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Study Hall Sampler 08/27/2024
Study Hall Sampler Welcome to another edition of the Study Hall Sampler, a once-a-week taste of Study Hall’s tools and resources for media workers. We are really excited about the new Alerts feature on our member site! With Alerts, Study Hall members fill out the types of opportunities they are looking for and then get instant updates via email or text after our opportunity hunters find the gigs that match their criteria.
Welcome!
Hello! Welcome to the all-new Study Hall Sampler, a once-a-week sampling of Study Hall’s tools and resources for media workers. As a former freelance journalist who struggled to find consistent work, I always dreamed of something that would help me find the best pitch calls, editor contacts, resources, and advice to take my writing to the next level. And now it finally exists.
Digest 12/11/2023
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DANCE NEWS: New York Live Arts Presents 9th "Live Ideas" Festival of Art and Ideas on Social & Environmental Justice
Features > Dance NewsHappenings in the Field Co-curated With Slow Factory: "Live Ideas 2023: Planet Justice - Are You Here for It*?" New York Live Arts presents the 9th interdisciplinary humanities festival Live Ideas 2023, Planet Justice: Are you here for it*?, this May 17-21. “It” is defined as social and environmental justice for collective liberation - radical justice and human rights for all living beings on Mother Earth.
Burden of Latest Round of Studies Trigger Rioting at PNUCC
Police and paramedics were called to the Portland Airport Sheraton on the first Friday of the month to restore order to the monthly Pacific Northwest Utility Conference Committee meeting. Members of PNUCC apparently snapped while discussing a series of studies on regionalization of the California Independent System Operator and a study showing that the Western Interconnection needed more renewables, storage and transmission to meet state clean-energy goals.
Previously (here), we considered two ways to deliver a better online audio mix for our at-home congregation. To recap, we don’t want to use the main mix because the levels and mix will be sub-optimal, so instead let’s use either an aux mix or a group/matrix mix. The aux mix is basically a monitor mix for the broadcast feed, while the group/matrix mix is a different thing altogether. Let’s dig into using one or the other.
Consoles, Spending Practices & IP Addresses: Answering Church Sound Questions From Readers
Q: I’ve been comparing “X” and “Y” consoles. Which one is best for us? A: This is a bit of a tough one for me because I work with one particular brand of console several days each week. However, what follows are just straight facts. When evaluating consoles, it comes down to a few key points: number of processable inputs, number of processable outputs, workflow, and tech support.
Cleaning It Up: Methods For Controlling Low-Frequency Energy In The Mix
Recently, a colleague and I were working on a show in a highly reverberant space. Although we only had a few vocal microphones on stage, the room was an acoustic challenge, with a really nasty 80 Hz mode that rang like a bell for more than 2 seconds. I asked my colleague if he was driving the system’s subwoofer via an aux bus, and he replied that he wasn’t, but that he was using high-pass filtering on the mic inputs.
A Matter Of Timing: Clarifying Latency And Putting It Into Context
Listen To/Download The Audio Version Of This Article: Ever since the first appearance of digital audio technology in the field, latency has been a topic of discussion. How much is noticeable? How much is acceptable for a given application? Is less always better? As with any quantifiable property of audio equipment, latency is described using a plethora of nonspecific marketing claims, such as low, ultra-low, imperceptible, near-zero, and so on.
Live Event Sound Levels: Rising Above The “Insidious Undercurrent Of Aural Incapacitance”
The quote in the title of this article was borrowed from a Journal of the Audio Engineering Society paper published in 1980 [1]. The author was making the argument that if the live event industry, specifically audio engineers, didn’t take a proactive approach to sound level limits, they would soon find themselves at the mercy of government-formulated regulations that may be unfit for purpose, thus detracting from the live event experience.
Unique Signatures: Breaking Down Acoustic Behavior To Understand How Sound Reacts In Rooms
In live sound, be it for speech- or music-based applications, we spend a lot of time considering what equipment to use and how it should be deployed to achieve the desired result of an intelligible and pleasing listening experience for the audience.
Microfiles: The Sears 6591, A Dynamic Handheld From The Then “World’s Largest Retailer”
Like many kids who grew up in the 1960s and 70s, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. retail chain (and catalog) was a big part of my life. The department stores were a wonderland of clothing, tools, toys, appliances and other household items, with something for every member of the family.
Under The Bus? Uses & Applications Of Mix Bus Compression In The Live Realm
The topic of mix bus compression – mixing through a compressor on the master output – can stir up a lot of conversation among engineers across many genres (live, recording, broadcast, etc.). For example, ask studio engineers about bus compression, and five bucks says their responses will include the word “glue.” It’s probably because bus compression acts on the mix as a whole, as opposed to an individual element, so it can create an “everything stuck together” kind of sound.
