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How To Tune A Sound System In 15 Minutes

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-professional-sound-system-setup-15-minutes-MAPP-8k

Even professionals often skip sound system setup and go straight to mixing because there just isn’t enough time. Unfortunately, you can’t go directly to your artistic place without first passing through science. The good news is that even the smallest amounts of time can be put to good use. 

How? With a plan.

Simple Sound System Goals

The goal for tuning a sound system is very simple: manage interactions to reduce variance across the listening plane. Put another way: provide the same sound in every seat. Setting the master EQ for perfect sound at the mix position does not meet this goal. Instead, we need an order of operations to help us make changes that will benefit the entire listening area, or at least mitigate damage. The order of operations is:

  1. Verification
  2. Placement
  3. Aim
  4. EQ
  5. Crossover alignment

It might seem like you don’t have 15 minutes to spare to check all of this, but the most important items are listed first. Completing a few is better than nothing.

You will need a dual channel analyzer like Smaart, SATlive, SysTune, Tuning Capture, RiTA, Open Sound Meter, etc..

Here are the speakers we need to set up: (2) CQ-1 (wide coverage main), (2) 650-P (2x 18-inch sub) in an uncoupled symmetrical point destination array. It’s your standard left/right mains situation (see diagram below). This is the most common professional sound system setup that I run into; it is not good or bad, just common. 

Our job as a waveform delivery service is to minimize phase distortion that causes comb filtering. Comb filtering makes a swooshing sound in the high frequencies as you move your head and should never be fed after midnight. Unfortunately, any array with speakers facing in towards a destination will produce some amount of combing. We would prefer a single CQ-1 and 650-P flown above downstage center to match the room. This design often doesn’t happen because of hardware and time limitations. I could complain about it and waste your time, but those speakers will still be sitting there, bored as hell.

Download the MAPP XT project if you would like to follow along with each step.

Disclaimer: This is a highly simplified example with minimum microphone positions to give you an idea of the structure for verifying and calibrating a professional sound system. There are many factors at play and details that I do not cover, like how to operate an analyzer. For a more in-depth analysis of this subject listen to my interview with Bob McCarthy.

Minutes 0-4: Verification

Do you think a lighting technician starts running a show without making sure that each instrument responds at the correct address? No! Better make sure all of your speakers play what they are supposed to play.

  1. Set all outputs to unity.
  2. Play pink noise and isolate one speaker at a time. In this setup we are unable to solo individual drivers, but do it if you can.
  3. Is the left output playing from the left speaker? If not, track it down. Many times it’s just a case of faulty patching. If you’ve got lines wrong inside of a closed box, you’re going to need more than 15 minutes, so I hope you have a backup. Repeat for each speaker/driver.
  4. Listen. Are there any obvious problems like noise, distortion, or Left and Right sounding different?
  5. Measure phase response on your audio analyzer at on-axis of each speaker/driver. Confirm matching relative phase. A phase offset of 180° indicates a polarity inversion. Any point in the signal chain could cause a polarity inversion so either track it down or simply invert phase anywhere else so that they all match in the end.

This step is the most important. It will be a sad dance party if your subs aren’t working.

Placement

In this situation there’s not much we can do with placement. We would like to move each speaker closer to the center of its coverage area, but we have a stage in the way and no rigging hardware or points.

Minutes 4-8: Aim

We only have a single measurement microphone, so we’ll need more time on this step to move it between positions. If I were running late and needed to cut one step from this process, I would cut this one and instead estimate the aim with a laser.

  1. Compare Main Left solo at OFFAXL and OFFAXR.
  2. Adjust aim until OFFAXL = OFFAXR in the HF (high frequencies).
  3. Repeat for Main Right.

Minutes 8-12: EQ

  1. Measure Main Left solo at ONAX and set output EQ filters to match your target trace.
  2. Listen to the filters in and out while playing your reference tracks. Are you going in the right direction?
  3. Copy the Main Left output EQ to Main Right output EQ.
  4. Measure Main L+R at ONAX and set EQ filters to return system response to your target trace. 
  5. Listen.

