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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => Installed Sound/Contracting => Topic started by: Ben Easler on October 19, 2017, 11:29:47 AM
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Hi all-
First thanks so much for the help regarding setting up my DSP system that I asked so far.
I am now asking a question for a baseline sound level for a system. Do you check your SPL with pink noise and how loud would you recommend as a starting point for each speaker? I have heard different recommendations and am looking for some expertise.
My theater setup is as follows:
LCR system - flown
Center cluster - 3 main speakers (Renkus ST4), 2 downfills (I forget which RH Model)
Left and Right - 2 ST4 per side and 1 downfill per side
Subs on floor - 2 x RH DR18
Delay fills at rear section of of theater (4)
What my plan what is this (and I am asking for other thoughts and advice)
Set each main speaker in the 3 main clusters at 94 Dbs while alone
compare all on center vs l/r and match volume of each cluster when together (where is the best place to measure? should I measure each an equal distance from the cluster I am checking?)
Downfills - set at appx 88 Dbs so -6db to the mains. Play reference music and add downfills to see if this seems like a good baseline. Adjust if needed and then match each downfill to whatever that level is.
Balcony fills - follow the same procedure.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
Ben
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Hire someone excellent to tune it. It's money well spent, and you'll learn more during that time than reading on a forum.
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
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There is A LOT more to setting up/aligning a system than simple SPL
You MUST consider delay times, freq response (usually each cabinet is NOT run full range, but only covering the range it needs to in relation to the other cabinets.
Often some are highpassed as high as 500Hz or higher. It depends on how much of what freq from other cabinets are getting into various areas,
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Thanks for the advice about hiring someone and I appreciate the value in that. The system has been tuned but there have been some changes to the system in the ten years it has existed. I have so far:
-set the manufacturer eq and delay suggestions for each speaker cabinet.
-set the delays for the fills and subs. I did this first by measurement and then:
-I have been reading/watching all I can about Smaart to do this as accurately as possible. I have a set of Earthworks mics and have been again reading/watching to try to tune the system this way to the best of my ability.
-I roughly set SPL as described above but looking for any additional advice on the best approach.
I feel the system is quite good at this point but am looking for some additional advice. If anyone has any recommendations for someone to contact in Western/Central PA I am interested in having a professional in this area in as well. I am really interested in learning this at a high level myself. I have learned quite a bit about it to this point and have enjoyed getting the hands on experience in many areas of live sound. I would love to have a professional who is willing to go through a whole process with me but I'm not sure how common that is.
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At some point you would have reached the best compromise.
If the LCR is designed correctly literally anywhere I'm the room, possibly where the boss sits is the best place to do the level adjustments but then again if it was designed correctly they should all be set at the same level and left alone.
What was the purpose of the down fills in the design that will dictate the level and delay that should be used, also from a sound design perspective for theatre I would much rather have lip fills then down fills since sound image from the top is not very natural.
Regarding the balcony fills again, what is their purpose, simply to add back some high end that was shaded by the balcony or do they need to provide full range signal to under the balcony.
Sent from my 2014817 using Tapatalk
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At some point you would have reached the best compromise.
If the LCR is designed correctly literally anywhere I'm the room, possibly where the boss sits is the best place to do the level adjustments but then again if it was designed correctly they should all be set at the same level and left alone.
What was the purpose of the down fills in the design that will dictate the level and delay that should be used, also from a sound design perspective for theatre I would much rather have lip fills then down fills since sound image from the top is not very natural.
Regarding the balcony fills again, what is their purpose, simply to add back some high end that was shaded by the balcony or do they need to provide full range signal to under the balcony.
Sent from my 2014817 using Tapatalk
Thanks for the thoughts - the front downfills are not something I have been a fan of. I think they were mainly just for some extra coverage but they just add problem spots due to uneven coverage in my estimation. I have been planning to add front fills on the lip of the stage so it is good to have that thought echoed. The balcony fills are currently high passed around 300 so providing a little clarity up there. They are the best sounding seats in the theater so I am thinking some front lip fills would be perfect to add.
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Thanks for the advice about hiring someone and I appreciate the value in that. The system has been tuned but there have been some changes to the system in the ten years it has existed. I have so far:
-set the manufacturer eq and delay suggestions for each speaker cabinet.
-set the delays for the fills and subs. I did this first by measurement and then:
-I have been reading/watching all I can about Smaart to do this as accurately as possible. I have a set of Earthworks mics and have been again reading/watching to try to tune the system this way to the best of my ability.
-I roughly set SPL as described above but looking for any additional advice on the best approach.
I feel the system is quite good at this point but am looking for some additional advice. If anyone has any recommendations for someone to contact in Western/Central PA I am interested in having a professional in this area in as well. I am really interested in learning this at a high level myself. I have learned quite a bit about it to this point and have enjoyed getting the hands on experience in many areas of live sound. I would love to have a professional who is willing to go through a whole process with me but I'm not sure how common that is.
If you have Smaart, and assuming using it properly (NOT RTA MODE), then simply adjust to have the traces at different seats "lay" on top of each other.
Then you are done. No real reason to use a SPL meter. Smaart is FAR superior for setting levels at different locations.