Dave, you're not only a brilliant sound engineer but you're a gentleman too. Some of these comments you're reading aren't very kind and you let them fall off like water off a duck's back. And I don't just say that you're a brilliant sound engineer for no reason. I have an education in physics and music. I also have plenty enough FOH experience. Even with all that, your testing and ideas have given me ideas I haven't thought of to try and continually improve my own craft. And I don't just check out your material, but other people's as well. You have the most comprehensive understanding of how to design a system of anyone I learn from. Peace and happy sounds.

Dave, I wish I could be a poet to describe how thankful I am of you sharing your experience with us! Keep it up!

Dave you are a treasure in this world. I’ve been paying attention to what you’ve been writing and putting out for a decade and learned a whole lot. Thank you.

I suspect that this series is going to get really fun! Peace Dave, thanks for sharing

The look on your face when getting ready to read these is great! It’s the same face that I have on my face when my son ropes me into riding a roller coaster with him. :) When red, blue, green light from pixels combines……..this is very different than various sounds combining in a loudspeaker. People need to play two sine waves through a speaker and listen to the resulting intermodulation distortion. Then play three sine waves and listen. Play harmonically unrelated tones. You can produce all sorts of strange sounds ……..which is exactly what synth players in the 60’s and 70’s did! Getting rid of this intermodulation distortion is exactly why the Wall Of Sound PA system existed. Reading about these old PA systems is quite fascinating!

Just the facts, you deliver every time, thank you! Keep Rockin’!

Going way back to the early Roadies in the Mist Vlogs and the double V Dosc deployment tour I found it an incredible exercise both in audio as well as tour logistics. Once again my hat is off to you.

"Not sure how that relates, but it does have a reference to blunts" Pure gold from mister Rat

Dave Rat your the best teacher. very practical, useful applications,best practices in live sound simplified.

Sir: (D.R.) you are a CLASS ACT!.... knowledgeable, congenial, succinct, no b.s., straight shooter, easy to follow. Also, I'd say you're quite unique, you occupy a unique space in the online knowledge sphere mostly because of your "thinking outside the box" ability to find what works and EXPLAIN that so well. FIVE STARS!! No SIX!!

You could plug the same cd into multiple systems in homes , vehicles etc..... They could all sound good and different through these different systems and physical locations. So being at a show with eyes closed , first i would judge a mix by how much clarity and separation there is between all of the instruments and vocals . Second, i would open my eyes and look at how well the actions of the performers were in sync with what was coming from the sound system. These change from venue to venue . Dave is the guy in my opinion . Love you man ! : ) God bless you

Dave, thanks for all your wonderful ideas and sharing them with us! It seems no matter what videos of yours I watch, I always feel inspired to make use of the new found knowledge.. Thank you.

You crack me up with these responses , Dave! Keep doing what you do, because I love it! Your experience speaks volumes concerning the wisdom you share and I’m so grateful for it.

I so enjoy these trips into Question/Comment - Answer time from Dave. It is brilliant and please keep it up. Genuine dialog and discourse. In my couple of decades in pro audio I've worked with and for a lot of eclectic, scary smart dudes and I learned so much. Quite often I would be listening to one of them explain some new way of running a PA or just experimenting with some crazy (to me at the time) ideas that seemed impossible. Some of those worked and some did not but it was the constant "what if we did this?" approach that I found truly inspiring. It was always a joy to work with these brilliant minds that were not afraid to buck the norm and be truly innovative. "but this is the way we've always done it" is a philosophy that insures truly boring and stagnant sound. Thanks for paving the way to greatness, Dave.

I love the practical way you explain complex concepts. I always learn a lot watching your videos. … I don’t ride a motorcycle, but I might start just to be able to tell the back story!

I love watching Your clips! You always put tricks and explanations out of Your pockets, which are so helpful and surprisingly easy to understand the way You present them. You are a very inspirational person. I’m a huge fan! Thank You for sharing Your experiences. Big ups from Berlin, Germany.

You are incredibly patient man. I wish I had your patience. I don't know how you deal with all of the experts who always enjoy their own voice sooooo much and appear to not want to experiment, learn and refine their craft. Long live Dave Rat.