So Long And Thanks For The Help: When It’s Time To “Coach Out” A Worship Tech Volunteer
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!” How many of us have heard this phrase or uttered it to ourselves when working with a group of volunteers? It’s no surprise that churches and other not-for-profit spaces run on a string (often a revolving door) of volunteers – helpful, well-intentioned people who have a desire to contribute towards the goal or mission of a team. Without volunteers, most churches wouldn’t have any kind of audio or technical staff.
The Broadcast Mix, Part 1: Methods For Attaining Quaility Streaming Audio For Worship Services
The concept of online church seems here to stay. When I first started writing about this over 10 years ago, few churches were streaming their services live. Some would post the sermon, either in video or just audio, but for the most part it was the larger churches with larger budgets and staffs that were streaming their services live. The year 2020 changed all that and even small churches today are streaming live for people who would rather stay home.
The Art Of Saving Showfiles: Total Recall For A Better Workflow & To Avoid Embarrassment
Listen To/Download The Audio Version Of This Article: We learned as soon as we started using computers that we need to save our work as often as possible. We all know that sinking feeling when that essay or email we had worked so long and hard on, without backing up, suddenly became the victim of a spilled drink or blue screen of death.
In The Studio: Six Tips For Great Electric Guitars Without Amps
With direct guitar recording into virtual amps you can now rock out through the guitar chain of your dreams in the comfort of your home studio and without the neighbors calling the cops. In this article I’ve outlined a few tips and best practices for getting great guitar tones without amps or mics. Go Direct “Going direct” means connecting your guitar into your recording interface by means of the high impedance (Hi-Z) instrument input if available or through a DI box (direct injection box).
Unplugging From AC: Why Playing On Battery Power Alone Can Be Useful In 2022 (& Beyond)
I began the year with hopes of less focus on Covid that would signal the beginning of the opening of a lot of clubs and events in my region. Many of the bands and production companies I know have struggled with a lack of gigs the past two years, with 2022 perhaps seeing a turnaround. In some cases, it’s true, but I’m also hearing about cancellations of club gigs and other indoor events like weddings and parties.
In The Studio: Taming Cymbal Volume
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Right Place, Right Time: Audio Brings The Heat For Enrique Iglesias And Ricky Martin On Tour
Whether performing among blinding flashes of pyro, reaching out to confetti-speckled fans clamoring along the thrust, scrambling catlike over ramps and railings, or shimmering with dance moves set to throbbing percussion, Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin are two Latin stars who complement each other while simultaneously remaining different.
RE/P Files: Inside The First-Ever Commercial Quad Recording Sessions
On the nights of February 16 and 17, 1971, the first commercial quad recording sessions ever were held In San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. This monumental edifice to God ‘s glory and Episcopalian financial acumen is blessed with a fine pipe organ, a 90-foot ceiling, and a 7-second reverberation time. The latter, in particular, put some stringent limitations on both the recording technique and musical style involved. The session was for side 2 of Paul Beaver and Bernard Krause’s new Warner Bros.
Use The Tones, Luke! Setting Reference Levels Objectively — Not Subjectively - ProSoundWeb
Listen To/Download The Audio Version Of This Article: You know that bit in the first Star Wars movie, where Luke Skywalker is in his spaceship trying to get two pieces of audio equipment talking after he “Jedi’s” it out of the swamp on planet Dagobah, and he hears Obi Wan’s voice telling him to “Use the tones, Luke”? No? That’s because I just made it up. That said, I feel like in a galaxy that far away and that long ago, it could have happened.
Subwoofer Arrays — Searching For The Ideal Line - ProSoundWeb
Part 1 of this series (LSI January 2022) shows that there are significant differences between the curving algorithms for subwoofer arrays in modern sound reinforcement. Now, in Part 2, the resulting sound fields are analyzed in more detail and their performance is quantified. A broadly equal experience for the listeners is the goal in the design of modern sound reinforcement systems1. The procedure is a mostly iterative and visual process.
Holding Out For A Zero: The Incremental Quest Towards A Perfect Zero Scene
I don’t need to list the benefits afforded by working with a digital mixing console, but I will anyway – flexible parametric EQs, high channel counts in a small footprint, the night-after-night precision of recall and automation features, the convenience of traveling with nothing but a showfile, the list goes on. However, for me, the selling point that far outshines the others is the flexibility to configure the desk as I personally see fit.
Phase & Polarity: Causes And Effects, Differences, Consequences
Polarity and Phase — these terms are often used as if they mean the same thing. They are not. POLARITY: In electricity this is a simple reversal of the plus and minus voltage. It doesn’t matter whether it is DC or AC voltage. For DC, Turn a battery around in a flashlight and you have inverted or, more commonly stated, reversed the polarity of the voltage going to the light bulb.
