Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It was a "chance"? or miracle?

After a very very very long thought, referring to a lot of data, I found that "Acoustic" involves a series of very complex waves interactions. It may involve sound decay, sound delay, reverberation, echo, effects of human neuron's limitations, etc, whether linearly or non-linearly.

A far voice may sounds "soft", but the "soft" is very different from the "soft" when we turn down the volume of the hi-fi system. Sound of far distance decay over distance, but the high frequency will decay faster than the low frequencies, due to the environment's nature. A far sound will sound "soft" in treble but "not-too-soft" in bass. Non-linearity! Room's acoustics changing the wave pattern, it become slightly more reverberant for a far voice. Etc, etc...

My church (before renovation) have a so-called "warm" sound. I tried very hard to mix the bass so that it'll be clearer those days, but i failed to. Until now, when i look back to what i was trying to solve, only i realize the whole picture! (i hope i'm right).

Different materials absorbs different frequencies, usually the hardest/most costly to be tamed is the bass freq. My church was having some partitions, carpets, cushions plus some ceiling which seem to absorb sound pretty well, but just the HIGH frequencies.

My church was having an under-powered amps driving the FOH speakers and for bass guitar. Yet, it was so warm. The answer could be, the room attenuated the mid and high range, leaving the bass untouched/build up its energy. Hence, while the midrange and treble (which is most sensitive to our ear) being normal (no energy build up acoustically), the bass was being build up causing an illusion of deep bass. It explains the "muddy" effects of the bass, which is much undesired. But, we like bass, bass gives energy. Try to listen to music by laptop speaker, the louder u make it, the noisier it'll become. It have to be balanced by bass.

Anyway, just wanna stress that the acoustic of the room is kinda... just nice to suit the under-powered amps, yet still sound so nice. We once removed a partition, the bass became a lot muddier, and it was since then i wanna get the bass sound right, nailed to its position, not floating around and kacau other instruments.. HAHA!. Quite a luck to get this kind of "just fine" or "it wasn't tuned!!?" environment, or i should say "Thank God" for knowing our budget..

The newly renovated church acoustic is a very challenging one, indeed! The prob now is how to equalise the system to suit our ears via room acoustics! Perhaps it'll not be a chance play this time (serious, lol!!).

3 comments:

sceptics said...

pls do something to improve the echo problem in JB church...terrible...

we need thing to absord the sound ,,,anyway,the glass pillar actually reflect sound badly,,,

HT said...

pillar causing non-focus image/voice.

The room is causing too much sound energy accumulation-those unwanted low-mid which causes lost of intelligibility of speech. Also, causing feedback.

the mic/mix seems like having a serious lack of bass, or should i say an overly boosted treble..?

But the thing is, these are the logically predicted stuff, don't know whether practically it's usable. it's something that need $$$$!!

If absorb edy, still sounds very bad, due to the improper mixing techniques or BAND's skill problem.... hmm...

HT said...

some how, suddenly, i feel that the room acoustics is not the prob. I search through the internet and found that, usually, PA guy dun like a room with half of it being carpet, it'll makes the sound very dead and very dry, and not lively.