Minutes 12-15: Crossover Alignment

  1. Measure Sub Left solo at ONAX.
  2. Compare to Main Left solo. Are phase measurements within 60º through the crossover region? If so, move to step 7. If not, fix it. (for more, see How to verify main+sub alignment in Smaart)
  3. Measure MainL+SubL and check the combined response to make sure you have summation throughout the spectral crossover.
  4. Apply any necessary combined EQ.
  5. Listen to the result with your changes in and out. 

This is a stripped-down example of one of the most common sound system setups that I have encountered in the field. It skips steps and makes assumptions, so use it at your own risk. There is a lot more to do to be thorough, but I wanted to demonstrate that even a small amount of time can be put to good use.

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

By Nathan Lively

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

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.

Mauricio Ramirez: Trust your ears, not just the audio analyzer

By Nathan Lively

mauricio-ramirez-trust-ears-not-audio-analyzer-featured

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast I talk to Mauricio Ramirez, senior seminar instructor at Meyer Sound. We discuss some of the biggest mistakes he sees made by people who are new to sound system tuning. We also cover:

  • Most popular test tracks.
  • Which country has the most audio engineers who smoke?
  • How did you get your first job in audio?
  • What is the best choice you made to get more of the work that you love? (Hint: It rhymes with dedication.)
  • Why parents shouldn’t teach their kids that they are special and why it’s good to be normal.

mauricio-ramirez-trust-ears-not-audio-analyzer-headshotPeople want to see a beautiful graphic, but what people forget is that we are working with sound. We are not video guys or lighting guys. We are sound guys.

Show notes:

  1. All music in this episode by jACE the Caveat.
  2. Books: Don Davis Audio Encyclopedia, Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook, Modern Recording Techniques
  3. Software: Smaart, SATlive, Systune
  4. The most common sound system tuning mistakes you might be making:
    1. You have an older, cracked version of Smaart without all of the latest features. Buy a license and update.
    2. You are using smoothing. Turn it off (use 1/48 or 1/24 octave smoothing).
    3. You are trying to equalize comb filtering. Move the microphone 1m away. Don’t make decisions based on a single microphone position.
    4. You don’t have enough practice. Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
    5. You trust what you see on the graphic more than what you hear. Trust your ears.
  5. Jiro Dreams of Sushi: “Nowadays, parents tell their children, ‘You can return if it doesn’t work out.’ When parents say stupid things like that, the kids turn out to be failures.”
  6. Wrecking Crew
  7.  Quotes
    1. The big problem is that people smooth the graphic of the analyzer to ⅓. That is the biggest mistake. Smooth is easier to read, but what you are reading is a lie!
    2. Only correct what is common to all measurements.
    3. You need to compare the graphic of the analyzer with something that will be played during the concert. Some people only test the sound system with pink noise and then the graphic looks beautiful and they say, “It’s ready!”
    4. Start to learn what part of the information you can see that you can trust and what part you can see that you can not trust.
    5. Concerts in an anechoic chamber would be horrible because our ears are expecting reflections.
    6. Forget about what you see on the screen. We are sound guys, not video guys.
    7. If you are special, maybe only only special people will enjoy your mixing. But if you are an average guy, 90% of the population will enjoy it.
    8. It’s not important that you are working for famous artists. If people are calling you, you’re doing your job correctly.
    9. I normally prepare two snapshots. One before and one after the EQ. Then play music or speech and change the snapshots. Most people prefer the sound without the filters. So do I.
    10. Listen first. If your brain tells you it’s good, don’t do anything.
    11. If your delay error is less than 20ms, you might not hear an echo, but you’ll have comb filtering.

mauricio-ramirez-trust-ears-not-audio-analyzer-seminar

mauricio-ramirez-trust-ears-not-audio-analyzer-band

Ramirez’s band, Opción Cero, 1997

Emergency Digico SD5 Optocore Procedures

By Nathan Lively

emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-procedures-mixing-board

UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5.

sound-design-live-emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-proceduresThese emergency Optocore procedures could save your ass.

How did I learn all of this?

