18
Apr
2006
National touring acts Martin Sexton, Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, and Pieta Brown were the main draws for the grand-opening celebration of the River Music Experience's Redstone Room, but the new nightclub's star attraction could be its sound.
"The sound system ... is going to be freaking mind-boggling," said Lon Bozarth, the River Music Experience's president and CEO, in the February 15 edition of the Reader. "The system we're putting in here, it's like walking around the room with a pair of headphones on. It sounds the same everywhere you go."
A more accurate description of the Redstone Room's sound system would be wearing headphones for a live album. The quality of the sound is awe-inspiring to any music fan, with crystal-clear vocals and well-mixed and dynamic guitars. Greg Brown's and Bo Ramsey's two-guitar (acoustic and electric) performance on Saturday showed off these strengths, set up by Redstone Room sound technicians Justin Farley and Tim Painter.
At most clubs and bars, sound is hollow and typically has vocal- and music-mix problems. A lot of the time, audience members are unable to understand what vocalists are singing because the instrument volume is dominant over the PA speakers. The Redstone Room's sound is able to focus on vocalists, giving precise levels similar to what you might find on professional albums.
While moving to different locations in the venue, the volume and clarity are consistent throughout most of the room. The only spot that drops in clarity is just off to the right of the stage. One reason for this is that the PA speakers are not directed there. During Brown's and Ramsey's performance, the drop in vocal clarity was minimal because of the low volume of their guitar amps on the stage, but the problem might be more pronounced in performances with full bands.
The system itself features 10 Nexo PA speakers, which were placed in the "top 10 live sound picks" by Mix Magazine Online. Farley and Painter were able to pull off the evenly placed sound because the speakers are line array, different from normal PA speakers because they use lasers to guide individual speakers to different locations in the venue.
"Regular system just bombards the audience from the stage, and the volume dissipates as it is 'thrown' from the front to the back," Farley said, "which obviously makes the sound louder the closer you are to the stage. This [line array] makes the sound you hear at the back of the room or anywhere for that matter sound basically the same no matter where you are in the reach of the speaker 'throw.'"
Because of this setup, technicians can set up different sound levels to fit the mood of a particular song and have it noticed by audience members without loss of quality. Even standing just outside the venue, listeners can enjoy performers with only minimal drop in volume, which allows fans to explore the museum displays throughout the rest of the second floor.
Tom Swanson, River Music Experience operations manager and lead singer and guitar player for Jim the Mule, said the Redstone Room is a great place for performers to play in terms of sound. "It's awesome," said Swanson, who is also a former Reader employee. "I sat in with Dave Zollo. ... Sometimes you can't hear anything [on stage]. It's quiet, so when nothing's going on, you're not getting a buzz [humming noise usually heard when a PA is on but not being used] or any of that normal stuff, and you can hear everything."
Swanson compared the Redstone Room sound system to playing on a stage at a major music festival. He also said experienced sound technicians take the burden off artists and groups to provide a good mix.
"It's nice to go and walk into a place and have your engineer know what you're looking for, and to be able to direct the bands and say, 'We're going to do monitors. What do you need in your monitor?' and give whatever you want," he said. "Whereas, a lot of times we do our own PA, and we can get pretty good mixes of stuff in there, but we don't mic everything."
One major issue that sound technicians will face in the coming performances will be drums. Drum kits can overpower vocals and other instruments, and because of the 250-person capacity of the venue, the Redstone Room will have to fall back on drummers being able to play dynamically to get an even sound.
"The sound system ... is going to be freaking mind-boggling," said Lon Bozarth, the River Music Experience's president and CEO, in the February 15 edition of the Reader. "The system we're putting in here, it's like walking around the room with a pair of headphones on. It sounds the same everywhere you go."
A more accurate description of the Redstone Room's sound system would be wearing headphones for a live album. The quality of the sound is awe-inspiring to any music fan, with crystal-clear vocals and well-mixed and dynamic guitars. Greg Brown's and Bo Ramsey's two-guitar (acoustic and electric) performance on Saturday showed off these strengths, set up by Redstone Room sound technicians Justin Farley and Tim Painter.
At most clubs and bars, sound is hollow and typically has vocal- and music-mix problems. A lot of the time, audience members are unable to understand what vocalists are singing because the instrument volume is dominant over the PA speakers. The Redstone Room's sound is able to focus on vocalists, giving precise levels similar to what you might find on professional albums.
While moving to different locations in the venue, the volume and clarity are consistent throughout most of the room. The only spot that drops in clarity is just off to the right of the stage. One reason for this is that the PA speakers are not directed there. During Brown's and Ramsey's performance, the drop in vocal clarity was minimal because of the low volume of their guitar amps on the stage, but the problem might be more pronounced in performances with full bands.
The system itself features 10 Nexo PA speakers, which were placed in the "top 10 live sound picks" by Mix Magazine Online. Farley and Painter were able to pull off the evenly placed sound because the speakers are line array, different from normal PA speakers because they use lasers to guide individual speakers to different locations in the venue.
"Regular system just bombards the audience from the stage, and the volume dissipates as it is 'thrown' from the front to the back," Farley said, "which obviously makes the sound louder the closer you are to the stage. This [line array] makes the sound you hear at the back of the room or anywhere for that matter sound basically the same no matter where you are in the reach of the speaker 'throw.'"
Because of this setup, technicians can set up different sound levels to fit the mood of a particular song and have it noticed by audience members without loss of quality. Even standing just outside the venue, listeners can enjoy performers with only minimal drop in volume, which allows fans to explore the museum displays throughout the rest of the second floor.
Tom Swanson, River Music Experience operations manager and lead singer and guitar player for Jim the Mule, said the Redstone Room is a great place for performers to play in terms of sound. "It's awesome," said Swanson, who is also a former Reader employee. "I sat in with Dave Zollo. ... Sometimes you can't hear anything [on stage]. It's quiet, so when nothing's going on, you're not getting a buzz [humming noise usually heard when a PA is on but not being used] or any of that normal stuff, and you can hear everything."
Swanson compared the Redstone Room sound system to playing on a stage at a major music festival. He also said experienced sound technicians take the burden off artists and groups to provide a good mix.
"It's nice to go and walk into a place and have your engineer know what you're looking for, and to be able to direct the bands and say, 'We're going to do monitors. What do you need in your monitor?' and give whatever you want," he said. "Whereas, a lot of times we do our own PA, and we can get pretty good mixes of stuff in there, but we don't mic everything."
One major issue that sound technicians will face in the coming performances will be drums. Drum kits can overpower vocals and other instruments, and because of the 250-person capacity of the venue, the Redstone Room will have to fall back on drummers being able to play dynamically to get an even sound.
