Ken: Well, the KF850, while being a good system, has its problems. For most situations simply stacking them, tight pack, works best. And putting spaces evenly between the cabinets works worst. Increasing the splay by about five degrees in most situations seems to work the best.

Ken (continued): But that is particularly hard to do in flown applications. Some of the problems particularly in the vertical cannot be fixed. Dave Gunness did a much-improved high-frequency horn that never came to market. That would have helped solve some of these problems, but it was way too late in the life of the product.

David Scheirman: History buffs might be interested...Who was the first regional sound rental company to receive the KF850's way back when?

Ken: Carlo Sound, Sun Sound and an A/V house in NY. (Sorry, I’m spacing on the name.) I think the A/V house was first. Sun had prototypes before everyone. And the Carlo cabinets were funky. The first gig I remember with a large KF850 array was Cheap Trick at Great Adventures in NJ. It was outside and no room reflections and it sounded amazing.

Ken (continued): I wish I could say the same of the first time I heard the KF900 and KF750 arrays. Both of those products were demo’d in public before they knew how to use them. Or make them work. Some of that was the inexperience of the development team in real world environments.

Ken (continued): Not enough effort was made to really work with the field engineers before the product was released. Of course, they are so much more complex in that they were designed from the ground up to incorporate very complex processing, and you need to correlate what your computer predicts with what is really happening, and what happens when you mix through them.

Ken (continued): Computers and measurement equipment are amazing tools, but if you don't correlate what you see with what you hear, you can get in big trouble.

P Tucci: I thought that’s what Dave Stevens did.

Chris Kathman: Whoa!

Ken: I wonder if you can still hear well after you cut and dye your hair? I know since I cut my ponytail, my eyesight is not as good.

Chence W: Did you get to hear Clapton tour with the KF900 rig when he came to Boston?

Ken: Yes. It was great to be with the Concert Sound boys. Robert is one of my favorite house mixers. I have arranged for Mr. Kathman to join me for the LA gigs so that he can experience what a truly integrated speaker processing array sounds like.

Chris Kathman: Rat Rat Rat Rat.

Ken: I am working this summer to get out more and hear some of the newer systems. I can't wait to hear a big Nexo rig and while I've been impressed for years with the V-DOSC, I still would love to hear a bigger V-DOSC rig.

Chence W: Have you heard the KF760's?

Ken: Only during their demo at NSCA, and I was impressed. When I left EAW they were not ready for prime time. Dave Gunness does amazing work. The band was great (Shaboo All Stars) and Doug (Fowler) did a great mix. But without hearing them in a real room (they were outdoors) it's hard to tell.

Ken (continued): Fighting a room is what separates the men from the boys, both in terms of system performance and the house engineer. The other amazing system I heard this summer so far was UltraSound doing DMB (Dave Matthews Band). A large group of arrays of older Meyer stuff, with an amazingly talented group of engineers.

Chris Kathman: Sir, making a system rage outdoors is a SERIOUS challenge!

Ken: Life is a challenge, and mixing outdoors when you have enough system is not as difficult as fighting a room with a long reverb time and slap back off the back wall and bass standing waves. Unless you are outside with a structure slapping back at you…

chat.boy: On behalf of the PSW staff (and not just because you’re the boss), thanks for sharing your time and knowledge with us.

Chris Kathman: Si!

chat.boy: This concludes tonight’s chat with the legendary Kenneth P. Berger.

Moderator: Thank you, Ken.

Ken: Thanks for coming. Next time we can talk more about cars :o) Good night everyone!

chat.boy: The chat was moderated by Dave Dermont, "Another Dave and was organized by CK, Chris Kathman. Also, big thanks to Deb Ferguson, tonight’s "scribe" for Mr. Berger. Join us in after chat. Brian Blackmore, founder of Church Production magazine, will be our chat guest Tuesday, July 10.