Thanks for all this great knowledge, man. I think it's safe to say that a good percentage of us work with audio, many professionally, many less than. The best part of the business, for me, has always been running into other sound-people who knew what they were doing and were able to communicate ideas and techniques. Your videos are an open door to knowledge that for many of us took years and years to figure out. It takes a deep desire to dig beneath the "one-liners" of audio advice, to really understand what is going on, and how to make things better. With your videos, newcomers have a massive opportunity to "skip ahead" through a lot of the trials and tribs new sound-people usually have to suffer through. They owe you a great deal of thanks for that.

Dave you are absolutely awesome and I Thank you for all your help and advice along with expiring us to enjoy what we love much more

Loving this series, Dave. You're a great communicator

An industry legend. When Dave speaks….listen. He’s amazing.

Dave, I am a sound engineer but not nearly at your level. First let me say Thank You for everything I learned from your videos. I also have a BS in EE from, Ahem, a while ago. I knew from the first few videos I saw on your channel that you knew what you were talking about and definitely had not only the technical aspects down but you had the wisdom from years of experience to also know that sometimes the technically correct setting doesn’t work in certain scenarios. So to all your Reddit reviewers who haven’t 0.1 % your live mixing experience I say F@&* them !

Just spent an afternoon moving four 18” cabs around outside in different position configs and with different processing settings. Just to see what impact minor adjustments on the rig can have on the acoustic experience. I know this is basic stuff for most, but I don’t think I would’ve done it if I wasn’t inspired by your mindset regarding experimentation with sound. Was happy to find out that even a 2 wide and 2 deep endfire setup of single cabs can have a (bigger then expected) impact on the steering of the sound. Learned what I was hoping to learn for some upcoming gigs today and it was way more fun than using prediction software (which I don’t have anyway). I think it might also have sparked a new interest in my younger brother as well since he got curious and joined in on the fun! Thanks for spreading your knowledge and enthousiasm!

Haha. How I love those non knowers of a field expressing their confident opinion about that field. Pure delight. Dave, great job.

Thanks, Dave, for more insights! 🙂

Most profound festival advice ever: "...if you need an enduro in a road case let me know."

This is wild lol first off, thank you for sharing - just watching you engage with this is so fun; you’re obviously very passionate Also, I’m sure you don’t need my affirmations, but I was a club size live audio tech for 10 ish years, and always thought there had to be more to L and R than just a ‘mono’ mix Until recently (long after my career lol) you are telling me that is ok, and giving people like my permission to try new things. The appreciation is so high from this guy

DECORROLATING sound! I'm a dealer/integrator for Tectonic Pro Audio (based in Woodinville WA), because I believe in the unique technology. One reason l love their "Distributed Mode Loudspeaker" (DML) panels is because the sound radiating from the large flat driver is decorrelated. Different frequencies come from different places, and thereby take different paths to the listener. This results in a more natural character to the sound compared to the experience of a point-source PA, and also has interesting implications regarding acoustic reflections, and feedback. If you haven't you should play with some Tectonic DMLs, Dave. Cheers!

In the end of your video I saw the cat8 box. Days now I've been searching for it on your website. Can't wait to buy me a few

Sound techs can be a grumpy bunch on the best of days, even worse on Reddit where it's full of "know-it-all" armchair experts haha! I've learnt a lot more from your videos than I have browsing their posts! Keep making your awesome videos, you approach subjects that most don't, and make us think of sound from a different perspective 🤘

The very fact you have an enduro bike with matching road case proves you have great common sense and problem solving abilities. I love your approach and creativity keep on exploring ! As the Reddit thread raged I actually tried out your theory on a live gig, splitting a bass mic and bass DI left and right. Full house. Got full compliments from audience and band alike. As the bass player had a loud orange rig on stage it meant we had 3 different signals hitting the crowd - bass di PA left, Orange bass rig, Mic PA right. I didn't get to do any tests as we were short of time but sounded great, rich and full in a room which can be tricky with bass. Its a nice simple fix to an obvious problem.

I love this, some of these comments seem to come from people who don’t know the legacy of Rat Round

Thank You Dave, God Bless

love these videos!

you can;t put a price on curiosity :}, coupled w/ experience it's pure bliss :} thanks mr Dave for sharing, wish you all the best

Hell yea. Learn so much every time.

