What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

[Phil Graham]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

Phil,

My $.02 coming from my very limited perspective; I would love a 50 page or less basic primer on live sound reinforcement in general terms written for the neophyte like me. I am thinking of church sound volunteers, guys who wanna provide sound for their own band on a small scale etc. Something that included basics of mic types and techniques, signal flow, basics of the mixing board, application of eq and dynamics in the process of mixing, basics of system deployment regarding speaker placement integration of subs with tops, basic concepts of crossover and system DSP.

Loren,

50 pages is wholly insufficient to be a complete primer, and I'm not going to try to attempt that. I'd much rather release a series of <25 page articles on various topics, and let the readership pick and choose the ones they would like to buy. In some ways I see e-publishing as a return to the past era of serialized novels popular in Victorian times. Release enough articles and eventually you've got a full book's content, and at a book's price.

The first pamphlet will essentially be "how not to panic" for the beginning live sound person. Church techs I expect will be the largest market. From their I'll dive into technical bits. Buy what you like, skip what doesn't make sense. A guy with a Mackie powered mixer and SOS doesn't need an article on compression, so why write a superficial treatment on topics this person doesn't need.

What he/she does need is something to keep him from sweating all service long, and background on how best to store his gear to last. Once he's settled and comfortable, then more advanced topics can cross his radar.

 

[Eric Cagle]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

The measurement tool isnt the issue. It is what you do with the information. It isn't going to tell you to move the subs over 2 ft or something.

I don't expect it to be a shortcut to being a master system tuner but rather a shortcut to being able to actually accomplish more than you can with an RTA. You can see phase anomalies as one example. Anything the average person can do to make an improvement in their sound helps the art in general. I might be asking for something impossible but maybe not. I expect the "what this means and what to do if you see this on the screen" or what are "the most likely causes of this" to be topics addressed. What to do with the information is exactly the kind of thing that needs to be understood. Again this would be for basic system deployment rather than more advanced and precise uses. Better would be the goal. Best obviously requires much more of a skill set.

 

[Eric Cagle]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

Hi Phil,
You answered between the time I was writing and posting. OK then put me in for "A book on the concepts in measurement, namely frequency and phase, specifically tailored to audio signals and waves." Where do I send the money?
-Eric

 

[Ivan Beaver]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

You can see phase anomalies as one example. I expect the "what this means and what to do if you see this on the screen" or what are "the most likely causes of this" to be topics addressed. What to do with the information is exactly the kind of thing that needs to be understood. Again this would be for basic system deployment rather than more advanced and precise uses. Better would be the goal. Best obviously requires much more of a skill set.

Phase is one of those things that lots of people talk about, but few really understand. Just look at the various Smaart measurements that are posted on the forums. A large number of them are "showing phase", but they have not properly accounted for the "time of flight" to the mic. So it is eirht worthless information-or very hard to read.

Yes you may see a "phase issue". But is it the system under test? or the parameters you have set in the program? Or the mic position? Smaart does not (directly) "tell you" what the problem is-only that if you know how to read the phase trace-that there is a problem.

The whole "what to do about it" is the HARD part. It is often NOT a simple task. Sure, some examples can be given, but so many situations are different, what 'works" in one case may not in another.

It really gets down to a real understanding of the basic physics involved (interactions etc), understanding what the screen (in several different measurements added together) shows you.

If somebody tried to write a "if you see this-then do this", there would be hundreds if not thousands of different combinations of possible problems/solutions. It would get confusing real quick. There are so many variables.

In reality it is more of "if you see this, then measure/check this-if that is doing this, then also check that. Now go "do" this and see if it changes. If it does, then change this-if not then check this" and so forth and so on.

It would be nice if there were a "if you see this do this" type of thing.

But having attended a good number of professional seminars etc, with some of the top minds in the industry, and seeing/hearing the often heated arguments over 1: How to measure 2: What parameters to use 3: What the data actually means, really makes it hard to "lay it out" for a "dummy". IT gets real deep real quick. Many people are left in a daze.

