The article I read was about audio measurement. It's something I've never really thought about in great detail mainly because I've never done it before and don't really know or understand what goes into it. I know there is a purpose behind it and a very big purpose but I don't know how to go about finding the information needed and putting it to good use. Luckily I know in the future there is a class solely dedicated to teaching me just that information. However I wanted to learn a little bit more on my own and to see what other people had to say about what they do or why they do it. Now this article is based on one specific way of getting these measurements but it's the first time I've heard of doing it this way so I decided to give it a go and learn something new. It was a pretty basic article though interesting it didn't offer a whole lot of important information. It was good information just not as much as I had hoped. Did it help me expand on my knowledge of audio measurement? Yes it did and for that I am happy to have read it. The whole concept was focused around stereo micing techniques to get the measurement data and the difference between realism and accuracy. Now you would think that realism and accuracy would go hand in hand but when it comes to live sound that's not the case. Accuracy focuses on speaker response and getting it as flat as possible and measuring for that means that that is all you are focusing on and trying to get rid of anything not related to the loudspeaker. When it comes to realism you are measuring for what the audience will hear at a very specific spot in the crowd since it will change every time you move and sometimes it will drastically change. Now obviously you can't figure out what it will sound like for every possible location in the crowd but you can do a pretty good job if you break the area down into sections and generalize the sound for those different sections. The issue lies in what you are trying to achieve because you can't have accuracy with realism and you can't have realism with accuracy so you have to decide at the beginning what it is you are going for and kind of push the other one to the side. The other focus of this article was on doing everything in stereo since that is how we hear. There were lots of different techniques that could be used. The obvious stereo micing techniques of x/y or spaced out omni's. There was also mention of using a dummy head though it's expensive for something such as a theater it would be well worth it since the response of the room isn't going to change you might as well get it as perfect as possible. I think my favorite technique mention though was just to take foam earplugs and stick a little lavalier mic in it and then put them in your ear and record your data from there. It's cheap and effective since you are a human and you're trying to reproduce the best sound for a human. Overall I enjoyed this article and the information I got out of it, I definitely think I will be doing some more digging to get more in depth details on audio measurement and all that is behind it.

From House to Monitors

This was an extremely insightful article and very interesting to me. There was a lot of information on the difference between FOH and monitors but there was also a lot of information on just how to make monitors better. The first thing that caught my attention was when he mentioned there are artists out there who actually let you experiment with the sound through the wedges. I have been under the impression that it really doesn't matter what you think or what you want you do what the artist is looking for and then you stay in the shadows. Knowing that it's possible to actually have some input is something that I wouldn't have expected but is something that is really cool to me. Another thing that got my attention was using everything around you to make the mix the best it can be. Let backline do a lot of the loud stuff and use the monitors to fill in what backline doesn't do enough of. When the venue is big use the house speakers to control the low end on stage, it's going to be up there anyways just from the nature of subwoofers so why not use it to your advantage. It makes sense to follow all these steps but at the same time I think there are a lot of people out there who don't really think about using everything as one working unit. It seems there is more of a compete against type of mentality instead of a work together mentality. Knowing this information is definitely something that I will try to put into my practices as time goes on, even as soon as live labs. The bandwidth part was also very interesting to me. Saying that everything has to fit in a certain bandwidth but can cause a lot of problems depending on the size of the band. The solution he had was to make every instrument sound different. If you have 3 guitars don't let them all just sound like the same guitar do something to add some separation so everyone is aware of what's going on even with so many sounds coming at them at once. I've always been interested in monitors and reading about them more and more hasn't made me want to shy away from them yet. I think the pressure is enjoyable in a way and the constant attention to detail needed helps to not make the job seem monotonous over the years. I think this was a great article and definitely one that should be read if people want to be monitor engineers especially beginning monitor engineers.

