[Brian Cheney]

I want to thank everyone associated with our Live vs Recorded demo in the Lake Mead ballroom of the Flamingo this year.  It was a tremendous amount of work and expense, and we might have fallen flat on our faces.

I took a huge risk hiring the Merv Harding Quintet (piano, alto sax, trumpet, acoustic bass, drums plus  male vocals) to play for us.  The sound pressure and dynamics of these great players (whom I encouraged not to hold back in the least), particularly from the drumkit, made my head spin.  I was quite sure at first that our record/reproduction chain would not be equal to the task.

I needn't have worried.  After several awful sounding takes with the musicians too far off mic, we ended with bass, trumpet and sax clustered around the stereo mics,  piano about four feet away, and the drumkit about eight feet back.  The Series II RM 50 played back the full range of sound at live levels with plenty of headroom, no distortion or clipping of the Ampzilla monoblocks, and no coloration I could detect.  It was a triumph for all involved.

Kudos to our recordists Jim Harger (hi-rez) and Dave Housteau (double DSD), our musicians, E.J. and Clint from Wyred4Sound/Ampzilla, and Alex from Wywires for a job done to perfection.

Pix and reports to follow.

[John Casler]

Here are some of that "cast" that made this all happen:



From Left to Right;  Myself, Dave Housteau VMPS owner, Invaluable Helper, and Recording Engineer, EJ Sarmento, Mr Wyred4Sound, and Clint Hartman, W4S Marketing Director.




Shaukat Dullo VMPS owner, and our crack photographer taking most of these pictures.




Alex and his wife Nina from WyWires.




Our fearless leader "Big B" manning the controls during recording and playback

[Brian Cheney]

"Leader" yes, fearless certainly not.  After hearing the Merv Harding Quintet do sound checks with levels over 100dB SPL at my listening position about 15 ft away, I thought we were dead ducks.  High end speakers simply aren't designed to keep up with live sound sources in a room that size (26x60x9ft).  That we did so, and with great accuracy, was a relief and a real accomplishment.

[wywires]

"Leader" yes, fearless certainly not.  After hearing the Merv Harding Quintet do sound checks with levels over 100dB SPL at my listening position about 15 ft away, I thought we were dead ducks.  High end speakers simply aren't designed to keep up with live sound sources in a room that size (26x60x9ft).  That we did so, and with great accuracy, was a relief and a real accomplishment.

To this I would add that I have never heard drum kit reproduced with the accuracy, dynamics and sheer slam that I heard on Friday. Needless to say, I was floored!!! Realistic reproduction of drum kit is the weakness of every high end system that I have ever heard. Not in this room though.

[Brian Cheney]

Thanks for the kind words, Alex.  This year we demonstrated that reasonably priced consumer quality high end gear which is far from the most expensive but performs at the highest (state of the art)  level, could do what I did not really think possible.  I instructed the drummer Paul to "play loud" for his solo, not realizing just how loud (and fast) he could play.  His live sound almost made my ears ring.  And yet we were able to reproduce it properly, with full fidelity, through a single pair of speakers without clipping the amps or overloading our recorders.  That is just amazing.

[cliffy]

Congrats to VMPS and all their co-exhibitors.  Sounds like you outdid yourself yet once more!

I hope to attend next year's incarnation.

[Housteau]

The recording process was a little tricky.  Most of what we did was to provide as accurate a Live vs Recorded demo as possible.  In order to do this the mics set up in stereo needed to be positioned in such a way that they picked up what the audience experienced from their seats.  Going along with this, the performers needed to be positioned at the right distances from those mics in order for the proper balances that the audience heard was preserved in the recording.

While this is the best way to record for a Live vs Recorded event to reproduce what the audience hears, it will not necessarily guarantee good recordings.  Since we also wanted to come off with some decent material we recorded the event with three separate recording systems in parallel.  One was strictly two channel 5.6Mhz DSD with mics in X/Y, the second was capable of mixing multi-track on the fly down to two channel 24/88.2 using a M/S pattern and a vocal mic if necessary, and the last  (not used for playback) was multi-track 24/96 capable of taking in all the mic feeds for proper mixing later after the show.   

[Russtafarian]

This year was my first listen to the live vs. recorded demo.  I was really impressed by what I heard.  It all starts with the music, and these guys were great musicians playing with ease and expressiveness.  The recorded playback, though texturally different was very dynamic and tonally faithful to the live performance. 

