Beginner sound system tuning tutorial
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Get better mixes, faster with my 3-step guide to perfect EQ:
www.offshoreaudio.no/eq
Often it’s best to learn to tune a sound system by ear, it helps you develop your ear and question what sounds good.
But our ears can be inconsistent and there are problems that can be difficult for you to hear at first.If you’re serious about getting a great sounding system then you should be using measurement software to give you hard data.
If you get some practice and have a process to follow then you can add measurement software into your workflow pretty easily. That’s why in this video I want to give you a measurement and tuning workflow to get you started using data and your ears to EQ your system, and remove the guesswork.
The most important thing is that you get started, that’s the fastest way to learn how to tune systems.
We’ll cover:
Setting the gear up so you know how to get a measurement.
Verifying that everything is working so you don’t chase a silent speaker with EQ.
Using the software to verify that your EQ is doing what you need it to.
My equipment:
Sonarworks Calibrated Measurement Microphone
Focusrite 2i2 usb interface
Lenovo ThinkPad laptop
Xlr female to Jack male cable
Smaart V8
00:00 Introduction
00:35 Free EQ Guide
01:22 Equipment you need to tune a PA
02:54 Setting Up for system tuning
04:44 Final checks before tuning your PA systen
05:47 Measure and EQ your PA system
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@MichaelCurtisAudio 2 ай бұрын
Great job here, Andrew! The trace you use in the video is from Nathan, which he modeled after some L-Acoustics traces. The one I'm using these days I stole from Michael Lawrence, who stole it from Dennie Miller : )
@OffshoreAudio 2 ай бұрын
Thanks Michael! 😁 I guess we're all stealing from someone haha, thanks for setting me right. I'll have to check out Michael Lawrence's!
@josuastangl7140 3 ай бұрын
Wow your channel is a gold mine, subscribed!
@RBAudios 9 ай бұрын
Thank you andrew so much for this appreciate it...🙌
@OffshoreAudio 9 ай бұрын
My Pleasure!
@T1TAN-92 10 ай бұрын
Awesome video! Need more system tuning tutorials please 🙏🏼
@OffshoreAudio 10 ай бұрын
Thanks! Anything in particular you'd like to see?
@T1TAN-92 10 ай бұрын
A full walkthrough with phase alignment and sub alignment would be great 👍🏼
@jonesromateppy 9 ай бұрын
Awesome video, thanks
@OffshoreAudio 9 ай бұрын
My pleasure!
@AlexandreLollini 7 ай бұрын
I like to do a second pass with both speakers playing pink (different random signals left and right) just because some rooms have those strange effects, then I simply use a slow decay spectrum analyser display and do the last adjustments (only down for the new peaks) and usually this gives me a more appealing sound, and usually this one last does not change when thare are a lot of people in the room. When I adjust speakers individually this setting is not reliable, even if it "sounds well" on the first listen. Also it's good to walk while listening music to spot weird changes and resonances (or modes).
@OffshoreAudio 7 ай бұрын
Totally agree that you should do a final check with all speakers on where you walk around. I like to use music instead of noise at that point.
@AlexandreLollini 7 ай бұрын
@@OffshoreAudio it's important to use music in the last pass. But when using some pink noise and when playing on left + right : it is important that the pink noise signal be DIFFERENT left and right, because a mono signal playing from two sources is not natural and can interfere with itself.
@chemdrum 8 ай бұрын
This was a great video! Question: before EQ-ing the system, would you first balance the system(tops vs subs) with music just to get a general balance of lows and highs?
@OffshoreAudio 8 ай бұрын
Thanks! I wouldn't tend to no, I use music as the final stage of quality control. So I'll measure the system with noise and then adjust with EQ to get near my target curve. In theory this should sound pretty good with music. So then I'll play back a few tracks and double check that it sounds nice. Quite often I make a few changes after playing with the music but that's subjective and I like to go with the data first. Having said that, half the time I don't have time to measure stuff so I just do it by ear.
