Tag Archives: Subjectivity

The Transcendent Experience

It’s the alignment of many variables, and is rarely produced on demand without a lot of time and effort.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

 
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One of the best, live-music vocal tones I have ever heard was produced by Katie Ainge. It was in a concrete and glass coffee shop, one of the most acoustically hostile places you can imagine. The mic was probably not anyone’s first choice; I think it was an SM48, or something similar. The PA system was nothing even close to a Vertech, VDOSC, EAW Anya, or…well, you get the picture. I think it was a Roland keyboard amplifier. There was no mixing console.

But the sound of Katie’s voice was still perfect. The basic timbre was rich and beautifully balanced alongside the intelligibility zone, with a studio-quality top end you’d swear was coming from a world-class condenser.

How was the result so perfect? It was simply because the entire setup completely fit in with Katie’s strengths and singular performance style in that room. It wouldn’t have worked quite so well for anyone else – although I’m sure it would have been reasonably okay, because the basic dial-in was probably solid.

All this is to say that “The Transcendent Experience” of sonic bliss is often driven by a whole bunch of factors lining up for a specific and very exact set of circumstances. It’s why an engineer who insists on getting “their sound” all the time will struggle with some bands (maybe even many or most acts), but then also meet the groups for whom nobody else will get results as good. The engineer’s aesthetic lines up with the band’s aesthetic like tumblers in a lock, and it’s magic when the key turns.

“The Transcendent Experience” is something that I have mixed feelings about. I enjoy it when it happens, and I think that there’s a certain worthwhile element to it. If an artist has the time and money required to go after every single factor that creates exactly the right sonic conditions for their shows, I say, go for it! At the same time, my own situation demands a certain kind of pragmatism: I need to fit my own workflow, but it’s not practical or advisable for me to cater to a niche sound. I might be running an acoustic-music show for one engagement, and then be doing rock the next. Consequently, my approach and my gear need to be generalized rather than specific. I can’t focus on making one act, or even one kind of act sound “beyond perfect.” Rather, I have to have a “works reasonably well everywhere” sort of mentality at most times. (I do enjoy working with and developing the sonic presentation of specific bands, though.)

My encouragement, then, to myself and others, is to embrace what you’re made for. You might be the person who’s going to work with the next Metallica, spending a career laboring over the perfection of the ultimate, heavy show. You might be more like me, working in a variety of situations that demand solid basics and adaptability. The key is to recognize what you’re trying to do, and not see “The Transcendent Experience” as the only measure of success. It’s important, yes, and great when it happens, yet we also have to deal with how elusive it is. Perfect is often the enemy of good, and being reliably good is the first and most achievable goal for any audio craftsperson.

 
 

 


A Plan For Delays

I think this should probably work. Maybe.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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Last year, I did a show at Gallivan Plaza that really ought to have had delays, but didn’t. As a result, the folks sitting on the upper tiers of lawn didn’t get quite as much volume as they would have liked. This year, I intend to try to fix that problem. Of course, deploying delays is NOT as simple as saying “we’ll just deploy delays.” There’s a bit of doing involved, and I figured I would set out my mental process here, before actually having a go.

Then, after all is said and done, we can review. Exciting, no?

So, here’s the idea:

A) Set primary FOH as a “double-hung” system. Cluster the subs down center, prep to put vocals through the inner pair of full-range boxes, and prep to send everything else to the outer pair. Drive the main PA with L/R output.

B) Have the FOH tent sit on the concrete pad about 60 feet from the stage.

C) At roughly an 80 foot distance, place the delays. The PA SPL in full-space at that point is expected to be down about 28 dB from the close-range (3 feet/ 1 meter) SPL.

D) Place a mic directly in front of one side of the main PA, and another mic in the center of the audience space, at the 80-foot line. (The propagation time to the delays will be slightly different depending on where people sit, so a center position should be a decent compromise.) Using both mics, record an impulse being reproduced only by the main PA. Analyze the recording to find the delay between the mics.

E) Send L/R to Matrix 1, assign Matrix 1 to an output, then apply the measured delay to that output. Connect the output to the delays. Also, consider blending the subwoofer feed into Matrix 1 if necessary.

F) Set an initial drive level to the delays so that their SPL level is +6 dB when compared to the output of the main PA. The added volume should help mask phase errors with the delays for listeners in front of the delay speakers, due to the contribution from the main PA being of much reduced significance…but it may also be possible that the added volume will be a problem for people sitting between the delays and the main PA. “Seasoning to taste” will be necessary. (For people sitting between the main PA and the delays, the time correction actually makes the delays seem to be MORE out of alignment than less, so the delays being more audible is a problem.)