Case studies are a good thing to start with, but the REAL learning comes from actually doing measurements on lots of different systems, in lots of different places-learing from your mistakes-"playing" with the gear/measurement setups etc.

A "dummy" book could be written, but you can only "dumb down" an advanced topic so much.

The basic operation is easy-but the understanding of what is on the screen (and what to do about it) is the thing that we are all still learning.

 

[Loren Jones]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

That makes great sense Phil. I'll be looking forward to such a series of articles. That is a very wise approach. It seems like much of the one size fits all church sound training in a box solutions aren't appealing for exactly the reasons you mention. I hope the writing of your books go well and will look forward to learning from them.

 

[Eric Cagle]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

Thanks Ivan,
I figured as much but I just thought I would ask. Its kind of like asking for a "Get your PHD in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 7 days" e-book. Not quite that drastic but I get the idea. I just thought there might be something beyond a RTA that could be used by the masses to make an improvement. My approach has been to pay someone who knows what they are doing to set up any new system for the first time as far as digital processing (crossover paramaters, speaker protection, driver time alignment, etc) is concerned and deal with deployment room to room myself as best as I can with ears and an RTA. Actually most of the time now just ears. Obviously if it is an install situation we hire the system tuner on sight.

-Eric

 

[Tim McCulloch]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

Thanks Ivan,
I figured as much but I just thought I would ask. Its kind of like asking for a "Get your PHD in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 7 days" e-book. Not quite that drastic but I get the idea. I just thought there might be something beyond a RTA that could be used by the masses to make an improvement. My approach has been to pay someone who knows what they are doing to set up any new system for the first time as far as digital processing (crossover paramaters, speaker protection, driver time alignment, etc) is concerned and deal with deployment room to room myself as best as I can with ears and an RTA. Actually most of the time now just ears. Obviously if it is an install situation we hire the system tuner on sight.

-Eric

RTA has it's place, you just can't make some types of judgements based on what you see on the screen. Knowing the limitations of an RTA doesn't make it any less useful at what it *can* do, which is show a relative spectrum relevant to the microphone position.

RTA for ear training, esp. 1/12 octave, is both useful and revealing. Patched into the solo or cue bus output of a console is also good for hunting down things you "think" you hear.

It's just not a tool for most aspects of system alignment.

Oh, and it looks cool during the show.

 

[Phil Graham]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

Phase is one of those things that lots of people talk about, but few really understand. Just look at the various Smaart measurements that are posted on the forums. A large number of them are "showing phase", but they have not properly accounted for the "time of flight" to the mic. So it is eirht worthless information-or very hard to read.

Yes you may see a "phase issue". But is it the system under test? or the parameters you have set in the program? Or the mic position? Smaart does not (directly) "tell you" what the problem is-only that if you know how to read the phase trace-that there is a problem.

The whole "what to do about it" is the HARD part. It is often NOT a simple task. Sure, some examples can be given, but so many situations are different, what 'works" in one case may not in another.

It really gets down to a real understanding of the basic physics involved (interactions etc), understanding what the screen (in several different measurements added together) shows you.

If somebody tried to write a "if you see this-then do this", there would be hundreds if not thousands of different combinations of possible problems/solutions. It would get confusing real quick. There are so many variables.

In reality it is more of "if you see this, then measure/check this-if that is doing this, then also check that. Now go "do" this and see if it changes. If it does, then change this-if not then check this" and so forth and so on.

It would be nice if there were a "if you see this do this" type of thing.

But having attended a good number of professional seminars etc, with some of the top minds in the industry, and seeing/hearing the often heated arguments over 1: How to measure 2: What parameters to use 3: What the data actually means, really makes it hard to "lay it out" for a "dummy". IT gets real deep real quick. Many people are left in a daze.

Case studies are a good thing to start with, but the REAL learning comes from actually doing measurements on lots of different systems, in lots of different places-learing from your mistakes-"playing" with the gear/measurement setups etc.

A "dummy" book could be written, but you can only "dumb down" an advanced topic so much.

The basic operation is easy-but the understanding of what is on the screen (and what to do about it) is the thing that we are all still learning.

