A bloggery post about the the seriousness of science and figuring out what is important and while listening to the morning news, I hear:

Light Drinking Might Help Keep Women Slim

and they go on to give their findings of the 19,220 women studied and how a link is found between moderate drinking and not gaining weight. The study's author Dr. Lu Wang, an epidemiologist with the division of preventive medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston states several possible reasons including:

"Among women, those who regularly consume light-to-moderate alcohol usually have a lower energy intake from non-alcohol sources. On the other hand, alcohol intake tends to induce increased energy expenditure beyond energy contents of the consumed alcohol in women. Taken together, regular alcohol consumption in light-to-moderate amount may lead to a net energy loss among women."

Hmmmm, Really? Oh my, what have they discovered? I wonder what kind of increased energy expenditure it could be? Perhaps that explains the plethora of 2am female joggers and crowded ladies night at fitness gyms after the bars close.

So while pondering scientific studies may as well dive back into unraveling more in the wonderful world of sound.

Hey, is anyone interested in an NL4 tester version of the Rat Sniffer? The prototype is done and it is a two ended tester that checks for every fault in NL4 cables. Like the Rat Sniffer, this is a field use product that allows you to test NL4 cables when the cable ends are located at a distance from each other.

These are high quality machined aluminum and based on the same patented circuit utilized in the Rat Sniffer testers and tests for every possible short, open and miss-wire ALL GREEN = CABLE IS GOOD. No on off switch to worry about and they use the same 12 volt replaceable remote key chain alarm battery as the Rat Sniffer as well.. I am trying to gauge how many to make on this first order so if you are interested let me know. I am going to make first production run of US made custom machined units priced at $120 per send receive pair plus a free rat shirt and serial numbered warranty card for helping me get these things rolling. Soon to follow will be an NL8 version an then a Cacom unit as well. Also, if you do buy them and don't love them, send them back and Rat will do a full refund.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

So I am watching this AES panel video on the perceptions hearing

http://www.audiodesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222700732

and as much as I agree with the discrediting of scammers, and the undermining of audio voodoo, I also prickle at the arrogance of assumptions. Especially when what starts out as a clear and believable scientific observation becomes blurred as opinions of perception leak in. I so agree with keeping things in perspective which of course involves first establishing a well grounded and valid viewpoint to start with.

Let me clarify perspectives. On one hand we have the perspective of believers, 'the anything is possible crowd,' where the sky is not the limit, possibilities are endless and whether the concepts are repeatable or provable is not near as important as the fact that they were written, thought or spoken. On the other side we have the perspective of huddling skeptics, the self proclaimed 'investigators of verifiable proof' building the world of science, based on identifying dependable repeatable concepts from which real-world functioning successes can be built.

Both the believers and the skeptics inspire massive rivers of money flowing to support their respective causes. Both construct items of perceived value and usefulness. Both sell or pass freely their thoughts and revelations to attract others to swallow and follow. Whether it is a crystal that heals, an automobile that transports or a process of thought that helps one navigate one's life, they are both trains of thought with long and twisted histories peppered with successes and misconceptions over the years. Due to their differences in perspective, neither is able to truly resolve the expertise of the other. The pure skeptic can no more prove a certain type of music is beautiful than a pure believer can construct a cell phone that actually functions.

It is easy to to understand why science is useful and easy to feel why adding the complexities of beauty and art improves our lives beyond the monotony of what is purely utilitarian.

So what is the problem?

It is the middle ground, that gray area between fact and recreation where science encounters discomfort. The things we purely feel or think we know that science has yet to be able to adequately encompass.

The credibility of science comes into question when we are told that something can't be heard yet we do hear something. In our own confusion when we believe we have taken every variable into account only to find the most remarkable surprises still remain. These false assumptions are the feeding ground for the tangled garden of ideas for believers in magic and mystery. The Skeptics are doing all they can to excavate and form clean rows of well organized thoughts while the Believers immerse in weaving fact and fiction into complex and intoxicating stories and patterns. And yet a third perspective exists wherein both viewpoints are viewed as desirable, sellable, marketable and therefore useful.

Regardless of the propagation of education, I will personally make the jump to the conclusion that our world will always contain some balance or ratio of Believers and Skeptics. It is impossible to live our lives without the rules of science, just as it is impossible to live without the influences or art, pleasure and those magical stories affecting our lives. So let me call the beliefs that have a low level of probability and are grounded in floating perceptions, 'art.' I will refer to the beliefs that have high degree of provability and therefore probability, 'science.' It is when one side denies the relevance, the importance and/or the necessity of the other that voids are created allowing pseudo-science and other forms blurred perspective to gain traction. When art attacks science or visa-versa it just undermines it's own integrity. To tell an amazing story is one thing, to claim it is true is another. To measure the various nuances in sound is one thing, to claim it can or can not be heard is another.

