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13 Resources
13.7 Using Output Delay
StudioLive™ Series III
Owner’s Manual
6. Press the Input Button in the Fat Channel.
7. Increase the delay time on the Direct Input channel. This is the easiest way
to hear the change in phase between the two signals. Listen to both till you
find a happy medium between the combined signals.
Power User Tip: The final result may not be perfectly in time but this is not necessarily
your goal. Adjusting the phase relationship between the direct and mic’d signals can help
to create space in a mix and keep the sounds coherent.
13.7 Using Output Delay
When one of the output buses is selected, you can set an output delay up to 170 ms
in 0.1 ms increments. When speakers are placed apart from one another, listeners
will hear the sound from the closest source before they will hear it from the furthest.
This is because electricity travels much faster to each loudspeaker than the acoustic
waves travel from each loudspeaker to the listener. This can also be an issue when
the acoustic level of an instrument or amplifier on stage can be heard over the same
instrument or amplifier being reproduced by a loudspeaker. This can dampen the
attack and intelligibility of the sound and create an unpleasant phasing effect. To
compensate, you need to delay the signal going to the speakers closest to
the listener.
In small venues where the guitar amp and the drum kit can be clearly heard over the
Main Front-of-House system, an output delay can “move back” the Front-of-House
system to the backline. This will sharpen the attack of the instruments and prevent
phasing issues.
In large venues that push the limits of the Front-of-House system’s coverage, using
delay speakers distributed throughout the room, each delayed to the main system,
allows you to create listening zones for more even coverage and better intelligibility.
Sound travels at a rate of 1,130 feet per second (with some variation due to
temperature, humidity, and elevation). Therefore, it takes 1.1 ms for sound to travel
one foot. For example, it takes about 11 ms for sound to travel 10 feet. So if you are
aligning your Front-of-House system is 10 feet from your drum kit, you need to delay
the signal going to that system by 11 ms.
There are professional software products that can calculate the exact alignment
times, but with a little math and little careful listening, this can be dialed in without
extra accessories.
13.7.1 Front-of-House
In a small venue with a relatively small stage, both the main speaker system and the
acoustic level of guitar amps and the drum kit on stage can be heard by listeners
in the audience. This can reduce the intelligibility of the speaker system because,
for example, the mic’d snare signal and the acoustic snare signal are arriving at the
listener’s ear at different times. This is where output delays come in.
The first thing you will need to do is to find the loudest instrument on the stage. In
general, this is the snare drum, but it could be the guitar amp, so let your ears do the
deciding.
1. Measure the distance from the snare drum to the mid-frequency drivers of your
main Front-of-House system and divide it by 1.1 (if measured in feet) or 0.34 (if
measured in meters).
2. On your StudioLive mixer, select the Main mix and set the Output delay to the
result of your calculation.
3. Bring up the level of the snare channel on your mixer to unity and have your
drummer play single hits on the snare, about one hit every second. Make sure he
or she plays at the level they will play during the performance.
4. Use your Main mix level to set the level on the Front-of-house system as closely
to the acoustic level of the snare drum as possible.
5. Listen closely to the speakers and the snare and make minor adjustments to the
output delay until the attack times sound as coherent as possible.
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