So, there you go! I’ll let everybody know how this works. Or how it doesn’t.


Start From The Top

When working on mixing a “bass” instrument, don’t necessarily start with the low frequency information.

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The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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Whenever I have a problem (that is genuinely my problem and not because of the instrument or player) where a bass guitar, kick drum, or other “LF” instrument is just a pile of boom or indistinct rumble, it’s often because I failed to “start from the top.”

Or, the middle at least.

You see, it’s not really all about that bass. I’ve said many times that low-frequency information IS important and part of “the fun,” and that hasn’t changed for me. In truth, though, a mix stands or falls on the absolutely critical midrange (where almost all the musical information actually sits). It’s my very strong opinion that the midrange information, then, should be what you start with whenever possible. The “impact” of a kick drum? The sound that makes that giant percussion instrument sound like it’s aggressive and smashed against your nose? That’s almost always high-mid information and up. The definition and character of a bass guitar that really gives it the ability to speak in a musical way? Low-mids and up.

So, I say to you, get those areas right first. Yank down your aux-fed-sub drive sends and roll those channel HPF filters up. Use a low-shelf EQ as a sledgehammer if necessary. Especially do this, and do it more aggressively if you’re starting from what sounds like a muddy mess. Then, start pushing that fader upwards. You may need to run your preamp or trim level a bit hotter than you’re used to, but eventually, you should find a place where what’s still passing through ends up dropping into place with the rest of the band. If you’re just listening to one channel at a time, then you can ballpark yourself by finding a satisfying blend with the wash coming off the deck.

After that’s done, THEN start letting some bass frequencies through. You may find that you need a lot less LF than you first thought, especially if you were driving the deep-down sound hard in an effort to hear the instrument in question. I find it quite trivial to create a whole maelstrom of booming slop if I’m using the subwoofers to push something like a kick drum into the right place against everything else, but I find it much harder to make a mess if I park the “click” in a handy place, and then gently move the bottom into alignment afterwards.

It’s a bit counter intuitive, I know, but I can’t remember a time where I put the mids and highs under a microscope first and ended up with a result I disliked. At the same time, I can easily remember all kinds of situations where I didn’t, and subsequently backed myself into a terrible-sounding corner by starting with a bunch of unreadable low end.

Oh, and here’s a postscript bombshell for you: I have a sneaky suspicion that, for many engineers, the subwoofers they end up saying are the punchiest are actually very similar to other offerings in the general class. My guess is that the REAL difference was how the full-range PA mated with those subs, and that’s what got their attention.


The POTH Commentaries – Turbo Surround Reverb

It was actually a “mistake,” but I kept it.

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The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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Many things are discovered by accident. The glue for Post-It notes, for instance, was apparently an unintentional result of trying to create a much stronger adhesive. Gated reverb for 80’s-era drum tracks was also a case of “we didn’t intend to do this, but we liked it.” In the same way, Pigs Over The Horizon featured a vocal reverb with nifty characteristics that I didn’t plan out at all. In fact, at the time of the show I was a little surprised by its behavior, only realizing what I had done at a later time.

I had made the decision that any time-based FX processing for the show would be heard from the surround loudspeakers I briefly mentioned earlier. So, into the surrounds went my delay and reverb returns. What I noticed during the show was that, when Rylee, Grant, or Lisa “got on the gas” with a powerful vocal part, the surround reverb would launch like a rocket and punctuate that phrase. When they backed off, the reverb was much more tame. It was a cool bit of drama, so I kept it.

But what was really happening?

A habit that I’ve gotten into as an FOH mix human is to aggressively limit my main outputs. I don’t necessarily recommend my craziness to other people, but for me, the setup operates as a sort of automatic vocal rider, plus a method for keeping a mix in a bit of a box. I can, essentially, decide precisely how much the FOH PA gets to contribute to the overall volume of the show, and then set a “do not exceed” point. With the right settings in place (and a really excellent band on deck, of course) I can smack the limiter with the vocals – which helps to keep the lyrics on top without ripping people’s heads off. (Or, more precisely, it doesn’t rip people’s heads off any more than is necessary.)