It called R+D . Those who can not learn from the least of us can not learn from any of us . Very thought provoking . Know what the machine is not what you wish it was . A fine craftsman knows his machine and what it takes to achieve the desired end result . Dave you are a master craftsman.

Dave, I am Team Rat 100%. I love your videos and the way you explain things. These response videos are absolutely hilarious. You’re the man Dave!! BTW, when I was 17 (I’m 38 now) living in Boston, I told my mom I wanted to do sound. SHE was the one that was like, there’s this guy Dave Rat. You need to look him up and maybe you can talk to him. No lie, true story.

There are two types of education: Type 1: that teaches people how to reiterate a concept they don't adequately comprehend Type 2: that teaches people how to think critically making useful value judgements of the world around them Sadly type one is having a deleterious effect on many minds. I don't blame the individual, I blame the failing of the institution. The institution of Rat has never let me down, always aiding type 2 thinking!

Who DOESN'T need an enduro in a road case? That's the real question.

OH YES!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!!

I always get a kick out of the reddit mentality, it's nice to visit but I sure wouldn't want to live there, LOL. Interesting about the two pa thing, I never really thought about it before but that's the thing about your videos, I get the ability to understand and contemplate things I will never encounter myself or haven't gotten to yet. You provoke thought and that is a value anywhere in any time. You also do it without alienating people and that is unheard of out of educators these days. :)

Dave, the Grateful Dead briefly used their Wall of Sound PA system to create exactly what you are referring to as recreating the spatial perception of the natural world.

My man! I did break 420 likes on this video! I’ve been doing “sound” in various roles for a decade now, and I have a lot to learn! That being said, Reddits a wild place of good and bad advice. My keyboard sure gets a work out on Reddit when I don’t have any gigs. Sounds like a common problem based on these videos. It’s easy to critique when you’re not road worn after a 16 hour day. (I hear that white gloves make it hard to type too.)

Great session Dave

I wouldn’t give ‘‘em the time of day Dave… Here’s my thought no matter what words and seeming knowledge we have which of course allows us to talk about the same thing…. When you are 60-100 feet back and some one on stage says hello into a mic.that hello travels through cables amps processing console..ect in a instant it is heard….what a mystery. ☯️☯️❤️😀🙏🏼

Ahh my all time favorite dude on KZfaq. Calmest coolest collected cat out there. Peace from Australia..Yell out when you are down under next and we can go for a skate ✌️.

My favorite sound in the natural world is my local Australian magpie, The song birds sounds are all around us communicating across wide and deep spaces. The magpie has a very complex and specific song to the individual bird but they will finish each others call. Tell me that time difference in space isn't part of their wider sense of where they are relative to each other in the air and on the land!

Love these Dave lol

"If you strive to be the best at your craft, it's going to take its toll ... whether it's worth it or not is for each to determine" Isn't that the truth

Great post Dave👍

The problem with the internet is that people think their opinion should hold equal weight to other opinions, and that opinions are equal to facts even when contradictory.

I haven't run live sound PAs beyond some basic setups, but I'm definitely familiar with decorrelation when it comes to stereo widening in a studio context and the research that's been done lately for both reverbs and mono-compatible stereo widening. Have you experimented at all with taking stereo decorrelation DSP (Something similar to what Izotope is doing with their newer widener, velvet noise decorrelation) and feeding a mono signal into both PAs? I'd be really curious to see how the decorrelation algorithm holds up in a live sound setting, might allow more flexibility in running mono sources through multiple close sets of speakers (Generate a stereo decorrelated output from a mono, and route each channel into adjacent PAs) I know decorrelation ends up being used in higher order ambisonics systems to prevent combing as well, what you're describing with the live mix setup makes a lot of sense. Really enjoying these videos, giving me a lot to think about in terms of live sound setups, cheers

In talking about theatre LAV mics, would delaying one mic not help/fix the combing and phase issues you described versus running two PAs? Thanks.

Brilliant

great content

We'd go out on the bikes Sat. mornings, and strip the speakers out of curbside junk - building our own headphones and speaker arrays. I used the Recycler all the time, too - Gunter's girls were fast and friendly. Someday I'll wire a mic system into the rails on a board, just so I can record that zipping sound on a late takeoff. Thanks for education and inspiration, Dave.

