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Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Taming The Beast: Strategies For Working (And Succeeding) In Acoustically Difficult Spaces
ProSoundWeb: We’ve all been there. The room is highly reflective or the PA can’t be placed in a preferred location for whatever reason. Or both.
Ideally, you’ve noted the challenges during a walk-through and can put some thought into an overall approach and a system design that will produce success despite the obstacles.
This was definitely one of the more useful things I have read, and contained a lot of very useful pieces of advice. Honestly, one of the ones that still stands out to me the most is also one of the simplest. The Acoustic Aiming Device, or a piece of black-painted wood, seems like a very nice and cheap solution to solving many problems, and now seems like something that should always be on hand for the variety of situations in which it can be useful. Another useful area of advice that was covered is what to do when your performers are causing problems, and usually, being too loud---an issue everyone has definitely encountered. I think the approach that the author recommends is great: instead of trying to make the artist turn down their listening, make it easier for them to hear what they want to hear, whether that means tipping their amplifier at their head to achieve better acoustics or using IEMs (either high quality professional ones or basic earbud style ones) to get them what they need in a way that helps you too.
1 comment:
This was definitely one of the more useful things I have read, and contained a lot of very useful pieces of advice. Honestly, one of the ones that still stands out to me the most is also one of the simplest. The Acoustic Aiming Device, or a piece of black-painted wood, seems like a very nice and cheap solution to solving many problems, and now seems like something that should always be on hand for the variety of situations in which it can be useful. Another useful area of advice that was covered is what to do when your performers are causing problems, and usually, being too loud---an issue everyone has definitely encountered. I think the approach that the author recommends is great: instead of trying to make the artist turn down their listening, make it easier for them to hear what they want to hear, whether that means tipping their amplifier at their head to achieve better acoustics or using IEMs (either high quality professional ones or basic earbud style ones) to get them what they need in a way that helps you too.
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