So, for POTH, I definitely had that limiter in place. Here’s the key, though: It was NOT applied to the surround speakers. I had completely glossed over setting output dynamics for them. So, a big vocal part would happen, and go into the reverb send at full throttle. The dry signal would continue on to the main bus, where it got brickwalled…and the wet signal would blast through the unlimited surrounds. This “ex post facto” level adjustment to the dry vocal meant that my dry/ wet mix was suddenly tilted more in favor of “wet.” On the other hand, if a vocal part wasn’t smashed into the limiter, then my set proportionality was mostly untouched.

In a way, what I effectively had was an upward expander on the reverb send. A totally accidental one. Was it, technically speaking, “wrong?” Yes. Am I going to keep the basic idea around if we get to do the show again? Also, YES! It was cool! (Well, I thought it was…)


Gig Log: IAMA LCS (May 4, 2018)

What matters is if other people enjoy the show.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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Job Type: Recurring concert series.

Venue: The South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society

Load-in: I couldn’t get my regular spot, because I was very early and a bunch of folks were there for another event. I did remember that using the stairs is a terrible option, and so I walked the gear around on the sidewalk instead. I felt much less tired afterwards – no data on any time differential, though. As happened for the previous LCS, I had setup help come in at exactly the right moment to cap things off.

Load-out: Many hands continue to make light work, and my new technique (which is to pack and load out progressively, rather than to pack everything first and then load everything out) feels pretty good. It might be faster, or it might not – although I’m pretty sure we set a load-out record on this go-around. I’m learning that LCS teardown is more about me managing the process than being hands-on with gear all the time.

What Went Well

  • Working with old friends: The first act, Pat And Roy, were folks I remembered well from my Fats days. They know me, I know them, and both parties are aware of what the other party needs. Shows with people you’re acquainted with are like a good open-house gathering with a jam session attached; You get to be comfortable and enjoy yourself.
  • Making new friends: Whenever an act says, “that was some of the best sound we ever had,” that’s a great feeling. It’s an especially great feeling when it’s your first day with that group. I will also say that it’s quite amazing how just getting the basics right (showing up, having your monitor rig tuned somewhat sanely, generally giving a hoot about the goings on) will get you a long way towards getting the “best sound ever” nod.
  • Yes, you can do a big, bluegrass band unplugged: There were a LOT of instruments and open mics up on the deck for the second act, but there weren’t any real problems. We had a couple of short feedback chirps at one point, but nothing that had to be battled with over the course of the set. The key, of course, is a great band that knows how to be a band before a PA system gets added. All they needed was a bit of “fill” from monitor world, where the foldback blends gently with the acoustic output of the instruments. Screaming-hot monitor gain is the gateway to many problems, so not needing that kind of setup fixes lots of issues by way of prevention. The same goes for FOH, of course. There was no call to be ear-splittingly loud, especially because the basic blend was already there from the performers themselves.

What Could Have Been Better

  • Why doesn’t this feel better than it does?: For all the good points of the show, I must admit that I spent my entire time at FOH with the sensation that I was struggling with it. In hindsight, I think that my real worry was how the overall sound of the show wouldn’t “clean up” to my liking. I was really keyed into all the room reflections I was hearing, while trying to be ginger with both volume and EQ. I eventually got to a pretty good place, but it took me a long time to get there – and even then, I didn’t feel that I had a truly crisp, defined mix going. (To be fair, I think the only person who was even a little bit unhappy was me, so…)

Conclusion

This was the close of my second season with the IAMA LCS, and I’m glad to be coming back on for a third round.


Working With People You’ve Heard Of

It’s about the same as everything else, but turned up a notch or two.

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The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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Last weekend, I was A3 on a show featuring A Band You’ve Heard Of. What I mean by that is twofold:

1) There were three of us on the crew. I was the “junior” guy.

2) The headliner tours nationally on a regular basis.

I mixed monitors for the locals, the A2 handled monitor world for the headliner, and I ended up mixing the last 20 minutes (or so) of the headliner when the A1 decided that we were basically home-free.

If you’re wondering what it was like, well – it was similar to everything else. Bands You’ve Heard Of aren’t some sort of exotic creature, festooned in iridescent feathers and endued with arcane magics that mortals cannot fathom. They’re bands, and subject to all the same physical laws as any other band. There are some differences though, and in my mind it tends to boil down to expectations:

Regional and national acts tend strongly towards knowing exactly what they want, know how to ask for it, and are confident in asking for it.

