Tuning A 12 Box Arena Line Array Hang With A Single Processing Channel
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
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Be a fly on the wall as I tuned a 12 box line array with limited processing resources.
Sometimes you gotta work with what you got. In this situations it's critical to get the design right from the get go. With just one processing channel there's no "fixing it in post" with a little HF shading on each PA zone. This is one macro decision for the entire audience area!
We'll walk through:
- Where I strategically placed my mics to get accurate data front to back
- The decision making framework for my EQ choices
- Why I chose to leave the front few rows a little on the bright side
00:00 - Intro
01:25 - Rig Rundown
04:52 - Taking Measurements in Smaart, EQ Decisions
11:43 - Key Takeaways
Thank you so much for showing a “let’s see what we can do” tune with a less than ideal setup. So often I’m left with “how can I make this work” it’s good to see what sacrifices others are willing to make.
You're very welcome! It's of course great to have a ton of tools and flexibility available for a show, but more often than not we have "PA Salad" and limited time and resources. Knowing how to exactly prioritize your processing resources is an important skill.
Great video! I love to see the step by step process as well as hearing you analyze the data to make informed decisions.
Another killer video lesson. Thanks for sharing.
1. Hopefully system processor next time
2. Mechanics of the design matter first
3. Didn’t need the noise on for as long as a others may think, so smart, capture and go quiet
Loved it. Thanks for taking the time to share.
Thanks a ton, Cam! Yes, mechanics first, more processing granularity helps, and use the minimum amount of noise and measurement time possible.
I've loved the Design of the room and the way are doing the processing plus your Explanation...... I wish We could listen to it live
Thank you, Isaac!
@@MichaelCurtisAudio Looking forward to Attaining eighter a certificate or Adiploma After all this Training Brother Michael.
Really nice video man. Great for people who aren't regularly deploying PA or are in house.
I see that you're measuring on axis all the way, which is the Meyer way (and which completely makes perfect sense). There's a AES paper (Convention Paper 10234) where it's advised to use a more "fanned out configuration", which L-Acoustic actually implements for their tuning process, be sure to check it out. I personally like to do a mixture of both :-) where I especially try to get a measurement from close to the FOH position, and random out a bit with the other positions... Nice to see likeminded collegues' videos such as yourself, thank you for the effort 👊
Thanks a ton, Aziz! Yes, I'm aware of L-Acoustic's paper and have a few colleagues who use their technique. I honestly haven't experimented with it much in the field, but should give it a try if I have a leisurely tuning session.
Thank you so much for the video. There are so much thing I can learn from it.
You're very welcome!
If you Right-Click a stored trace, you can choose "Recapture" which will replace the stored data with the live data from your focused measurement engine... saves you a step.
Thanks for the tip, Michael. I need to start integrating that into my workflow.
Running commencement here at the U of A campus on the other side of the state from yours wasn't quite as involved 🤣 but this is really cool to see and helpful to those who have to setup in similar situations.
Thanks a ton, Mark!
I tuned an HDL6 rig with only 6 boxes a side but used two processing channels. I was able to get their frequency response from front to back almost perfect with a little bit of HF shading, dipping 800hz a bit, and killing a whole lot of low mid 85-100hz. I’m surprised how much low mid are in these boxes!
Yes, these boxes have a TON of low mids! But yes, after some macro-low-mid adjustment these rigs usually just need a bit of HF shading.
Hello! Talk about electronic crossover versus acoustic crossover. In some works, I process the loudspeakers with HPF at 200Hz for 24dBs/8a and the subwoofers with LPF at 100Hz for 24dBs/8a with, the Subwoofers working with +12dBs and I have great results. Thanks!!!
good education.....👍
I have no idea what all this mean but I feel like the hs graduation I just went to did not have someone like you running the audio lol
Thanks again Michael for another informative video. How much time did you have to tune the arena? Was it a one day job or did you have a couple of days for everything you needed to get done?
On this particular gig I had about a two hour window (which was very nice to have that much wiggle room). Without having to film it at the same time, and also move my own wired mics around, this system should take a half hour or less.
Fantastic hands-on tutorial. Explains so much more than the theory sessions would have done.
One quick question I have is what measurement mics did you use here? Also what is the calibration status of those mics?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you so much!
These are the iSemCon EMX-7150 microphones. I've had the four of these about 6 months now and love them. Purchased them from Rational Acoustic's website.
Although they ship with calibration files for each mic, I don't use them. Both the sensitivity and frequency response of the mics are so close out the box I don't feel like any change would meaningfully impact the decisions I make in the field.
@@MichaelCurtisAudio many thanks for the reply. Very enlightening.
Hey Michael,
Thanks so much for your videos, amazing resource for learning! Keep it up ;)
As I‘m just starting out one measuring-specific question: to me, your coherence seems to be impressively high. How do you achieve that in such reverberant rooms? Do you only turn on the relevant sources - so mute PA-L in this case? Do softwares (OSM vs. Smaart) differ in these regions?
On the note of aligning-positions: Hirnforschung you approach Mains>FF alignment? Especially in small rooms with seats close to a wide stage. Does it make sense to vary the delay from the outer to inner FFills?