So just as I laugh at the absurdity that people actually buy colored stones to tape to their audio cables in ignorance of the astronomical improbability that there will be any form of realizable alteration of the sound, I also believe that it is the failure of the science world to embrace the unknown that allows this ignorance to fester. And yes, science does try to quantify the importance and realities of art, and the world of art-thought tries to encompass science as well. Science teaches us that there are things that are known and things that are not yet known. Art teaches us there are things we 'know' and feel that defy definition.

We feel, yet science is typically by nature methodical and cold. The attractions to the warmth of mystery inspires the desire to circumvent being characterized and labeled as a predictable reproducing food eater. We know in our minds that we see, feel and hear so much more than even the most complex analysis system seems account for. Science's downplay of the cumbersome and its inability to adequately explain everything leaves the door ajar for people that will believe anything. Not that they wouldn't grab bit or real info, twist and run with it anyway

So anyway, back to the video. I am watching and enjoying the clarifications on human perceptions yet as and as the video progresses to the "what we can and can not hear" I find myself feeling swindled a bit and tempted to jump to conclusions and thinking that if the power of suggestion can inspire us to hear things that are not there, would not the opposite also be true? As the various sounds are played, are we convincing ourselves we can't hear them? What about cumulative effects of several independently inaudible aspects combining? Just as it is important not to jump to the assumption I can hear something, it is equally important not to jump write off something as audible or relevant without doing due diligence. In the end though, and in defence of the demo, a clear point was repetitively made; "this is just to help keep things in perspective" and with that I concur.

And with that lets take a big huge step back and ask ourselves "What would this accurate audio reproduction sound like if perfected?" How can we determine what is or is not important for audio accuracy if we have yet to create audio accuracy? Whether $10,000 audio cables are used or 192K converters and razor flat mics, the real story is that at the end of the day has anyone ever heard a recording played back where you tried to search around the room to find where the live band was hiding? How come we can know there is a garage band rehearsing a block away and when you sit dead center in front of the best sound systems money can buy and close your eyes, the best we can get is a descriptive range of similarities to live?

What if one side or the other was truly able to prove their position? What if those pricey cable companies with colored rocks put together a system that when turned on, you would swear up and down that there are actual musicians in the room. Would it sell systems? Would it sell cables? If they could do it do you think they would? Would that not be a game changer? Then they could show that vinyl is more realistic than CD's, or that it no longer sounded exactly real without the faster D to A converters or fancy power cords. The room would not matter, just as the room does not matter with that garage band. "Oh, you were playing live in a crappy room so I thought you were a recording" Yeah, right.. Has anyone ever heard sound reproduction so clear that you were unable to tell it was not in real time? I haven't but when and if I do, it may be a good place to start testing truly whether some of these products and concepts actually function.

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

Oh, check out these pages

Play this auditory illusion over and over and it should sound like it keep rising in tone:

http://www.moillusions.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/shepards.mp3

And some more illusions and an interview with Poppy Crum who rocked one of the more fun presentations and clearly has one of the the coolest names ever!

http://www.cogito.org/interviews/InterviewsDetail.aspx?ContentID=17862

A bit more about James "JJ" Johnston:

http://home.comcast.net/~retired_old_jj/

And Ethan Winer

http://www.ethanwiner.com/audiophoolery.html

And finally in my long winded word wanders it looks like Coachella adventure is coming up quick. Oooooh big huge audio playground!

Dave Rat

Oh the joys of re realizing the same thing over and over again. I have the attention span of a windshield wiper. As if it is some great revelation I was out surfing this morning and pondering the less than thrilling weight of affairs of many of the projects in which I am immersed and then it dawns upon me. Heck, it is just winter darn it. I know this, I always know this, Winter is slow, sluggish resistive and lackluster for a touring rock n roll human, except for surfing and the snow sports. Anyway, I guess another way to look at it is I can feel the excitement of summer rock shows and general happiness looking and it makes me happy.

Occasionally in life we stumble across things that touch our hearts and bring us great concern. While driving home the other day I was shocked and dismayed to see this:

Yes, Share the Road! What the hell are they thinking? Road sharing is stupid. Oh wait, no, that's was not it. Oh that's right, it's the Unfree Tree! Truly a travestree. Caged and no longer free to roam and hunt it will surely starve to death. What crime could this tree have committed to deserve this? I don't know, but I do know that I had no choice other than to do what I am sure everyone of you is thinking right now. WE MUST HELP FREE THIS TREE!

So with the help of my daughters we started a Free the Tree page on Facebook. http://tinyurl.com/yz4j5nv Though we have no idea how it will help nor a plan or strategy whatsoever, if you feel so inspired, please join to help save the Unfree Tree!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

In case ya have not noticed, the cold, yes cold! it gets down to the low 50's here sometimes at night, weather has me spending more time indoors protected from those fierce elements. And what better to to do with some shacked up home time than to pull out the video camera and the power tool and spend some quality time undressing a few of the hottest wedge monitors on the market.

