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SPL Computation

SPL Computation

One of the things that still aggravates me are questions about loudness that are formatted like; "How many ampli- fier watts per person are needed for a rock 'n' roll show?" And the oft-repeated, "How many speakers do I need for a room of this size?" While the innocent are allowed to ask such questions, I find it disconcerting to hear experienced sound people asking the very same questions. This Theory & Practice column shall attempt to cover the basics on estimating the Sound Pressure Levels provided and–the reverse–to estimate the amount of gear need to achieve a desired SPL.

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What's That Stomping Sound?

One of the most unusual theatre events you'll ever experience is Stomp, a percussion-driven ensemble piece with a great sense of fun and playfulness that has been delighting audiences in Manhattan's East Village for nearly 12 years. During the various acts, eight performers play all manner of objects as instruments– brooms, tubes, lighters, candy boxes, metal objects, poles, pipes, customized percussion kits, even their own bodies. They toss in everything, including four kitchen sinks.

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A Branded Business

Viewers of Rock Star: INXS, the reality show that sought to find a new lead singer for the vocally-decapitated Australian rock band, were getting a little more reality than they might have bargained for. Or a little less.

On the other hand, John Gott had carved out a great niche for himself and should be the envy of every FOH mixer over the age of 30: After mixing live sound for artists including Pat Benatar and the Talking Heads in the 1970s, he combined a technical gift with an entrepreneur's eye to create a few new live sound and lighting products, one of which eventually became SLS Loudspeakers.

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Breaking Away

Dear Anklebiters,

I read your column every month and I fall into the category of a lot of your letter writers. I work for a fairly large sound company and I want to go out on my own. I have been in this biz for some time and I have watched the market and my company go through a lot of changes. My question is, do you think this is a good time to start my own company? I mean, in this current economic environment, would it make sense to you? I look forward to your input. Thanks,

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Crappy Seats and Low Standards

News flash: I actually went to a show recently and PAID for tickets. They were really crappy seats. And I bought them from a ticket broker. I did it for my lovely wife, who is a big Eagles fan and had never seen the band (not even this postmodern version). I, on the other hand, saw them at the Fabulous Forum on the Hotel California tour, which means that, yes, I am officially old. Not really. That was in, what, 1977? So I must have been about two years old at the time. I wasn't 17. Really.

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A Critical Time for Unions

In the '80s, Bob Dylan–of all people–sang about the decline of unions and noted that a lot of that decline was due to decisions made by union leadership, not corporate America. With the recent shakeup of the AFLCIO and IATSE's decision to stay with the old guard, we can't help but wonder about the future of the union for production pros. Dan Daley addressed this in The Biz column back in September, but when we read it, we realized we were left with questions that only the union brass could answer. –Ed.

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Part of the Problem?

I have written about the blame game before (INMF, It's Not My Fault) and no matter how funny certain situations seem in retrospect, there is usually little humor to be found when confronted with an ugly situation and you are the one who is standing in the line of fire.

I spend a good part of my working day speaking to clients about their upcoming show or audio rental, and quite often, my conversations exceed the limit of what might be called an audio job and cross over into the undefined role of production manager or production consultant. While this progression from audio manager to production manager is not an unusual situation, it does create, by its indeterminate character, a gray area–or a production Bermuda Triangle– where balls will be dropped and signals missed. Whole gigs seem to mysteriously disappear from the radar on show day, leaving some engineer, client or artist scratching their head in disbelief as they point an accusing finger in every direction but their own.

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The Sound of Blue

I first saw a Blue Man Group show nearly three years ago at the Luxor in Las Vegas, and I was completely blown away. If you have never seen–or heard–the show, it is really pointless to try to explain it. There's no dialogue, but there are lots and lots of drums and weird instruments made of PVC pipe. (Yes, those are real and miked. You are not hearing samples, but real air moving through real tubes.)

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AES 2005

As Bill was getting ready and packing his bags to go to NYC for the AES show, he got a phone call from the owner of a regional sound company. Bill thought he remembered the owner saying he was going to AES at least for a day and asked, "Am I on crack or did you say you were going to AES?" The answer came, "No, I said I was going to LDI." Interesting choice. And once we hit the show floor, a few companies–big names in live event audio but with little to zero studio cachet–were conspicuous in their absence. Most notable among these were the Telex family (EV, Midas, KT) and the Peavey/Crest machine. There had also been a notice on the AES Web site some months ago that there would be a live audio pavilion set up on the show floor with hands-on training and demos, but–unless we just failed to notice it on any of the 2,367 times we walked the show floor–it wasn't there. There was a pavilion sponsored by Future Publishing and Line 6 that was a kinda cool "hang out and play guitar" sort of place, but there was no promised live audio area.

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Arts & Smarts

Any performance hall audio installation is certainly challenging, but what happened when Illinois State University, located in the city of Normal, wanted its new performance hall to also function as a major classroom area for its Arts Technology courses?

It turned out to be an awesome combination. But there were challenges to achieve those satisfying ends, including several bone-crunching go-rounds between the school and consultants on what the two performance spaces needed, some lengthy delays with funding that held up the overall project and, of course, all those garden-variety install issues that go with every job.

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On the Bleeding Edge: Shotguns vs. Snipers

If there's one thing that became clear at the AES Convention in New York last month, it's that live sound has rapidly made its way from the "Big Bang," or "Shotgun" theory, to what we at FOH call the "Sniper" approach.

It wasn't so long ago that the goal in delivering audio to large audiences essentially boiled down to "let's make it loud and hope for the best." During the formative days of live sound, that approach may have been acceptable, but these days–in spite of the fact that many people do a majority of music-listening in their cars or via MP3 players with limited fidelity–your average consumer expects more from a live show. People are plunking down top dollar to see concerts, and in addition to the visual aspect, the sound had better be good even at "cheap seats" that often sell in the vicinity of $100. With surround-sound theatre systems and plenty of video games found in homes across the country, we need to give people a reason to come out and play with us, or we'll all be out of work.

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A Spark of Inspiration (Or, Why Sound Guys Trump Squints)

I was on the backline crew for the ELO 1978 Flying Saucer tour that supported the Out of the Blue album. ELO rarely sound checked, so the band crew arrived at the gigs around 2 p.m. This did not endear us with the lighting crew, who had already been at the venue for five hours when we arrived. "Country clubbers!" they would call down from the lighting truss as we took the stage each day. This friction continued until one Sunday close to the Fourth of July, when the British lighting console's power supply failed during the afternoon focus. No hope of getting a replacement on short notice on a Sunday–not in 1978 anyway!

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