Loudspeaker Advancement: Part 1 In A Series On The Evolution Of Sound System Optimization
We live in the present and plan for the future. Every once in a while it can be interesting to look back at our history and see he we got here. This puts things in perspective and helps us see what’s coming. The essential challenges to tuning a sound reinforcement system, a process we now call optimization, haven’t changed in 40 years, and neither have the laws of physics. But the tools and techniques of the trade have changed dramatically, albeit incrementally, over time.
Editor’s note: This one goes back a few years, but the question remains relevant. I go to a lot of concerts. Most of the time, I arrive at sound check to spend some time talking to the techs and engineers about new gear or problems that need fixing. This is also a source of new product development. Then, if time permits, we usually try to go out for a quick dinner before heading back to the venue for the show. My favorite position to hear the band is at front of house.
Making It Move: Psychoacoustic Manipulation Of The Stereophonic Listening Experience
Digital mixing consoles offer engineers access to an incredible range of techniques we can utilize to create great mixes. For now, with few exceptions, nearly all those mixes are created for stereo reproduction, a phenomenon which exploits the brain’s ability to discern direction and relative distance of sounds arriving at our ears at slightly different times. Clement Ader is credited with the first use of stereophonic reproduction in 1881.
In The Studio: The Importance Of Checking Your Mixes EVERYWHERE
. Right now I’m sitting in my studio. Later this afternoon I need to do a final mix-down on a song. Everything is pretty close to where it needs to be. Now it just comes down to the final tweaks, automation moves, etc. However, before I can smile and say, “Done!” I need to check my mix on as many systems as I can. You can never check your mixes enough. Before I go any further, check out this picture.
Discerning Differences: How To Conduct Proper & Useful Listening Tests
There are two ways to assess the quality of audio devices: measuring and listening. Measuring is usually the better choice because the results are absolute, and repeatable because they avoid the vagaries of human hearing perception. But when measuring isn’t practical or possible, a listening test using a music source is perfectly fine.
What It Is... And What It's Not: Using Past Experiences To Understand Present Challenges
In the fall of 2003, I was hired as the RF tech on a new television production called The Toronto Show, taping in Toronto. It was a one-hour, late-night variety show, and the concept was that of a really cool party that you just happened to discover.
Investigating Subwoofer Arrays – Searching For The Ideal Line - ProSoundWeb
The advantage of distributing subwoofers in front of the stage and improving the dispersion pattern of the configuration either by digital signal processing or physical setup is well known and used in many applications. The algorithms to calculate the delay values are usually implemented in the manufacturer’s software and are not accessible to the user.
Fantastic Voyage: The Fascinating Career Of Audio Engineer Griselda Jiménez Of México
Editor’s Note: It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Griselda (1953–2022) just as we were getting set to feature this article. Please enjoy this account of her wonderful career as a true pioneer in professional audio, and our sincere thanks to SoundGirls for sharing it with us. Griselda Jiménez is the first woman sound engineer in México, working for Vicente Fernández (among many other representative icons of Mexican popular music) for more than 30 years.
Reflections On Reflections: A Review Of Venue Acoustics
I began writing this article a few months ago, as I sat in my office here in the Pacific Northwest, looking out the window at the rain making it obvious that, at least in this corner of the world, another summer had come and was long gone. Another year of street fairs, festivals, music in the park, shed lawns, barbeque catering and tarping the arrays to keep them from being waterlogged by the imminent thunderstorm was in the books, and it was time to go back indoors for the winter.
Rise Of The Tech: The Elevation Of The Role Of Audio Technician
The Oxford English Dictionary definition of an engineer – “a person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines or structures” – conjures up someone extremely technically minded, with a head full of physics and data. Someone highly schooled in the intricate inner workings of the technology they operate. Dear readers: I am not that person. I’m a monitor engineer with more than 20 years of experience.
Doing Their Thing: A Unique Inclusive Approach For Lawrence, A Band On The Rise
“I’m telling you, it won’t be very interesting, I don’t do anything – they’re just good on their own.” This is the response I receive from audio engineer Leo Pisaq when I reach out to him to talk about his work mixing front of house for the band Lawrence, an 8-piece band led by brother-sister duo Clyde and Gracie Lawrence (no relation to yours truly).
Growing Liabilities Restrict Insurance Availability For Live Events
Strained workforces, dynamic local health regulations and heightened safety expectations have tightened the insurance market for live events. As we kick off another year in the shadow of Covid-19, event producers need to blaze new paths to ensure they can insure their events amid external circumstances that can impact everything from deliveries to construction to attendance. The live event insurance market is, in a word, hardening.
