Here's a plan view of a sound system with two mains, a sub, and a measurement mic at a fixed location. If I asked you to align this system, would you prefer to start by muting the left side to align the right side to the sub or would you like to play both left and right together with the sub? My guess is that you'd probably start by muting the left side to align the right main to the center sub, especially if you're in a hurry and indoors where your measurement is prone to even more … [Read more...]
Adventures in Alignment 3: Rapid Response
Last week was my second time doing sound for president Biden and my second time for vice-president Harris. The first for Biden was last year at a missile facility and the first for Harris was three years ago at a campaign rally in McAllen, TX. There was an interesting alignment challenge that came up during the event, but first just a couple of notes about the circumstances: I'm still surprised how a seemly simple system with a single VIP input and a few outputs can feel intense. The … [Read more...]
Adventures in Alignment #2
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 180º 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...]