Musical Direction

There's a lot in the creation of music, from that conceiving the first elements of the melody through to the eventual performance.  That music is eventually likely to find it's way into musical notes on musical staves, whether on paper or computer.  When it's reproduced again it needs to be able to reclaim some of the nuances and subtleties which enhance those musical notes to provide that extra magic.  

That magic is often captured through musical directions to accompany the notes on the page.  These are the descriptive words to compliment the notes.  Traditionally these have often been in Italian, and especially for the classical and orchestral music.  Somehow those Italian words really do capture the emotion to overly on those technical notes....glissando, prestissimo, diminuendo, crescendo, espressivo, adagio....  It could well be that same smooth and emotive language that's spawned those wonderful coffee shop drinks names....

Here's a selection of those magical Italian musical directions....

Accelerando – get faster

Adagio – slow

Agitata – agitated

Allegretto – fairly fast

Allegro – fast

Andante – fast

Animato – lively

Arco - play with the bow

Cantabile – flowing in style

Con Brio – spirited

Crescendo – get louder

Da capo – play again from the start

Dal Segno – go back to the sign

Diminuendo – get softer

Espressivo – with expression

Forte – loud

Fortissimo – very loud

Glissando – play with sliding notes

Grave – slowly

Grazioso – gracefully

Largo – slow

Legato – smoothly with long notes

Lento – slow

Maestoso – majestically

Meno mosso – slower

Mezzo forte – moderately loud

Mezzo piano – moderately soft

Moderato – at moderate speed

Molto – much or very

Non Troppo – not to much, not exaggerated

Pianissimo – very soft

Piano – soft

Piu- more

Pizzicato – pluck the string

Poco – a little

Prestissimo – very, very fast

Presto – very fast

Rallentando – slow down

Ritardando – get slower

Sfotzando – play the note or chord strongly

Sostenuto – sustained notes

Sotto voce – whispered

Staccacto – short detached notes

Tremolo – repeat the notes rapidly

Vivace – lively

Decades of Dance

Never before have we had so much choice in the style of music to dance to.  Here's a take on that journey over the decades, with an ever expanding choice and genre of music.....

1920s

Jazz and big band.

1930s–1940s

Swing music

1950s

Rock and roll

1960s

Soul, funk, Motown, R&B.

1970s

Disco

1980s

New Wave, Synthpop, Funk, Contemporary R&B, House, Acid house, Techno, Freestyle, Electro, Euro disco, Italo disco, Eurobeat, Hi-NRG, Madchester, EBM, Cosmic disco

1990s

Eurodance, Europop, Progressive house, Techno, Trance, Alternative dance, New jack swing, Contemporary R&B, Dancehall, Hip hop, Drum and bass, Breakbeat, Rave, Hardcore, Happy hardcore, UK garage, Italo house

2000s

Trance, Electropop, Dance-pop, Snap music, Crunk, Reggaeton, Dancehall, Dance-punk, Nu-disco, Electro house, Minimal techno, Dubstep, Contemporary R&B, Hip hop, Drum and bass, Electronic dance, Progressive house, Hardstyle

2010s

Electropop, Hip house, Nu-disco, Synthpop, Trance, New Wave, House, UK Garage, Hi-NRG, Dance-pop, New Rave, Electroclash, Dubstep, Electro-industrial, Drum and bass, Electro house, Breakbeat, Hardstyle, Drumstep, Technopop, Hip hop, Moombahton

Ice Breakers 5: Give Me Five

Ice breakers, or perhaps more correctly mood makers, can help enhance the variety, fun and sociability during an event.  We've previously described why this works, and shared some ice breaker activities.

See:
Ice Breakers 1: Why do it?
Ice Breakers 2: Scenarios, favourites and experiences
Ice Breakers 3: Either Or?
Ice Breakers 4: Odd one out

Here's another ice breaker idea - Give Me Five.

