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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Empty Room Blues - Ideas For Simulating An Audience In Soundcheck
The Gang In The LAB Lounge
04/26/11 04:14 PM,
0 Comments
Question: Everyone knows that adding people to a room changes everything, so does anyone have any tricks on simulating or accounting for the audience when doing soundcheck? I’m just curious to see what can be done. Reply by Per: That’s an interesting thought that has followed me for years. I guess it would be possible to build a virtual audience for soundcheck purposes. Since acoustic absorbers are a combination of material and air, maybe they could be constructed so that…
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Video: Church Audio Basics - Understanding How Mixers Work
Gary Zandstra
04/26/11 02:31 PM,
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From our resident church audio blogger Gary Zandstra comes the first video in a multi-part series on some of the basics of mixer usage and selection, which is equally useful to novices in any field.
For more helpful hints from Gary, make sure to check out his Church Sound Blog.
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.
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One Of The Most Overlooked Steps Of Recording
Joe Gilder
04/26/11 09:58 AM,
2 Comments
This article is provided by Home Studio Corner. When I started recording more seriously, I was spending most of my time in professional studios. Fancy studios are awesome. You’ve got a pretty control room with a big console, patchbay, and couches. You’ve got a nice big tracking room, and you’ve probably got a couple of extra rooms or vocal booths thrown in there. All this is great, however, for those recording in personal studios, chances are the musicians you…
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Loudspeaker Primer: Basics, Methods Of Selection & Matching To Power Amplifiers
Keith Clark
04/20/11 12:14 PM,
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In the world of professional sound design and installation, there’s an old adage that goes “your system is only as good as the weakest component in the signal chain.” This is especially true of a sound system’s loudspeakers. They are the last link in the chain, directly responsible for communicating everything that’s been done to the signal along the way. The Basics One thing’s for sure: if a system sounds lousy, the listening audience will automatically shift their gaze first…
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Thursday, April 14, 2011
Fighting For Power - A Way To Increase The Actual Power That Amplifiers Deliver To Loudspeakers
Dave Rat
04/14/11 10:00 AM,

14 Comments
Here is a way to increase the actual power delivered to your loudspeakers by 5 percent to 15 percent just by doing a simple wiring change. First, a bit about power amplifiers. Look at the typical power amp as a device that has two reservoirs of energy - one positive, one negative. The audio signal sent to the amp acts as a control to release the energy from the reservoirs to the output. But the problem is that when an…
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Staying Focused Is A Key Component In Operating Your Church Sound System
Curt Taipale
04/14/11 07:48 AM,
1 Comment
A big reason to stay focused in our role as church sound system operator is so that we don’t do something really silly during a service. For example, we generally dim the house lights to a preset value at a couple of strategic moments during our worship services. The dimming system we use has a fader that determines how fast that fade up or fade down is. On occasion, one of our tech team members will hit the preset without…
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Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Audio Power Trip: How Consumption, Production & Transmission Can Affect A Sound System
Pat Brown
04/12/11 10:00 AM,
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Few subjects generate more confusion in the audio world than power. There is a very good reason for this - it’s a confusing subject, and one that can easily fool our intuition. Most of us are on a power trip - our attitude is that “more is better.” We want bigger amplifiers and more “powerful” loudspeakers so that our sound systems will be louder. In fact, power ratings are often the main (or only) criteria considered regarding amplifiers and loudspeakers…
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Monday, April 11, 2011
Signal Processing Fundamentals: Dynamic Controllers
Dennis A. Bohn
04/11/11 02:01 PM,
1 Comment
This article is provided by Rane Corporation. (Click here to read part 1, focusing on crossovers, and click here to read part 2, addressing equalizers. Dynamic controllers or processors represent a class of signal processing devices used to alter an audio signal based solely upon its frequency content and amplitude level, thus the term “dynamic” since the processing is completely program dependent. The two most common dynamic effects are compressors and expanders, with limiters and noise gates (or just…
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Friday, April 08, 2011
The Invader From Outer Space: Electromagnetic Interference
Bill Whitlock
04/08/11 03:41 PM,
1 Comment
Electromagnetic interference, often referred to as EMI, is a degradation of the performance of a piece of equipment or system caused by electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation is the travel of alternating electric and magnetic fields through space at 186,273 miles (about a billion feet) per second, or the speed of light. A wavelength, as shown in Figure 1, is the physical distance traveled by a wave during one cycle. A list of frequencies and corresponding wavelengths follows. When the equipment…
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Coverage & Feedback: More About Factors Of A “Good” Sound Reinforcement System
Bob Thurmond
04/08/11 10:21 AM,
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A continuation of the discussion of factors of a “good” sound reinforcement system that begins here. A common complaint of audience members who have become familiar with a particular sound system, typically in a venue with a permanently installed system and which they visit repeatedly (such as a church) is that there are locations where sound is obviously better than at others. In other words, sound is not uniform throughout the audience area. In fact, this is a common problem…
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