And if that is not enough, I had a great time playing Lego blocks with the new final production model EAW MicroSubs that arrived last week.

Hey, check out the mysterious ne L-Acoustics box called KARA

I guess the big debut is going to be at MusikMesse Frankfurt. Is what I see a mini K1 version as dV-Dosc is a mini V-Dosc? oooooh!

Ok, let me ask you this. How many of you know the difference between a 'Free Field' and a 'Random Incidence' measurement microphone?

http://tinyurl.com/yzql4wf

Ha, some tweaky stuff going on there! And to think that a cheap mic and an old sketchy RTA is more than enough resolution to easily weed out 90% of the headphones I tested.

I thought this was a quite credible and convincing test of doppler versus phase distortion that seemed to coincide with the simple testing I did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-XPawd5unk

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

So I have been working on a few new projects, one is an Audix to Shure Adapter that allows an Audix wireless mic capsule to mount onto a Shure wireless transmitter. The concept originated from our friend George Squires that mixes monitors for REM. Though Audix makes a wireless unit, it just is not of the caliber of the deep pockets Shure products. While Shure makes many very high quality mics, they just do not make a high gain before feedback mic that can keep up with the some of the Audix offerings. So, when you have a band that relies on the assets of an Audix mic yet needs wireless, it has been a bit of an issue. Switching to a different mic type mid show when the singer wants to wireless wander really sucks. So we made a couple prototypes for REM's last tour but they were just metal threaded adaptors and needed to be soldered to work. Now we have made a batch that just screws right on and allows any Audix capsule make a connection with any Shure transmitter. If you are interested, there is more info at http://www.ratsound.com/soundtools/

Okey Dokey Smokey. Plants not Animals!

Speaking of making connections and solutions, though I never mentioned it, for the past two years I have been battling a miserable on and off increasing bummer of a building sinus issue. It started pretty mellow and gradually built into headaches, blurry vision, light sensitivity and constant sleepless pressure that left me always tired and never fully coherent feeling. Five doctors, 2 MRI's and a Cat scan, antibiotics, a pile of natural based neti pot concoctions, cameras in the head, steroids, hot steam and on and on and on. That helpless unsolvable dredge of a feeling where everyday feels like rubbing bicycle brakes on an uphill pedal. Aaaargh! So once again I reach one of the many, "Hey, wait a minute, this is just not right, this is not normal, I must attack once again" points, calling the doctor, fed up I tell them I want to go the hospital or whatever this takes. So they give me an appointment right now and less than 30 minutes later I am in the his office hearing the same old rap. "Hmmm, yes, hmmm, ok, well I am going to prescribe blah blah blah." Hey wait, that's what you and every other doc has told me before but with no other immediate option I humor the response and whilst I try and form a new plan. But this time he says something different. "Hmmm, it's not bacterial, so antibiotics wont help, it's fungal based." Going to give you a seven day prescription that should clear it up. Oooooh, fungal is plant, and all this time everything has been focused on fighting little critters as bacteria is animal. Well new is good and worth a shot I guess, so I get to the pharmacy and they hand me these packets of huh? "For Vaginal Yeast Infections!" Yikes, that caught me off guard and sent me mind a wandering. I did a bit of research and found:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/09/990910080344.htm

That was 4 days ago and though I am not fully head pressure free, damn I feel a million times better like I no longer live my life walking around in a bowl of jello with spike in my cheek. I just hope it lasts but for now I am sure happier.

Lets see what else. The Mighty Headphone Quest continues and I have put up a few Youtube videos on the subject. You may notice a bit of difference in the readings as I have switched to a different microphone that is smaller and seem to read the HF a bit better on some headphones. It is interesting how some of the headphones are really sensitive to slight placement variations while others are not.

Hey, I have been getting requests to test some more headphone models which I will gladly do. But, since I do not have an unlimited budget on this and getting demo's can be tough with companies Rat is not a dealer for, I figured I would send a shot out:

If you have a pair of headphones you feel are worthy contenders and do not mind sending them to me for a 4 or 5 days, I will add them into the test mix and youtube the results. And thank you Bob Rice for the Sony MDR-7509 non HD's!

More audio nerdery! Hurray! Want a super cool free downloadable sine wave generator? Check out

http://www.tucows.com/preview/502787

Or how about a free version of Electri-Q' - posihfopit edition' is a simple, intuitive, but powerful minimum phase EQ?

http://www.aixcoustic.com/index.php/Electri-Q-posihfopit/30/0/

Or perhaps a parametric graphic equalizer with excellent response all the way up to Nyquist?

http://magnus.smartelectronix.com/#NyquistEq

And nothing like a trip to the beach with the pooch to bring a smile.

Dave Rat

Oh, and since not everything can always run smoothly and issues are bound to occur, please view the following instructional video teaching advanced troublshooting techniques.

And double oh, Greg Cameron sent me this link to a Pro Sound News article on Blink 182.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/prosound_200912/#/60

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Double hung V-Dosc versus Single hung K1?

