If you are familiar attending any type of live show, concert or performance using PA loudspeakers, you will most likely also agree that loudspeakers’ humming, hissing or buzzing noise can quickly ruin a performance. This article reviews each of the common causes of audible (and irritating) loudspeakers’ hum and hiss, and discusses effective strategies to … Read More
The history of the subwoofer is inextricably linked with the evolution of the full-range loudspeaker. In the mid-1950s, various manufacturers of hi-fi loudspeakers began to introduce compact, closed-box enclosures that featured long-throw woofers, and in the early 1970s a talented engineer working at Jensen, named James Novak, developed the equations describing a bass reflex (or … Read More
An auto mixer, or automatic microphone mixer, is a live sound-mixing tool that automatically reduces the volume level of a microphone’s audio signal when it is not used. This is particularly valuable when several microphones are open at the same time, reducing extraneous noise. In this article, we will describe how the Auto Mixer function … Read More
To start, let’s recall that the low frequency energy radiated from a conventional subwoofer is effectively omnidirectional below 200 Hz. This is because the directivity of a subwoofer is related to the ratio of its size to the length of the sound wave it produces. The length, or size, of the sound wave is inversely … Read More
Perhaps even more important than horizontal coverage is vertical coverage, where elevation and distance become critical. A large part of proper loudspeaker coverage is finding a balance between loudspeaker distance and volume. To a certain extent, having loudspeakers farther from the audience makes it easier to achieve consistent coverage, assuming you have sufficiently powerful loudspeakers … Read More
Every venue has its own specific set of coverage challenges. For instance, a club with a low ceiling will never provide enough vertical space to fly a line array system, and in outdoor sound reinforcement, the absence of walls brings its own set of constraints. Indoor Venues There are two categories of indoor venues: those … Read More
There are a number of factors to consider when placing your loudspeakers to achieve optimal sound and performance. This four-part series aims to discuss a number of such challenges and to provide useful, practical tips to achieve great sound in any venue. While part 1 discussed loudspeakers’ radiation spaces and associated bass boosts, as well … Read More
QSC loudspeakers are well-known to provide high-performance, accurate reproduction of audio sources in a wide range of applications. However, unlike a controlled studio environment, the real world provides myriad challenges to achieving sonically-pleasing results with QSC or any other loudspeaker. The conditions created by room shapes, ceiling heights, the presence of acoustically reflective or absorptive … Read More
In the history of professional audio, the introduction of QSC Directivity Matched Transition® (DMT™) technology has been one of those ‘lightbulb moment’ innovations that forever changed how audiences experience sound. In order to fully grasp its benefits, and why DMT is foundational to QSC loudspeaker design, let’s start with some fundamentals of the physics of … Read More
Whether you’re listening to live music in a club, to a film soundtrack at the movie theater, or enjoying some tunes while wearing headphones, the sound you’re listening to is reproduced by loudspeakers. Everyone understands that. Now, designing loudspeakers, which produce sounds that are accurate and enjoyable, can be done in a few different ways. … Read More