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...]
Stop Blindly Recommending Linkwitz-Riley Filters
Linkwitz-Riley filters may sum well electrically, but not acoustically. For this reason I think their best function is as targets, but not a generic crossover filter design recommendation. For example: 👎 "Using LR24 filters will give you a flat acoustic frequency response through the crossover region." 👍 "Using LR24 targets will give you a flat acoustic frequency response through the crossover region." Then, choose whatever filters are appropriate to hit the … [Read more...]
How to Set Subwoofer Delay (7 top brands agree)
You don't need expensive equipment or a PhD to set subwoofer delay time. In fact, all you need is: Sound too easy? Consider that top brands like L-Acoustics, d&b audiotechnik, JBL, Coda Audio, RCF, Funktion-One and dB Technologies all recommend the same subwoofer phase alignment method. For the rest of the article I'll refer to this as the relative/absolute method. These manufacturers all agree that: Manufacturers differ on where to get the pre-alignment delay values and … [Read more...]
How to phase align main to sub in Smaart, REW, Open Sound Meter, SATlive, and Crosslite
The audio analyzer functions primarily as a verification tool. For this reason this article will focus on creating alignment presets, which can then be modified in the field using simple distance measurements. To fit this into a single article I will offer an overview of a single method for each software. Although the steps with each tool might differ slightly, in general they follow this pattern: Measure each source solo.Do whatever is necessary to achieve alignment.Measure sources … [Read more...]
Can you remove reflections from live measurements for more accurate alignments?
In my last article I found some minor success in validating subwoofer alignment indoors through the use of carefully chosen microphone locations and their average. Next up: Can it be done live in real time? Thierry De Coninck sent me an article he had written outlining a procedure that would allow you to not only create these averages, but also set the delay locator for your transfer function based on distance to avoid any errors from reflections or lack of HF content arriving at ground … [Read more...]