Are your fill speakers phase compatible with your mains? Does it matter? L-Acoustics K2 + dV-DOSC Today I'm helping setup an L-Acoustics sound system at the convention center for an annual religious meeting. We've got K2 in the main array and dV-DOSC as delays. The A1 aligned the system using distance measurements. Normally, I'm a big fan of this method. That's what the 1:1 preset in SubAligner is for. But today, I have some doubts. These speakers are 15 years apart. The dV-DOSC came … [Read more...]
Adventures in Alignment #1
The only good reason for uncoupled subs. While teaching Sub School I came across an interesting fact: The only time I split my subwoofers up to cover the left and right side of the audience is when the width is greater than the depth. The beginning of forward aspect ratio (FAR) is 1:1, a square. If your audience is a square then you need a 180ยบ speaker, or in this case, a sub array. I find this is pretty common, which is one of the reasons that the gradient array is so useful. I only … [Read more...]
7 Point Sub Alignment Verification Checklist
Picture this: You've spent hours carefully setting up a show, only to end up fighting the mix all night because of some annoying thing you forgot to check. Sound familiar? A year ago I worked on a very dynamic show with quiet talkers punctuated by a loud rock band. I did all of my normal sound system calibration procedures, but forgot one important detail. I never drove the system close to maximum show level. The show began. Kids started screaming and rushing the stage. I had plenty of … [Read more...]
Unlocking Precision in Distance-Based Crossover Alignment: 9 essential tips for accurate measurements
Using SubAligner for crossover alignment is simple, but sometimes getting accurate distance measurements is not. If you use a laser disto then you may have run into some challenges getting good data in direct sunlight. 😎 Here are some of my favorite tips to get accurate measurements: Delay finders struggle with subwoofers because subwoofers reproduce only a fraction of the audible spectrum leaving too little data for the delay finder to lock onto. The proxy loudspeaker's … [Read more...]
Sound System Setup: Why Subwoofer Crossover Alignment is Critical
I worked on a reggae festival 12 years ago where I fell asleep at the console and destroyed some subwoofers. I fell asleep because I just wasn't prepared for such a long day and didn't have anyone to take over for me. I'm still not completely clear on how the subs were destroyed, but I think it was a combination of improper limiter settings and over driving them on accident because I was mixing from a power valley and some issues with the crossover alignment. To avoid repeating this mistake, … [Read more...]