Lessons Learned: Five Important Things About This Business I’ve Learned Along The Way
Sometimes it’s not so easy for us “gray hairs” to realize or accept that our careers are more in the past now than ahead of us. I’ve been in this business for 30 years and it’s unlikely I’ll be doing this for another 30 unless they find that fountain of youth buried somewhere in the swamps of Florida… One thing we veterans can do is to look back and take stock in the “lessons learned” and, with our perspective, decide which of them are the most important.
Microfiles: The AIWA DM-51, Reflecting The Design Ethos & Styling Of The 1970s
The AIKO Denki Sangyo company was founded in Japan in 1951, initially manufacturing microphones. The name was changed to Aiwa in 1959, and the company went on to specialize in manufacturing consumer audio products such as stereos, radios, tape players, etc., from the 1970s to the 1990s. In addition to audio, the company also produced consumer video goods like TVs, VCRs, DVD players, and even marketed Japan’s first boombox, the TPR-101, in 1968, as well as the first cassette deck, the TP-1009.
Everything To Gain: The Keys To An Often Underrated Aspect Of Proper Operation
Gain structure is one of the very important yet highly underrated topics in audio. It’s not nearly as glamorous as EQ, plugins or parallel compression, but if gain structure is out of whack, no amount of EQ, plugins or compression will fix it. Here I’m going to focus primarily on input channel gain structure (overall system gain structure is another article entirely).
In The Studio: The Evolution Of Recording
Once upon a time, there was no recorded music. To hear music you needed to go to a live performance. Eventually sheet music was printed and available to buy. If you liked the song, you bought the sheet music … if you were lucky enough to have an instrument and could play you could actually hear the song. The piano (or other musical instrument) was an important part of home entertainment.
Mastering Signal Flow: Here It Comes & There It Goes...
Growing up in a 100-year-old home, I learned how to fix plumbing problems. One lesson was tracing all the pipes in the basement so I could tell which pipes had fresh water and which ones carried the other stuff. You might say it was my first exposure to signal flow. In every sound system, signal flow is the flow of the audio signal from the sources of input to the places of output, from source to loudspeaker.
Danger In The Data: Words To The Wise About The Audio Measurement Process
I’m a huge fan and longtime user of Rational Acoustics Smaart audio measurement software.
Stage Manager For A Day: Encountering Logistics, Miscommunication And Good Ol’ Human Nature
I don’t recall how, exactly, but several decades ago, somehow my name was put forward to be the account manager for the middle of three dates that the company I worked for was doing on a traveling one-day rock festival.
Ultrasonic Hearing? Focusing On The Frequencies & Ranges That Matter Most
It’s one of those debates that seems to go on forever, and has been discussed heavily in professional audio and hi-fi circles during the “digital era” that began in the early 1980s with the advent of the compact disc: Can people hear anything above 20 kHz? And if so, does it matter? As it turns out, this has been an important subject in scientific and medical circles for decades. In a 2003 article by Martin L.
In The Studio: Four Vocal Microphone Placement Techniques
The vocals are almost always in the spotlight of a song, yet sometimes they receive far less attention during setup than other instruments like the drums. In this excerpt from Audio Recording Basic Training, you’ll not only get a few great tips, but an exercise that will lead you through the different ways of vocal miking that will show you their pros and cons.
Interoperable Flexibility: Audio At Tropicana Field In Florida Moves Into The Digital Realm
Randy Arozarena of the Tampa Bay Rays made Major League Baseball history at Tropicana Field this past October by becoming the first player to both hit a moonshot home run and steal home plate in a postseason game.
What's LUFS Got To Do With It? Looking Into Loudness As It Relates To Audio Streaming
A dimension of audio streaming that often goes overlooked is the level at which the audio is being streamed and the effects the dynamics may have on it. Join me in this brief overview of loudness as it relates to streaming for live sound techs and mixers. To put it simply, loudness is just an attempt to objectify a subjective experience. What I consider loud might not be loud to you at all and vice versa.
Particular Abilities: 10 Technical Skills Every Church Sound Tech Should Have
A couple of years ago, I asked the members of the Church Soundcheck (CSC) discussion board for their thoughts on the key technically oriented skills that a church sound tech must have (or strive for). It resulted in a lot of great input, which I’ve whittled down into this list. One: Have a musical ear.
Serious Upgrade: Inside An Extensive Sonic Renovation Project At Jack Singer Concert Hall In Calgary
When interviewing Jack Jamieson, head sound technician at Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall (JSCH), it’s not unusual to catch him on a ladder or otherwise engaged in wrangling the facility’s gear, and this time is no different. “Our recording engineer’s working on some multi-track files I recorded, and two of our consoles weren’t talking to each other as they’re supposed to,” he explains.
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