SMAART possibilities

Jay Barracato

Jay Barracato

Graduate Student
Jan 11, 2011
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Solomons MD
Now that I am getting comfortable with what SMAART can do, I am starting to think of some other ways to use it during the show. One of my weakest points (I think) is doing monitors from FOH. I think this is a combined result of artists who can't effectively explain what they are hearing, and the fact that I can't really hear what they are hearing at FOH.

I have used a number of techniques including a lot of walking back and forth during soundcheck to listen over their shoulder (that doesn't help once the show starts), listening with headphones or an IEM pack, or just trying to interpret what the artist is saying and making changes until they indicate they are happy.

I may be reinventing the wheel but it occured to me that with one channel for SMAART on my monitor bus, I could send the signal to the spectrograph. That would give me an additional reference point in addition to my headphones, and I could at least smooth off any particularly hot frequencies before they got to the feedback level.

Any thoughts, or did I just reproduce common practice on my own?
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

You can then adjust the spectrograph settings so that you don't see anything until it gets to a higher level, so the onset of feedback would appear and then keep increasing in level. Makes it a bit easier to visualize.
 
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Re: SMAART possibilities

Jay Barracato said:
I may be reinventing the wheel but it occured to me that with one channel for SMAART on my monitor bus, I could send the signal to the spectrograph. That would give me an additional reference point in addition to my headphones, and I could at least smooth off any particularly hot frequencies before they got to the feedback level.
Click to expand...
This is how I always set up at monitors, especially because I am not the world's best frequency caller.
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

Jay if you do that try and learn the frequencies that take off first and what they sound like and then you'll learn not to fixate on the computer screen which is always a danger when doing this, it is useful though so do use it just don't spend all gig futzing about with it. G
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

Gordon, I can tell the frequencies if I can hear them. I am talking about doing monitors from FOH where I can't easily hear them during the show. I never have nearfield set up on cue and stopping to monitor via headphones removes me from the FOH mix.
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

I do it that way, spectrograph only. It's great for locating feedbacks / ringing out, especially when you are alone on the stage. Come showtime I reduce screen brightness to the minimum, so the running spectrograph doesn't distract me, I can look up frequencies later, using the "time shift" function.
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

Yes, spectrograph would work really well for this kind of application, I take the afl/pfl output of the console and feed that into an input. You could also hide a measurement mic on the stage, and have that appear as a separate input as well. If you have RAM to spare on your laptop, you can increase the memory size of the buffer history of your spectrograph, handy if you're really busy and need to look back in time at a particular problem.
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

hi jay,

mixing monitors from front of house can be a drag but it can be done with great success.
if you set up your monitor speakers to have a "flat" response, in phase, in time and also as loud as it will go with no feedback, distortion or other unpleasant effect
before you have a band in the room waiting to sound check or play their show you will have a point of relativity to begin to create your foh mix and your monitor mix.

basically get to know exactly how your speakers sound and figure out with the gear you have how to optimize it.
this will give you a relative point to reference from so as you do your line check you are not "ringing out" or tuning your speakers, this work should be done without the band around.

make sure you calibrate smaart so you can get a accurate db reading.
take some measurements with smaart with the mic in the listening area for each mix to see what it says about your wedges and with your system processor/eq balance the sound and then match all mixes to be the same. (of coarse this is obvious but i see many people working from a random palate instead of really organizing their mix and finding a point of relativity to work from)

this may help set you up better so you will not experience and major anomalies in your mix and will give you time to try and understand the artist abstract requests.

then i think using smaart in the way you described would be a great tool to help find a squeeeeeek here and there. i like to have my cue bus got to the smaart reference channel, assuming your console has cues on the sends this may be a good way to route it.

opinions?

best,

bruce
 
Re: SMAART possibilities

Bennett Prescott said:
This is how I always set up at monitors, especially because I am not the world's best frequency caller.
Click to expand...

I am also not the best at it. I rarely have feedback issues in the house and since I mix monitors from FOH I often can't hear the feedback when it gets going so even if I could identify the frequency I can't hear it from FOH.
I like the idea of having a stage mic along with the cue bus into SMAART. Just moving the cursor to the line gives me the frequency. Very nice and the numbers are large enough to see!
In case any of the developers are watching, how about this... a way to have SMAART notice what seems to be a feedback tone and put the frequency over it so I don't have to interact with the pc (since I am mixing) and don't have to squint to read the display?
With the ability to have multiple inputs now, one could take an input from each mix and display it.
Since most JV guys don't have tons of stage mixes this could entice more of the JV guys to buy a copy?
 
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