Bob McCarthy Author Profile


Bob McCarthy
Bob McCarthy
 
Bob has been designing and tuning sound systems for over 30 years. The third edition of his book Sound Systems: Design and Optimization is available from Focal Press. He lives in NYC and is the director of system optimization for Meyer Sound.

Latest Posts by Bob

Time & Phase Alignment

 The setting of delay times in signal processors is one of the principal techniques of system optimization. In most cases the timing is set to… Read More

The Impact Of Breaking The Line

 A friend of mine who’s not an audio engineer went to a show and later told me it sounded too loud and unintelligible. Plausible? Sure. Read More

What It Really Means To Equalize The Room

 “I’m going to equalize the room.” We’ve all heard that statement so many times that we scarcely think about what it literally means. We know… Read More

Standing Your Ground: Upholding The Responsibility Of Being Truthful With Clients

 Editor’s Note: This was originally written in 1989 and is as relevant now as it was then. For most of the time that… Read More

Audio Summation: Part 3 In An Ongoing Series On Essential Fundamentals

 Welcome to the third part of a series of articles exploring the principles and properties of audio systems and related fields (Part 1 is… Read More

All The World’s A Stage… But Does It Need Sound Reinforcement?

 I recently attended two “straight” plays, i.e., the kind without musicians. Such events are all about the dialog (and the lighting, of course). One production… Read More

Analog Electronic Transmission: Part 2 In An Ongoing Series On Audio Fundamentals

 For many of us, fundamentals are like Swiss cheese: mostly solid but with intermittent but noticeable holes. This is the second part of a series… Read More

Acoustic Transmission: Part 1 In An Ongoing Series On The Fundamentals Of Audio

 For many of us fundamentals are like Swiss cheese: mostly solid but with intermittent but noticeable holes. This is the first in a series of… Read More

Spatial Pursuits: The Evolution Of Large-Scale Sound System Optimization

 Editor’s note: Click here to read the other articles in this five-part series. The sound reinforcement system tuning procedure on my first… Read More

Tech Topic: Modern Analyzer Development

 Editor’s note: Click here to read the other articles in this series. The analyzer is at the core of a measurement system. The manufacturers… Read More

Analyze This

 Editor’s note: Click here to read the other articles in this series. The high-resolution dual-channel audio analyzer is a standard front-of-house tool in the… Read More

30 For 30: Lessons Learned From Years Of Tuning Sound Systems

 It was 1984 when I first sat in front of an FFT (Fast Fourier transform) analyzer during a concert and made decisions about tuning sound… Read More

Spotlight On Signal Processing

 Editor’s note: Click here to read the other articles in this series. “In the beginning there was graphic EQ.” The first standard tool for… Read More

Loudspeaker Advancement

 PSW Top 20 presented by Renkus-Heinz Editor’s note: Click here to read the other articles in this series. Read More

Tradeoff, TANSTAAFL And Triage

 As audio engineers, we’re constantly presented with choices that involve compromise and give and take. Many of these are budgetary and/or based on realities of… Read More