Behringer X32

I know I am a little late to the game on reviewing the Behringer X32 but I have been a huge fan of this line of consoles for over a year now!  In my opinion, this line of consoles literally changed the game of quality audio.  You can get the X32, X32 Compact, X32 Producer, X32 Rack, X32 Core and soon the X18.  All of which use the same concept and have most of the same features, just less analog inputs.

Like anything, there are parts that I don't like but they are so minor that I believe they do not really matter.  I also believe that this line of consoles are perfect for churches.

Lets start off with what I don't like....

I am not the biggest fan of the iPad app.  Not really the functionality of the app, just the flow.  It is a little odd at first but there is so much in the app that once you learn it, you can literally do anything from the app that you can do on the console.  And now with version 2.0 the app seems better!  I still wish the EQ portion was a little more user friendly... (I really like the Mackie DL1608 version of EQ)

I wish I could pair odd even or even odd channels, but if I really care that much I could simply soft patch the channels to an odd even pair!

 Probably the biggest thing I love and yet don't love about the board is the versatility...  You can set it up to do anything you want in many different ways to make it super easy to use on a regular basis.  But, if you don't know what you are doing when you set it up, you will cause yourself a lot of extra work for nothing.


What I love about it!

Compressors, Gates, 8 Stereo Effects, Ducking, Keying, Remote Gain Control, Scenes, Assignable Encoders and Buttons, Motorized Faders, Recording Straight to USB on the Console, Multi-track recording, and the list goes on...  This board gives you the tools that used to cost thousands and thousands of dollars and its all in one console.  It has a great clean sound, and is incredibly useful!

After all that I really really love the price!!!!!  You can get all this for $2,800 or less street price! It is incredible that all this is cheap enough for anyone to afford!

All in all I love this board and think that they really changed the game for live sound. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone!

Read more about it here!  Behringer X32

Pirate Studio LLC Nashville TN- Advanced Acoustic Solutions Design/Build

Just before Thanksgiving of 2013, we met with the owners of Pirate Studio LLC.  After deliberating and some preliminary design, on December 16, 2013 we (Advanced Acoustic Solutions) were tasked to design and build a vocal booth, 2 master editing suites, and a video editing suite... By February 10th of 2014 on the third floor of this building in downtown Nashville!

Pirate Studio LLC location

Pirate Studio LLC is an extremely talented group of people!  The chief engineer has a voice that will blow your mind!  Here is an example of the work they do!
Pirate Studio LLC Miranda Lambert Tour





To start the project, we began by sitting down with our architect to figure out a way to fit a "Pirate" theme into a modern studio design. As most know in the industry, architects are very good at making things look good, but they are not always as critical of sound as an acoustic consultant!  We are fortunate to have an architect that loves sound and is willing to work very closely with us in the design aspect to make sure the sound is perfect, and the look is perfect! We quickly landed on a design scheme that incorporated a dark rustic feel that also incorporated a little bit of a modern taste.  Because of the unique time frame and budget, a large portion of the project could not be pre planned.  Most of the details had to be calculated on site!

Control room A concept

Control room A seating area concept

Vocal Booth design concept

Jan 1st began the construction phase. AAS was responsible for all of the demolition and construction minus high voltage electrical work.

By mid February, we were finished.  There we several construction complications throughout the process and a lot of 16 hour+ days of work!

A lot of the design parameters were preset.  We had a little play, but in was only 1 dimension usually in a room that we could adjust. So we got creative with angles and clouds!  Without getting into to much detail, the sound of the rooms came out great!  There were a few small issues in the main room due to its length (non changeable) in the bass frequencies but compared to the previous location was a night and day difference in quality.  The vocal booth (even with all the wood) is a nice quiet location with a decent amount of space and will be great for multi use purposes!

Studio B (audio) and Studio K (video) are both clean quiet and the engineers are extremely happy!  Once again I am not going into great detail... although I could...

Below you will find some quick pictures I was able to grab after the process was complete!

In future posts, I will go further into detail on each room!