Given a topic, it's about finding five things that match that topic. This can be played very simply by just using the topic heading, and finding five sensible answers.  Can be more tricky to find the 5 specific pre-determined, and for some added tension, to do this against the clock.

Lots of fun, nice and simple, and can have simpler through to more cultured topics

Here's a selection of 10....

Famous Brothers	Kray Twins
	The Jacksons
	Wright Brothers
	Brothers Grimm
	Mario Brothers
Types of Berry	Raspberry
	Strawberry
	Cranberry
	Blueberry
	Elderberry
Items of Jewellery	Earrings
	Bracelet
	Ankle chain
	Necklace
	Broach
Types of hat	Deerstalker
	Panama
	Fedora
	Top
	Bowler
Types of pasta	Cannelloni
	Spaghetti
	Tagliatelle
	Penne
	Lasagne
Mr Men Characters	Mr Bump
	Mr Tickle
	Mr Happy
	Mr Small
	Mr Nosey
Water based sports	Canoeing
	Diving
	Fishing
	Surfing
	Water skiing
European Capital Cities	Athens (Greece)
	Rome (Italy)
	Madrid (Spain)
	Berlin (Germany)
	Helsinki (Finland)
Sticky things	Chewing Gum
	Glue
	Toffee
	Treacle
	Sticky tape
Types of card	Birthday
	Christmas
	Mothers Day
	Get well soon
	Anniversary

Olympic Senory Spectacular

The London 2012 Olympics had a spectacular opening ceremony.  A feast for the senses and indeed the emotions too.  That's the power of entertainment.  The music itself was a major component of the entertainment, as were the lights, and indeed aroma too.

The music provided strong atmosphere.  The live element of 1000 drumming drummers was a big factor.  While technically more "storage drum" that purposefully acoustic drum, they served their purpose very well, creating volume, depth, energy and rhythm.   With specially created electronic music works from High Contrast and Underworld and add in some relatively contemporary empahsis with Emile Sande and Wretch 32, even Dizzie Rascal.  Overlay the some familiar nationally popular music (if historically heritage in flavour)  from Mike Oldfield and David Bowie, U2 and the Pet Shop Boys and make some significant space for the London Symphony Orchestra, and there's real opportunity to eclectically connect.  Even the visuals elements make reference to the rich music heritage, with the multi-coloured Beatles, used to define an era.

And of course there were the lights - wonderfully large scale and at the same time intrinsically simple.  A major component being the small matrix displays next to each of the seats.  That provided a huge matrix of lights and therein the intrinsic simplicity, in that that matrix was really just like a large spreadsheet of controllable lights, or as pixels on a screen.  The challenge then being the programming of that changing dynamic effect.   Those matrix displays required 40 miles of cabling and 40 days of installation, plus all the programming of course, and before that, all of the design work too.  And all of that cost and time for four 4 hours of display.  That's the level of preparation, planning and design to create really dynamic and engaging lighting effects.

So that's two senses stimulated, sight and hearing.  Substantive enough to warrant both an audio album and a DVD.  But it did not stop there.  There was also atmospheric aroma of cordite to accompany the Industrial Revolution element. The more each sense can be engaged, and more senses that can be engaged, then there's the greatest chance of there being a really encompassing emotional engagement.  And while all that production can feel quite technical, the real magic is achieved creating that overall entertainment, and that's the real art.

Chart What Chart?

Since the official charts came into existence in 1952, so they've evolved to reflect a divergence of genres and now increasingly a divergence of media.

So the idea of a singles or albums chart has been diluted.  These have evolved into sub-genres.  Officially there's classical, rock,Urban and dance, plus country, world, Asian, regional, alternative, and now heritage.  [Alternative....always interesting that a genre is defined by what it is not].

Add to that variety a range of different media and it all gets a bit more complicated. So having evolved from CD to  music downloads, now evolving to include streaming charts.

So the reality is there's three dimensions at work here now... the music genre, the source (single or album) and the media.  So underneath there's lots of micro charts all being distilled, and mostly automatically too.