A little over three years ago I took two full sound systems on Red Hot Chili Peppers tour, hung them side by side and divided vocals and instruments between the two systems.

http://ratsound.com/cblog/archives/2006/05/28.html

Though double sound systems that have been done in theater for years, the goal there is to minimize phase issue caused by two mics in close proximity. Someone figured out that if you combine the mics electrically, there are comb filtering issues with sounds that enter both mics. But by giving each mic it's own speaker, those issue were greatly reduced as the acoustic summation of time shifted signals from the same source is way less problematic than the electrical summation of those same signals. But that is not what I was addressing with the double hung system.

Also, there have been many engineers, myself included, that have added on some extra speaker boxes to a system and pushed vocals through them as a way to increase vocal clarity, or reduce stress on the primary sound system. For that matter, we as sound engineers have been bringing in separate subwoofer on an aux systems for years to send a few instruments to in order to improve low end energy and control. I even went so far as tour with tweeters on an aux send as well, to reduce the complexity of the signal sent to them and improve clarity.

The constant quest for more power and clarity is an endless battle. And with each hurdle jumped, the systems sound better and either get louder or smaller. So following that path, my goal was to present a level of clarity and control that was audibly superior to other systems touring on that level and then and present it to a majority of the audience Seek a different PA type? Buy some magical whiz bang gadget? Add more boxes?

I could have looked for a different PA but I am pretty sure I have already mixed on every major large scale system that planet earth had to offer and I like V-Dosc the best, not only for sound quality but for system to system consistency as well as world wide availability.

As far as whiz bang gadget, well, my firm belief is that the speaker systems we use is by far, huge leaps and bounds and massive amounts so giant that all pales in comparison, the weakest link in the sound quality chain. Mics are a distant second. Try doing a listening test between a $50 Mackie, a $50,000 Yamaha $200K Midas. Yes, there is a difference and if you do sound for a living, you hopefully may actually hear that they do not sound the same if you have a fairly hi-fi listening device. Try using a Marshall stack as your listening monitor and hmmm, maybe the boards don't sound different at all. Now go the stereo store and punch all those buttons listening to all the different speakers and any knucklehead off the street can hear they are vastly different. Find two speakers made by two different manufactures and put them side by side. Now turn them up and hear how they sound near maximum volume, then see if you can find a sound engineer that can't hear the difference between the sound of the two and then don't hire them.

So it comes down to more? But I could not add more as I was already at the maximum weight capacity of my preferred system, V-Dosc. They hang 16 deep max or, as most tours carry, 15 deep plus 3 dV-Dosc. Furthermore, even if I could hang more boxes forming a longer array, sight lines are often an issue for sold out arena gigs. Until line arrays took the sound industry by storm in the late 90's, side by side systems with similar coverage were not a feasible option for large scale gigs, as those older systems were physically too wide.

Yes, more but not for volume but rather for clarity. When intentional distortion is not desired, speakers sound 'less good' when driven too hard. Speakers, as they reach mechanical limitations, become less linear. The more complex the signal presented to the speaker, the more difficulty it has reproducing that signal accurately. By using two identical sound systems, with identical coverage patterns set side by side I could divide the instruments between the two and increase clarity and headroom while simultaneously getting around many of the mechanical system limitations.

And it worked. It worked really well. So well in fact that the though of touring without it is kind of a bummer but then came K1. The brand new system is inherently clearer and louder than V-Dosc by no small margin. So what do I do? There is not enough K1 around or budget for that matter, to double up K1, but I could easily double up V-Dosc again. Double V-Dosc though is twice the truck space, twice the motor points and considerably more expensive than single hung K1.

So here I am now, three weeks or so into touring a single hung K1 system. I had 60 V-Dosc last tour and now I have 24 K1 and I must say that I made the right call. This system is as loud, if not louder, I don't even fly the K1 subs in most places due to trim height issues and the clarity rivals or beats the double hung V-Dosc. Setup time is so much faster with a quicker rigging system and less gear. That said, there were a few things about the double hung that still stand above. First is the ability to alter the source location of the instruments. It was really nice and surprisingly audible to hear instruments and vocals coming from separate sources. Different than clarity, it gave a bit more freedom in level. I could turn things down farther in the mix and still have them clearly discernable. Secondly, when I really push the K1, I can hear it begin to blur a bit, though less so than the V-Dosc, with the double hung V-Dosc I could push and blur one system while still having the vocals super clear in the other other system. That freedom from level based interaction is very desirable. Next step? Maybe double hung K1 some day, but for now, I feel I am far enough ahead of the game that I am perfectly happy.

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

You want to meet more of the tour humans? First up today, Robert Rat stage pa teching the shit out the K1 rig.

'The Show Must Go On' Adam is the fearless tour leader!

