Sound Design Live

Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer

How Using Less EQ Can Stop Your Show from Sounding Horrible

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with the Sound Designer for Broken Chord and Project Design Manager for Sound Associates, Phillip Peglow. We discuss the night broadway was shutdown by COVID-19, whether or not you should go to graduate school, how EQ is ruining your show and what to do about it, why you’ll never beat the room, and why you should give the producer whatever they want.

I ask:

  • What are your concerns about work because of the pandemic?
  • When you get a new system installed and calibrated in a theatre and you want to give it a test drive, what music do you listen to?
  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • 8 years ago I interview your partners in Broken Chord, Aaron Meicht and Daniel Baker, after I saw their sound design for the pulitzer prize winning play “Ruined”. So how did you meet those guys and what do you like about working in a team instead of working solo?
  • How did you get the job at Sound Associates?
  • 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 design for theatre?
  • 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?

You can’t beat the room. Trying to punch your way through with EQ or level is a fool’s errand.

Phillip Peglow

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by HouseFrau and RRound.
  3. Workbag: headlamp,
  4. Books: Sound System, Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook
  5. Quotes
    1. Unless you have that opportunity [graduate school] at zero to you, I wouldn’t do it.
    2. If you really really really really really really really want to be on Broadway then you must move to NYC. It’s not an option.
    3. Use your ears first, before you put pink noise through anything. Start there.
    4. “If you’re making anything more than a 6dB cut, it’s probably time to reevaluate your decisions.” -Jamie Anderson
    5. Don’t ever use a GEQ.
    6. If you’re trying to make narrow narrow cuts, you are probably trying to optimize for a specific point in the room that has not bearing on 3-4 inches away from that position.
    7. You can’t beat the room.
    8. Trying to punch your way through with EQ or level is a fool’s errand.
    9. If I want into a theatre style setup and I have 5 minutes to get it going, I’m going to delay the system before I do anything else.
    10. When the people who sign your checks say, “This is what I want,” then just do what they want. It’s as much a psychological issue as it is an audio issue.

1 Graph Setting You Need to Change in Smaart for Faster EQ Decisions

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with the founder of SIA Acoustics and SIA Software and the originator of Smaart©, Sam Berkow. We discuss acoustics, sound system design, and audio analyzer pet peeves.

I ask:

  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • What’s one of the best decisions you made to get more of the work that you really love?
  • You have managed to build a business that successfully marries acoustic consultancy and system design and integration. It seems like these two jobs would always go hand in hand, but they don’t. Is that because sound system design is a much younger field? Could you talk about what separates and joins the two?
  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to audio analyzers?
  • Is it cheaper to make a room quieter or make the sound system louder?
  • Tell us about the biggest or maybe most painful mistake you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
  • From FB
    • Kip Conner: What happened to the Tacoma Dome case study? Can it be reposted?
    • Jason Kleiman: Does he have any advice and/or opinions on using FIR filters in system design and optimization. What is an example use case?
    • Cuauhtémoc Méndez: What are his thoughts on “immersive installations” and their future. Will it last?
    • Aleš Dravinec: Ask him how Kayden is doing.
  • What’s in your work bag?

It’s always cheaper to design it right the first time.

Sam Berkow

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Wowa.
  2. System toning songs: Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate – Debe, Diane Reeves – One for My Baby, Galactic – Black-Eyed Pea
  3. David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway
  4. The Band’s Visit on Broadway with Engineer: Kai Harada 
  5. Workbag: Earthworks, B&K, Studio6 Digital, Hilti laser measure, rubber mallet to bang on walls, a strategy for approaching projects
  6. Podcasts: Live From Here, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, TWIT “This Week In Technology”
  7. Books: Love is a Dog From Hell, Sound System Engineering, Sound Systems: Design & Optimization
  8. Quotes
    1. You don’t need to know why gasoline burns to drive a car, but it helps is you understand the fundamentals of how cars work and how they respond.
    2. Noise Criterion a series of curves where you make octave band measurements and what curve you stay under you use as your number.
    3. I think making rooms quiet makes them sound better. But if the show is 100dB then it doesn’t matter.
    4. It’s always cheaper to design it right in the first place.
    5. I’m a big believer in delaying the main system to the backline of rockbands.
    6. People are working to make the audio experience at concert venues like a movie experience.
    7. Because the transfer function inherently at mid and low frequencies is looking at the interaction of the room and the system and at high frequencies is looking at just the system I was hoping that as a tool, Smaart would bring those two things [acoustics and sound system design] together.
    8. The idea of low frequency decay being in some reasonable balance with high frequency decay in a room is critically important and a very important design tool and something that’s easy to measure in Smaart.
    9. My biggest pet peeve is people looking at the screen and not listening.
    10. If you have 80Hz as your crossover point, but your subwoofer is 6-8dB above the full range device, your acoustic crossover will be much lower than if you turn the subs up 10-12dB more. You’ve kept the electronic crossover, but slide the acoustic crossover up by changing the gain. I think you create a lot of mud in those cases, by having the subs go so much higher. I like to add EQ outside the bandpass on the subwoofer to make steeper crossovers and reduce the interaction in those areas.
    11. Complex FIR filters that address low frequencies introduce a lot of delay.
    12. I’m a big believer in delaying the main system to the back line of rock bands. So much sound is coming off of the stage that 7 or 8ms really makes a big difference for the front of the audience. The people up front stop hearing two snare drums.
    13. If you’re going to go out and optimize a system, you should have a step-by-step process in your head.

What You Should Know About Communication And Trust Between Artists And Sound Engineers

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk musical artist Ozark Henry about his new album Paramount recorded in Aura3d. We discuss the challenges and benefits of live recording, being faithful to the artist’s vision in your mix, and the one thing Henry wishes more sound engineers would do on every show.

