Another Kind of Sound

Ravindra Desai

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
Messages
321
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Location
Kolhapur, Maharashtra. India.
Hello All,

I was fortunate to be a part of sound check for a newly sold/ purchased sound system.
What this means is that the seller tunes the system, gives a demo and hands over the system to the buyer.

It was a three way system with active crossover and a mixer.
For details, kindly check the attached photos.

When we arrived on site, the wiring was already done and the system was playing at low volume and it did not sound good.

After the seller ( a good friend of mine) tuned the system, it sounded much much better. However the tracks were not familiar (I learned that they were DJ re-mix numbers) and my ears were restless.
The system at full volume made me look at my trousers and shirt to see if it was just them or my body too inside them was shaking. I even touched my hair to see if they were still in its place. Any cholesterol that had accumulated in my veins was broken to smaller pieces due to the impact of the sound. I understood the meaning of ultrasound surgery, practically. Really!

I asked a familiar track to be played so that I could assess the the sound or rather the situation.
The Ghoomar track from Padmavat was played.
I could not hear any vocals nor any payal.
The track was stopped immediately.

Fast forward to the car drive back home......

I was explained that PA systems were of two types:
1. For road show: The aim is to overpower the neighboring sound system, in a procession. 'Sound pressure' and 'throw' is all that matters. Nobody is in any sense to listen to or follow the vocals so they do not matter!!
2. Live show: The aim is to produce quality sound. Throw does not matter as much as quality!

In a short trip of couple of hours, I learned so much.
I hope you enjoy reading this.

Regards,

Ravindra.
 

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Seems like Kolhapur is prepping up for the Ganesh festival season. :)

Get these for some of the pandaals there ;)


By the way, if you are into these kind of stuff, there is Palm Expo[1] held every summer in the city of Mumbai.
Can be a fun visit.

[1] http://www.palmexpo.in/
 
Seems like Kolhapur is prepping up for the Ganesh festival season. :)

Get these for some of the pandaals there ;)


You are absolutely right!


By the way, if you are into these kind of stuff, there is Palm Expo[1] held every summer in the city of Mumbai.
Can be a fun visit.

[1] http://www.palmexpo.in/

I am not into PA systems but I will be soon. The 'trip' was part of my learning process to understand 'customers voice.'

I will be at Palm Expo next year with a sound system for 'Live Show' not 'Road Show'

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
I was also trying to figure out what amplifiers they had connected. Did you check what cables were used?
 
Besides a small niche segment, the 'customers voice' is all about bass! :)

However small the niche segment may be, the turnover is mind blowing!
The mass market segment too is crazy BIG!

Government is bringing restrictions on SPL level.
The PA market is frantic and dosen't know where to run.
Most pandaals are opting for double 12"/ 15" Full range systems with 500W amplifier with a British Audio Mixer.

I am being roped in to add quality as a parameter or rather a differentiator.
Its a whole new ball game for me.

I had to prove my credentials before I was even accepted as anyone worthwhile.
I demonstrated to them an active 3-way crossover that performed at par or better than Behringer with one advantage of unified Lo, Mid, Hi and master volume controls thus reducing the controls from 8 to 4.
I also demonstrated my 160W + 160W amplifier. It took on NX Audio SA1600 which is 800W + 800W and could outperform it in overall quality and distortion and matched it in power delivery till slightly over 50% of its rated power.

So I had to earn my spot the hard way. Let's see.....

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
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Hahaha...hilarious post indeed :D

Iam familiar with that sound. I stay in a big apartment complex. And the association arranges frequent DJ nights in the park below on one pretext or the other. And trust me the crowd goes wild in revelry. My wife loves to tap her foot too downstairs. As for me, I stay at a safe distance behind the speakers :D
 
As a part of another exercise, I was called to lend my ears to a listening test.
Exact same enclosures had exactly the same HF drivers with exactly the same network for the HF driver.
Each driver had a different LF driver. One was a 1st copy of RCF, another was a 2nd copy of JBL and what not.....
The exercise was to determine the best LF driver.

Again, the test location was in a remote area so that we could carry the test out with large SPLs

I was restless about the approach but at that moment could not identify why.
But, by the time we reached the location, I knew the end result would be inconclusive.

All I did was tell them how I would determine the best driver:
If a particular speaker (enclosure + HF + LF) sounded better, consistently, with 4 different songs re-mixed by 4 different DJs, then, that was the best.

That never happened.

It did make them think I was an astrologer!

I hope that you all got the logic behind my reasoning.

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
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