In a previous post I outlined the problems with stating an SPL limit in terms of a signal number. To review, a dB SPL value is technically meaningless without information about the time-domain (integration time) and frequency-domain (weighting curve) details of the metric. There is a world of a difference between 100 dB Peak C …
Q: I was thinking about going to a gig but am worried about the loudness and damage to hearing… I know these dB values are quite dependent on the PA, engineer, venue, etc, but was wondering what would be the kind of average dB someone going and seeing a live electronic music gig in a …
One of the earliest studio mixing tricks that I learned was parallel processing – running the same signal through several mixer channels and processing them independently. There are a few variants of this technique, the most common being parallel compression. For example, the first application I saw of this was when a studio engineer double-patched …
My mixing technique is largely subtractive in nature (remove things from the mix that don’t need to be there). If I’m getting a lot of hi hat bleed through the other drum mics, I’ll pull the hat fader back. I’ll high pass, low pass, and mid-scoop mix elements that aren’t contributing necessary energy (or contributing …
This past weekend, I mixed an outdoor concert with RCF as the PA sponsor. My colleague has been planning on investing in a new compact-format array system for a while, and this event proved the perfect occasion to do a test drive. A trim height of 17.5 feet on an SL100 and a coverage area …
RCF is a production partner on an outdoor rock show I’m running this weekend. They sent along 12 of their HDL6-A line array cabinets along with four SUB 8004-AS subwoofers. It’s a killer little rig that packs a punch, with some smart engineering – stay tuned to next month’s issue of Live Sound International for …
Modern line array elements have very narrow vertical dispersion at high frequencies, which allows us to manipulate inter-element splay angles to manage overlap and therefore power addition. However, at LF, dispersion is very wide (approaching omnidirectional) and the elements overlap regardless of splay angle. Thus, all boxes in an array contribute to LF headroom over …
I’m asked on a relatively regular basis what gear I’m using in the field, so I figured I’d post it here. Audio Interfaces Roland OCTA-CAPTURE (8-channel interface. Since the preamps are digitally controlled, Smaart can track when you’ve adjusted a preamp level, which is helpful) Behringer UMC404HD (4-channel interface, and bus powered unlike the Roland so …