you don’t have friends in catering because your measurement signal is too loud.” How loud does my measurement signal need to be? Or how quiet can I make it so that I don’t loose friends in catering?
  • What is a Lake Controller? What is one of the most common mistakes people make who are new to Lake Controllers?
  • Why do I need to understand audio networks? Isn’t Dante and AVB just another fad that will go away in a few years?

Technology fails and you need to make decisions, fast, and fix it. Without knowing what is going on in the network, you will fail.

Bodo Felusch

Notes

  1. All music in this podcast by Bodo Felusch.
  2. Hardware: Lake processor
  3. CRE = Chief Redundant Engineer
  4. Books: Factfullness from Hans Rosling
  5. Gapminder Test
  6. Quotes
    1. Now you don’t have friends in catering because your measurement signal is too loud.
    2. Do your homework at home.
    3. If you measure 10dB above the noise floor you will have a 3dB ripple. If you measure 20dB above you will have a 1dB ripple.
    4. Once you transport your show relevant signals over IT, and only IT, it makes sense that you know how a network works. Without knowing what is going on with the network, you will fail.
    5. We could both be replaced in an hour, and that’s good. There is no superstar in audio.

What’s the difference between Broadway and Rock ‘n’ Roll to a system tech?

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with touring system technician and Master Sound Engineer at the Guthrie Theatre, Alex Ritter.

I ask:

  • How did you get the system tech job on the Lady Antebellum tour?
  • How did you get the job at the Guthrie?
  • What is a system tech?
  • Walk me through a day in your life while you were working on the Lady Antebellum tour.
  • One of your responsibilities at the Guthrie is to prepare the sound system for new shows and sound designers. System optimization is all about managing interactions and you are managing many interactions in these rooms. How do you keep it all straight?
  • What’s in your work bag?
sound-design-live-alex-ritter

You get the work you get because of the people you know and what they think of you.

Alex Ritter

Notes

  1. All music in this podcast by Sulagna Handique.
  2. Alex on LinkedIn and FB.
  3. The Guthrie Theater
  4. Master sound engineer = production sound engineer = top of the union ladder
  5. If you want to work in theatre, build relationships with sound designers and general managers. If you want to work in concert sound, build relationships with production managers, FOH engineers, monitor engineers, and artists.
  6. Shows: Wicked, Noises Off, West Side Story
  7. Software: AutoCAD, OmniGraffle, VectorWorks
  8. Hardware: Stagetec Nexus, Outline Newton
  9. Workbag: Q-box, M30 RTA mic, Leica disto/range finder, Nikon forestry pro, Sound Devices USB Pre 2, Motu 18i2, iSemCon 7150, Lectrosonics R400 wireless transmitters
  10. Books: Sound Systems: Design and Optimization, Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook
  11. Resources including an empty delay tracking spreadsheet, an example delay tracking spreadsheet, and CAD blocks.
  12. Quotes
    1. You get the work you get because of the people you know and what they think of you. I made the decision to be nice to people and create contacts and cultivate those as best I can.
    2. We’re in a service industry. The day you realize that is the day that you get more jobs.
    3. I want to make sure that what I do will reflect a show condition. It makes no since to just tune a front-fill by itself and say “Hey, it looks flat.”
    4. Part of my job is to make sure that what the engineer hears at FOH is replicated for the other 16,000 people that are there.
    5. I feel like if I did six EQ cuts in a system, I did something wrong.
    6. If you’re going to change the system on an engineer. They should should know about it before you do it and don’t do it in the middle of a song.

How to maximize gain before feedback of a podium microphone using Smaart®

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To prevent feedback from your podium microphone and create the most natural sound, measure the sound system in Smaart, but use the podium mic as the measurement input.

Podium microphones can be a struggle. It’s nice that they are generally reliable and everyone knows how to use one, but they are also static. They don’t track anyone’s height or movements. This means wildly different levels for the sound engineer. While Darryn might stand at an ideal distance from the microphone, giving you sufficient gain before feedback, Pedro might stand or perform in a way that drives the sound system into feedback.

Luckily, the transfer function in Smaart can measure any two inputs against each other. Most commonly we use a reference input from the mix console and a measurement input from a measurement mic. But, if you switch the measurement input to the podium microphone then you can measure sound system bleed and room reflections entering the mic, then treat it with EQ.

I first heard the idea during my interview with Chris Leonard who saw it used on the presidential inauguration. Here’s how I have adapted it:

  1. Measure a transfer function using the vocal group as the measurement input and the console output as the reference input.
  2. Insert filters to equalize response.
  3. Adjust filters during soundcheck.

I like to take my reference input from the output of the mix console and before the system processor. If I’m doing the system processing in the console, I’ll tap the reference just before the system processing. Then, I’ll connect the monitor output from the console into an input on my audio interface and use that as the measurement input.

Now I can solo the podium microphone or the vocal subgroup to satisfy the transfer function.

Sometimes it can be really hard to get a lock with the delay locator. I usually need to search more than once before I can find a delay setting that will show actionable data. Coherence will be low because you are measuring a combination of energy from the back of the speakers plus lots of reflections.

Here’s a measurement from the podium of the last show I worked on.

Here’s the EQ I inserted to compensate.

Here is the post EQ measurement.

During soundcheck I adjusted the low shelf until it sounded natural. Here’s the result.

This gives me better gain before feedback on my podium mic and creates a great starting point for all of my vocal mic inputs.

I see a lot of possibilities for this measurement. Have you tried it yet? What were your results?