sources on the stage louder ? There isn ’ t a simple answer here . Even if we did decide that we wanted to simply make things louder and not ‘ color ’ the sound sources in any way , we ’ d get into some arguably philosophical questions about just what the actual source sound should be .
WHAT SHOULD THE MIX SOUND LIKE ? That word — ‘ should — would start to shift us into different territory . At this point we may have veered into normative and aesthetic questions that are perhaps best dealt with in a different realm than the questions of technical considerations and mathematical room tuning . All of this is to say that the question of ‘ what would be required to make a mathematically / scientifically ‘ correct ’ room EQ ?’ is not the same sort of question as ‘ what would make this room sound the ‘ best ’?’ The goal in the case of the RIAA curve was to match up the input ( source recording ) to the output ( playback ) as accurately as possible — without too much ( if any ) consideration of creating a ‘ good ’ sound . In the case of room tuning for worship environments , we often are asking a combination of these questions and aiming for some blend of taming ‘ problem ’ frequencies and room effects as well as getting the overall mix and experience to be ‘ better ’. As readers of this column know , my philosopher hat isn ’ t too far away from my keyboard . I am going to resist putting it on for now , though . Let ’ s just say that defining ‘ good ’ sound is a topic for another day .
What we can say from an empirical standpoint is that humans tend to respond to certain sonic environments in a more favorable manner than others . As I shared in my CMS session recap in last month ’ s article , there has been considerable research around which types of mixes and sonic signatures tend to track to respondents describing them as ‘ spiritual ’ or ‘ inspired ’ or ‘ cheerful ’ vs . ‘ tense ’ or ‘ sad ’. With a few of the high-level philosophical points around room tuning out of the way , we ’ ll get more into those research findings in next month ’ s Audio with Jeff Hawley WM article . In the meantime , drop the needle on your favorite record , make sure the RIAA curve is applied on your record player , and enjoy !
Jeff Hawley A 20-year music industry veteran — equally at ease behind the console , playing bass guitar , leading marketing teams or designing award-winning audio products . He currently heads up the marketing for Allen & Heath in the US .
102 December 2023 Subscribe for Free ...