[BC] Could our concept of audio be all wrong?

[Dana Puopolo]

I once had the honor of mixing the Newport Jazz Festival, NY in the old
Carnegie Hall. The PA system was set up by Lee Osborne, who did the original
Woodstock Recordings (yes, he's credited in the albums). We both worked for
Hanley Sound. I watched him do one show-then Lee let me mix the next one and
watched over me while I did. He smiled through the performance, so I know I
did right. Then the show was over and we packed up the system and I drove it
back to Massachusetts.

Lee had set up the PA syatem as follows: above the stage and slightly forward
of the performers were two 412 cabinets (four 12 inch JBL drivers per wood
cabinet set up as large horns) for bass, two midrange horns and two ring
radiator tweeters. The system was active tri amped. A Crown DC 300 handled the
bass, the mids were done with a McIntosh 240 amp (40 watts per channel using
6L6 tubes) and the high end was done with a McIntosh 225 amp (25 watts per
channel using 6V6s). Lee loved the sound of those Macs (as do I-I now have a
couple of 240s myself).

Near as we could tell, the amps were running on average at 10 db or better
below full output. The DC-300 was likely 15 db down.  Everyone in the audience
heard everything perfectly-there was no sign of distortion, echo or any strain
whatsoever in the audio, just crystal clear sound-and at times the bands got
LOUD! We figured that the entire system was putting out under a watt of
acoustical power in total-with 2/3 of that in the bass band.

Needless to say, I was (and still am) impressed at how well such low audio
power could work in a standing room only hall that was acoustically well
designed.

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: 08:25 PM PDT, 03/16/2009
From: Rich Wood <richwood at pobox.com>

------ At 06:56 PM 3/16/2009, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote: -------

>It has the acoustics of an ice-skating rink, hard concrete reflecting
>walls, and the sound of an enormous cave. There were two large horn
>clusters hoisted towards the ceiling connected to some gigantic power
>amplifiers which filled the cave with the acoustic power of a SR-71
>jet engine.

Some years ago New York held a party for the media and music 
celebrities to celebrate the return of the Grammys from Los Angeles. 
It started with a party at the Hard Rock Cafe and ended with a Paul 
Simon concert at Radio City. Simon had discovered a wonderful Black a 
cappella group named Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They first appeared 
with him on Graceland. Radio City has great acoustics for what it produces.

Not only was it set up for sound that would rival a concert on the 
Great Lawn at Central Park but they miked each singer separately, 
thus destroying the great harmony of the group. You could hear each 
singer individually. It was painfully loud and a terrible 
disappointment. Bad sound isn't new.

As far as I was concerned, Radio City needed no sound reinforcement at all.

Rich