Touring with catering rules! Touring with great catering is the difference between happiness and misery. You can run a crew ragged with multiple shows and longs drives, just make sure they have a safe place to get whatever sleep they can and feed them well and magically most anything is endurable with a smile. Oh, keeping the busses stocked with plenty of alcohol doesn't hurt either. Meet Ali!

And Nate and Billy. Too bad these guys have such a bad attitude and are no fun to hang with.

Our other two caterers, Jeremy and other Nate you will meet as soon I I remember to snap a pic. Another important life support friendly essential is showers. Yes, we are scruffy roadie types but a quick shower every few weeks really does cheer the spirit. That is why a it was so exciting to saunter into this shangrila of a paradise vintage crew room.

Though he looks vicious and scary, don't be afeard, Pete and the Fall Out Boy band and crew are super cool.

Now here is a brilliant concept, how about we attach a tractor to front of house mix area just in case it becomes a good idea to drag the sound and light roadies around the venue during the show.

And it is dinner time and then guess what! I am going to check out Blink 182 tonight as we hit the middle of a 5 in a row show sprint.

Dave Rat

Oh so many things going on. Probably the most life affecting adventure for me coming up is a 10 week US tour with Blink 182. Ten or so years ago, I was mixing Blink 182 as they grew from clubs to arena's before returning to do a Peppers tour. Here we are a decade later and it is pretty cool to join them again for a North America shed and arena run. We are going to be moving fast and covering lots of ground with over 40 shows.

So what is the plan rubber band? I have been putting some thought into sound, as one in my position would and pondering what if anything outside of the norm I could or should do. The double hung PA worked amazingly well on Peppers and I am a bit remiss to return to a single hung system.

But hey, each band/tour has unique aspects and based on the dynamics at hand, I have different plan this time out. But, while we are speaking of double hung PA's though, check this out!

U2 is doing a stadium tour in the round. Check out that PA, notice anything? There are 3 PA hangs, 2 hangs of Clair full range boxes inside and a hang of Clair subs to the outsides.

Well alright, U2 is touring with a double hung PA, how cool is that! Well actually that would be four double hung PA's. My good friends MC and Paddy who are out with Snow Patrol were kind enough to give me the low down. And yes, it is truly being run the same way as we did on the Peppers with the vocals in one system and the instruments divided between the two systems. That rules, the largest tour in the world right now has a double hung PA! And the desire to shout "see, I am not crazy after all!" while running around doing a naked victory dance is very tempting.

But back from the past, lets look at now and Rat has this cool new L'Acoustics K1 rig that I know is louder and clearer than V-Dosc. Blink is an energetic fun rocking band, so from a sound perspective, I am going to approach it from a clean and simple angle. Nope, no double hung this run. I am excited to take the K1 toy out and see what it can do in a conventional setup before I go getting all wacky with concepts. I am thinking that the new K1 system and it's added clarity and volume, may be able to give the double hung V-Dosc rig a run for it's money.

But I get bored to easy not to do something special so I have been working some sub layout designs, trying to fine tune and improve the sub cannons so if your interested in that sort of stuff, I will post more on later. Also, I have finally put together a little system for measuring venue acoustics in various locations so I can see setups and coverage works as predicted.

In the mean time, the storm before the calm sets in as I realize some sad goodbyes and bearing down upon me. October! , yikes, wont be home till October, that is a rough concept to get my head around, anyway, my little pals that are gals that are going starting high school before I get home.

Meet Taco the little dog pal my daughters have convinced to adopt me and has been hanging tough and keeping my company.

And without looking back cause it hurts my heart, off and away for many days in far away places.

Well today is my birthday but more about that later, and just by sheer coincidence, it is also the press release day for the the next product in the MicroWedge series!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

The MicroSub Special Report!

A while back I mentioned that there were some exciting new products in the MicroWedge pipeline, well, here is the next one, the new EAW MicroSub 15. This is the an all new design and the first product I have developed with EAW from the onset.

The EAW MicroWedge 12's and 15's designs started with Radian and then working with EAW we were able to bring them to a new level but with the MicroSub, I was able to approach the project knowing I had EAW's capabilities at my disposal. So, I thought I would share a bit of the background behind the design process for these cool little subs.

If you take a look at the subs currently available, you are always faced with a series of compromises and finding a really cool stage sub is kind of a Holly Grail quest. Larger subs have the volume and allow sidefilles to stack on top but then for gigs with sight-line issues, getting them low enough is not possible. The smaller subs work for sight lines and fit on drum risers but getting some real volume out of them can be illusive. Then you have all the eccentric designs with 3rd and 4th order bandpass chambers, steep roll offs and limited frequency ranges which I wanted to stay away from. Though many of those products have certain assets, they also come with issues, I wanted a solid bass reflex configuration that has that familiar impact and clarity.

We as sound vendors, need to be able to supply the sound engineers with something that would solve the challenge of getting powerful low end to the drummer as well as be an awesome sidefill sub covering venues ranging from clubs to arenas. It had to be compact and punchy yet also reproduce very low frequencies.

