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LOOPER as SOUND ENGINEER
Travis Hartnett wrote:
"And re: programmable digital EQ's with settings for a given "room": a
room is never the same acoustic space twice.
Heck, the difference between soundcheck and the gig is usually
pronounced due to people coming and going."
Of course this is true, Travis, but there are certainly approximations
of sound absorption that comes from a partially full or full house
(I believe their is a 40% absorption factor, approximately with a room
full of people and there is a tendency for more
hi mid to hi frequencies being absorbed with more people in the room
with an attendant roll off of bass frequencies that is less pronounce due
to the large size they are).
Having done professional live sound engineering many times in my life in
a plethora of different room sizes (from large auditorium to dank clubs to
outdoor venues) and different stylistic kinds of music, I have a strong
sense of how a space sounds at soundcheck and how to compensate when the
room fills up
and getting a feel for this just takes a bit of time with anyone who is
talented with good ears.
It will never be perfect, as you point out, but I've heard live
loopers have superlative sound coming from the stage.
Indeed, the Y2K festival frequently has good sound (not always, because
we've blown a couple of experiments) and
the sound board has been in between the two stages without a specific
monitoring engineer.
So, I actually think that the use of customized presets (three for
each room you play in: soundcheck empty, lightly attended and packed
house
with increasing compensation for diminished mid-his and diminished
subsonic multiplication----people breaking up standing bass standing waves
actually can be efficacious in a mix.
Even from the stage, whilst using a subwoofer, it's pretty easy to hear
how much subsonic multiplication is occurring....................a walk
to the front
of the speakers (both right in front, to each side and to the very back
of the room) will at least yield what the actual room's acoustic
properties
(is it a bright reflective room, a boomy room, a prounounced slap
back (predelay), etc.)
I've found that keeping things perflectly flat, response wise, is
always a great policy until one gets the hang of sound of any room:
empty or full
it's not terribly difficult to compensate for a full house. Usually one
just raised the over all volume and compensates minimally for
certain frequencies that may have been attenuated with the presence of a
lot of bodies.
I still think, consequently, that there is a place for pre-set
customizeable EQs. I know Berhinger makes a couple of really
inexpensive ones.