@SergeyMachinsky 10 ай бұрын
Nice 👍🏻
@OffshoreAudio 10 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@simonshawmusic 2 ай бұрын
Thanks for the video! I have a question, if the idea is that we are testing each side of the PA system individually (lets assume a small PA-Center subs and two tops) and take measurements, how do we then apply EQ from the master on the mixer as it would be applying this EQ to both sides of the PA? Or is the idea to test each side individually to assess if there are any inherent problems with the PA and then EQ with the PAN centered using a summation of all the speakers in the room? (the limiting factor being only one EQ for both main speakers and subs) thanks again
@user-yk5tr8kz5r 7 ай бұрын
Nice one
@OffshoreAudio 7 ай бұрын
Thanks for watching!
@wattscharliedoing 5 ай бұрын
When tuning were you doing it separately for both left and right speakers? Or was that reading in the video the combined signal of both?
@enochzhang6126 10 ай бұрын
Thanks for the video, very concise and easy to understand. I'm curious, should I put my RTA mic in the front to adjust my EQ, or the whole center or back of the room?
@OffshoreAudio 10 ай бұрын
I'm glad you like it! Put your RTA in the middle of the room. Or rather in the direct firing line of the speaker. Ultimately You're just measuiring how it sounds exactly there but that should be a good place to start.
@enochzhang6126 10 ай бұрын
Thank you. It's very helpful.
@slitz4581 7 ай бұрын
thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
@OffshoreAudio 7 ай бұрын
You are very welcome
@alanp6980 2 ай бұрын
Very nice and well explained tutorial! Thank you for that! Just wanted to ask if the delay compensation is a big deal to tune the room (?)... because i could do all this except the delay compensation just with my mixer. Without an aditional laptop and audiointerface..
@OffshoreAudio 2 ай бұрын
Thanks! It's a fairly big deal. Without delay compensation the software isn't able to reliably and accurately compare the test signal and the reference. Though I don't know any mixers that have transfer function measurements built in? So that would be a bigger deal as you wouldn't have a reference to compare to. If you're just thinking of taking an FFT measurement then you can do that without delay, sound card or whatever else. But that's not what this video is showing.
@biswakarmasound6058 4 ай бұрын
Sir How to Manage 2 Type Sub. I mean 2 /3 types bass reflex sub , example - 1) Front Loaded 2) Hornload 2) Revers speaker sub In one venue. How to manage it
@BestialShow 5 ай бұрын
Hello! Where we can find, the ideal graphic? Thanks 🙏🏻
@curtismiller8627 7 ай бұрын
Beginner? I don't think so. I'm just a piece of shit mobile dj who doesn't have a music engineering degree, nor do I have time to take all of these steps as on average I get only 2 hours for set up... my bad this must not be the right video for me, but I watched and learned that there is so much I can learn to make my sound better!!!
@OffshoreAudio 7 ай бұрын
I'm glad you learned something, Everyone starts somewhere.
@LazayLada 6 ай бұрын
Hahahahahahahahaha this is so funny.
@SammytheSalmon 2 ай бұрын
What would you recommend one does to get a PA tuned for a 4-piece pub/function band who get around 2 hours to set up? Maybe just reference track over EQ calibration? From getting through the door, to finishing sound checking. Keeping in mind that the room is noisy with punters, we ask the pub to turn background music down, but then the landlord is staring at you wanting to hurry up setting kit up and finishing sound checking because some landlords are a-holes and don't understand the process to setting up for live sound.
@OffshoreAudio 2 ай бұрын
Yeah that's an awkward one. At the end of the day if you don't get a soundcheck there's not a lot you can do tuning wise, but you can check that everything works how it would. I agree with the reference track since it's the least invasive to punters. Just play it through left, through right, check all the monitors. Make sure it's sounding clean and normal. You can at least find out if there's any routing problems, gain staging problems, are they the same volume, etc. Double check speaker placement: are they aimed at the audience. I've been in that situation plenty of times. It is what it is and you can't work magic without time and resources. But you can make sure that everything is at least functional and work from there.
