ProSound News - September 2008 - (Page 43)

[43] soundInnovations: the manufacturer’s view Quantifying IEM Monitoring Levels Sensaphonics dB Check In-Ear Sound Level Analyzer T he company that most in the industry know simply as Sensaphonics has the full name Sensaphonics Hearing Conservation, Inc. A firm grounding in audiology and a goal of hearing preservation drive its development and manufacture of custom ear plugs and in-ear personal monitors. A common mantra in the general promotion of personal monitors is that, properly used, they can help preserve an artist’s or engineer’s hearing. And, as long as that “properly used” qualifier is adhered to, a custom-fitted earphone can reduce ambient noise significantly, making it possible for the user to lower his monitoring levels, helping to preserve hearing. Left unaddressed are three core questions. How do IEM users know how loud they are really listening? And, while a switch to IEMs means that stage levels can be reduced (a good thing for engineers and audience), does that mean that musicians in real practice reduce their listening volume levels if they are using IEMs? Finally, will a musician, given the knowledge and information they need to protect his hearing, act on that information? Sensaphonics founder, audiologist Michael Santucci, says of the first question, “We’ve been capable at Sensaphonics of testing the levels with a probe mic system that I developed in ‘93.” While the technology has been available and in use, the probe mic system requires a visit from Sensaphonics to a rehearsal or a show, the cooperation of musicians in having the mic placed in ears along with their IEMs and finally, the knowledge necessary to interpret measurements in terms of hearing protection. “So,” says Santucci, “I wanted something that was simple and easy to use that the engineer or the musician himself can just plug in and say, ‘This is the information,’ without going into the ear.” Sensaphonics’ latest product, dB Check, provides that level measurement in a practical fashion. What’s more, it provides automatic analysis of the measured data. The concept is one that seems quite obvious once explained. Sensaphonics knows the sound levels its IEM products produce with a given drive level. A dB Check user simply selects the model of Sensaphonics IEM on the front panel of the “Nano-sized” dB Check, enters a sampling time ranging from one minute to two hours, and plugs the unit inline between a musician’s wireless monitor receiver (or other drive source) and IEMs. At the end of the sampling period, the average SPL measurement for the test period is displayed, along with the OSHA and NIOSH maximum recommended safe daily exposure times at the measured lev- el. As a bonus, the dB Check has a built-in microphone and can serve as a conventional sound-level meter, also with the advantage of (continued on page 46) Rock Steady Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizer Monitor Isolation Pads I by Frank Wells n today’s studio environment, most engineers are working with modestly sized loudspeakers, often dropped directly on top of the same work surface as our monitors, keyboard and mouse. With such resonant surfaces (knock on your desktop and you’ll typically get a resounding thud), vibration is spread throughout the structure, altering and adding to the original sound. For this reason, it has become common practice to isolate the loudspeakers from the surface they are mounted on. Most commonly, this isolation is accomplished with decent effectiveness by using a piece of dense foam for decoupling the sound source (your speakers) from the resonant work surface. Primacoustic has taken the concept of the isolation pad one step further with its Recoil Stabilizer. While the best acoustic foams used for speaker isolation is fairly rigid, Primacoustic noted that the mechanical motion of the speaker elements (primarily the woofer) can produce a recoil effect, a lesser version of the force of a shotgun slapping backwards into your shoulder when its buckshot load is fired forward. Primacoustic, thinking further than most of us who regularly use isolation pads under our speakers, reasons logically that this recoil can redirect energy that should be propelling a sound wave forward into mechanical energy moving the loudspeaker cabinet backwards, thus changing the sound, primarily affecting low-end transient performance. There is a reason that the tightestsounding studio main monitor systems are encased in a concrete surround, or at least into a very rigid wall structure—the speaker doesn’t (can’t) move, and the wall is too rigid and dense to become a resonant vibration source. The Primacoustic solution is tech@psn inthefield to mount a heavy, neoprene-coated steel plate to the top of the isolating foam. The mass of the plate is sufficient that the speaker cabinet remains in position, with the foam still providing decoupling. There is a physical “front” to the Recoil Stabilizers, where curved, coated steel wraps over, said to add mass without increasing size and to “vary the impedance, thus reducing internal standing waves.” This is one of those logical-sounding “makes sense” ideas, but does it stand up in use? In a word, yes. I used the Recoil Stabilizers with a few different conventional rectangular monitors, ranging from relatively inexpensive to high-end, comparing direct surface mounting and mounting on both a conventional foam product and the Recoil Stabilizer. The performance improvements (continued on page 44) September 2008 prosoundnews.com http://www.prosoundnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProSound News - September 2008

ProSound News - September 2008 Sound Business Contents Special Report:�125th AES�Preview Getting Green from Blue Studio Showcase Studio Showcase: Inner Machine Software Tech Tracks 7.1 Is Becoming the New 5.1 VoiceQ Speeds Dubbing Process Xtreme Audio Sound Innovations: Sensaphonics dB Check. Field Reports: Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizer; M-Audio DSM Reference Monitors NFL Kickoff Invades NYC Live Sound Showcase Live Sound Showcase: Billy Joel at Shea Centerstage Soundcheck Sound People View from the Top Product Spotlight Classifieds Advertiser Index Company Index Music, etc

ProSound News - September 2008

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