Sound and Communications - February 2008 Issue

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Do You Hear What I Hear? Why we need a reference when assessing sound systems. By Peter Mapp, FASA Just before Christmas, I received a call from a client who runs a venue with a 1000-seat auditorium, asking if I could take a look (listen) to his Christmas spectacular production because the producer and musical director were not happy with certain aspects of the sound. I arranged to visit the following Saturday so I could listen to two shows. After a two-minute briefing from the producer about the problem and a slightly longer (five minutes) discussion with the sound designer/ operator, I was left to my own devices to discreetly wander around the accessible parts of the auditorium during the three-hour show. Now, let me put this into perspective for you: The show had a 20- piece band (orchestra) and some 40 singers and dancers occupying a very wide stage, which gets completely reset during the interval. The halftime stage reset involves moving the orchestra and drum booth to the center of the stage and completely re-micing them. From the brief pre-show discussions, my understanding of the problem was that the MD and producer were not happy with the sound in a particular seating area (call it “Area A”), but that the problem only manifested itself during certain numbers, where it particularly affected the sound of the cello and the organ—Oh! I forgot to mention the organ, didn’t I?— making them appear to go off tune and sound generally poor. This also apparently happened with some vocals, as well, but the problem did not happen all the time! Now you know as much as I did when the show started! Well, I wandered and I listened, and then I listened and wandered, and then I wondered and then I wandered, wondered and listened; actually, at one point I managed to combine all three activities at once, which apparently is what happens when you call a top man in!). Luckily, I had been able to elicit from the producer that he was happy with the sound in another particular location where he and the MD did not hear the effect. So, it seemed a simple matter to me of listening in Area A and then wandering round to Area B and comparing what I heard. But that’s where the wonder of sound comes in: It just wasn’t that simple. Sure enough, I heard quite significant differences between the two locations and, indeed, between the problem area and other parts of the auditorium, but I didn’t hear an offtune, raspy cello note or out of tune, raspy vocalist come to that—despite the show’s Christmas party having been held the night before. Nor, to that matter, did I hear a raspy, off-tune organ note. But, part of the trouble was that I hadn’t heard the show before, so did not know what to expect or what I should hear. Agreed, I have a pretty good idea of what a cello (or organ) should sound like, but that cello, played by that musician, in that acoustic? Ditto the vocals. This drove home the reason why, as professional sound engineers/ acousticians, we take some tried and tested and well known (to us) CD tracks along when evaluating a system or problem—as we then have a reference. The problem is that I really did not have a baseline reference on which to judge the sound (apart from 30 years of professional listening experience). So what did I hear? Well, I did not hear any raspy cello or organ notes. What I did hear, however, was a high quality but generally “middy” sounding system. I also heard a marked difference in the D/R (Direct to Reverberant) ratio between the declared poor and good areas. I also noticed a distinct difference in the intelligibility of the vocals between the areas. During the show, I made a number of stereo recordings for alter playback to see if I could hear the problem when more familiar with the show/music/ environment. I had my trusty (and discrete) Ivie 35 with me and kept an eye on the real-time, 1/3 octave display. (So now that’s four things I could bill my client for: wandering, wondering, listening and looking!). This proved to be very enlightening. Whereas, over a relatively short period of time, virtually all the 1/3 octave bands were excited and jumped up and down, some seemed United Kingdom-based Peter Mapp, FASA, is principal of Peter Mapp Associates. A chartered engineer and physicist, he also is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. Send comments to him at pmapp@testa.com. 14 Sound & Communications www.soundandcommunications.com
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Sound and Communications - February 2008 Issue

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