There actually have been several MicroSub designs over the years, with some making it all the way to being tested at gigs. I have one prototype in my living room that sounds great but lacked some key aspects. There had to be something new and exciting about the product. The final MicroSub design started to materialize when I realized that multiple enclosure should fit together to create a wide variety of coverage patterns and focus distances. This would allow the engineer to easily optimize the sub setup for the artists. I then had this idea to create a subwoofer that allows the end user to create a horn loaded type setup without carrying dead air of the horn. Most horn loaded designs that are just a speaker with a big huge flare of wasted space in front.

What if this sub was designed such that multiples could be configured to form horn loaded arrays or just as easily configure into conventional subwoofer arrays? What if the arrays could be built like "LEGO's" into various shapes that exhibit differing characteristics. Truly mechanical and actually optimized setups rather than digital beam steering emulations? It had to be low profile and stackable. Some gigs require a stage sub that does not block sight lines while others require a stage sub that can elevate the sidefill tops to head height or above. There are lots of various subs out there but I could not find a single an 'off the shelf sub' that fills the bill.

The sound and tuning of a single box was based proven design that has been successful for over a decade, Rat has been using a double 15 stage sub that works really well. The sound is tight and clean yet it is able to deliver low frequencies down to 35hz and it is about 8 cubic feet. So I modeled the internal tuning after that proven product. It had to be scalable and versatile enough to work as a drum sub, side fill sub or configure to throw lots of power onto large stages. I wanted a sub the will effortlessly transition from a club to an arena and back again.

Also, with the proliferation of in-ears, the need for a versatile high quality low profile stage sub system even more timely that ever. Localized and clean low end to augment the the one thing in-ear systems will never be able to achieve, that 'feel.'

The MicroSub is another cornerstone of the MicroWedge series. The MicroWedge 12, 15 and 8's are just the tip of the iceberg. They are but a few products from an entire series that all work together to form the ultimate stage monitoring and near to mid field coverage system and though I will not get into that now, there are more to come.

So this is the culmination of way too many sleepless nights pondering and 4 AM sketches. Rolling over and over in my mind, "where o where to mount the speaker?" Top side, bottom, they all have their issues, I need a 7th surface. Wait, a 7th surface, that is it, the extra dimension I need. A surface that is neither the front nor side nor bottom but rather EITHER the front or side or bottom. I refuse to waste space by pointing the speaker into an internal wall. I refuse to have a dead internal chamber and that is when it all opened up, it made perfect sense, and it became really fun. The slanted baffle offered numerous unique aspects, of course, just the same as the MicroWedge, except a sub. A 15" speaker that lives in a 13" high enclosure and even more interesting is that it can face any direction without blocking the sound, it just alters the loading and the way it interacts with the other MicroSubs.

So I create sketches and start working with the EAW engineers. I started drawing up the basics and got even more excited, could it truly be this versatile yet so simple? Right away, first generation prototypes to see if they really do couple and load as expected. Ah, but the alignment system is a mind bender. Slowly that unravels and a complex pattern of feet and valleys that fit together is created. Handles that double as alignment holes. Alignment blocks that double as rubber feet.

One of the really cool things about working with EAW is their ability to get transducers developed that are optimized for the task at hand. With the Radian MicroWedge, I used an off the shelf Radian coax, for the 12 and made a few minor changes including the impedance of the 2". For the EAW MicroWedges, every aspect of the coaxes was analyzed and refined. Changes to cone shape, thickness, waterproof cone coating, dome, voice coil material, gap, magnet type and strength and on and on. The options are endless and to have the ability to refine every aspect is phenomenal!

Well, with the MicroSubs we did the same thing. Starting with the latest greatest 15's submitted from five loudspeaker manufacturers, we weeded out the week ones, picked three, asked for upgrades and changes, narrowed down to two, asked for upgrades and changes, narrowed down to one, asked for upgrades and changes and again and again and again. Until the aha moment of "that is what we are looking for" is achieved. Oh, and don't for a second believe that I do not keep them all on their toes with my unconventional test methods!

If I can break it, it aint gonna make it!! Fun stuff and it is such an honor to work with Kenton Forsythe and Jeff Rocha and all the engineers at EAW and other companies I have met through EAW.

So back to the MicroSub.

These things can stack, array, they are small, can be on the floor behind the drum riser.

and have the speakers pointed at the drummer rather than the kick drum.

Here is a photo of 2nd generation prototypes. They can stack behind the drummer, off the drum riser or at the edge of the stage for main PA for a club

Ever have a bass player that wants a lot of low end? How about the dream bass wedge setup where the MicroSub 15 can act as large sub wedge and ego riser.! The same setup makes an awesome stereo bi-amp plus sub drumfill as well.

And it is the same height as a MicroWedge 12.

You can stack two up and have them point at the musician close to the sidefill. Or, if you need subs to sit behind a stairway, the angle is a cool asset.