Fixing the Low end

The article I read was from Pro Soundweb and it focused on fixing the issue with phase in your speaker system when it comes to putting subs in to get low end coverage. The article was extremely interesting and helpful in many ways. It helped explain phase in a basic simple way that I think would make sense to anyone whether they were into sound design or not. It was just so simple that the minute you read it it made sense to  you and having some illustrations to explain it as well definitely helps. The images they used to show how the sound is traveling in a space was extremely helpful and made everything seem a lot less complicated than trying to understand what they were explaining just in your head. I wasn't aware of the "power alley" issue that they were trying to address and I probably would have definitely set myself up for failure with my first gig by setting up my subs the way I've seen so many other people do it. It was interesting to think about all the shows I have been to and have just seen walls of subs with no change in angle and to think that there were so many people at that show who were getting screwed because the tech didn't want to pay attention to how his speakers work together. I definitely would have never thought that by changing the angle of your array you can drastically change how the audience hears the low end. When you think of a sub being omni-directional you think thats how it works and don't pay much attention to the fact that if you put more than one of them together things are going to change in a lot of ways and mostly not good ways. Yeah the people in the middle will think its the best bass they have ever heard but people on the outside will be wondering where the bass is the entire show and that's not doing your job correctly. You want everyone to leave the show feeling the same way and if you have drastic phase differences out in the audience people aren't going to feel the same way and you will have failed at producing a solid show for that night. I think this article has something for everyone to learn from whether you are just learning about sound design or have been on hundreds of shows and set up thousands of stages. The best thing about sound is there is always more to learn and more to take in especially when you can guarantee someone has been doing this longer than you have. This is an extremely interesting article and one that I have saved and will use in the future.

Moonlight

The moon the other night was extremely bright shining through my window. At first I thought it was the street light but realized my house isn't near a street light so that couldn't be it. I looked out the window and saw that the moon was right in front of my window. I sat there and stared for awhile amazed that the reflection of something so far away could still be so bright. Light does some incredible things.

Sunset

Growing up in California I have seen my fare share of incredible sunsets. That is something I didn't realize I would miss moving to Florida but after not seeing them very often I started to realize that I miss seeing them. Last night there was an incredible sunset and it made me extremely happy to just sit outside and stare at it. The colors that occur when the sun starts dipping below the horizon are unbelievable and still to this day blow me away that the sky can change so much like that.

Wave Particle Duality

It's always interesting to me when you look at light coming through a gap of some sort and you can see the beam up close but the further from the source it gets you can't really tell that it was beam and instead it just looks like light filling the room. This happens all over my house and now I have found myself verbally saying oh look at the wave particle duality that is occurring which always seems to give me some interesting looks.

Dark Night

The other day I was watching TV and a storm warning showed up in the bottom corner. I decided to go outside and see what was going on. It was about 9 at night so it was already pretty dark. When I went outside I could clearly see that the sky to the west was drastically darker than the sky on the east. It was very interesting to be able to see the different shades of darkness that the storm was creating in the already dark night sky.

Flashing Sun

This morning I was on my way to the gym and I noticed out of the corner of my eye something flashing in my rearview mirror. Now normally this isn't a good thing and so it kind of caught me off guard especially since I wasn't doing anything illegal. I looked up and there was no one behind me but every time I would look away I could still see the flashing light. It was at this point that I realized the morning sun was behind me and every tree that I drove by quickly blocked out the sun causing the sensation of the sun flashing in my mirror.

Light Beam

Today I was cleaning out my ducks pen, there is a hole in the top to drain rain water down into his little pool. It wasn't raining today but yet there was still something draining down into the pool. It was sunlight and it was only shining through that one little hole which made a perfect beam down into the water where it was then reflected all throughout the pool. I stopped and stared at it for a minute just examining what it was doing and how cool it was.

Today I commented on Emmanuel Cabreras blog.

http://ecabrerashp.blogspot.com/2012/06/while-eating-pizza-at-my-neighbors.html?showComment=1339165573356#c6004373702067684036

Black Light

The other day I was at the bowling alley and they had all of their lights off and just black lights going. I pulled out my drivers license to get a drink and noticed that on my California drivers license an image of me appeared off to the side of my actual picture. There is a hidden image that only shows up under black light. What confused me was as to how they could create an image like that. If we see things based on light and color then how can an image show up when a certain color hits it? It was a little weird but also super cool at the same time. However I am still confused.