There's some kind of disconnect in many brains about putting weird sources into a singular box and expecting the box to spit out non-weird signals. The thought of putting even a 4 piece band into a mixer, individually, piece by piece, and it then coming out of a singular stereo rig making any sense borders upon a belief in voodoo, all in itself, no matter who you are or what your experiences. I've come to the belief that there are just two different kinds of music fans (or listeners) - 1) those who want the option to selectively listen to an instrument or vocalist that they hold a specific interest in, for example, a drummer at a Dream Theater show, and 2) those who prefer the sound of a ''band'' all smushed together so that you can't tell where the bass ends and the guitar begins, can't differentiate a slapped bass note from a kick beater. You can't satisfy them both. Ok, maybe, if you punch the type 2 guy in the face they'll both be happy but you can't do it with a mix, bruh lol

Hi Dave! Just starting to learn sound and your videos are very valuable and I'm glad you responded to that reddit post. Would you consider having more videos targeted at novices? PS - we have your sound systems at the event company where I work.

Any sound guy who doesn’t need to learn anything new each time they mix a show is questionable. Try and experience new ways of operation and get better at what you do as an engineer I say. Thank you Dave for reminding us and encouraging us to be better. 🤓❤️

Listened to Rammstein last week in Oslo, insane sound in the open. The rumor says it's 2.2 MegaWats L-Acoustics. What's the most you've been rigging/mixing? Awesome content as always!

Hi Dave. Thanks so much for your educational videos. Please can you do another set of headphone tests to determine the best sets of headphones to get on the market now. The ones you recommended more than 12 years ago are either discontinued or overly expensive. Looking for a good headphone within the $100 range Thanks from Ghana

Love it, your so good! I can tweak with the best of them, ( I will admit when i used to get the AES rag, my eyes would roll back and then my head exploded) but ya gota doit, an then out for cocktails you spurt out , Ohh, that’s what that means! Embarrassing, but your friends are used to it. I love your temperament. If you’re truly a master, you can explain anything to a 6 year old. 🏄🏼☮️

I saw RHCP with the double hang in Toronto (Stadia Arcadia tour??)...It sounded amazing. Every note up and down Flea's bassneck had the same weight and timbre (kudos to the player I'm sure). Anthony was even mostly in tune... Dave- do you do Subs on an aux? In the double hang, are they eq'd the same?

i just want to see the bike in the road case, I am so curious how that works haha

So far, my takeaway: Twitter people drink, Reddit people get stoned.

Good stuff!

Dave, once again an amazing video! Can I ask you something about john frusciante's sound? Did you pan one.amp.to the left and the other amp to the right? Or did you have a little bit of both in each speaker (soft panning)?, When you listen to a rhcp concert with headphones on, you can clearly hear that the only the wet amp is goong to the left Speaker, but in a live situation would the audience who where in the left part of the stadium only hear a dry sound and the other side of the stadium.would hear his wet amp??

Hi dave! What do you think of brands like funktion one / void acoustics

Ah! 6:46 - you mention my biggest problem in running sound for musical theater: comb filtering on lavaliere mics when singers are standing close to each other and singing right at each other. I always try to mitigate the effect by moving the volume faders of the two mics until it’s better, but you have to be extremely nimble because if they turn their heads away from each other you need to change the balance again. Any ideas on how to fix this systemically?

Would love to know more about the Cat Box 8 you show at the end of your videos. Does this product exist?

Hey Dave... Really dig your reddit responses! But, maybe it's time to show these boys the real deal with double hung PA. I can show you my setup on the x32 if you want. That said... You mentioned you had drums and vocals in one, guitars and bass in the other. I have mine set up, drums, guitars and vocals, bass in the other. I throw keys in with vocals and sax, horns in with the guitars. I haven't changed it around much. What is your opinion on the splits? vocals with drums or bass? Or does it depend? And I will admit that some of the best creativity and innovations came from blunts... LOL!

The natural sound bits, have these guys ever heard the term ‘sound stage’ it’s like they are thinking a whole band is stuck behind one mic and the engineer only has one ear.

Can you clarify if you are sending different signals to the LEFT and RIGHT or to LEFT left and RIGHT right? If you know what I mean. Are the double arrays getting different signals between them or is it literally spread across the arena with different mics/signals? Weird thing to put into text... LEFT left STAGE right RIGHT

Dave Rat is absolutely right!