And not forgetting the significance of the video charts now too - with DJs becoming VDJs - so there's that mix of genre and format ... DVD, Blue-Ray, children's, film, TV, sport....

Ice Breaker breakers 4: Odd one Out

Ice breakers, or perhaps more correctly mood makers, can help enhance the variety, fun and sociability during an event.  We've previously described why this works, and shared some ice breaker activities.

See:

Ice Breakers 1: Why do it?
Ice Breakers 2: Scenarios, favourites and experiences
Ice Breakers 3: Either Or?

Here's another type of ice breaker.  It's odd one out.  Given a given short list of say three or four things, the challenge is simply to identify the odd one out, and ideally why.  These can vary to quite light hearted, through to more thoughtful and taxing.

Here's a taster of those "odd one out" challenges that can really engage and entertain, and educate too.

	Choices	Odd one out because it's…
1	KCB
	MBE
	CBI	X - Not a British Honour
	OBE
2	Stain
	Blow
	Engrave
	Sew	X - No somehing done to glass
3	Boxing
	Judo
	Karate	X - Not an Olympic sport
	Tae Kwon Do
4	Silk
	Satin	X - Not a Wedding anniversary
	Lace
	China
5	Monaco
	Silverstone
	Melbourne
	Ottawa	X - Not a Formula 1 racing circuit
6	Juliet
	Kilo
	London	X - Not a letter in the phonetic alphabet
	Mike
7	Eastern	X - Not a London underground station
	Northern
	District
	Central
8	144
	84
	44	X - Not in the 12 times table
	24
9	Moderate	X - Not a world climate type
	Polar
	Temperate
	Tropical
10	Discus
	Hammer
	Javelin
	Shot	X - Not thrown but put
11	Garibaldi
	Nice
	Bourbon
	Dundee	X - Not a type of biscuit, but a cake
12	Pelican
	Camel	X - Not a type of predressian crossing
	Zebra
	Puffin
13	George
	Dick
	Julian
	Peter	X - Not a member of the famous five
14	Cane
	Able
	Seth
	Colin	X - Not a son of Adam and Eve
15	Tobermory
	Madame Cholet
	Wellington
	Bongo	X - Not a womble
16	Banana
	Grape	X - Not needing to be peeled before eating
	Orange
	Lychee
17	Barolo
	Valpolicella
	Rioja	X - Not an Italian wine, but spanish
	Chianti
18	Trigger
	Champion
	Silver
	Flame	X - Not a famous TV horse
19	Supergrass
	The Police
	The Clash	X - Not a trio.
	The Jam
20	Monkey
	Pony
	Carpet
	Monty	X -Not a slang term for an amount of money

New Streaming Charts

The Official Charts have been going for 60 years this year.  It's always being evolving.  From those single and album charts, through to the diffferent genres, and then to the different formats to include downloads.

So the Official Charts Company has now included a new format... on line streaming.  This includes audio streaming from both ad-funded and subscription services, to reflect the new generation of music services like Spotify.

How to be a Disc Jockey

With the current popularity of electronic dance music (EDM), the evolution of DJs playing music to creating and then producing music, and the ever decreasing costs of entry for digital DJ kit, there's more emerging guidance on how to be a DJ.

I recently came across a classic book How to be a Disk jockey by David Gee. Published in 1974, it was pretty much the only practical guide to being a DJ. I fondly recall reading some of this and feeling both inspired and educated back in the 1980s.  It was very much of it's time.  A really practical focus on running a DJ business,with all the administration, legal and financial guidance to support the technical music and amplification explanations

Now of course the skills focus has become quite different. Less about fixing amplifiers, more about using software whether for sound and even light.

While the world has moved on there there are still words of wisdom which hold true today as much as they every did nearly forty years ago.  Here are some of those perennial gems...


