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A Realistic Approach to Subwoofer Time Alignment

A Realistic Approach to Subwoofer Time Alignment

This screenshot from SMAART shows a reference of decibel levels (dB) and frequency (Hz) for four saved memories: a sub (orange), a top (blue), a sub + top (pink, before delay) and a sub + top (green, after delay). Digital processing has made it easier to add delay to multiple signals.

Time alignment is a very important yet often overlooked aspect of system setup and tuning. A correctly time-aligned system has many benefits, including more even coverage where two sound sources overlap and a more even response across acoustical crossover points. It can give the cheapest of systems a couple decibels more in the area where engineers tend to like them most: bass frequencies. So let's take a look at subwoofer time alignment.

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It’s a New Year

I sat down to write this month's installment when I realized that we have not only entered a New Year but we are now in the second decade of the new millennium. Whatever happened to that first decade, I ask myself.

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Radial Komit Compressor / Limiter

The Radial Komit is a 500 series compressor-limiter that simplifies the process of dynamic manipulation while expanding upon creative tone shaping. The design provides flexibility by introducing automatic functions that are both musical and intuitive.

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Finding the Soul of the Mix

The Soul Button

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines the word Soul as: "The principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part."

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Sweet Little Lies

Once I was supplying our Meyer system for a speaking engagement where the guest speaker was the Prime Minister of our country, Brian Mulroney. It was the Cattlemen's Barbecue held at Poplar Hill, Ontario. Mr. Mulroney was one of those gifted public speakers who is able to talk and hold the audience in the palm of his hand. He talked and everyone just stopped and listened.

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iPhone Apps

Studio Six Digital SPL meter

I was out on a gig a couple of months ago and one of my favorite people in this business, Buford Jones, was on the same gig. Somehow as we were talking it came out that we both have the SoundMeter app from Faber Acoustical on our iPhones. We began comparing notes, agreed that we both liked it. He asked if mine was calibrated, and I said "sorta," explaining that I went to a show and just jacked around with the settings until it was reacting consistently within a couple of dB of the "real" meter sitting a few feet away on the console. I asked how he has calibrated his, and he told me he used MAPP and the anechoic chamber at Meyer Sound. So I'm guessing his is a bit more accurate.

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PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 / PreSonus Studio One Pro

You can daisy-chain two StudioLive 16.4.2 mixers together for larger shows, and daisy-chain any FireStudio-series interface with the StudioLive to add more inputs.

In the Road Test you are about to read, I am combining a review of the PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 digital mixing console with the PreSonus Studio One Pro software. Either one of these products warrants its own review, but I had the opportunity to use them together. So, here goes.

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CAD Audio/Astatic Commercial 1700VP

1700VP microphone with anti-rotational mount and remote control box

Once upon a time the pastor of my church asked me, "What can be done so that I can hear the choir?" My response was, "With a rock band on the stage, the choir has no chance unless we put them in another room and give them a TV to watch the service."

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A Cure for the Common CoMMA

Installers prepare to hang the NEXO rig

Shortly after the installation of an all new set of racks and stacks at the City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium last spring, production manager Tony Bova and his staff started to hear a curious observation from the venue's season ticket holders. "People thought it was too quiet," Bova remarks with a laugh. "That's an interesting reversal in the complaint department, but it's been a nice change and everyone has noticed the improvement."

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Rock in Japan Festival Supported by Avid Venue Consoles

Avid Venue systems, including D-Show, Profile and SC48 systems, were used at this years festival

HITACHINAKA, Japan – The Rock in Japan concert, produced by Rockin' On publisher Keiichi Shibuya, was held for the 10th year in 2009. More than 165,000 attendees came to Hitachi Beach Park to hear performances by some 150 Japanese artists, including Eikichi Yazawa, Unicorn, Ulfuls and Perfume.

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Florence and the Machine Perform with iLive

The band toured Europe with a combined iLive FOH and monitor system.

LONDON – Florence and the Machine used a combined iLive FOH and monitor system on its European tour this fall, which included dates in the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Austria. iLive was subsequently specified on dates in the U.S. and Canada, and rented from SRD Systems in Kent by management production company, Britannia Row, for a performance as part of the Electric Proms at Camden's Roundhouse.

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