The primary coloration I heard in the playback (vs. live) was the "closed in" sound caused by early reflections from the ceiling and walls near the musicians.  The microphones don't filter this out like our ears do.  This is not a criticism of the production team, who I thought did a fabulous job.  It's more a limitation of mic'ing such a big sound in a (relatively) small space.  Perhaps suspending some diffusion panels between the ceiling and musicians in key places might help open up the recorded sound a bit.  Better yet, book the Aladdin Theater for next year's demo! 

Overall a very impressive demo that certainly showcased the capabilities of the RM50s.  Well done!

Russ

[Housteau]

The primary coloration I heard in the playback (vs. live) was the "closed in" sound caused by early reflections from the ceiling and walls near the musicians.

If you look at the photos I posted on the other thread you will see a pretty plain standard acoustic tile ceiling, except over the musicians and right between them and the audience seating.  There you will see square suspended fully reflective surfaces in the exact places where you would not want such things to be.  They were certainly noticed and we thought of wrapping them with something on the first day of set up, but didn't have anything handy at the time and just didn't get to it later.

[John Casler]

Congrats to VMPS and all their co-exhibitors.  Sounds like you outdid yourself yet once more!

I hope to attend next year's incarnation.

Cliffy,

We missed you.  It was a great time, and sonically another notch up from last year.

[John Casler]

If you look at the photos I posted on the other thread you will see a pretty plain standard acoustic tile ceiling, except over the musicians and right between them and the audience seating.  There you will see square suspended fully reflective surfaces in the exact places where you would not want such things to be.  They were certainly noticed and we thought of wrapping them with something on the first day of set up, but didn't have anything handy at the time and just didn't get to it later.

No doubt the largest challenge in the Live versus Recorded event is the "DUAL SET" of room reflections and ambiance.

That is, when the original performance is recorded, the mikes pick up the performers, "AND" the room.

Then when it is played back on the speakers, you hear the original "room sonics" but they then are played over the same reflections and ambience while creating a NEW set from the playback music.

It is a wonder that we get it so close with that type of "ambient overlay", but it comes out pretty good.  At least we don't have the 30Hz air conditioner going on and off, with occasional Jets flying into the airport like we had at the Alexis Park.

[mjosef]

I think this year the demo came the closest to the Live performance vs the previous 3 years.
I was present Thursday afternoon. I thought the second playback was almost like the Live sound, the first playback sounded somewhat distant and 'narrower'.
Where the second playback fell short was in the reproduction of the 'snap' of the drum kit. That is what stood out for me. Much better than the previous years, imo.
Congrats to the Team.

[Housteau]

I think this year the demo came the closest to the Live performance vs the previous 3 years.
I was present Thursday afternoon. I thought the second playback was almost like the Live sound, the first playback sounded somewhat distant and 'narrower'.
Where the second playback fell short was in the reproduction of the 'snap' of the drum kit. That is what stood out for me. Much better than the previous years, imo.
Congrats to the Team.

The drum kit was the furthest away from the mics and at that distance some impact and 'snap' were lost.  But, on Friday towards the end of the day we did move the mics closer to the drums for a powerful solo.  That captured most of it.

[Hipper]

Whilst I realise that the ideal for a playback system is to produce as real a performance as possible, your typical Red book CD usually does not have the quality recording to do this. In the end, it is these people who are your target customers.

Did you have an oportunity to play redbook CDs during the show and how did they sound on this set-up?

[Delta Wave]

Dave, I'll be expecting some samples.  I think I'm going to try to make it next year.

[wywires]

Whilst I realise that the ideal for a playback system is to produce as real a performance as possible, your typical Red book CD usually does not have the quality recording to do this. In the end, it is these people who are your target customers.

Did you have an oportunity to play redbook CDs during the show and how did they sound on this set-up?

We did play a large selection of Redbook material including stuff that visitors brought. The Live vs Demo sessions were only a few hours a day. The remainder of the time was CD's or material from a music server. Sounded great!

[Brian Cheney]

This was certainly our most successful live vs recorded demo.  When I sat in the back rows during playback, the illusion of  live instruments was just about perfect.  The major improvement to the Series II RM 50 was the larger (15") side firing PR which made for better first octave bass (I used no EQ, just cut the 61Hz room ceiling mode) and a wider soundstage.  Also, the bigger PR more optimally vented the two new mighty Eminence 12" paper/Kevlar cone woofers.  The bottom octaves could hardly have been stronger or cleaner.  I also devised some new settings for the DCX.