@tveitmorten 10 сағат бұрын
Ha! I play this venue from time to time, and to be fair, I’m not surprised that you’d have to boost that lo-end that much, because the sound has been quite harsh a couple of times. You often work there?
@OffshoreAudio 6 сағат бұрын
OIP in majorstuen? I'm not there super often but I jump in every now and then to cover for Jon. I think the last time I was there was April. I can only handle so much haha... I'm doing 4 weekends from the end of July into August though. What band are you playing in?
@mesak02111995 9 ай бұрын
Thanks for the video! can i get the target trace link please 😃
@OffshoreAudio 9 ай бұрын
Try this www.sounddesignlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Share-Traces.zip
@kenners02 Ай бұрын
2:01 if you have a digital mixer (I’m on an SQ6), do you need the sound card for this as well? Or can you use the sound card within the mixer to execute this properly?
@OffshoreAudio Ай бұрын
Great question! You can totally use the mixer as the sound card. I'm just often on different mixers so I use my soundcard to keep it simple. I don't even use the noise gen on the mixer anymore.
@robertdtorres5844 7 ай бұрын
Im assuming you Need Smaart or can this same technique be use with Room Eq Wizard. I want to learn this but I'm stuck since the Smaart v9 is 900 bucks.
@OffshoreAudio 7 ай бұрын
You don't need smaart. You can use open sound meter which is free. I don't know anyone that uses room EQ Wizard, not sure it's got the same functionality. Check out open sound meter. opensoundmeter.com/en/
@TiefdruckINC 9 ай бұрын
Why don't you use DVS and spare your sound card in the use case with QL1?
@OffshoreAudio 9 ай бұрын
Great question! I'm not always on a ql mixer or something with Dante. I just do it this way because it's the workflow that works for me And I have all the cables in my bag. You could absolutely use Dante.
@wofaakwei2800 4 ай бұрын
What of analogue mixers for those of us in the third world countries...any links????
@OffshoreAudio 4 ай бұрын
Hey, great point. I've not got any links but I'll make you a video specifically about doing it with analogue/ affordable equipment. Send me an email (offshoreaudio@gmail.com) And tell me what equipment you've got. I'll work something out based on what you've got
@chuckmaddison2924 10 ай бұрын
What i love about pro audio there's no physics free speakers and mystic cable .
@HaharuRecords 7 ай бұрын
Tf is you mean by pro audio
@chuckmaddison2924 7 ай бұрын
@@HaharuRecords The stuff Mick Jagger uses on stage and the Abbey studio.
@dward1112 3 ай бұрын
Why do you go into Input 2 on your Focusrite with a ¼" jack rather than a male XLR? You're sending the pink noise signal out of Output 6 on the console. That would be an XLR out. A simple female XLR to male XLR would be able to handle it.
@kali852 3 ай бұрын
Good morning from trinidad, to answer your question, it's because the xlr connection on your interface is a mic level input. And your out from the board is a line output. There is a difference in voltage level. Like I always say , it's like hooking up a cassette player to a record player (phono) input. The level will be hotter, but there will be no headroom which leads to distortion faster
@OffshoreAudio 2 ай бұрын
Couldn't have said it better myself.
@PilotExtreme 3 ай бұрын
Where is your phase video?
@OffshoreAudio 3 ай бұрын
Heh. Maybe I should make one. What do you wonder about, regarding phase? What's the problem and I'll try solve it or answer it in a video
@PilotExtreme 3 ай бұрын
@@OffshoreAudio thanks for the reply. A few ideas would be talking about phase and crossover with subs. Stereo sub and pa phase issues, monitors phase coherence with PA, flip the phase on them for smaller venues and help deal with feedback. Stuff like that. Thanks for your videos. Phase issues form a bass cab and subs depending on distance and volume. Why can't the base player hear his bass on stage. Eq and phase shift....
@wesleyjeanpierre5856 10 ай бұрын
Tiouu that seems complicated 😢
@OffshoreAudio 10 ай бұрын
Ah I'm sorry. Tried to make it as simple as possible. Why not start off by just getting the equipment together and setting it up at home or next time you're around a mixer? Eventually you'll get used to it.