What are the chances we could get a short video showing us the bike and the case? Great video

Wondering if these same concepts could work with unwanted summation?

Hahaha! Dave said "do-do"

Do you mean feeding both PA via different busses or panning both sources on each side? Thank you for sharing. Always good to hear from you.

The Experts Should Contribute, Not Criticize, But Contribute to The RATMOS Sound Format!

Got to love blunts!

Hi Dave. Thanks for sharing some.of your techniques. First of all I hope you won’t burn out by trying to convinced idiots that only wish to Troll you. Talking about main PA in a double configuration. I get it and it makes sense of course. I have a question. In the case of a double main PA system what do you send in the side fills or additional PA mid length of audience. Could you share some advices or what is your way to reduce phasing issues for these? Thanks again for sharing.... that’s what all internet should be about... no trolling.

and i thought i was crazy for bringing a scooter with me. another youtuber i ran across brings an electric scooter to film sets. makes complete sense those venues are large! Edit If road legal also very handy for those last-minute emergency RadioShack runs.

So many times people are quick to dismiss something as “woo” or just dismiss something, and then when they go to back it up they prove they lack the foundation and/or critical thinking skills to even show that they have cohesion between different ideas.

in bluegrass music the musicians were walk in and out of the performance space usually in front of 1 microphone this dates back to when there was only one microphone and also two individually adjust balance between members and instruments. well no it's not part of live sound reproduction it is partly out of the move to stereo that began in the studio and slowly rolled out as the cost reduced. i could then go in and talk about the "wall of sound" excellent wikipedia page. in the early days of PA systems microphones and instruments were routed to multiple separate systems and speakers until somebody figured out they could condense things.

Nowhere on your burger is hot dog or a pizza. Yet hot dogs and pizzas exist. Will you now argue that hot dogs and pizza are the only kinds of acceptable toppings for a burger? 🤣

OMG ! ! ! ! O M G ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! that is HILAREOUS. I am not even going to fix my spelling on this comment. why do people get so mad. I have been mixing for at least 20 years for sure and grew up in a band house. I will say I have met you Mr Rat. I am a nobody in the music biz but I was working at a show and you were there and you have a furry carpet and I had absolutely no idea who you were and I talked to you for like over an hour and still had no clue who you were. (for one it was early in a festival and your band hadn't come up yet).. my friend was there, he is another foh guy and we went back on the bus and he said OMG DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU WERE JUST TALKING TO ? ? ? ? ? THAT WAS DAVE RAT ! ! ! I had no idea. he said HES THE SOUND GUY FOR THE HEADLINERS.. I was like ? for RHCP? YEAH YEAH I was like what the hell is he talking about ? I don't even remember, I remember your massive thick furry ruck you were taking a nap on more than anything.. you told me something custom you had done to your midas console and your backup also had it. I think I was following you I mean you literally pulled out a channel and showed me something?? No clue now what that was you showed me. It was some kind of upgrade (I think) that you did to every single channel on these two huge midas boards. no clue. anyways I think it is just fantastic to see that people give you stupid hard time in comments. People give me hard times too some times. I wonder if you would be as positive as you are if you had never worked for some of the awesome bands that you have ????? answer is "probably yes" if you ask me. because I can tell you what. You really handled that comment SO nicely. I mean if you can do it, then I can do it right??? (I'm talking about being nice when people come at you out of no where for no reason with no clue) see, you can already see the jadedness but I'm working on it.

I would love to buy his dirt bike with the road case.

Didn't the Grateful Dead experiment with a bonkers sound system where all the instruments came from different speakers within the PA system? Great upload as ever Mr Rat

A bike in a road case.... Ohh dear ohh dear ohh dear... Who was it said "if you have roadies, you need flight cases. If you have flight cases, you need roadies"? I think it was one of the 70's London rock bands.

Rat master-senpai.

Reddit has nurtured the dumb and the counter factual, and now there is nothing of value left.

wonder if the motorcycle sold?? GLWS

cool

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

In music industry, they have understood how to almost make sound naturally. Think about ATMO Sound. Think about Surround sound.

How much for the Suzuki in road case? lol

Hi, I need an Enduro bike in a road case 😁

haha you rock Dave!

Some People on Reddit remind me of the song by Primus HERE COME THE BASTARDS