…and really, what that means is they’re experienced. A good local that’s been around the block will exhibit the same behaviors. They aren’t sitting up on deck, trying to suss out the requirements as they go. They’ve got a system for getting in the room, a system for building their set up, a system for getting the sound on deck squared away, and a system for figuring out if FOH is how they think it ought to be.

There’s also a very good chance that they will push your rig, and the physics of the room, to its maximum reasonable limit. This isn’t a character flaw, or a bad behavior. It’s simply another bit of skill that’s picked up as musicians become seasoned. They will have played through sound systems that are truly world-class, and they will want you to get your setup as close to that performance level as possible. It’s where their comfort zone is; What they’ve gotten accustomed to.

There are some people out there who are attitude monsters, of course. Those folks will try to take everything BEYOND any reasonable standard, and then whine up a storm when it doesn’t happen. That’s not what I’m talking about here: The pros simply want to get everything possible out of the electronics and acoustics available to them, so as to achieve the performance that they expect to give – and that their fans expect to get. If something doesn’t seem right, and it also seems like that something could be fixed to become right, Bands You’ve Heard Of will let you know. They’ll be professional and courteous about it, certainly, but they won’t just let it slide. If the vocals don’t sound quite right in mix 1, well, we’re going to dig in and see if we can’t get them to behave.

As a final point, let me say that Working with A Band You’ve Heard Of is a great way to learn that our job is to get the band’s sound, not the other way around. Local crews are rarely engaged because they will “bring something unique to the songs.” Rather, we get the nod because we can provide the necessary gear, and the expertise needed to put that gear in a state which will satisfy the artist.

Working with acts that take it to the next level is a great way for YOU to be taken to the next level, so embrace the opportunities when you get them.


Listening To El Ridiculoso

Playing music over a system that’s been tuned as flat as possible is very illuminating.

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The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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I now have El Ridiculoso all finished and set up at home. Mario put this gorgeous coat of epoxy paint on the boxes, lending them a lightly textured and glossy blackness that I love. After getting all the individual enclosures hooked up, I tuned the system to be as flat as I could get it. (El Ridiculoso’s final form is pretty darn linear from about 40 Hz to 15 kHz, with a good amount of usable information beyond even that.) With my tuning in place, I started doing some listening.

I’ll start off by saying this. Music played over a flat-as-you-can-get-it system is music examined under an electron microscope. It’s an image with the sharpness dialed all the way up. There is no escape from anything, no glossing over of this or that. It’s a sonic reality that plants itself an inch from your face, and then starts waving madly. Music with a lot of “traffic” – a lot happening at once – can almost be an overloading experience for your brain.

If it’s there, you WILL hear it.

You might be surprised at what isn’t there, by the way.

You might expect, for instance, that a modern, “rock-mix” of a band like Rush would have a lot of thundering bottom end. That’s not really the case. Even some pop-dubstep really isn’t that heavy “down there.” Overwhelming LF isn’t what makes the mixes work; What the mix stands or falls on is the absolutely crucial midrange. If you get, say, 250 Hz – 5 kHz wrong, you may as well forget about everything else.

…and that reality feeds into points I’ve been making about live audio for quite a while. It feeds into points that other people have been making for ages: The low end does matter, yes, but not as much as you think it does. Balancing the bottom to the rest of the audio makes for the best overall experience, but the first priority is to get the mids to be musical. There’s no substitute for that, and trying to cover up a debacle in the midrange space with a lot of *BOOM* just makes for annoyance. Real punch is the interplay between LF thud and higher-frequency definition. Clarity is a real thing that you really need, and scooping a mix hollow KILLS clarity.

Maybe a bigger subwoofer pile isn’t what you need. Maybe some more time sorting out the firestorm of aural data that lives above the bass range is time better spent.


The Turbosound Milan M12

A nice box, but flawed.

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The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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When I was adding onto my system last year, I chose Turbosound Milan as the product line for FOH. Since putting those boxes into service, my feelings have been mixed. The most mixed of those feelings have been reserved for the mid-highs I chose, designated as “M12” by the manufacturer.

I do like the compact nature of the package. Other powered 12s that I carry are similar in weight, but inefficient in their use of bulk. The Milans chew up less space, and yes, they have a monitor-angle on both sides. You can properly book-match a pair of the little darlings, which is something I appreciate.

