The Toronto shows, all good! I am currently immersed in researching the effects of temperature and humidity on sound of rock shows. And the strange coincidence, though unrelated, that the Toronto shows varied from too cold to an over compensated too hot is a perfect opportunity to share.

In the not to distant future the sound nerd speak below will evolve into a bit more technical article for a sound magazine. In the mean time, here is a sneak peak at my most recent mind binge into the concepts of sound.

**** Sound Nerd Speak Special ****

It's getting hot in here so let's take ............

The Thermodynamics of a Rock Show

into consideration.

Ambiance, environment, connection. I have mixed sub freezing rock shows and insanely hot ones. The effects of temperature and humidity upon the audience's perception of the event, can be dramatic. Beyond the human experience of intensity, comfort or sweaty overload, the thermodynamics of a rock show have a surprisingly complexly and interesting effect on the actual sound we hear.

The technical side of understanding the sophisticated concepts of the what 'hot and humid' does to the sound cruising around inside a venue would require a big pile brain hurting thinking, (my job) but for now, I will spare you that part. Instead, I will divide the mess up into three somewhat simple adventures that the those sound waves get to journey through.

1) Muggy and Struggling. When it is humid, all those little waters in the air like to absorb the high notes. The really strange thing is that a little humidity is makes the sound very dull but a lot of humidity only makes it moderately dull. This 'humidity absorption of sound' issue is a major factor in causing the sound to be muddy sounding up in the nose bleed seats. Achieving zero humidity is tough except in the desert or sub freezing gigs, so going the other way is best. Having the venue above 40% humidity is all good!

2) Skipping and Jumping. Have you ever gone to a lake and skipped flat stones across the water's surface? It is all about velocity and angle of incidence. Too slow of a throw and under the water the rock goes. Too steep of an angle and the rock dives in the drink as well. Well, our 'rock' funny enough does a similar thing! And though our 'rock' is music, the sound waves actually will and do reflect/refract/deflect, off of thermal/humidity layers. Where do we get a thermal layer in a rock show you ponder? Aside from the thermal underwear layer, how about 15,000 happy dancing heater humans often take it upon themselves to form that steamy pool of warmth. Velocity and angle of incidence. Sound already has the velocity part built into it and travels at around 1200 feet per second. So that means 'angle of incidence' becomes our focus.

The mantra "We will fly the PA, we will fly it every day!" To be sung with the emphasis on the the words "fly."

Flying the PA means hanging it from the ceiling versus the not so great alternative of stacking the sound system on a riser. The two main reasons to fly are; firstly it helps with sight lines (PA between audience eyes and band = bad) and secondly it improves the 'angle of incidence' that the sound hits the listeners, to a steeper angle. Unlike throwing rocks skipping across a lake though, we do not want our sonic rock to skip over the heads of our heater humans. By hanging the PA way up high it improves the ability for the sound to penetrate the thermal layer and reach the desiring ears below.

3) Wet and Fast. So hopefully all that was not too complex. Now the clincher is that sound does not always travel at the same speed. Hotter air = faster sound, increase humidity = faster sound, lower altitude = faster sound. That means a rock show on the beach in the equatorial humidity and heat of Costa Rica is going to have some fast sound. Especially compared to a sub-zero temperature, zero % humidity of rock show on the slopes of a ski resort. In the real world rock show venues sound only changes speed about 8 % or so from one extreme gig to the other. For direct sound from the speakers to your ears, the sound's speed does not really matter much. It is when the direct sound combines with indirect sound that has bounced off of a wall or the roof, that we run into issues. In the cold room with slow sound, two particular sound waves may combine together in a positive way (in phase) adding together and increasing the volume at that frequency. In the hotter faster sound traveling room, the indirect sound which travels a longer distance, shaves more time off its journey than the direct sound does and the waves will combine differently possibly now in a negative way (out of phase) reducing volume.

All in all what this all means is that no matter how long we sound check and how much we measure an empty room, the sound of the rock show is ultimately determined by many constantly changing factors that often change the sound completely. Some factors we can control, some we can not. How many people? How active will they be? What clothing will they wear? 10,000 skin heads you say, yikes reflective heads! Heating vs AC inside the venue? And on and on they all intertwine to create each day, a unique sonic landscape. It is that uniqueness, that interaction between so many aspects of the audience, venue and band that one more thing to make every live rock show truly unique and hopefully magically memorable experience.

