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Thursday, May 16, 2013Avoiding Poor Judgment & Getting A Handle On Subjective Audio
James Cadwallader 05/16/13 06:08 PM,I suspected trouble when I accepted responsibility for something I had no control over. There was a 50/50 chance of either being the hero or the whipping boy. I didn’t care for those odds, but I couldn’t change them. It all started when a friend of the family asked me to help make sure that the sound for his wedding… View this story
Filed in: Live Sound • Feature • Blog • Engineer • Measurement • Signal • Sound Reinforcement • System • Technician -
Square Waves And DC Content: Deconstructing Complex Waveforms
Charlie Hughes 05/16/13 05:56 PM,I’ve heard it argued by that square waves contain DC. How else could they have the flat top and bottom that make it square? Let’s look at a square wave and see what causes it to have its square shape. A complex waveform can be constructed from, or decomposed into, sine (and cosine) waves of various amplitude and phase relationships.… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Measurement • Processor • Signal -
Pro Production: Understanding The Language Of The “Show”
Alan Hamilton 05/16/13 05:44 PM,When first starting out in audio, a newcomer will hear terms that may seem like a whole new language. These terms are very common to hear in arenas, union halls, theatres, and similar venues. While not so common in clubs, even there you can hear some of these terms used by the seasoned veterans of the business. This would be… View this story
Filed in: Production • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • Production • Audio • Lighting • Rigging • Staging • Video • Analog • Business • Concert • Education • Interconnect • Loudspeaker • Mixer • Signal • Sound Reinforcement • System -
Can Award-Winning Recordings Be Made In A Home Studio?
Bob Buontempo 05/16/13 04:41 PM,To begin with, there are many things that you cannot do in a home studio. A competent recording of a live band - still the mainstay of the recording industry - is usually impossible in your bedroom. Fitting an orchestra in there is also challenging. And even though the topic of this piece is whether award-winning (i.e., Grammy) music can… View this story
Filed in: Recording • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • Digital • Digital Audio Workstations • Monitoring • Software • Studio • System -
The Single-Mic Technique: An “Old-Fashioned” Approach That’s Surprisingly Effective
Bruce Bartlett 05/16/13 04:08 PM,What goes around comes around. From the 1920s through the 1940s, PA systems for music often used only a single microphone. Band members would gather closely around this mic, balancing their sound by moving toward or away from the mic. Radio broadcasts and recordings often used one mic as well. And over the past several years, this “old-fashioned” technique is… View this story
Filed in: Church Sound • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • Microphone • Mixer • Processor • Sound Reinforcement • Stage -
Tuesday, May 14, 2013The Bigger Picture On The Equalization Of Loudspeakers
Pat Brown 05/14/13 04:06 PM,The procedure often followed for equalizing a loudspeaker is to place the measurement microphone on-axis and adjust for the flattest frequency response. This often involves boosting some filters when the axial response over a range of frequencies is lower than the average. Those that are opposed to the use of boost filters may choose to arrive at the same resultant… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Loudspeaker • Measurement • Processor • Sound Reinforcement
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Tuesday, April 02, 2013In The Studio: Phil Ramone—A Different Perspective
Bobby Owsinski 04/02/13 10:53 AM,This article is provided by Bobby Owsinski. By now you’ve all heard that the legendary producer Phil Ramone has passed. If you read any of the obituaries, you’ll notice that they all quote his many Grammys and the superstars he worked with, which indeed placed him above the majority of his contemporaries. Phil was more than that though. He… View this story
Filed in: Recording • Feature • Blog • Opinion • Analog • Digital • Engineer • Studio • Technician -
Friday, March 29, 2013In The Studio: Keeping Fresh The Art Form Of Recording
Jackson B. Jackson 03/29/13 12:05 PM,I saw Pink Floyd’s epic film “The Wall” for the first time when I was 12 years old. It was quite possibly, at that time, that I first realized that recorded music held a certain “power.” The music of that film, coupled with the vibrant, yet bleak imagery, “forced” me to confront a whole range of emotions. Shortly after, when… View this story
Filed in: Recording • Feature • Opinion -
Wednesday, March 06, 2013Then And Now: Putting Audio Technology Into Perspective
Karl Winkler 03/06/13 06:19 PM,Vintage muscle cars now commonly sell for $30,000. What the heck is going on? I mean, come on – those cars were never truly “great,” were they? I suppose it’s a subjective matter, with some nostalgia thrown in for good measure. Now that the teenagers of the 1960s are middle-aged folks with disposable income, they’re fueling a demand that seems,… View this story
Filed in: Live Sound • Feature • Blog • Opinion • Business • Engineer • Sound Reinforcement • System • Technician -
Friday, February 01, 2013Magical Mystery Spec: Why Is Distortion Overlooked In Loudspeakers?
Michael MacDonald 02/01/13 12:24 PM,Almost everybody in the pro audio business is a specification or “spec” junkie. From folks on the recording side to the sound reinforcement practitioners, we all want every detail of the technical performance of every piece of equipment in a system. Specs seem extremely important, particularly those that represent a numerical improvement from past products, which are heralded as an… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Opinion • Product • Production • Audio • AV • Line Array • Loudspeaker • Sound Reinforcement • Subwoofer -
Friday, January 18, 2013The Old Soundman: Lawyers & Open Mics
PSW Staff 01/18/13 06:36 AM,Dear Old Soundman: I’m a 23-year-old law student at Yale, and I discovered this summer that I really hate the practice of law. I mean I really hate it. Here is what you should do. Tell you parents to send me your tuition money while you go “find yourself.” How’s that sound? So much that the $500/day I’m earning isn’t… View this story
Filed in: Live Sound • News • Opinion • Business • Concert • Education • Sound Reinforcement • Stage • Studio -
Friday, January 11, 2013Are You All In? Translating The Passion Into What Really Matters
Karl Winkler 01/11/13 12:14 PM,Recently, I was subjected to a strikingly dull conversation with a top touring mix engineer. He really didn’t seem to be into his job, or anything else for that matter. Apparently, being behind that quarter-million dollar console out in an audience of thousands, mixing shows for that totally hot female star that everyone knows, just wasn’t cutting it for this… View this story
Filed in: Live Sound • Feature • Blog • Opinion • Business • Education • Engineer • Sound Reinforcement • Technician