I also like the overall fit and finish. Yes, they’re plastic boxes, but it’s the kind of plastic that can take some wear gracefully. The controls and connection points seem to be reasonably well-engineered, with slide switches that clearly indicate where they’re set. (Push-toggles are fine if they unambiguously show their state, but plenty of them don’t – so, kudos to Turbosound on this front.) I often work with other boxes that really are just fine…but feel “cheap” when it comes to XLR connectors and back-panel interaction. The Milans are a definite upgrade there.

M12s do seem to be tuned pleasingly at the factory, which is a big help for throw-n-go gigs where you have to make things work out tonally without a lot of prep time. Your mileage may vary, of course, especially since just about anything can be whipped into shape these days.

Also, let’s be honest: My anti-establishment nature has a special place for brands that are less common. Everybody knows JBL, Peavey, EV, Yamaha, and so on, but Turbosound is a loudspeaker marque that’s a little less trafficked in small-format circles. (Turbo’s big-boy boxes are more well known to the folks who work at that level.)

What do I not like? Well…

Milan M12s are a (tiny) bit expensive for what you get – both in money and weight. When JBL marked their Eon 612s down, they really threw the gauntlet at Turbo. Spend $50 less, get a box that has essentially the same performance, and save about 12 lbs.

…and Turbo, geeze, can we please have a real “thru” on the back? Sometimes I just want to chain two boxes together, and I don’t want to have to volume-match them by ear. Especially if I’ve forgotten to do so before the speakers are eight feet in the air already.

But that’s not the biggest thing.

What really put me off with the M12s was how they will audibly distort before they illuminate their clip indicators. It’s not a horribly nasty sound, but its “too obvious” and a little embarrassing. When somebody addresses the crowd at concert level, using a mic that has some low-mid dialed into it, there’s no reason that a loudspeaker of this type should suddenly give the impression of being underpowered. Sure, these units travel with the crowd that peaks under 130 dB SPL @ 1 meter, but so do my Eons and they don’t seem to misbehave when still running “in the green.” I was so unsettled by this quirk of the Turbos that I retired them to moderate-volume-only use – which they are great at, I should mention.

Someone might point out that the Turbosounds could simply dislike my gain structure. I often run powered loudspeakers with the input controls at full-throttle (when it’s practicable), because full-throttle is an easily repeatable setting. Also, I know I can get maximum SPL at around -20 dBFS on my console outputs. I can’t discount the possibility that the M12s fail to handle that kind of use gracefully at the input side, which means that my dislike is user-error. At the same time, though, I have to go back to my JBL Eons; They tolerate being run wide-open without any marked complaint, which is what I expect from a loudspeaker in this price-range.

Milan M12s are good, but they don’t seem to be good enough to spend “more money” on.


It’s Not About The Gear – It’s About Receipts

Sure, it’s a cool toy – but can you make money on it?

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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If you want to hear great wisdom about the business of sound and music, you should seek out Tim McCulloch over at Pro Sound Web. Just recently he was advising another audio human to “get very real” with a band about demanding a certain console for a tour. Having gotten the strong whiff that the choice of mixing desk was basically one of vanity, Mr. McCulloch dropped the proverbial load of bricks: The gear you take on tour is – and should be categorized as – an expense. The merch and tickets you can sell are profit. (So, decide if you want to make a profit and then act accordingly.)

Of course, the application of this to band tour-o-nomics is self explanatory. With just a bit of imagination, though, you can see how this applies everywhere – especially to audio craftspersons who own equipment.

The gear you own is an expense. It’s always an expense. It’s an expense when you make a full or partial payment for purchase. It’s a debit if you’re making leasing payments. It’s a negative ledger entry every second of every day, because its value depreciates forever in an asymptotic slide towards $0. It’s also a constant drain because you are always paying to store, maintain, and replace it (even if you don’t see a bill directly).

The above is a big reason behind why Tim McCulloch will also tell you that “Excess capacity is infinitely expensive.”

Anyway.

Equipment does not represent profit. It’s a tool that can be used to generate profit, but if you want to imagine the audio business as an airplane, gear is a constant contributor to weight and drag. What you need to keep going is lift and propulsion – profit, that is. Receipts. Money coming in. As such, every purchase and upgrade plan has to answer one question: “How will this increase my receipts?”

The harsh truth is that, past a certain point, just being able to get louder probably won’t increase your receipts.

Past a certain point, being able to rattle peoples’ rib cages with bass probably won’t increase your receipts.

Past a certain point, “super-trick,” spendy mics probably won’t increase your receipts.