Today I commented on Adam Grays blog.

http://awgrayshowproblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-miss-sun.html?showComment=1339001450048#c7237307339130190943

Clouds

As I was driving to school in this overcast weather I couldn't help by find myself squinting. I put on my sunglasses which helped get rid of the squinting but it didn't help get rid of the weird thought in my head. It always surprises me when I look outside and see that it's overcast and then I walk outside and still feel like I'm being blinded. It's amazing how the sun can still affect you so much even when you can't even really see it. I guess it just goes to prove that light will find a way to show itself regardless of the situation.

Today I commented on Stephanie Koh's blog
http://steph1koh.blogspot.com/2012/06/darkness.html?showComment=1338823276684#c2942011642163575208

Stars

I got home late last night and while I was walking inside I decided to look up and check out the stars. However I could barely see a star in the sky. This is weird to me because were I grew up you can see every star in the universe it seems.  I realize that the lights of the city create light pollution in which we cannot see the stars but it is still very interesting to me that that could happen. I would never think that natural light could be drowned out by artificial light but I guess when the powers aren't equal the more powerful one wins which in this case is the city lights. Furthermore I think there should be an ordinance that all city light be cut off at midnight so people everywhere can still enjoy the stars in the night sky.

Today I commented on Emmanuel Cabrera's blog.

http://ecabrerashp.blogspot.com/2012/06/as-i-try-to-enjoy-small-miracle-that.html?showComment=1338736434287#c2150129901560513475

Sun

Well it has finally happened, I don't normally sleep in very late so sun isn't a huge issue. I know for a fact that the sun hits the front of my house in the morning and my bedroom window is on the side of my house. These factors would lead you to believe you would get more time without the sun pestering you. This however is not true, once the sun gets above my roof it leaks over the sides of the house and bam straight through the blinds into your eyes. I have slept through a lot of things most people haven't even dreamed about but for some reason the damn sun is something that I just can't sleep through.

Today I commented on Nic Millers post.


http://nrmshopro.blogspot.com/2012/06/colors-warped-by-screens-im-sitting.html?showComment=1338658857123#c1056602730844203974

Colors

The other day I was at Home Depot walking around looking for some tools and stuff and I found myself getting really aggravated that I couldn't find what I was looking for. I decided to leave and went across the street to Lowes. I had the same problem at Lowes as well but didn't find myself getting annoyed or aggravated at all while I was there. After coming home and thinking about it I realized Home Depot uses a lot of orange, yellow, and red for their colors while Lowes uses a lot of blues. Now that I have had the color lecture I realize that it probably wasn't just the set up of Home Depot that was annoying me but literally their color scheme was affecting my mood.

Today I commented on Adam Grays blog.

http://awgrayshowproblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/post-2.html?showComment=1338560164071#c3169242472648547673

This morning as I opened my dishwasher to empty the dishes I noticed something really cool. I had all my cups in a row on the top shelf and right next to them was a red tupperware lid. The angle of the morning light in my kitchen was coming through the red lid and being spread across all of the clear cups. This made every cup have a nice red hue to them and some of the cups which have a prism like shape were creating their own rainbows inside the dishwasher. I hate doing dishes but when it's so colorful and interesting you can't complain.

I recently installed a 100W LED bulb in my backyard porch light. Last night I came home and was pretty confused because I thought that it was daylight in my backyard and dark in my front yard. The light bulb puts off such a bright natural light that it will confuse you at first glance as to whether its natural or not. The shadows cast are the same as during the day the colors are the same. I've used LED bulbs in other parts of my house but none that were as powerful and just the sheer power of that bulb and the brightness it displays is incredible. So my light experience yesterday was one of natural light confusion rather than straight natural light.