Room Mates

Successfully sharing living accommodations with someone can be likened to the relationship of loudspeakers and the room acoustics of the venue. Both require consideration of the nature and capabilities of each room mate; and the most successful arrangements include selecting the room mate with complementary interests and abilities.

If two room mates have different lifestyles, one listens to baroque string quartets and reads books while the other listens to angst metal music and likes to party, conflicts in use of the accommodation will arise. This is much like the situation of a lively music hall built for acoustical performance being used as a rock venue. The nature of the loudspeakers systems common to the mid-level rock rig (with poor control over the broadband dispertion of the sound and loud stage monitors), all combine to create excessive reverberation in the room. The result is a venue where damage control replaces the art of mixing and the audience goes away with the impression they attended a concert in a subway station. Much like the incompatible room mates lifestyles, this cannot be fixed by simply changing some setting on the equipment or including a disclaimer on the ticket.

While many compromised venues and sound systems are not quite so dramatically at odds, the conflict between the acoustical conditions of a venue and the acoustical performance of the sound system are all too common. It is often simply a matter of the quality that is acceptable to those in charge that determines how much conflict will be allowed between these room mates before something is done. The situation above can be made to work, but it requires changing both room mates by modifying the acoustical treatment to reduce the reverberation and using loudspeakers that are highly selective in the dispersion of sound across the audio spectrum.

Anyone that has had a room mate with annoying habits knows that although complaining may provide you with a temporary change, it will never cause a fundamental difference. Whining about your room mate is similar to using an equalizer to change the “room response”. You can make the sound different with the EQ and even reduce some problems, but always at the expense of the overall sound throughout the room. For instance, it is common in rooms that are boomy to reduce the low frequencies where the boomyness is most pronounced. While this does provide immediate relief from the boomyness, it has happened at the expense of music that has fundamentals or significant harmonics in this frequency range. To get a good result, stop whining and make a substantial change. For the sound system, this requires using a loudspeaker system which tightly controls the dispertion at those boomy frequencies (not an easy thing at 250 Hz and below), and adding acoustic treatment into the room that will absorb boomyness. Akin to getting a second phone line, rather than complaining about your room mate always being on the phone (yes, it costs more money).

How you address problems with a room mate is also dependent on the expected length of time you will be sharing the accommodation. If you must share a hotel room for one night, there is much greater latitude for compromise. However, if you are going to share a long term lease (or even a mortgage) with the room mate, then you must already consider the room mate to be compatible. The same is true of sound systems. There is a limit to the amount of change to the loudspeaker system you will make on a tour of one-nighters, and there will be no attempt to modify the room acoustics of the venue. Installed systems, on the other hand, must be a matched to the acoustical conditions of the venue. If the acoustical conditions do not suit the style of the performances, then significant changes must be considered.

For amplified music (and speech) of all types, the loudspeaker system and the acoustical conditions of the room are inextricably linked. Where the two are unsuited, it becomes like a visit to the home of bickering room mates, briefly tolerable but experience that you will avoid in future. Resolving the conflict, by making changes to the room mates, leads to a situation that increases the enjoyment of the visitor (audience) and increases the likelihood of their return. If your venue wants to have a full social calendar, consider how well the room mates get along. Simply complaining about them won’t help.

United Entertainment Media Inc.
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New York, NY, 10016
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FAX 212-378-2160
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