A nifty new console probably won’t increase your receipts (not by itself).

What many of us (including myself) have a longstanding struggle with understanding is that what we THINK is cool is not necessarily what gets us phone calls. Meeting the demands of the market is what gets the phone calls. For those of us with maverick-esque tendencies (like Yours “Anti Establishment Is Where It’s At” Truly), we have to take care. We have to balance our curiosity and experimental bent with still being functional where it counts.

We CAN be bold. In fact, I think we MUST be bold. We ought to dare to be different, but we can’t be reckless or vain. If we’re in a situation where our clientele encourages our unorthodoxy, we can let ‘er rip! If not, then we have to accept that going down some particular road might just be for our own enjoyment, and that we can’t bet our entire future on it.

By way of example, I can speak of my own career. I’m currently looking at what the next phase might be like. I have a whole host of notions about what upgrade and expansion paths that might entail. I’ve also gotten on the call list of a local audio provider that I really, really enjoy working with – and the provider in question is far, FAR better than I am at scaring up work. With that being the case, some of my pet-project ideas are going to need a hard look. In devising my upgrade path, it’s far smarter for me to talk to the other provider and find out what would dovetail nicely with their future roadmap, rather than to just do whatever I think might be interesting. Fitting in with them means a chance at more receipts. More receipts means I can do more of what I love. Doing more of what I love means that I might just have enough excess capital to do some weird experiments here and there.

I don’t say any of this to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. I say this so that we can all be clear about our choices. There are times when we might declare, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” It’s just that we sometimes say that without realizing that we’ve said it, in terms of business decisions. If we’re going to buy tools to make money with, it’s a very good idea to figure out what tools will actually serve to make money.


Mentalism

“Subjective” problems are still problems that have to be taken seriously.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

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I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. However, I have known doctors – really good ones – and though they’ve never said this explicitly, I think they would be of the opinion that a problem in the mind IS a real problem. That is, if a patient is experiencing distress that is caused by the brain, then they are really experiencing distress. The key isn’t to tell the complainant that what’s happening to them is fake, because it clearly is not fake. Rather, if the problem truly is in the mind then the solution must be applied at the problem.

Which is in the mind.

This might not seem like something to do with audio, but you have heard that part of an audio-human’s job is psychology, right? It’s said jokingly, but it shouldn’t be. It’s true. Musical craftspersons of all types have been known to run into problems at a show that really do exist…just inside their own head.

Something just doesn’t seem right. A guitar tone feels “off.” The vocals aren’t sparking with the same magic. I liked that reverb yesterday, and now it’s awful. This DI box doesn’t work right with my instrument.

Especially for us science-oriented types, our response to this takes work. Because we’ve spent so long trying to cut through the vast piles of horse-doodie that pervade the industry, we get dismissive. “Nothing’s different, man. It’s just your imagination. Ignore it.” But they CAN’T ignore it. They’re experiencing it, or they’ve convinced themselves that they are, and that is plenty good enough for them.

This is why an understanding that audio is a service business is so important. This is why an attitude of cooperation ought to be cultivated. Some perceptual issues can’t be worked out by applying a tech-based change, but they can at least be alleviated. The salve that can be applied is a willingness to treat the mental malady as a true conundrum requiring attention. They want you to turn the knobs? Turn ’em! They want you to swap the cables? Swap ’em! They want you to drive the system into feedback (with an audience present) so that they can go after the ringing frequencies with their own EQ, and then drop the gain back to where you had it? Go for it! (This has actually happened to me, by the way.)

In the moment, taking a desired action matters greatly – even if that action is not likely to physically affect much of anything – because what you’re really applying the fix to is a person and not the PA. After all the dust has settled, THEN you can talk about whether or not the distress was objective or subjective. Rationality is a part of handling whatever bugbear there was, but rationality only works when people are calm. The important thing “in the now” is being on the same team…and proving it.

Refrain from lecturing in a crisis; The person experiencing the crisis can’t process what you’re saying.

I think I’ve proven many times on this site that I value an analytical approach. I put very little stock in “audio theater,” which is using techniques and buying gear that make you THINK a problem is getting fixed, rather than actually fixing something. I don’t advocate doing something damaging or insane just to make somebody else feel better; Sound people need to know what’s a flat-out bad idea. Diplomacy, though, is essential. When the show must go on, there’s little use in winning a technical argument. What’s needed is to get everybody to a place where they’re as happy as is physically and mentally possible.