Everything You Need To Know About Investing In A New Loudspeaker System: Summary

The process of purchasing a new sound system can be a long one. It can also be stressful and disastrous if you don’t know what you’re doing. The article titled Everything You Need To Know About Investing In A New Loudspeaker System explains what steps should be taken when purchasing new and expensive equipment.

When purchasing a new sound system, one should be patient. There are many things that need to be done and rushing through them won’t be the best way. Start with a checklist and know your budget. If you know how much can be spent, you won’t go over your head and have to remove items from your list. Remember that the sound system needs many things to work. There should everything from amps, cables, racks, and motors on your list. Otherwise you will have a limited system.

It is a good idea to have all your main speakers from the same manufacturer. Mains and subs from the same manufacturer are usually made to work well with each other. Crossover points will overlap well, the system will match sonically, the cables and rigging requirements will match and make it easier for installing and flying the PA. Remember that you should always try to build a system that can be expanded so choose what will be needed for the main purpose and the future.

When purchasing a system from certain companies get to know the sales reps. Make sure they are experienced with their equipment and ask them for advice on how to go about creating and purchasing a system that will work for you. Create a good relationship with your sales rep and make them introduce you to key people at the company, such as managers and engineers. This way you also have other options to get more specific answers if the sales rep can’t help.

Know what your provider has to offer as support. If you have a problem with your equipment and need answers you should know how they will handle the situation before it occurs. Some companies have groups of people that are there for client support. Make sure they offer support fast and easy and have reliable resources. Many companies have product managers that supervise the new and developing products. It is great to have access to the product manager when it is needed. You will get all your problems solved with their contact. It will help to build a great relationship with them.

When purchasing a sound system make sure they are sold with spare parts. A great company will always offer spare parts when you decide to purchase one of their systems. Without spare parts, it is not possible to repair something on the road. Items usually take weeks to ship out and aren’t useful by then. So make sure to get all the spare parts you need from the manufacturer when purchasing a system.

Make sure the manufacturer you’re purchasing from has a distributor in the country you live in. This is help greatly when you need spare parts, support, or even a system replacement. Make sure they have an updated inventory with all the items you might need. Know whom the key people are at the distributor and have a great relationship with them.

If you decide to purchase new equipment from a company, ask if they provide training for the equipment. This is something that is very important because you might need to get certified before using some type of equipment and it will even help with possible future jobs.

When you have considered a system to purchase, ask the company for a trial system. Mostly likely they will let you try the system of your choice, but if not then you know there is something wrong with company’s promise to you. Make sure the system performs well and is what you were expecting.

When your system has been delivered to you, make sure all the components have arrived. Test and verify all of the speakers carefully, and make sure everything matches up. One other thing is to take pictures of your equipment and write down the serial and model numbers and store them somewhere safe. It will help for possible future problems.

A Detailed Explanation Of The Aux-Fed Subwoofer Technique: Summary

Aux-fed Subwoofers were commonly used as an effect to enhance a live audio experience, the article titled A Detailed Explanation Of The Aux-Fed Subwoofer Technique, explains the benefits of how having an aux-fed subwoofer system can help eliminate low rumble noise and improve the sound of the overall live audio mix.

Setting up of an aux-fed subwoofer is a little different from a usual PA system setup. A typical PA system has a stereo mix sent from the FOH console through a crossover system, also know as a loudspeaker processor, where the signal is then divided into three different sections with the use of filters and is then delivered to it’s appropriate speaker. The crossover points for the speakers depend on the frequency response of each individual speaker. There is usually an overlap from one speaker to the next, so there aren’t any frequencies that are lower in level from the others. When the crossover points are set, the level for each section of frequencies shouldn’t be changed, because it will change the crossover points and the phase of the system.

An aux-fed subwoofer system is set with two loudspeaker processors. One loudspeaker processor is receiving signal from the stereo bus and the other one receiving signal from an aux send that has the low frequency dependent channels sent to it. The input channels sent to the independent subwoofer processor are post-fader and post-EQ, so any change made to those channels will be seen by both the mid, high and sub speakers. The channels that are typically sent to the aux-fed sub are the low frequency instruments such as the kick drum, floor tom, and bass guitars. Most of the important elements of those instruments are in the lower sub frequencies. This technique helps improve the overall sound of the mix.

The technical benefits of using an aux-fed subwoofer, is that low frequencies from other microphones do not go to the subwoofers at all. By creating a signal path where only assigned input channels can go to, removes the unnecessary low rumble noise that doesn’t belong in a mix. This technique removes the low frequency effects of male vocals using dynamic cardioid microphones, Plosive consonants from speech, and microphones that might pick up sounds of wind and air conditioning rumble. A high pass filter can be used to diminish the low frequencies from input channels, but multiple microphones on the same stage will only reinforce each other and increase the low frequency content of the overall signal.