I recently started working as an Audio Supervisor on Ringling Bros. Circus’ new Out Of This World tour. Right before the very first rehearsal, all of my outputs from the Digico SD5 stopped working and I had 100 people waiting on me while I tried to fix it. I made it through that and several other minor emergencies and now I know the entire Digico tech support department by name. Here are the fixes they taught me.

To be clear, the SD5 is an amazing console and the company provides excellent support. Most of these fixes can be done in a matter of seconds and I’m really happy about that.

If you lose output at FOH and are unable to regain control of the outputs (yes, this has happened to me):

  1. At FOH: Setup -> Audio IO -> Setup Optocore -> Optocore Details -> Clear all outputs
  2. At Mon: Setup -> Audio IO -> Setup Optocore -> Optocore Details -> Broadcast only my ID
  3. At FOH:
    1. Reassign outputs in Audio IO (in my case Nanorack ports).
    2. Reassign Group outputs like Master and monitros.

If you are getting Optocore errors due to Snd/Rcv Console issues:

  1. Check all output cards to confirm you have correct ✔ or X.
  2. Setup Optocore -> Optocore Details -> Broadcast all output IDs

Other Emergency Procedures

If your startup session gets corrupted (this is also a good thing to practice once a month):

  1. Quit to Windows.
  2. Right click on startup menu -> Explore
  3. D:\SD5 and delete startup.ses and startup.mrdb
  4. Relaunch SD5

If you get an error about the sd5.exe file being corrupted:

  1. Try to load the SD5.exe in the d:\SD5\backup folder.
  2. If that works, move the backup SD5 folder to where the old one was and move the old one to backup.

If you loaded your session, but none of the Waves plugins loaded (this happens to me at least once a month):

  1. Open Waves
  2. Click Session -> Import session
  3. Import the last known good *.mrdb file.
  4. Your plugins should load. Sometimes you’ll need to go through a few files until you find one that works.

If Waves will not load and therefore you cannot save or load a session:

  1. Load Waves session manually.
  2. If you cannot open waves:
    1. Quit to Windows.
    2. Right click on startup menu -> Explore.
    3. D:\SD5 and delete startup.mrdb and Preferences folder.
    4. Relaunch SD5.

sound-design-live-emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-procedures-SIMImportant SD5 Notes

Here is a selection of some of the most important notes I have collected. Some you can find in the manual, but some I had to figure out on my own.

Startup Procedure

  1. Power up (or restart if already running).
  2. Load last known good session.

Shutdown Procedure

  1. Save session to internal and external drives.
  2. Shutdown from File menu.
  3. Power down both power supplies.

Optocore

  • Even-numbered Optocore IDs are for mirrored desks only.
  • System diagnostics on the SD5 to see errors.
  • Only one console can be in charge of an output module.
  • If you hear ticks and pops you may have a sync issue.
  • On the D-Rack and Nano-rack display, the tiny triangle under the “o” means that it is receiving timecode.
  • When one SD5 is loading a new session, the other will show a momentary Optocore error.

Surface

  • Option-all breaks a gang.
  • Option-all to turn everything up on a page. Hit channel LCD to exclude some.
  • Digico button affects rotary resolution.

Snapshots

  • If you keep all of your snapshots in a group, it can make updating all of them at once pretty easy:
    • Make sure Relative Groups is enabled.
    • Fire a snapshot that loads the setting that you want to change.
    • Change that setting.
    • Press Update Group.
    • At this point, you may want to take all snapshots out of the group, because if you accidentally press Update Group in the future…you’re hosed.
  • Input channel safe does not protect the input gain because that is a function of the rack.

Waves

  • The Waves server wants to be networked to both the Waves port on the back of the SD5 and the network port. The Waves port is for audio processing. The network port handles the GUI. Careful with these CAT5 cables. They have a short life.
  • If the Waves server is not appearing in the Waves inventory table: hard reset on the back of the unit.
  • To recall safe a Waves rack: Right-click on the left of the rack and choose recall safe.
  • To switch between Setup and Show modes, go to the Master view->System tab->Security and switch between Setup and Live.