What it also means is that warmer and humid environments tend to be more acoustically stable than chilly ones. Cold is drafty, sterile and often crisp and edgy sounding. The hot liquid atmosphere of a muggy rock show not only speeds up the sound, it also seems to enhance that connection between the performers and those immersed in the performance.

Ohhh an I love that delicious excitement of that first note, the tones, the balances the volume and the intensity of when the band first walks on stage. One of the biggest challenges any sound engineer faces is to have the sound come up clear balanced and correct at show time.

**** End Sound Nerd Speak Special

Today was study day, so no pics for you but I will saturate you in them soon enough.

The immersed in thought,

Dave Rat

TMAFMMLIIML!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Being the curious roadie I am, I did a bit of research on the subwoofers (subs) and their curious setup. For the super sound nerds out there you can read more here:

http://www.dbaudio.com/pub/live/TI330_E.PDF

For the rest of you that would rather have me smooth over and summarize, basically what they are doing with the backwards speakers are trying to cancel out the sound behind the subs. On paper it looks good and there are some good parts to the idea though attractiveness is surely not one of them. Loud they were but more like the boom boom of an over-stereo-ed low-rider car than the smooth soothing sound I seek. These subs really liked to reproduce some of the notes Flea played and did not like to reproduce other notes so much. For any of y'all there, you may have even heard me take a small sound slapfrom AK for over subwoofering them stage. Getting lots of nice low end to my pals in the crowd without blurring the vision of my other pals on stage is a tricky trick indeed. But hey, it was all good enough to make for great show.

OK, now back to the important stuff like being a pirate!

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

Arghhh, me boat awaits me:

Arghh, me first mate Nick the Fly and I feasting tasty ice treats, arghh:

I watched the Killers:

Gnarls Barkley and our friend Josh is in the band!

And the highlight was seeing The Who for the second time in my life. It made so happy thoroughly enjoyed it as did all the rest of band and crew, guitar arm windmills, little steps and microphone acrobatics mixed with hit after hit made their show pure fun!

And of course, closing the evening once again in the strangest string of coincidences was surprisingly my favorite band, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, hurray!

.

And hurray for happy surprises and super heroes!

Arghh,

Dave Rat

IMIYABSH!

Upon arrival last night my phone informs me that the hotel has been changed. Turns out that after the fairly grueling flight, the hotel was filthy and in disrepair enough to inspire relocating. My phone also informed me that there is a crew dinner and I should head over. So off I headed, travel bag in tow

The place is a famous steak house and in the photo you may notice that everyone is looking in Dave Lee's direction. This is because he is about to be served that largest cut of prime rib that anyone had ever seen.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Walking into a pre set venue brings with it a bit of anticipation. By pre set, I mean one where myself or the crew I tour with is not in total control. First order of business is a quick wander to determine what my challenges will most likely be. Mental notes of anything out of the ordinary. Today it all looks solid, plenty of gear and a curiosity. As you can see from the photo below, there are six twelve foot high tower like stacks of speakers in front of the stage. Furthermore, the middle speakers are facing backwards. Hmmm.

D & B subs, never used them that I know of before, been interested in hearing them though it also appears that much to the dismay of lampi roadie Scott, we will to do a lot of seeing them as well.

So today we do a setup and the backline roadies will rock out their preferred roadie jam of "Give It Away" for a change, again. Hurray for V-Dosc PA, though I already miss the dual system, it is all good, I know several of the crew and I feel confident. As far as the subs, not sure yet, wow are they loud but not sure if they are the right loud. Will find out soon enough though. In the mean time......

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

Ever wonder where all the power comes from at a big outdoor festival? More often than not, generators. Kind of like those stupid little things that rubbed on your bike tire to power your headlight. I hated those things. Huge generators and like the bike version, they make electricity by spinning a something kind of like a super giant tire rubbing device. Big diesel engines built into truck trailers and if you follow just about any wire long enough, sooner or later you will end up standing next to one of these things. Here I have located the end of all wires. One would think that this would roadie gathering area with their well known affinity for wires and all. But nope, turns out that power central is a lonely place with not a roadie in sight.

Ooooooo, look at all those wires. Thump thump thump goes the roadie heart.

The dreaming of wires

Dave Rat

SNIAGTTPWIWTCABY!