Refining an Area of Interest

Looking at my mind map and thinking of the areas of the live sound field I enjoy, I am currently trying to refine my interests into a more coherent research question. At present, I may be looking to do a project in the area of sound reinforcement. This is an area where locations are assessed and measurements are taken to provide a safe, well-tuned environment for live music. Sound reinforcement takes into account acoustics of a location too so that the sound quality from a venue is the best it can be for the performers and the sound engineer.

Some initial thoughts:

• Possibly not as music orientated as I would like.
• More focus on risk assessments and structural integrety of a location rather than sound quality.
• A lot of research on rules and regulations may have to be undertaken to understand the process of  sound reinforcemnt.

I like the idea of working with equipment and getting a quality sound; however sound reinforcemnt may not deal with this as directly as I would like. I will research all of my available options for working with equipment for live  sound as this seems to be my main area of interest at present.

Main Problem Areas in Live Sound

To aid with the further development of my project being centred around the field of live sound, I must ask myself the following question:

What are the main problem areas in live sound?

• Size of Venue
• Too small for equipment.
• Too small for crowd, particularly with well known bands.
• Large venues need careful placing of speakers to ensure the crowd far away from the stage can hear.
• Very small venues may have bad acoustics.
• Large venues may have a lot of reverb.Performances.

• Performances
• Inexperienced bands may be harder to get a good level for .i.e turning the volume up on their instruments and drowning each other out.
• Members of a band (particularly guitarists) may have a multitude of effects. This may be hard to get a good quality sound out of the desk if levels are forever changing with each effect.
• Bands may be using very low budget/quality equipment i.e. amps, guitars, microphones etc. This may also be true of the in-house equipment. This will also prove difficult to get a qualitative sound and good levels.

Mind Map Draft 1

This is my first attempt at a mind map for live sound.