+100

Well said Ivan

 

[brian maddox]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

going back to the original question, i too would love a series of 25 pagers on various elemental sound topics for use as training tools with volunteers at my church. i like the idea of having it in little pieces. i also like that i can tailor the subject matter to the person and situation at hand. what a volunteer who is running a 4 channel mixer for a preschool class needs to read is very different from my FOH guy mixing 40+ channels.

i also like the 'basics of phase and freq response' book. after a couple decades in the biz, i'm still not sure i have a good grasp on the concept of phase. i'm sure there are plenty others like me out there...

oh, and i'd happily pay for this. i've got a training budget and i'm not afraid to spend it... in all seriousness, at this point the only real training resource i use is my own time teaching people things. the cost of my time easily exceeds what a series of books like you're discussing would cost...

 

[brian maddox]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

going back to the original question, i too would love a series of 25 pagers on various elemental sound topics for use as training tools with volunteers at my church.

yeah, i just quoted myself. and...

it occurred to me that i still didn't answer the original question. here are a few topics i'd love to see ebooks on.

IEMs - what are they and why are they great
Personal Monitoring Systems [i.e. aviom]
Compression/dynamics
gain structure
Basic strategies for Mixing.
ground loops
BASIC STAGE CRAFT! [cable paths. wrapping cable. labeling techniques. etc.]
mic techniques for singers
EQ tips and tricks
Live recording tips and tricks
Basic sound concepts for guitar players [i.e. why your amp on 10 pointed at your knees is a bad idea, etc.]
VERY basic sound concepts [connector types. basic sound system components. the class WAY before audio 101]
Speakers. [types. implementation. basic concepts. things like 'why do we put them on stands and not the floor']
How to do a sound check
How to troubleshoot a faulty mic/speaker/cable/etc.
did i mention BASIC STAGE CRAFT? things like what is gaff tape and why do we use it. why are orange extensions cords bad. stuff like that. i get kinda tired of 'splainin' that stuff...

so yeah, lots of very unsexy topics. but i'd pay through the nose for a well written set of short ebooks on these kinds of topics. and i suspect others would as well...

 

[David Luscombe]

+1 to Brian. I am starting to. Believe that I will be spending a lot of money on Ebooks.... LOL!!

 

[Brad Harris]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

......
BASIC STAGE CRAFT! [cable paths. wrapping cable. labeling techniques. etc.] ........

This is big in my books for teaching/learning new crew. Most of it is common sense, but only when the situations are understood (why shouldn't you run the multicore through the stairs of the stage, clear paths, not leaving things in human traffic, etc)

Knowing how to run the big rig is good and all, but at the end of the day, on 99% of the gigs, everyone deals with this every day.

 

[Silas Pradetto]

Re: What (audio related) ebook do you want written?

This is big in my books for teaching/learning new crew. Most of it is common sense, but only when the situations are understood (why shouldn't you run the multicore through the stairs of the stage, clear paths, not leaving things in human traffic, etc)

Knowing how to run the big rig is good and all, but at the end of the day, on 99% of the gigs, everyone deals with this every day.

By far, cable organization is the most overlooked thing I've seen at shows. It applies to everyone - weekend guys and big companies. I can't stand it when I see a big mess and no one cares. At shows there should be organizational priorities:

1. keep cables out of areas that would be disapproved of by the Fire Marshall
2. keep cables out of the way of humans as much as possible
3. keep cables out of the audience's view as much as possible
4. leave coils where they make the most sense - if something MIGHT have to get moved, leave a coil next to that something, so when it does get moved, a huge mess doesn't result
5. if something doesn't have to get moved, make sure the coil is out of sight somewhere
6. if it has to be in the way of traffic, gaff it
7. use drop snakes...

Ask anyone that works for me, I essentially flip out if cables aren't perfect. I've been known for making guys re-run tons of cables because they just didn't think before they started.

Things like these are what separate the true professionals from the guys that just 'get it done'. (I'm not saying I'm a true professional, but I try to be).

A guide that summarizes the best practices for stage organization and general organization at any level would be excellent to give to new employees.