Connect a computer

  1. Connect both devices to router.
    1. Wireless adapter settings: Make sure Wifi is first in the list. Also it seems to like it better when you set the IP manually. So try that if it doesn’t work.
  2. Under Network – select your computer.
  3. Send session.
  4. Mirror from console.

emergency-digico-sd5-optocore-procedures-timeMisc

  • Don’t send channels to an aux and also a group because they will be out of time.
  • If your sessions are not saving with the correct time, you may have a mismatch between Windows and the SD5 software. To correct this: Reset the time zone and time in Windows to GMT, then set the time in the SD5 software to your local time.

Bonus Super Helpful Macro Instructions

In production meetings I sometimes get the note that a certain song “had the wrong mix.” I made a special button to fix that. 😉

What your parents never taught you about money

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-money-parents-magnifying-glassDo you wish you had more control over your money? (Yes!)

Do you wish you knew where all of your money was going? (Double yes!)

You Need A Budget (YNAB) is the smart software that lets me figure all of this out for myself. To make sure I was getting the most out of it, I talked to Todd Curtis, their Chief Knowledge Officer.

What is YNAB, exactly? I wrote about it in this article, The Minimalist Guide to Budgeting (for Sound Engineers). You don’t have to read the article to understand this interview; the first part is all about budgeting and applies to anyone and everyone. Then there’s a bit of fanboying at the end for the hard-core YNAB users out there (I love you guys!).

sound-design-live-nathan-lively-phone-moneyNATHAN LIVELY: Every time someone asks me if I like YNAB I give an enthusiastic “Yes!”, but then I always have to explain that there was a big learning curve that probably has more to do with the fact that I never learned to manage my money responsibly than the software being overly complex. Would you say that’s fairly common?

sound-design-live-money-ynab-todd-curtisTODD CURTIS: Absolutely. Almost anything significant that we learn new as adults has a learning curve. As adults, we’ve collected all these thoughts about the way things should be, and we have to unlearn those things as much as we need to learn new things.

On top of that, people’s financial lives are complicated. There are a lot of moving parts, and we have a lot of issues like security and personal goals wrapped up in money. That’s where the stress comes from, but keeping a budget can remove that stress. We like to think YNAB—both the method and the software—does that easily. It’s just easier if you can forget what you think you know!

Understanding how to use money is just as important as language in surviving modern life. Why is our personal knowledge so lacking?

I love that analogy to language. But language is something we learn naturally—our brains are actually wired for language acquisition! Managing our money isn’t something we’re surrounded by from birth. So we each kind of grope around and try to develop our own solutions, which is too bad because in the end, it isn’t especially difficult to learn some strategies that can make a real difference.

More than one person told me that they bought YNAB, got started, then at some point stopped entering transactions and gave up. I bet this happens fairly often and I’m curious if you have any good strategies for maintaining momentum?

I think a lot of people give up the first moment they discover what they actually spend turns out to be different than what they expected.

Because if people have learned anything about a budget, it is that it is a rigid system. Make your numbers or else! As though you get a grade at the end of the month. But that mode of thinking doesn’t recognize that life is unpredictable, even though we all know that it is. When your plans change, your budget – which is just a plan for your money – needs to change, too.

What do you wish your parents had taught you about money? Or, if you could leave behind a collection of values for your children, what would they be?

Be intentional about your money. Set (and change when necessary!) clear priorities and think about how money can help you reach them—or not.

sound-design-live-money-parents-dollar-honeyWhat are the most common mistakes you see people make with budgeting?

Forecasting—budgeting money that they don’t have yet. It’s easy to imagine any amount of future money when you do your budget, but then you don’t see the real need for change in your habits. You’ll go through the motions of what you think is budgeting without getting the positive benefits. Bottom line? Only work with the money you have now. The rest will come.

What are your responses to these two excuses? 1) I don’t make enough money to budget. 2) I make enough money to not worry about budgeting.

No matter how much money you do or don’t have, you have priorities. You’ll be happier and experience less stress if your money is aligned with them. That’s a budget.

How does YNAB compare to Quicken? Sometimes the best way to describe something can be through contrast.

