Acoustic Solutions for Warehouse Raves

Sonic the hedge wrote: Depending on the size of the space (and more importantly distance from the speakers) you can, to a certain extent, drown out reverberation with stupid levels of SPL. Not because the reverberation actually goes away, but the high SPL raises the lower bound of sensitivity of people's hearing, to the extent that the reverberation is much less heard.  Works in basements etc. but perhaps not so practical/achievable in a large space.

I’ve read some codswallop on this site over he years - hell, I’ve posted my fair share - but this one is up in the hall of fame.

King George wrote: Point the speakers at the people. Don't point the speakers at the walls and ceiling.  Don't take any drugs until you have finished pointing the speakers.

Edited by mini-mad - 10 October 2021 at 10:31am

Sonic the hedge wrote: toastyghost wrote: Sonic the hedge wrote: Depending on the size of the space (and more importantly distance from the speakers) you can, to a certain extent, drown out reverberation with stupid levels of SPL. Not because the reverberation actually goes away, but the high SPL raises the lower bound of sensitivity of people's hearing, to the extent that the reverberation is much less heard.  Works in basements etc. but perhaps not so practical/achievable in a large space.  I’ve read some codswallop on this site over he years - hell, I’ve posted my fair share - but this one is up in the hall of fame. Which bit is incorrect?  In the optical domain, this principal is known as glare. Reflected sound decays with distance, in accordance with inverse square law. At some point the two lines cross.

In my experience all it does is cross the threshold of SPL required to distort peoples ears and an echoic mess turns in to a echoic distorted mess. 

I think the real answer seems kind of obvious but based on some of the pics I see, not always implemented. Point the system at the crowd, not the ceiling or walls... 

citizensc wrote: Sonic the hedge wrote: toastyghost wrote: Sonic the hedge wrote: Depending on the size of the space (and more importantly distance from the speakers) you can, to a certain extent, drown out reverberation with stupid levels of SPL. Not because the reverberation actually goes away, but the high SPL raises the lower bound of sensitivity of people's hearing, to the extent that the reverberation is much less heard.  Works in basements etc. but perhaps not so practical/achievable in a large space.  I’ve read some codswallop on this site over he years - hell, I’ve posted my fair share - but this one is up in the hall of fame. Which bit is incorrect?  In the optical domain, this principal is known as glare. Reflected sound decays with distance, in accordance with inverse square law. At some point the two lines cross. In my experience all it does is cross the threshold of SPL required to distort peoples ears and an echoic mess turns in to a echoic distorted mess.  I think the real answer seems kind of obvious but based on some of the pics I see, not always implemented. Point the system at the crowd, not the ceiling or walls...

Edited by Sonic the hedge - 11 October 2021 at 6:40pm

teeth wrote: even the pisstake answers to your question are pretty good answers haha remember to put your subs together :) check out the db arraycalc to mess about with placement / spaces / acoustics - will give you an idea of things

ArrayCalc (and every other manufacturer’s software) does not take into account walls or other boundaries such as the subs themselves. The model is based on a theoretical point source with a shaped response via balloon data and only displays free-field direct sound coverage. It does not do ‘acoustics’ but is used for aiming of their array systems. Hence the name. Think of it as a pretty calculator.

It will not do anything with regard to the accurate response of reflected sound, let alone propagation through walls to the outside of a barn. It also only has data for their cabinets, and even choosing a box of equivalent size and stated coverage angles or output will not tell you how your own speakers will behave.

For the former, you need geometric acoustics software. The cheapest option is AFMG EASE, starting at a few grand for the Jr license. That's only appropriate with suitable training, and accurate anechoic 3D radiation data for your speakers. Plus accurate CAD for the venue, including material makeup.

Render times will vary, but without the AURA add-on, you can expect it to take several hours for a plot to be calculated.

Even then, it only covers 100 Hz to 10 kHz, and doesn't do transmission through boundaries.

The thing is, this is an acoustics problem. There's a good reason why acoustics is considered to be one of the hardest things to study, with a lot of intensive calculus. That also justifies the cost of consultants and their tools.

Edited by toastyghost - 18 October 2021 at 12:38pm