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012524_6
Jan 26, 2024


how to calibrate amplifier? :thunk:

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Mister Speaker
May 8, 2007

WE WILL CONTROL
ALL THAT YOU SEE
AND HEAR
How different are commercial theatre sound systems from those in music venues? Like, from my limited (but not quite layman's) understanding of sound reinforcement I thought there are some critical differences that tend to mean that if a system is really good at making movies sound good, it won't be great for music, or vice-versa. Is there any truth to this? My friends and I are entertaining a "if I won the lottery" pipe dream riffing on the kind of project theatre/venue we'd open. My dream is to have a hybrid Small Theatre/Music Venue, and seat-of-the-pants I thought it was a more difficult compromise than I'd expect, certainly more involved than switching between presets on a DriveRack:
- Bass is managed fairly differently in theatres than it is in music venues. Again, seat-of-the-pants but I think having a band play through a theatre system would be way too muddy, absolutely drenched in bass because those systems need that oomph to emphasize explosions and poo poo.
- A theatre environment necessitates surround sound, something that is not only basically unnecessary for music but may be detrimental to a quality mix because it's a nightmare for feedback, and just turning off the rear/side/height speakers wouldn't work.
- Simply having two separate systems in the space might work, and only using one of them each time but wouldn't you get some sympathetic resonation in the turned-off system that would make a clear mix difficult?
- Also, like, you tend to want to sit down to watch a movie. The logistics of moving rows of chairs that don't suck and storing them somewhere is something to consider.

20 Blunts
Jan 21, 2017
I used to basically manage your pipe dream on behalf of a wealthy owner who built it.

They had that money-aint-a-thing approach, and installed a QSC setup for audio that connected into a greater Q-SYS network. So with a custom built app on an Ipad you could switch from the loud and banging stage speakers, to the quieter house system hanging in the space, which I would use for simpler conference events and background music. You could control lights on it too. There was a giant rack of power amps and servers and poo poo that physically controlled this.

So I can't speak to the theater v. sound differences, but in your pipe dream I think using a custom-networked system to have 2 systems is probably the answer.

If this pipe dream involves redeveloping an already existing space, let me just say that no matter how much money you spend that room is still gonna have its quirks.

I wouldn't be a good manager of that place if I didn't tell you that the fine detail sound differences between cinema and music audio would be the absolute least of your worries. Your concern about chairs actually foreshadows a deep problem of what it means to have an event space trying to serve different purposes. Sitting in banquet chairs for an entire film would suck, for example. So now you're doing a bunch of work for something that sucks.

It was fun working in that place :D

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

I just learned the sound booth for this thing next weekend is a looooong way away from the stage, and they probably don't have a house intercom system.

Anybody in the live sound thread have advice about how I can keep the stage manager in contact with the sound booth at the back of the house? The best idea I've had so far is walkie talkies and headsets. I tried an app with an on-premises server at last year's performance (different venue), but the cell phone app didn't get loud enough, and I'm not super comfortable relying on wifi. I'm a wires kind of guy.

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