The biggest difference, for me, is that other systems are retrospective. They look backward and give you reams of data. But sometimes, as one of our YNAB teachers likes to say, it’s just a glorious record of your overspending. A YNAB budget looks forward. It says, here’s how much money I have right now. What do I want it to do for me today? Next week? Next month? YNAB’s strategy aligns your money with your future aspirations rather than looking back.

For more information, YNAB has an entire article on the subject you can read here.

YNAB vs Mint? The great thing about Mint is that it’s free and it will connect to all of your accounts and automatically track transactions. The bad thing is that they have ads and you are not as in touch with your spending as when you have to put each item into YNAB. The whole idea is to get you to consult your budget before spending, and if transactions are recorded automatically you might never do that.

We’re really excited about a development we have just around the corner that will allow YNAB to connect directly with your bank. We shied away from this a bit in the past because we do believe, as you said, in being in close touch with your money. We never wanted automation to go so far that it put you out of touch with decision making. But by helping you stay organized with your transactions, we can keep you focused more on decision making. What do these dollars need to do for me right now? That’s an active process you need to be a part of. It’s what reduces your stress and allows you to take total control of your money.

sound-design-live-money-parents-minionMany sound engineers are independent contractors with irregular income. YNAB can work well for them because it has you wait until you have income before you budget any dollars, but what about the future? How much money should I have saved (buffered) so that I can take advantage of things like automatic transfers into my retirement account and automatic bill payments?

That is a decision that depends a lot on variables specific to your business. I mean, we tend to say that you should have at least a month’s worth of expenses in reserve. But what’s your risk tolerance? How even or uneven is your cash flow? How much do the cash needs of your business tend to vary? A lot of business owners would look at this and decide they need three, four, even six months of expenses saved.

What are some successful methods you have seen people use for budgeting with shared expenses? Colleagues, partners, spouses? Expenses that you don’t have complete control over (eg: you split grocery shopping with your girlfriend, but you do all of the shopping)?

I’d love to say there are tricks that will make it easy, but it really comes down to communication. Whether it is a business partner or a life partner, you’ve got to be clear about both your individual priorities and your shared priorities, especially at the places where they overlap or diverge. Have regular conversations about it. Have a budget date.

The other important thing in a shared budget is to leave some space for some autonomy. Hey, here’s money that is just for you or just for me, and we don’t have to report back to each other about it. That really helps things work smoothly.

TECHNICAL

How important is reconciliation? I haven’t done it, ever. Every day I spend about ten minutes checking all of my accounts for new transactions to make sure there was nothing I missed or entered wrong. Then once a month I “Adjust Balance” on each account because it is usually off a few dollars.

Reconciliation is important because you want to make sure the dollars in your budget truly exist in your accounts! If you don’t have an accurate record of transactions, you may be budgeting money you don’t have anymore. Having said that, making that adjustments you describe does the same job. You know you’re up to date.

I made some scary rookie mistakes when I first started using YNAB that I want to share with everyone. If you have any corrections or comments, that would be great.

TIP #1: It took me a while to wrap my brain around YNAB and credit cards (pre-YNAB I used debit cards only). For the first five months that I used it, I was budgeting all of my credit card expenses, but then I was also budgeting money to pay the credit card bill. That means I was budgeting twice as much as necessary and really stressing about the bill. When I finally realized what was happening I went back, corrected the problem, and realized that I had about $6,000 I had saved…on accident.

TIP #2: Since no one really taught me how to use a budget, traditional thinking told me that I should estimate my spending into categories for the coming month. It turns out Mark Butler calls that budgeting with Monopoly money. The way YNAB works is that you never budget a penny until you actually have it. So when you get paid, you apply those dollars to your budget. This is more like the envelope method that you may have heard about. One way to estimate into the future, which I have been using, is to use next month’s budget. So if we are in January, then you can go ahead and play with the budget in February and look at the summary at the top to see how much you have available.

Absolutely. That’s the sort of conventional wisdom about what a budget is – a plan based on what you think might happen if all your account balances follow a perfect path that happens to match exactly the last six or twelve months. But that is far less powerful than intentionally giving a job to every dollar you have right now. Want to look into the future? Set aside money for those future ambitions right now. When you have next month’s studio rental fee already set aside, there’s no need to forecast. You know you’re doing well.

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