I ask:

  • How did you get your first paying gig in show business?
  • We have all had the experience of hearing a great live band, and then being disappointed by their album. Honestly, this is why we love working in live sound. But why is it so hard to capture the same energy and charisma of a live experience on a recording?
  • Let’s talk about Auro3D for a second. Could you explain why the extra 4 speakers higher up are so important?
  • Tell me about the recording process. Did you just hang 9 mics above the orchestra? How do you decide what sounds go to what speakers to create the experience you’re going for?
  • How did you meet your sound engineer? What do you like about them?
  • What’s something that you wish all sound engineers would do or stop doing that would improve audio quality or show production?
ozark henry

You’re part of the team. You can only be part of the team if you really connect.

Ozark Henry

How to develop a habit of logical troubleshooting, piece-by-piece

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with the creator of the Sound Bullet, David Scorteccia. We discuss building a habit of logical troubleshooting, how caring less can get you more gigs, and all of the Sound Bullet features.

I ask:

  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to troubleshooting signal flow?
  • Walk us through some of the features of the Sound Bullet and with each one, let’s talk about how it’s used in the field and maybe any personal stories you might have related to that feature.
  • 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?

Take a deep breath and analyze it piece by piece.

David Scorteccia

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal, Unknown Mortal Orchestra – How Many Zeros, Mark Guiliana – Roast, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Melting.
  2. Workbag: Leatherman, Sharpies, Socket Tester, Cutting mat, p!ng, angle finder
  3. Books: Sound Systems: Design and Optimization
  4. Merlijn van Veen
  5. Quotes
    1. A lot of it is about body communication, because if you really want to have friends and attract more work, the tension you feel will express itself on your face.
    2. Take a deep breath and analyze it piece by piece.
    3. I can get into the habit of analyzing things in a thorough way so that the next time things happen in a rush I’ll be able to troubleshoot it faster.
    4. There’s nothing better than knowing that my little creature is being used.
    5. If I have 5 hours of setup time I would check every single thing that I see move or be still.

Guess How Many Measurements Positions You Need for Proper Output EQ (it’s more than 1!)

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with the Product Manager at L-Acoustics, Scott Sugden. We discuss the automation built into the new M1 measurement software, why you can’t trust measurement data above 10kHz beyond 80m, and the specific number of measurement positions you need to represent an audience for proper output EQ choice.

I ask:

  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to L-Acoustics systems?
  • What’s interesting for me about the P1 processor is that you have managed to automate some procedures that we would normally do manually. Would you talk about one or two of those procedures and maybe why L-Acoustics decided to pursue this kind of automation?
  • Tell us about one of the biggest or maybe most painful mistakes you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
  • From FB
    • Kevan Atkins: During a demo I attended for L-ISA, he made a claim that it addresses the problem of comb filtering in system design but didn’t really expand on it. I’d be curious to hear him talk about this in more detail.
    • Haniel Trisna: Explain the idea of boosting high mids in the middle boxes to air compensate for long throws instead of the top box (generated by auto FIR in Sound Vision), and where can we learn more about working with the auto FIR and auto splay.
    • Primož Vozelj: Are they working on vertical processing of their line arrays (like ArrayProcessing, MLA etc.)?
    • Calum Young: I’d love to know what sort of measurement equipment / facilities / testing procedures they go through while developing new units. Is most of the work and decision making done in simulation software pre building prototypes, or is there more extended testing / voicing of units?
    • Steve Knots: If Greek amphitheaters were designed to put the audience in the best place for sound, why are we not creating clubs, theaters and control rooms in similar architectural style?
    • Roy Sputtz: Is the idea of true stereo in live sound a myth?? And also why isn’t anyone making an all weather line array?
    • Ockert Marais: Are they planning on supporting, mic correction curves and z-weighted weighting curves on the P1?
  • What’s in your work bag?

About 8 microphone positions distributed evenly in the center mass of the coverage of a loudspeaker is pretty representative of the overall. The likelihood of a poor EQ choice because of that is pretty low.

Scott Sugden

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Bodo Felusch.
  2. Justin Vernon and Bon Iver
  3. Cadac J type
  4. L-Isa, Soundvision
  5. Workbag: iSEMcon 7150, DPA 4007, Digigram Cancun 442
  6. Book: The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail–but Some Don’t
  7. Podcast: 20,000Hz, 538 Politics, Science Vs, Planet Money, Freakonomics, The Flophouse
  8. Quotes
    1. A common mistake made with a lot of systems is the expectation that you can solve your problems of a bad design after you install it.
    2. The lack of knowledge; it’s hard to be aware that you don’t know something. That’s one that only comes with time, experience, and making mistakes.
    3. If you have just one mic at FOH or one at FOH and one 20ft off stage of that, the likelihood of an EQ choice not being representative of the audience is really high.
    4. We have taken measurements outside in atmospheric conditions that are good and found that at 80m from measurement to measurement on average is ±5dB at 10kHz. This means that if you see a measurement with a bump of +1dB at 10kHz, you can’t know if that’s the reality or it isn’t. Even a long average doesn’t help.
    5. We tend to look at measurements and think they are some hard fact, but if you’ve used any measurement software outside at distance, you watch the curve move around and when you think it looks good you hit store.
    6. The best thing we can do is use the modeling environment to find the best result, especially at distance, and then get outside and verify behaviors.
    7. It’s hard for anyone to be an expert at all things. It’s an important part of career growth to identify what you can or want to be an expert at and then support yourself by surrounding yourself with other people that reinforce those skills, not reproduce them.
    8. It’s better to figure out what you like and hone down on that expertise than to try to cover every little thing.
    9. Once you get used to the workflow [of the P1/M1] the savings in workflow time and organization of your data is a 10x increase.