The aux-fed subwoofer technique can be used for many different music genres and applications such as, rock, R&B, ethnic music, and outdoor events. There are some applications that shouldn’t use the aux-fed subwoofer technique because it disturbs the natural emotion and content of the music. An example is an acoustic jazz band. The low frequencies from the piano and drums are less dense and the sub frequencies boost the musical content.

The aux-fed Subwoofer technique can be a wonderful musical effect but it also has it benefits in improving the technical side of live productions and prevents damaging of the speakers.

Uncomfortable Audio Experiences: Truths About Sound System & Loudspeaker Distortion: Summary

There are many sound systems that have some little problems that lead to larger ones. Those little problems don’t only hurt the system itself, but it also hurts the receiving end. People tend to make things louder when they don’t think it is good enough. Others try to use inappropriate gain staging to fix distortions problems. The article titled Uncomfortable Audio Experiences: Truths About Sound System & Loudspeaker Distortion explains how distortion can damage someone’s hearing without even knowing.

It is important for people to understand that a great loudspeaker system has to have even frequency response. A system that is well balanced and tested can prevent and solve problems before they even occur. Many loudspeaker companies try to create products with flat frequency responses that can be easily handled when it comes to sound level. A system that is well balanced gives peak signals headroom before clipping. Sound systems are usually turned up too loud even with a flat frequency response. Some frequencies seem to be louder than others causing people to turn the level up or adding more speakers that aren’t necessary.

If the signal is weak it is very difficult to make it sound good. Adding more speakers and level to a horrible signal source will not make it better. The article mentions how having a degraded signal can harm human hearing and how distortion is more damaging than high sound level. Distortion caused by horrible gain staging is usually a sin wave that is being chopped off and creating somewhat of a square wave. Square waves also create odd harmonics that aren’t pleasant to humans at all. A square wave can damage a speaker and can also damage human hearing. The article states that human ears and brains aren’t designed to deal with distorted signals for a long period of time.

Many times a signal is distorted before it even reaches a loudspeaker. This is a major problem because speakers tend to add their own distortion to signal. Loudspeakers add distortion with odd harmonics that aren’t pleasant to human hearing. Odd harmonics being adding to a signal that’s already distorted is a horrible combination. Loudspeakers also have a problem with ringing. Ringing is when a speaker cone continues to vibrate long after it has produced a signal. Speakers can be stopped from ringing with more dampening. The dampening material will make the speaker cone heavier and causing fewer vibrations.

Live audio isn’t about loud music that causes discomfort. People should be able to feel the music but not to the point of pain. A lot of distortion is created from high sound levels that are only unpleasant to humans. Proper and even frequency response and system tuning can solve all the problems of distortion and super high levels of loudspeaker systems. 

Audio Basics: Not As Simple As They Look? Identifying & Solving Microphone Problems: Summary

Microphones are very important in studio recordings and live productions. Items that are important usually have issues. The microphone is no different than any other item that is very important. The article titled Audio Basics: Not As Simple As They Look? Identifying & Solving Microphone Problems, lists a couple of problems microphones can have and their simple solutions.

Microphones are transducers that convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. Whenever electricity is present there should always be a ground. As stated in the article, most microphones have a screw near the connector that is used to ground the handle of the microphone. If the microphone is not grounded properly, there will be a hum when the screw is touched. This can easily be fixed by tightening the screw into place. Sometimes an XLR connector’s shell is grounded which causes a 60Hz ground loop when the shell is touching a grounded surface. This is usually caused when the ground lug of an XLR cable is tied to pin 1. It is better to not connect the ground lug to pin 1. This will prevent the ground hum that occurs when the shell is touching a grounded metal surface.

Other causes of hums and ground loops are when mic cables are near or overlapping lighting and power cables. These cables create large magnetic fields that interfere with the signal passing through the microphone cables. The easiest way to get rid of the hum caused by overlapping cables is to just simply separate them. If separating them is not an option, make sure the cables are overlapping at a 90-degree angle. The cables can also be vertically separated to prevent the hum. The article also suggests using a microphone with humbucking coils if hum is produced when using dynamic microphones. It is also good practice to use Twisted pair microphone cables because they reduce the hum caused by strong magnetic fields. The better the cable is shielded the less magnetic interference there will be. The best types of shields for cables are the braided shield and double spiral wrap. Also check mic cables for proper connections at both ends.

It is recommended to make sure that all equipment being used has the same reference to ground. If two pieces of equipment aren’t connected to the same ground and someone were to touch them, they might receive an electric shock. This occurs because the two pieces of equipment aren’t sharing the same source of power. The solution would be to make sure the power being supplied to the equipment is coming from the same exact source.

These are the main and likely issues that microphones can have and their simple solutions. There is always a solution to a problem and problems happen everywhere, even with the innocent microphone.