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Iowa DIY 2017
SAVE THE DATE!! Iowa DIY 2017- October 21st - Grinnell College - Harris Center. Details and event website to follow.
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FWIW, here are my thoughts. I'm an advocate of very clean cuts of music for DIY test tracks. IMHO, the purpose is to test the speakers ability to reproduce the following aspects of the speaker not play a favorite song;
- treble
- midrange
- bass
- male vocals
- female vocals
An observation,some genre play better than others in large environments like the Harris center. If the cut is from a recording made in a big hall that is played in a big hall, I find it difficult to get much out of listening to it regardless of how good the recording is. The flip side of that is, you can't make a crap recording sound good on any speaker.Whatever you do, I won't be pissed off. I think you guys are doing a great job and hope you keep doing it.
Jim
One thing I like to do is include a track that has a passage that replicates something a speaker with certain of various compromises would do. At Dakota this year, that track contained a certain horn passage that had a lot of energy centered at 800Hz - and it sounded completely different on every speaker. In some cases, it was very obvious. The culprit for those differences is primarily panel resonance.
On some demo tracks I have mixed, there is an abundance of energy in the 1-3k region, which can replicate or exacerbate a tweeter crossed too low or a woofer breakup not tanked enough, for example. It will also cause the "bloom" common in LR4 2-way systems to be exaggerated.
I have also included tracks in the past selected exclusively because they will make BSC choices jump out at you.
There are a lot of aspects into a challenging demo track than meets the eye. Demo music should be difficult to render properly, should be deceptively simple at first blush, and should offer at least one challenge to the cabinet and crossover point in addition to overall tonality and bass tuning.
BK - to your point about ideas, I think it would be great to have a typical 85db demo session, and then a Barbie Girl level demo session.
One of my favorite things is to make my own track for demoing speakers at Iowa.
That said, I’d give it up if we could do back to back speaker house track comparisons.
What would also help is to know what drivers are in the speaker playing.
It would be nice to project the list or order that the speakers are going to be in so the next presenter would be ready.
Maybe selectively choose the order so that two really good speakers could play back to back like John suggests. Maybe play the personal demo firsts, then house track, then next speaker, house track, then personal demo.
The other thing would be more of a teaching moment, but open with a know set of speakers playing the house track and while the track is playing explain what to listen for and why each track was selected.
The last one might be a little over the top.
so whatever you do, i am sure there is going to be something for me to look forward to. I also like it that once (forget when) there was also a movie track. Movie special effects / dubstep / EDM can also have a high level of low and tactile bass that a usual musical composition may not have. The lindsey stirling track comes to mind. The Infected Mushroon track provided some light moments and so did the baribie girl track
That said, I could put something together for you if you want to step back from making the house cut for a bit.
http://www.midwestaudioclub.com/events/iowa2017/
Jim
I took some time off around Labor day - I plan on assembling a new pair that weekend, which gives me several weeks of testing and listening before Iowa.
I have been working a lot of hours lately, and along with some other stuff in my life going on means I have simply not had time to even really think about DIY since DakotaDIY.
What that means in BK and JP are doing all of the heavy lifting for this upcoming event, and I want to thank them in advance for their patience with me this summer.
P.S. It is looking like a SB/Viawave monitor for me this year. Cross your fingers, should be sweet.
One per for the main event sounds fine.
Ron
Ron
Ron
For a change, I have nothing for swap meet. Ya'll cleaned me out in June.
I might be able to bring a buttload of sammiches for late night munchies, if anyone is interested. I can probably convince work to provide them. Heat N eat style, cut above typical quick serve shit you find in gas stations and grocery stores.
How are we looking for a front end?