AKARSH SHEKHAR
Technological Innovations That Changed Live Sound Forever
These are some of the technologies that have shaped that transition . Some of them are obvious changes that everyone has seen , but some are latent .
Rare Earth Magnets
Alloys made with materials like neodymium , beryllium , and samarium-cobalt have revolutionized transducers . Neodymium magnets in microphones like the Sennheiser e935 allow higher output and extended high-frequency response . This magnet allows rugged dynamic microphones to perform similarly to their studio condenser cousins on the road . Those same rare earth magnets have enabled driver technologies that output more level with less weight . This is another element that manufacturers have used to trim more precious ounces off the weight of their speakers .
Digital Snakes
Digital consoles have caused such a paradigm shift in live sound that we really have to break down these changes into sections . One of the first is the transport of signals from the stage to front of house ( FOH ).
Protocols like Dante , AVB , and AES50 can travel over industry-standard twisted pair cables . These platforms not only allow use of cheap and light cabling for transport of massive numbers of channels ( up to 512 x 512 ), but they also greatly increase flexibility . Making a duplicate split of your inputs for a monitor desk or a broadcast feed is now done in software rather than by buying tons more hardware .
Line Arrays
Ever seen a long series of speakers hanging from the trussing ? These have replaced the traditional huge stack of speakers on the stage . These hanging speakers are often pulled back in a J-shaped curve , called line array .
Turn a speaker up to its maximum output level , the only real option to make it louder is to double the number of speakers you are using . With traditional pointsource speakers , this can get messy very quickly , as their coverage patterns will start to interact with one another in both constructive and destructive ways . This makes the sound experience vary greatly as you move around to different listening positions in a venue .
To cheat physics , for sound engineers , the line array is a key opportunity !
Virtual Soundcheck
High-end consoles often have virtual soundcheck built in , but its value has seen it added to more mainstream consoles like the PreSonus StudioLive Series III , as an option to Behringer / Midas consoles via the Klark Teknik DN32-Live , or with any analog console via the JoeCo BlackBox . Of course all of these options also let you record the show in multitrack so you can prep a live recording for fans !
Powered Speakers with Lightweight Amps
Linear amplifiers ( like Class A , B , and AB ) suffer from inefficiencies in power transfer that require large heat sinks , and this means extra weight . A great-sounding speaker may seem considerably less attractive if it weighs over 70 pounds — requiring regular visits to a chiropractor !
Class D amps have practical efficiencies of over 90 %. Speakers like the JBL EON series and the Electro-Voice ZLX series can output more than 120dB of SPL and weigh less than 40 pounds . Smaller speakers and less weight mean less strain on your back !
Wireless Mixing
The mixer position at a show is often not at the best place to hear , but it is where you are listening to set your levels , EQ , and ring out the monitoring system — certainly not ideal .
Being able to walk the hall with an iPad and make tweaks to things while you are standing where you need to hear correctly is a significant tool that can make an engineer ’ s life much easier . This approach has so revolutionized mixing that now there are frequently times when a performer doesn ’ t even know where the engineer is — which might be just the way they like it .
The Score Magazine highonscore . com
69