Sound - has everything to do with the quality of your PA

Toddskins

Toddskins

Member
Everybody who listens to a sample, or raves about the sound of their Ivory II samples, or whatever electronic instrument, may not be experiencing sound assessment rightly.

This post is about quality of sound, not music.

If you don't invest in an awesome PA, you just don't know what you're missing.

The point is driven home, again, when two different guitar players recently came over to jam at my house, on different evenings, and were floored by the sound they heard from my PA. Upon plugging into my mixer and hearing their sound.

This post is motivated by something that "popped" into my thinking this evening regarding hundreds of threads on here and gearslutz, arguing over the sounds from keyboards and samples, when I realized how pitiful most peoples' PA's are. They think they're great, but truly are not. They don't know any better. Not until they have heard a truly excellent one.

It's like a person with 20/300 vision trying to say how wonderful a piece of art is, while some people with 20/20 vision are stymied over that person's liking the piece of art to begin with. "If only he had 20/20 vision, he would see details clearly that that is not art at all." Or then again, that that "art" is far more beautiful than he realizes! There is so much detail that he is not seeing. This can work both ways, perhaps. Sounds that one is assessing might be better than he realizes, or far worse than he understand. Most often, though, the poor systems hide and hinder.

Likewise, if you're listening to your sounds through junk like Roland K series amps, or in many cases, believe it or not, a JBL speakers driven by "accepted" good amp (i.e. Crowns), you just have no idea that your sound is actually weak and hollow. How would you ever know?

A person born blind never knows what perfect sight is.

A person never having experienced a fantastic PA system, should understand that the lack of great sound reproduction will hinder the sounds they do hear. They are limited to their poor reproduction systems thereby filtering and judging everything accordingly.

People on earth think they know great sights and smells, until they visit heaven.

In a similar vein, how many listen to MP3's and have no idea what artifacts of sounds have gotten lost? Right? The original CD, or even old analog tapes, are far superior than the MP3.

A perfect PA system does not come cheap. The two most critical parts are the amp and the cabinets. The mixer and an EQ can add or take away somewhat, but the amp and cabinets are highest on the priority list.
 
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Well, ummm, okay. But I am not sure what you are trying to tell us. You say, "This post is about quality of sound, not music," but after that, it just does not seem like that's what it's really about.

Are you bragging on your equipment? Okay, but there are audiophile forums where that is much more prevalent, and dare I say, accepted (although I suspect you would get roundly blasted there- it's just how audiophiles act.) Those guys (who are strange, beyond the ability of words to describe) tend to listen to their systems, not the music they almost coincidentally play. The primary purpose of a PA system, believe it or not, is NOT exact reproduction of sound. Really, they are made to produce adequate reproduction of sound, at higher volumes than the original source can muster. It's not called "Public Address" for nothing.

Or, maybe you are bragging about your experiences? Given everyone has a different life experience, that seems rather pointless. I didn't have a Steinway in the home I grew up in. I didn't have a Gibson 335 or Martin D48, either- so what? Hearing one probably would not have made me a better musician, and certainly would not have made me a better person. I am very happy my parents saw fit to ensure that an old, upright piano sat in the corner of our living room for years, waiting for me to sit down at it and have the experience of making it produce sounds, regardless of the quality thereof. I am equally happy they were able to buy me that old Silvertone acoustic- the one who's action was so high you could slip a pencil between the strings and the fretboard, at the 12th fret, and later buy me a cheap, made in Japan guitar and amp (when "Made in Japan" was usually spoken with a bit of a sneer.) I cherish my experiences, too, and frankly don't mind at all that they were usually the product of a modest financial standing. I suspect I am not alone.

Are you trying to make a point, perhaps about ... well, I can't figure out what point you are trying to make.

Your analogy of a person with poor eyesight viewing a piece of art is both about as poor an analogy as I have ever seen drawn, and totally misses the whole point about beauty and art any art- visual, auditory, tactile, or whatever. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, and art is as personal and subjective as anything can be. Monet produced some of his best, most interesting and intriguing stuff, after his eyesight began to fail due to cataracts; VanGogh did the same as his sanity began to slip away. Beetoven continued to compose some of the world's best music, well after his hearing deteriorated. If those great artist can produce in the face of such odds, who are you or I to say that others who have similar "limitations," either sensory or electronic, can not appreciate great art? That sounds like a very haughty, snobbish statement, to me. Really, man, who the hell do you think you are, anyway?

I must disagree with your original point: Sound has nothing to do with the quality of one's PA. Certainly not the quality of sound. Perhaps the qunatity of sound one reproduces is dependend on one's PA, but sound is just sound. I can produce a sound just by clapping my hands- no PA needed. And, frankly, I think I can easily produce a very high-quality hand-clapping sound.

I am sorry, but your post appears to be one of the most useless ones I have seen here. But, to give you the benefit of the doubt, perhaps you could try again?
 
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Sure.

You did miss the point.

The blind person analogy was NOT about art. I made that clear. It would be about seeing.

A person with poor vision might think that something full of colors was beautiful, and might actually be watching the color of fire and blood thrown from victims' bodies, if he was not able to accurately understand WHAT he was looking at.

You're making points about art/music, while I was not.

Again, to accurately describe a photograph, or a mountain scene, does not make one an artist. I was not talking about art, but rather the ability to accurately describe, represent the data.

My point about Steinway, maybe seemed snobbish. Okay. But it may be relevant for those who know sound with regard to pianos. (I've removed those type of remarks since they had a negative impact.)

And while you are trying to argue to the purpose of what a PA system was made for (you may be right, but there are other reasons, too), does not alter the fact(s) that if it is exceptional, you will hear the instrument sounds accurately, whatever is being Publicly Addressed. That engineers created them for the reason you give, may be one reason, but it does not change what I wrote and there are other reasons why people put top money into their studios, which for the exception of monitors (and some have PA cabinets in their studios, too), their studios are outfitted with PA gear.

And then again, even if you argue that last point, still does not address what I wrote: If your Sound System is exceptional, you will judge the instrument's sound coming out of it, better than if it is being masked and hindered by bad gear.
 
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Still wondering what you were trying to say...

Perhaps you are talking about monitoring/mastering listening systems, not PA systems?
 
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No, I think he is just blown away by how awesome his PA system is and he has recently become clearly and acutely aware of how much better he is than the rest of the world. Good for you Todd. It would be a waste and a shame if someone like you were so much superior to the general population but did not realize it. At least you know where you stand. My own awesome PA and Yamaha grand are humbled before you. I'm gonna go sit in my Cayenne with my Motif XF88 and Korg M388 and cry at how worthless it all is. Hold on... great, my wife (Cameron Diaz) just left me for you. I give up.
 
Okay, dude...

You're going to be stuck for about an eight hour ride.

You'll be able to see amazing colors just by looking at plain blank sheet of paper.

You'll be able to hear the sounds of earthworms breathing, although you probably won't hear the bus that runs over you.

Do not try to eat spaghetti; every time you try to fork a strand it'll crawl up under one of the meatballs.

The sex will be incredible if you can get around to doing it, but you'll most likely get fixated by something like the almost downy hair that a lot of women have on their bellys.

Try not to talk to anyone. Do not post on BBS's.

And remember that you cannot fly, so try to stay off the tops of tall buildings...
 
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