Focus them farther away to the center of the stage

Or perhaps something in between the two last setups. Here the mechanical focus is far but the speakers are pointed 'near.'

Or perhaps a smooth even coverage for the near stage and center stage is needed

For those limited space situations, here is a slick way to get a powerful dual 15" setup in only 13" of depth

Or a simple near fire sub

Or the same with more coupling to the floor

A nearly omni setup

Or another omni setup that allows you to stack on top.

Check out my crude photoshop skills! Here you can see that larger horns can be formed and with a bit of processing, we can get horn loading and directional control. Extend this progression out to increase output, and directional control

They stack and another MicroSub can be added to the top to make a 4 box horn. Notice the first generation prototype below the 2nd gen proto's.

Face them out, or angle them face forward, the options as a design tool to optimize for your application are nearly endless.

Ha! Like LEGO! and they all have these inter-fitting feet that line the boxes up into and fit together.

Oh, plus there is a pole cup so.......

A MicroWedge will mount on top of one or two MicroSubs when used in with the MicroWedge pole mount adaptor

So a few more shots of the final units:

Oh, for the official info, check out:

http://www.eaw.com/products/microsub.html

And also, the first pair of MicroSub 15's will be at infocom in Orland this week

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

So it is my birthday and so far it has been wonderful! My day started at 5:30 am with a phone call to Brian Rat, a friend since I was 11 years old and the co-founder of Rat. Two surf sessions and chats and smiles about the ups, downs and appreciations of the three and a half decades we have known each other. Thirty five years, whoa and yikes, Rat Sound will be 30 next year! On one hand, it is pretty incredible that us two knucklehead kids got together and started a company that still survives and has done so many cool things. On the other hand, heck, with young whippersnapper multi billion dollar companies like Google pooping up, I guess us little us old Rat's are just an insignificant speck dust in the big scheme of the real world.

But hey, either way you look at it, Brian and I were estimating that this planet Earth gig has only about 12,000 days left for us before the tour ends. Hmmm, lets see, if the Earth tour length for a male human in the US is 77.5 to 80 years and I am an optimist so I will shoot high, but also, hey, I have been no angel, so I won't overshoot, I would say 82 would be reasonable goal. that means I have exactly 12,775 days left to finish this gig.

Perhaps this pondering may strike some as morbid, yet I actually find it a bit invigorating. A goal and a time frame and so now I am off to pack in as many adventures as I can without getting fired!

Speaking of fire, my mom came by last night with the worst tasting vegan cake imaginable. I have no idea why she was inspired to bring the vegan cake anymore that I can explain the dead plant she brought me as a gift. But, ya know, some things do not require explanation.

And what better way to light 47 candle than a propane torch, well, that is the best I could manage.

Rock on and I am off to see what the rest of the day will bring, wish me luck and maybe I will be lucky!!

Dave Rat

I sometimes wonder if perhaps my bloggery ramblings would be better packaged in more compact media-friendly snippets. I realize that compared to the progressively twittery word and the popular one-shot-youtube-jellybeans of the internet, these meandering posts must be trudgingly long to many in this exceedingly e-speedy world. Yet, each time set out to write I find myself less than satisfied with an offering that lacks some substance and diversity and I realize that I truly am writing mainly because I enjoy it and because I enjoy capturing and remembering a snapshot from the scavenger hunt of a world I reside.

So today lets start with with something very important. We are discussing some new Rat artwork, logo's and even the creation of some Rat Sound skateboards. So, I thought I would run the design by y'all to get your opinion. I am not sure if you will catch the difference right away but if you look closely, you may notice that I changed the jaw line and a few other minor details.

Just for reference, here is the normal tail straight rat logo.

And just for good measure, here is an interesting article on our furry little friends:

http://www.ratbehavior.org/testicles.htm

Next on the agenda, I would like to cover something overwhelmingly technical and trite to all but a few.

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

In the human sound world landscape so ripe with snake oil salesmen and curious minds unassumingly open to seemingly logical and feasible revelations, the opportunity for those less than truthful or those less than knowledgeable to sway finance via false complexity one way or the other is inevitable. The unraveling of those deceptions and misbeliefs is both fun and hopefully welcomed. I guess it could be an audio version of Myth Busters except I will avoid falling prey to using false logic to create the illusion of a definitive truth. But hey, I am not under media pressure to do so for ratings so I have an advantage.

There is a concept floating around the audio world that "if you connect an Apogee Big Ben digital clock to a Yamaha PM5D console, it will sound amazingly and near magically better." What is really interesting about this is that the proponents often come off as borderline mystical in their descriptions, yet the 'why' is always clouded in an ethereal haze of fuzzy-speak. So when this issue came to Rat in the form of supplying Ben Ben clocks for rentals to clients, Jon Monson, the main man at Rat that runs our system rentals, arranged some testing. Yes we will give the clients what they desire and yes, we must know what (if anything) drives those requests. We are all good with ergonomics and personal preferences but when it comes to just adding more hardware to keep other hardware in line and the addition creates more complexity and it offers the engineer no joy or fluidity, perhaps it 'just money to waste and truck space to burn.'

