Theory and Practice

You can’t just look at the measurements —You gotta know what they mean.

It feels like my perpetual task in life is to get up on my soapbox and dispel myths and tell the truth about getting righteous sound pressure levels to the audience. What I want to do is weave the story of speaker-cabinet dispersion, power handling and sensitivity and attempt to explain why certain “grades” of speaker are pitched to various sound persons at different levels of the business.

Is it time to trade in your wedges for more racks?

So you have been hanging on to the simplicity of wedge monitor mixing, but you are ready to take the plunge into the wild side of personal monitors. Welcome to the brave new world. Yeah, I like the thought of not lugging heavy wood wedges, long lengths of Speakon patches, racks of graphic EQs and power amplifiers as much as the next guy, but what replaces this?

Frequency equalization has come a long way in mixing consoles for live sound. Also known as bass and treble, or low/ mid/high controls, today’s high-end mixing consoles offer near full parametric adjustments on four or more bands for each channel strip. The big question is, “Do you really need all that equalization flexibility?”

It may not be as sexy as a new line array, but it’s time to upgrade your power cables.

I pretty much have myself converted, and Bill Evans is almost converted, but have you converted to using the “correct” power service cords per the electrical codes? 

Every so often, you hear of acquaintances getting swindled on a rental, or outright burglarized at the shop, or (more often) from the truck or trailer carrying sound reinforcement gear. Before you are the next one suffering such an incident, take reasonable steps to thwart attempts of thievery.

The Pro Thief

No matter what you may do, a real professional group of thieves will not be deterred by just about anything you do to protect your gear. And when I say professional, I am thinking of persons that plan the theft in detail, know what they are after, and have a ready buyer of the goods that will not care if all the gear serial numbers are broadcast amongst the soundcos. In this scenario, the gear will likely be headed out of the country on very fast transportation.

Okay, time to get up on the soapbox again. It's probably my three quarters electrical engineering circuit analysis education, but why can't most newbie sound people figure out how much power, voltage and current is going into each of their speakers? I mean Ohm's Law and Watt's Law have been around since before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, Edison sockets (for the light bulbs) and Edison receptacles (for plugging things into). So I guess it is time we had a refresher course on the basic electrical formulas, and those of you who know this stuff can guess the famous dead physicist's names that make up the laws.

Maybe it's just me, but it really bothers me to see newbie sound system owners chase gadgets when so many parts of their sound system need help first. I hope some of this is redundant to you, but I want to spell it out now, and discuss some examples and rationale.

In summary, sound system budget priorities should be:

1. Microphones/DI's

2. Monitor System

3. Mixing Console(s)

As self-proclaimed audio experts, it is our duty to learn the ins and outs of how microphone elements work, and how best to use them. Even though we are not Diva or Mister Ego vocalists, we should know how to work the mics. This is especially the case in house of worship (HOW) situations where most of the speakers and singers are not professionals. So let's get on with teaching the teachers.

The Mic Fits The Task