Hey, Florian! So glad you've liked the videos. Here's a few thoughts:
Yes, I did indeed mute PA L when measuring PA right. As I'm folding in other fill systems I'll keep the mains going to assess the "LF leakage" and take out low-mids from fill systems, but I always start solo-ing each subsystem. I could have used Smaart's new sync-source TF feature to get even higher coherence! It drops the data window and uses a periodic pink noise source which allows room reverb to be considered "good data". I'm probably butchering what's technically going on under the hood with that explanation, but that's what I know thus far.
When it comes to mains to FF alignment I ask myself which audience areas will be more affected by the "seams" between front fill to front fill or mains to front fill zones. More often than not I'm treating my front fills as a single "subsystem", then aligning them as a whole to where the front fill closest to the mains meet at equal level on the floor.
Great video Mike! I have a question, have you ever used the DBX Driverack PA2 to tune line array systems before?
Thanks! Yes I have. It'll "do the trick" within a limited set of parameters, but that unit was designed to align individual speaker drivers to themselves, not necessarily process a bunch of PA zones. One big limitation is the limited output delay - only 10ms.
@@MichaelCurtisAudio thank you.
I need to get and learn Smaart. What version would you suggest for someone doing usually simple system tuning? Is LE good enough? Should I spring for RT or Suite?
LE is more than enough to get started! A big difference between it and it's (sort of) predecessor, Smaart DI, is that it can have an unlimited amount of inputs, so you can run more than one mic if you'd like.
thank you very much sir for the knowledge and learning, I really like it. and i want to ask how to make target on smart live
You're welcome! Are you asking how to make a target trace like the white trace I used?
@@MichaelCurtisAudio yes Mr ?
how do you do it sir?
Nice video Michael!
I’m curious how all 4 of your mics have the same level of measurement signal incoming (around 5.40 timestamp of video). They all positioned at various distance from the PA (close to far) and have same gain settings (supposedly calibrated at one point before measurement) so that can’t be possible or I’m missing something?
Great question! Here's a little background on the setup and a two part answer:
Yes, all microphones have a very similar sensitivity and were at the same gain value for each channel (I think it was +45dB of gain). Like you said, if I put all four microphones right next to each other and took a measurement I would get virtually the same data from all four mics.
First,It's the line array's design itself that made the distribution of energy equal across the space, therefore giving similar data across all mic positions. That's the very problem we want to solve with our sound systems - give as many seats in the audience as possible a similar experience.
A poor design/deployment would have high variance in between each seating section of the audience. That's why I stress in the video that the design, as informed by the client's goals and audience geometry, has to be done right first before we get fancy with any processing.
Second, later on in the video I (shift + click) at 2kHz on the magnitude response and that normalizes the traces with a one octave weighting to that part of the frequency spectrum. That now serves as the new reference point until I clear the trace offsets.
Got it, thank you!
So, before you start taking measurements on any venue you put all your mics in the middle position and set up mics gain sensitivity to be even among each other? You do it with pink noise or maybe meyer M-noise?
Interesting video. Couldn't you also split the boxes up with more matrices?
If I had more matrices to work with, absolutely.
Which formula is correct for Max Summation Freq.? =XOVR freq.*(2^(1/3))^-2 OR =(XOVR freq.* 1.08)*(2^(1/3))^-2
Hi Michael, could you plz also demonstrate how u aligned Subs? further more i would like to know why dont u switch of the Left PA too cuz when the Left Pa is on these curves could see different right? And this is the real situation, which we have to work with.
Hey, Priyan. I don't quite understand the back half of your question?
As far as mains to sub alignment, I usually go on-axis with one of the mains and about 75% of the way back in the audience, then line up the phase traces throughout the crossover region between mains and subs (when the traces are within 10dB of each other).
@@MichaelCurtisAudio Hi Michael, my bad, actually it should be "Further more i would like to know why don't u switch ON the Left PA too when u are equalizing the Right PA, cuz when the Left Pa is on these measurement curves of right PA could see different right? And this is the real situation, which we have to work with."
Did u get my point? Cheers
Does the production company do the rigging or do you have to have a union crew come in an handle it?
The production company designs the rig and the truss layout, but a dedicated rigging crew comes in and gets up in the steel to hang all the motor points.
Do you take measurements with both sides of the PA on?
Will primarily have just the speaker zone I'm measuring on, but will often take a measurement at the end ONAX with one of the mains will all speakers on to assess any low-mid buildup.
Did you use the built in pink noise generator on the M32?
Nope, the signal generator from Smaart, which I ran into a channel on the M32.
How can I find a similar target curve file?
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wLFuF0yMybNNJE1NM2KD65b66SdNF_IV?usp=sharing
Have you tried averaging all the collected data into a single trace?
It would have to be subdivided down into a few coherent groups for that to be useful. Averaging pre-processing data with post-processing data doesn't answer any meaningful questions.
But yes, if there's a specific question I'm trying to answer that would benefit from having a lot of different measurement points speaking to that answer, averaging them all out is helpful!
Very informative video as always. I tried using your Micheal Lawrence curve and I found it quite off of my taste. The bass were so much that I lost clarity on almost the whole PA. The test was outside. I decided to leave me pink shift at +6db rather than +15db but ever since. I find myself almost always cutting the low-mids and subs off of my mixes.
Am I used to flat systems or is this a common situation?
Thank you as always
Hey, Giannis. Like you mentioned, target traces cross into the realm of "taste" vs "hard science" rather quickly. I've had great luck in a variety of situations with Mr. Lawrence's target curve, but the way you mix may not translate well to that setup. Ultimately it's up to you to see what type of general PA tonality makes most sense with your mixing style.