So Jon arranges an Apogee Big Ben and since our PM5D's were all on tour, we grabbed a Yamaha MC7L and with a mic and some tunes we gave a listen to discern a difference, to no avail. Sounds the same on headphones and perhaps a slight variation between Big Ben clocked and not but hey, that's all very subjective so even if we did find a difference, without a repeatable provable measurable difference, nothing changes. Next we grabbed some other gear from the shop, an oscilloscope and and some wires and hey, lets take a look.

I must admit, I expected maybe something slight but no. The top trace is the Big Ben and the bottom is the MC7L internal clock, both at 48K. Looks like a capacitance issue to me. Ideally, they would both be clean square waves. So that peaked our interest and we decided to check some other digi clocks.

Here the top is the Big Ben and the bottom is a generic clock signal from a Digi Design word clock. Hmmm, I wonder. So we pull out the oldest 'least likely to have a decent word clock' piece of gear we can find at the shop, a Tascam DA98 digital recorder

And we slow down the scope a bit an look! the signal shows a bit of ringing but still a fairly clean square wave.

Why the Yamaha console would have such a crappy square wave generator clock baffles me but that said, we have proved nothing because we were not able to prove that the ugly Yamaha MC7L clock signal actually changes the sound for the worse. Plus we are not sure yet that the Yamaha PM5D clock is as odd looking as the MC7L.

What we do feel confident about is that just about any clock is better than the internal clock in an MC7L. So food for thought and maybe adding any external word clock to a Yamaha will help or maybe someone at Apogee saw a marketing opportunity based on a crappy looking square wave and the Yamaha internal clock with spikes and all actually times the board just fine, don't know and if nothing else, don't the o-scope signals always look kind of cool!

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

Finally, I would like to say

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHH!

and double AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHH!

My laptop has finally reached the end of it's life span, hence my near vanishing to all internet related adventures. Crippled and sad, I finally have a new one coming and will enter the data swap hell soon.

Come join me in my next bloggery post, till then do not forget to turn it up and rock out!

Dave Rat

If only amongst the turmoil I stole the free moments to document the unbelievable flurry of last month's ride. So that leaves me with looking back in retrospect to share the hazy highlights. The glee of Obama victory waning yet the momentum lingers. I don't care much for 'hope' and 'faith' as they are to me is just versions of self deception, so in my life I have chosen to replace those lazy crutches with a vector of positive momentum. I don't hope, but rather I push pressure in the desired direction to do my best to unravel a desired outcome. Though I can not foresee the how it will unfold, my experience leads me to believe that I can increase the probability of ending up in the vicinity of where I desire. At least that is what seems to happen except when it doesn't.

As tempted as I am to say times are hard, they equally challenging in a wonderful way. Home prices collapse as gas skyrockets only to plummet, the banks dissolve the lines of credit that fuel and support business and productivity trying to bankrupt the unprepared and over exposed. Batten down the hatches as we are deep in the storm.

Last month the one of our banks pulled Rat Sound's credit line with 4 days notice. Not good news indeed as we head into the winter slow down. Fair enough, we were wise to use more than one bank and we have other resources. Off to find a new one and a bit of time and a brand new credit line. Then same thing happens to me personally, a letter saying I used to have access to a home equity that is now near zero. Aaargh and a few days and some phone calls later, I get that lined back up. The banks are trying to bankrupt a successful business. So dumb. It brings back the memories of battling financial institutions in the early days and reminds me once again that to rely on an outside entity is weakness. Always have a backup plan and let no one hold the reins of my future.

Anyway, on the more fun side of things, in perfect punk rock rebellion, what better way to celebrate economic hard times than to do the exact opposite? Come on, lets go shopping and if you are going to do something, no reason to bother unless you are going to do it right, right? So then what shall we buy?  Oh, I know!  How about the hottest new super cool best sounding bad-ass PA system ever made! We at Rat have spent the last two months lining up a purchase of a full stadium-sized L'Acoustics K1 sound system. It's only a bit more than a cool million and the largest equipment expansion in Rat Sound's 28 year history.

Oh, and so a few pics of parts of the sexy new system:

Here you can see 24 SB28's, 24, K1's 8 K1 subs, 200,000 watts of LA8 power, fly bars, amp racks and all kinds of other goodies that make up the best sounding PA I have heard yet and this is only the first delivery.

Silly annoying banks and the beauty of this whole adventure is how much I have learned in the business world, nothing like a challenge keep things interesting and I felt this video clip eloquently shares my feelings toward those financial institutions:

Stay tuned for Rat Holiday Party, my run in with planet earth and aargh, I lost yet another camera!

Dave Rat