Door Decals

Main control room with gear in place

Closer view of mix position

Front cloth wall with decal

Studio B used for ISDN sessions and other rented sessions

Video production suite

Color changing lights behind panels to set the mood

Vocal booth

Vocal Booth

smiley face eq

Hello All,

I wanted to talk a little about the 'Smiley Face EQ' setting that a lot of people like to use for their mains or any stereo for that matter.

The idea is based off the Equal Loudness Curve or Fletcher-Munson curve.  It is a tool used by Psycho-Acousticians to basically show compression of hearing as the level increases.

A 1k tone was presented to the listener at a certain level... say 20 dB SPL (20 Phons)...  The listener was then played a different frequency and they had to raise the level they were hearing until it matched the loudness of the 1k tone presented as a reference.  As the 1k tone gets louder (100 Phons), you can see that the levels are more consistent across frequency.

The idea of this 'Smiley Face EQ' is that you should match this equal loudness curve... Maybe a good idea in theory, but a terrible idea in practice.  The purpose of the graphical eq is to be able to correct the system to try and match the environment.  For example if the room naturally has a boost at 4k, you should reduce the level at 4k on your graphic eq.

If the room requires a 'Smiley Face EQ', then that is really cool, but most of the time that eq setting is applied pre entry to the room.

So in short, the FFT of the room will show you how the system eq should be set... (well if you can help it, the room should be acoustically treated to have a pretty flat response, but you cant always help that.)

My professors used to hate the fact that people used to fix a room by eqing the system, and had a good reason for it... in another post I will explain why. For now if the only thing possible is to eq the system, do it. lol... it can help provide a more consistent sound and also help reduce feedback in the monitors.

Thank you!

Tom

Being Technical In A Church Service

Hello All,

I had the opportunity to have a great conversation with a worship leader at a church a few days ago that got me really thinking about technology in a worship service.

As a tech guy, I love to get my hands on all sorts of technical gear and produce a great light show... or have the bass thump so low that you can feel it in your chest.  These are my talents, and like anything in church, I should use my talents the best way that I can for the Lord.

I used to attend a church where these technical achievements were possible, then I ended up at a little church on the campus of the UofI.  This church is so behind the times of technology that it is almost non existent.  All the tech guys/girls are probably running through all the negatives of this kind of atmosphere... and of course there are tons of negatives, but there is a major major positive.

This church is so stress free... all the time.  I have yet to have a Sunday where technically speaking I was upset... I get upset a little with myself if I don't play well on a Sunday morning but that is another story.  But we don't have to problem solve all the time because there are very few parts of the chain to go wrong.  You get to sit back and just enjoy the service

On the other side, not having the technology has limited us on the sound we can get (no compressors, limited eq, no reverb..etc), doing effective dramas, or most other cool things you can think to do with technology.

On the other side, if you have the technology you should use it to its fullest potential in my opinion.  You cant let it become the main part of the service, but use it to add a little salt and pepper to your service.  Just as the chair people set up chairs well, or the musicians play well, or the pastor preaches well, so you should do your job as a tech well.

Moral of the story... Being with technology is not all in all that much of a bad thing, but if you have it, you definitely should not be afraid to use it in a way that is tasteful and excellent.

Tom

Tips for criticism from non audio people

Hello All,

If you ever do audio, video, or anything related, you will at some point receive criticism from someone that has no idea how to do your job.  You will have someone say that something sounds bad, or while you are trying to problem solve, they will hover over your back to try and 'help'…  This frustrates almost every audio person I know.

To try and help out with this issue for A/V people I have a few tips to consider.

1) Most people that come to you with an issue or concern most likely have good intentions.  They seem to come at crisis times, but they do have good intentions.  This can be frustrating, but it should be remembered that they are most likely trying to offer help.  I will agree that some do not come with good intentions... for this see below.

2) Listen... Sometimes when someone comes up to you, there may really be an issue that you didn’t catch.  Listen to the problem and address it appropriately.

3) Be slow to speak...When someone comes to you and says something that you might take offensively, the last thing you want to do is sling back some insult.  This does nobody any good, and can often make the problem worse by adding in personal conflicts.

4) Be slow to anger... Ben Franklin said "Anger is never without reason, but seldom with a good one"  Getting angry will not solve any kind of issue and will once again most likely result in you saying something you will regret.  Instead if the claim is legit, be honest and deal with it, and if it is not, politely blow it off.

