Know the Stage

Category: Sound

  • Digico Training

    Do you want to learn more about Digico consoles?  Of course you do.  Check out Digico.tv for tutorials and training vids.

    Digico.tv

  • Free Introduction to Digital Sound Design Course

    I just signed up for a free course from Coursera called Introduction to Digital Sound Design from Emory University.  Coursera is a site offering free classes from universities around the world.  The Introduction to Digital Sound Design course offers a certificate at the end.

    There aren’t a ton of classes of interest to the field of stagecraft, but there might be other things you might be interested in.  Digital audio is going to have more impact on sound people as more digital audio desks go out, and people start running fiber and digital lines from backstage to FOH.  Get on board now.

    You can find the digital audio course here.

  • How to work with audio equalizers (via YouTube)

    Even though this video is centered around the recording studio, everything they talk about is applicable to live audio work.  Find out what an EQ does, in a short five minutes.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lNJpzoys48

  • Line Arrays Explained

    Here is an article from Sound on Sound from March of 2006 explaining line array speaker systems.  More and more touring musicals are using line arrays for their main and center cluster speakers.  While rock shows tend to use them in long hangs, theater shows sometimes use them in blocks of five and six for zone coverage.

    Get up to speed on the principles behind line arrays.

    The solution is to devise a loudspeaker that is tightly focused in the vertical dimension but spreads sound widely in the horizontal dimension. To do this, the speaker needs to be large vertically, but small horizontally. Like a column, in fact.

    Line Arrays explained: The science and the magic

  • Digico Manuals

    This link should take you to all the manuals Digico has online for their consoles.  Exciting? No, but there for your perusal.

    Digico Manuals

  • Ground Loops Demonstrated (via YouTube)

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YM1iwC6vhg?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=374]

    Even though this is demonstrated with a guitar amp, the principle still holds to other audio and electrical systems.  Got a hum?  Might be a ground loop. 

    (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)