This blog will deal with time, and phase quite a bit. Unfortunately I don't have the time to go into a lot of the details and physics behind all of it. There is already a lot of information out there. The Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook is a great place to start. You may also want to look at almost anything Dave Rat has written. So with that all in mind...(cue the drum roll)

The Radial Phazer Bank

Let me start by saying the Radial Phazer Bank is an amazing device. Phil at Radial Engineering sent one of these to us at SE Systems a few weeks ago. It's been sitting on my desk for a while because my studio was packed up for a move. The unit has garnered a lot of attention. It's well built, by real Canadians. It's got lots of knobs. It would look great parked in your rig. I have gotten lots of questions about it.

Note that this is not a phaser in the sense of it being a modulation effect, or "rotating speaker" effect, or a funky filter. It's designed to shift audio waveforms so that they sum and work together rather than pulling against each other and canceling stuff out. Radial explains it well here: http://radialeng.com/r2011/phazer.php

The Set Up-

Ideally, I would have loved to test this device in my recording rig at home. I've got a Radial JDX amplifier DI, and some great mics for mic'ing guitar amps. I would have put a Sennheiser e906 on the guitar cab. and plugged the JDX between the amp's speaker output and the speaker cab. Then used the Phazer on the JDX to align the signals. The only problem is, my studio still isn't unpacked.

This past Sunday I used the Phazer Bank in a live situation. The church I volunteer at uses two PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 consoles linked together to give us 32 input channels. We utilize the direct outs, and a few auxiliary sends to feed an Aviom personal monitor system. It's a decent console but has a few limitations. We had the following inputs:

Lead Vocal
Backing Vocal
Acoustic Guitar 1
Acoustic Guitar 2
Bass
Keys (Piano Etc)
Synth
Electric Guitar 1
Electric Guitar 2
Room Mic 1
Room Mic 2
Kick Mic 1
Snare
Hi-Hat
Tom 1
Kick Mic 2 (Normally Tom 2)
Tom 3
Ride
Overhead (Not Used in Main Mix)
Drum FX
Vocal FX
Video Left
Video Right
Wireless Hand Held (For announcemnts)
Wireless Headset (Pastor)

You will probably notice that I have two kick drum mics. I used one dynamic mic inside near the beater to pick up the attack, and a condenser in the bottom of the to pick up the "boom." In a perfect world I would have put a slight delay on the kick drum inputs so that the kit would be "time aligned" with PA system.

Having the kick and PA "aligned" would mean that the speakers are delayed until the sound from the kick travels to the point in space where the speakers are, then the speakers fire. Everything is moving in the same direction at the same time. It can make the difference between hearing the kick and feeling the kick.

Plugging It In

So the PreSonus StudioLive console doesn't have input delays. But I can at least phase align the kick with the PA system. This would mean that the peaks in the drum sounds are lining up with the peaks of the drum sounds coming out of the PA, and the troughs are lined up with the troughs. I inserted one channel of the Phazer Bank each of the two Kick Mics. (Using the inserts on the appropriate channels on the console.)

I left the condenser mic muted while adjusting the Phazer on the dynamic mic. I swept through the shift settings until it sounded full. Then I brought condenser into the mix, swept through the shift setting on it until it sounded super full. The results were amazing. I could feel the kick in my chest and the band wasn't even very loud. In fact before the service, the pastor asked, "why does it seem so loud? You're only hitting 87 dB SPL on your meter." Needless to say I was immediately impressed by the Phazer Bank. I want to buy one. Now. It sounded great!

But Here's the Rub

The Phazer Bank works extremely well. Unfortunately on this particular audio console the channel inserts are pre- direct out. Our direct outs feed the personal monitor system. This means that while I was pulling the kick into alignment with the PA, I was pulling it out of alignment with the drummer's in ear monitor mix. So he was losing the "kick" and "punch" that he usually had. There are ways to fix that, but it's going to take a few more pieces of gear... Or I can just revert to making "good" sound rather than "great" sound. But I still want a Phazer Bank.

~Andy

The Backstory:

One of the other hats that I wear is volunteering on the production teams at my church, Salem Chapel in Winston-Salem, NC. Typically, once a month, I serve as the audio engineer for three services over one weekend.

Salem Chapel is a mobile church. In many aspects it is like working for a small production company. Every Saturday we show up at a local middle school at 2:00 PM, and unload a trailer full of equipment. Teams of people work around the school setting up different areas of the church. My primary job is to unload the road case that contains the audio consoles, and plug it all in, and have it ready for the worship team to practice at 3:00. Our first weekend service kicks off at 5:00 PM. Things wrap up at 6:30 and the production team and church staff are usually leaving around 7:00 after debriefing.

Sunday morning the production and worship teams arrive at 8:00 for a short practice. The first Sunday service runs from 9:00 to 10:30, and our final weekend service runs from 11:00 to 12:30. Then we pack everything back up, and load it back onto the trailer.

The Problem(s):

Our equipment rides in the back of a 16 foot trailer, bouncing up and down with every bump in the road. Things shift in road cases. Sometimes gear fails. Then add the fact that we get the get the equipment out and have to connect audio, lighting and video connections,test the system and have it ready to roll for practice in about an hours time. Sometimes we just forget to plug stuff in. Whi is where our first problem this weekend entered.

"I Can Hear You, But I Can't Hear the Rest of the Band."

This is not something I really want to hear anyone in the band say. It means there's a breakdown somewhere in the signal path. There was a very valid reason that my friend Jake couldn't hear the rest of the band. I could look at the meters on the console and tell I had input on all of the channels. I looked at the lights on the front of our Aviom Personal Monitor input module. It was powered on. I also knew that the Aviom system was on, because Jake could hear me. Then I remembered, during set up, I had not plugged in the DB25 connectors that feed the monitor system. The reason that 3 vocals, 2 acoustic guitars, 2 electric guitars, an electric bass, and two channels of keyboards could not be heard was that their direct outs were not connected.

Fortunately, it wasn't a huge deal. We caught the problem early, really even before practice started. What can we learn from this?

At some point we might want to consider making a checklist or punch-sheet for setting up the system. That way we set things up quickly and consistently every single time.
To quote one of my college instructors, Thomas Johnson, "It's all about signal flow." It is absolutely critical to understand how signal flows through your PA system. Where does that sound come from, and where is it supposed to go? If I can hear this, and I am supposed to hear this and that, and I cannot hear that, then why can't I hear that?

Take the time. Learn your system. Ask questions. Read manuals. Even take the time to look at the block diagrams in the manuals. It can save you from having a really bad day, or at least save you a bit of stress.

~Andy

Messing with Time and Space- A review of the Radial Phazer Bank

Out In the Field: When Things Go Wrong...