As defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “science” is:
- The state of knowing: knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding; and
- Knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method.
The beauty of scientific knowledge is that, for the most part, there is no gray area to circumnavigate once a scientific conclusion is confirmed. While it may be true that scientific studies and outcomes can be politicized and militarized, science itself is apolitical. Scientific discovery shines a light in to the dark corners of a superstitious mind and gives a viable answer to questions that might otherwise lead to superstition and blind faith.
The Non-Exorcist
For example: During a show, a guitarist gets a shock from the microphone whenever he sings. The player yells at the engineer that the mic is possessed by an evil spirit and demands that the wicked item be burned and replaced. At this point, the engineer is presented with two options. One is to stop the sound check and exorcise the microphone demon with prayer and a ritual bonfire in the parking lot or, as a second option, they could flip the ground switch on the back of the guitar amplifier to keep the singer from becoming the ground.
If the engineer selects the second option as a solution, the singer may then look upon the engineer as a wizard or a shaman that is capable of conquering the evil spirits held deeply within microphones. (Maybe that’s not so bad after all.—ed.) However, until that day when singers learn a bit about the science of electricity they will be condemned to live in a world where evil microphones simply lie in wait for the proper moment to attack. When we fly a speaker array, rather than hope and pray that it will stay in the air, we can rely on the fact that the riggers have a good grasp of the science and math regarding weight and torque — as well as a sound knowledge of the hardware and machinery required to do a safe job. If a stage collapses, there is usually a more scientific reason for the failure rather than the devil was involved or that the gods were angry. This is not to say that evil does not exist in our world, but the blame for a tragedy of this sort should probably be ruled as incompetence and/or malfeasance on the part of someone who put aside scientific knowledge for a larger profit.
Granted, not all of the science we read about is conclusive, and we often receive conflicting reports about certain products and their benefits or the damage they may inflict upon us. While fluctuation of these scientific results can be credited to ongoing research, occasionally, much of the back and forth can be associated with political and financial lobbying. An example of this comes from the 1920s to the 1960s, when tobacco companies were aware of the harm caused by smoking and yet they paid certain doctors to endorse and prescribe to their patients their particular brand as a healthy alternative to other brands. This type of lobbying and false advertising still goes on today with products ranging from pharmaceuticals to insecticides where science is ignored for the sake of economic gain.
On a day-to-day basis, we live with science. From medical progress to new technical advances, there are new discoveries every day that we depend upon and take for granted. There is no need to know how a microwave oven works other than to set the timer and push the button. We simply need to know that it will operate as advertised. Scientific study is not necessarily a perfected science, and many inventions we use on a daily basis are often the outcome of a different study altogether. For example, the use of microwaves for heating food was discovered in 1945 while defense engineers were working to improve radar. Cell, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Dante are words and functions that have all become a part of our lexicon. Innovations in medical science such inoculations, antibiotics and biogenetics have improved our health and extended our lives. Digital everything has taken us into a brave new world, and scientific tools have enabled us to see what the naked eye cannot. Newton’s law of gravity make clear an intrinsic part of out lives that we live and deal with on a daily basis, while Einstein’s theory of relativity explains how celestial bodies — as well as our own bodies — displace the fabric of space-time. Of course, this type of knowledge is better suited for NASA but, thanks to science, what was once merely a figment of someone’s imagination has become items used regularly by much of the world’s population.
Audio is a science, and due to my vantage point of age, it allows me to have seen first-hand the development of certain elements that we use and have become dependent upon. Like many audio engineers, I am not a scientist, but rather a technician/operator and, while I do not develop or invent, I do have an understanding of the tools of my trade and how to get the most when using them. I witnessed the advent of time-aligned speaker systems, and I was there as line-arrayed speakers replaced front-loaded systems. I observed the digital world come into being and overtake the analog way of life. I studied sine waves, resistance, impedance, dynamics, delay and phasing back when we needed to apply the science to make the gear operate properly.
So, call me a curmudgeon, but it irks me a bit if I’m on a gig and see an “engineer” ignore the science and refuse to use the console meters or just randomly turn knobs and push faders. I know that live audio is somewhat forgiving, and I have seen people take the long way around to get an end result, but there really is a method and science (there’s that word again) to creating a good-sounding show.
One doesn’t have to be a scientist to mix sound any more than one needs to be a mechanic to drive a car, but a little bit of comprehension certainly helps to get the job done. After all, you may have a great car, but if you can’t get it out of first gear or don’t know how to release the emergency brake, then just how well can you drive it and how well will it run? I’m all for faith and prayer, but knowledge is power, and science counts!