5) I know some people that get frustrated with ambiguity when describing an issue.  Think to yourself how many words that are not borrowed from another sense are used to describe audio.  For example bright, dirty, muddy, dark, live, dead.... Just realize describing issues to one another requires an understanding between the two people involved.  Different descriptions can mean different things to different people based on the training they received.  If you are not sure what they mean ask them politely to elaborate.

I realize that these tips are easier said than done.  It is easy in the heat of the moment to flip out on a criticizer and then regret it later.  Just take these tips to heart and try to implement!

Thanks!

Tom

Tips for creating your acoustic space

Hello all,

Today I want to give you a few acoustic tips to follow when either designing a space or remodeling a space.

1) Use a professional:  Not every professional is a professional... Ask for credentials...past jobs, education... this can tell you a lot about a persons qualifications.  Also, regardless of what a website says, there are NO 'one size fits all' acoustic packages.  There is actually a great deal of math and physics that goes into an acoustic design.  Of course, there is a great deal of art involved.  Acoustics if often described as the perfect blend of art and science.  Without using a professional (with real credentials), you could end up spending thousands of dollars on an acoustic package that leaves your room still sounding terrible.

2) Dimensions matter:  Room modes are the resonances that exist in a room when the room is excited by an acoustic source such as a loudspeaker. Each room has a modal distribution and dimensions directly relate to this distribution.  It is ideal to have a distribution where all modes are no closer than 5Hz and no further than 20Hz to each other.  Even moving a wall or a ceiling just a foot can change this distribution.

3) Absorption coefficients:  Each product has a number that is associated to a frequency.  This is usually the absorption coefficient in Sabines.  When the number is 1, it means perfect absorption... When it is 0 it means perfect reflection.  If you see a product with a number that is much greater than 1, such at 1.8 or so, this usually means that the numbers are bogus.  Usually I tolerate, but take with a grain of salt, numbers that are as high as 1.2.  My reason for this is a little more in depth than this post allows...

4) Rerverberation:  A great deal of items fall under this idea of reverberation.  A big one however is intelligibility.  To much reverb will cause words to blur together and become indistinguishable from each other.  To little reverberation and it will seem dry and lifeless.  Reverberation is based on the properties of the room such as materials on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

These are just a few tips when considering a new space.  Consider acoustics, and consult a professional!

Tom

An Idea About Audio

Hello all,

This post is more of a 'get you thinking' kind of post...

When I was in school at Columbia College Chicago, I had 2 distinctly different professors.  I must first say that I really enjoyed having classes with both of them.

The first professor was extremely smart, a quick thinker, and someone that I really looked up to in the college.  He had a way of taking a complicated situation and making it seem so simple.  We would work on vibration, HVAC, environmental, or architectural acoustics every day.  We would have all the equations and approximations that made everything quantifiable.  He posed to us that regardless of our problem, we would have the tools to solve any problem after school if we just think critically.

The second professor was also a deep thinker, and to be honest, we never really accomplished much in class.  He would get on rants about issues or problems he encountered during his time in acoustics. See, this professor was self taught.  He worked in the field for many years and eventually became very respected and published.  He seemed to teach us that regardless how much we knew, audio and acoustics is as much an art as a science... He did this by taking us to different buildings around Chicago.  We would go to some that were designed with and without the sience of acoustics.  He also taught us that we need to make sure that we enjoy the finest audio to remind ourselves what we are working for.

While both professors seemed to teach primarily different things, they often taught the same ideas with a different world view.

The thought that I wanted to put in your heads as you read this is simple.  What is audio/acoustics? What does it mean to have great sounding audio?  Have you ever heard a concert hall that when you walked in, you felt a sense of awe from the first note played?

I firmly believe that audio and acoustics are as much sience as they are art.  I believe that analysis is important and you need to do the best you can scientifically when considering audio and acoustic design or treatment.  I also think it is important to have a good answer to all of these questions before completely understanding what audio is and what it means to have good acoustics.

Both professors really hammered on one side more than the other.  However, because I had both, I was able to have a very well rounded view of my craft.