03/08/2024
Perhaps it is the prospect of my tenure coming to an end, but I seem to have a passion rekindled for making little improvements and repairs at the bar. Many evenings lately I have been working toward finishing up things never completed. This week I have been doing some adjustments to the sound system. This is not a cut and dried process because of the variables involved. So many questions have to be answered like what sounds good, where does it sound good, under what circumstances does it sound good, and what is the best compromise to fit all requirements. There are a few ways of adjusting a sound system. With the typical home stereo, you have a single pair of speakers that reproduce the full range of sound so about the only thing you can add it an equalizer to compensate for room acoustics or shape the response to your particular taste. It is unlikely your sound will change much due to occupation since unless you are a true party animal, you won't have 50 people in your living room. I can say that in my younger days I was and I did have this kind of attendance at my after-hours parties. It is amazing what happens when the DJ at your favorite bar announces "Last Call" and invites the entire crowd to their house for a continuation of the party. That was almost a weekly occurrence during my early days doing the DJ gigs at the Clearview.
In a system consisting of multiple types of speakers, each designed to reproduce a defined range of frequencies, tuning is very important. One way using technology to get a flat response it to use a spectrum analyzer with a pink noise generator. This will yield a sound system that reproduces every frequency at an equal volume in the location where the calibrated microphone is placed. There are a couple of problems with this method. First, as soon as you relocate the microphone, the response changes. A huge problem is seen when you tune a sound system in an empty building. As soon as people start coming in, the sound changes dramatically. One additional thing is that what sound good to one person may not to another. The process of tuning the sound system at Serendipity is complicated but a lot of fun. The main zone is broken down into four frequency ranges, each with several speakers and amplifiers. In all, the dance floor runs 10 amplifiers. Two additional amplifiers supply sound for the bar room and the front room. Each zone can be controlled separately so we can have the dance floor pounding people while the bar area can be quiet enough to carry on conversations but still hear the music. So many bars that I have visited over the years lack this kind of separation and ordering a drink requires learning sign language, let alone trying to have a meaningful conversation with the person next to you. One club I went to actually had the dance floor speakers aiming toward the upstairs bar which made sitting at it almost unbearable. In a couple of other cases, the dance floor was directly in front of the bar and speakers flooded the entire area with sound.
As long as I have been working with the sound system at Serendipity, I still discover things that I did not know about and tonight was one such time. By the technical description of my DBX 120A subharmonic processor, the extreme low frequencies are only supposed to go to the subwoofers but it turns out that this is not the case. The subwoofers were getting some of the mid-bass and the synthesized harmonics were being fed also to the mid-bass cabinets. This creates some "muddy" sound and wastes power since frequencies are being sent to speakers that do not respond well to them. A little wiring change was all that was required to correct this routing. One benefit of doing this tuning is that I am documenting everything in case someone else needs to service the system at some point. There are 12 audio channels from the DJ booth to the back room where all the amplifiers are located and having a chart for this will be very valuable.
Perhaps this is my last sound system to play with. For several years, I did the sound for the local fair and this was also quite a complex installation. For the first few years I enjoyed having the time to really create a great system for the stage as well as the entire grounds but after taking on additional responsibilities, I no longer could spend the time putting a big sound system together and I always regretted this. It wasn't that I didn't have the equipment, but just did not have the time to set it up.
Regardless of who is running Serendipity in the future, it is possible that I will still be maintaining the sound equipment, so perhaps my days working with a powerful system aren's over.
One advantage we have is that any band that plays at our venue does not need to bring their sound system, saving a lot of backbreaking labor and time. We have a snake from the DJ booth to our stage and with 14,000 watts, there is plenty of sound for anything, live or recorded. I would bet that not too many bars in the area have a house sound system capable of taking care of the needs of any bands that play there. I love working with Arnold from Common Revolution and each time I see him adjusting things on his tablet controlling his digital mixer, I want to buy one. At this point in my life this just wouldn't make sense but I wish these had been affordable when I was doing the fair.
Technology has come a long way but it seems that home sound has taken a route that I don't understand. In my younger days, it was all about earth shaking monster systems but today's home stereos seem to consist of very small speakers or even headphones. Once in a while I visit Best Buy and always ask where their "real" stereo equipment is. I have one of the neat little JBL speaker tubes and it comes in handy to take into my shop or radio room but when I listen to music, I want to feel the sound. I suppose one advantage of today's small equipment is less neighbor problems. It seems that more people now reside in urban settings and perhaps that has caused companies making sound equipment to move away from floor shaking speakers since these are not practical in such dwellings. If someone wants some "real" sound, they can just buy professional gear and then you can get all the power you want. There are some really great powered speakers on the market and I wish I had these during my mobile DJ days.