Disco music is all about people dancing, having a good time....as old as the hills but just has a new label (p.8)

Discotheques, whether in the club environment or portable, serve one basic purpose and that quite simply is entertainment in a place where girl can meet boy and boy can meet boy, etc. It is a participative environment, where the dancers are as much of the total atmosphere as any other factor, yet they are also the reason why the discotheque is there and why it survives. 

The bright lights, the enjoyment of music...a well paid and easy job - these are the attractions of becoming a disc jockey  It is not well paid and it is not easy. The hours are anti-social, the work is demanding (p.8, 85)

The main pleasures of being a successful disc jockey: keeping the customers happy. (p.85)

In the main the ability to put an evening together successfully cannot be taught.  It is a matter of experience which allows the disc jockey to read his audience, understand what they are feeling and seize opportunities as they arise to create and develop the evenings atmosphere along the lines which lead to the audience's enjoyment. (p.62)


Pre Saturday Night Fever, the disco industry as a whole was regarded with much scepticism and treated as a joke.  However since that memorable event the industry has accrued more publicity.  With that publicity, a level of understanding has developed, and from this a air of respectability. (p84)

To summarise, it the disc jockey's job to read his audience, find out what makes them tick, talk to them, become a part of them and watch their reactions carefully.  Only from this will he be able to programme to their desires and ensure that everybody has a good time. (p.66)

Disco as a dance form will never die. (p.84)

Here here.  And as a wordcloud...

Ice Breakers 3: Either Or?

People get together to be social.   Every social environment will be unique, a different place, different people and at least at a different time.  Even the same group of people in the same place but at a different time will have a different feel, those people will be at least be a little older, even wiser.

Add to that, some people are naturally more social than others.  So sometimes it's helpful to encourage things along a little. When individuals can relax into that social environment, they are more likely to have a more enjoyable time.  And so it then stands to reason, that the sooner individuals relax and get comfortable, then the longer they can spend enjoying themselves.  So there's great benefit in getting people comfortable and enjoying themselves quickly.... more people can have a great time sooner.

We've previously described and detailed various ice breakers.  See...

Ice Breakers 1: Why do it?
Ice Breakers 2: Scenarios, Favourites and Experiences

Here's another category that can be very easy and engaging, often described as either-or questions. These are quite light hearted but don't preclude some fuller debate emerging.....

• Bath or shower?

• Night person or day person?

• Christmas eve or boxing day?

• Saturday or Sunday?

• Crossword or Sudoko?

• Dr Who or Star Trek?

• Petrol or Diesel?

• Running or Cycling?

• East Enders or Emmerdale?

• Comedy or drama?

• Batman or Superman?

• Drums or guitar?

• Smartphone or iphone?

• Rugby or Cricket?

• Washing up or drying up?

• Cornflakes or Wheatabix?

• Brown sauce or tomato sauce?

• Chinese takeaway or Indian takeaway?

• Red wine or white wine?

• Sparking water or still water?

• Larger or bitter?

• Apple or orange?

• Coke or Pepsi?

• Strawberries or raspberries?

• Tea or Coffee?

• Hamburger or hotdog?

• Brown bread or white bread?

• Beef or Salmon?

• McDonalds or Burger King?

• Mars or Snickers?

• Roast Potatoes or Chips?

Some Sound Test Time

We're always on the look out to see how we can improve our technical set up.  Especially given the ever growing range of sound equipment on the market. Also, quality amplification at higher PA volumes is much more tricky than at lower home hi-fi volumes, really because the sound waves tend to need to travel further in a PA set up.  So there's real opportunities for new improved solutions to appear on the market, still being constrained by the laws of physics of course.

So, it's one of those indulgent pleasures.  An afternoon,  a hall, kettle for tea, kitkat, bananas, and of course some equipment test out and put through it's paces.  A standard playlist with some familiar and properly obscure music (with very deep base or very high top end) to really test all aspects of the amplified sound.  Add in some like minded friendly company with a mindset for audio perfection, and it's a recipe for enjoyable and thoughtful experimentation, learning and improvement.

This time it was testing out some amps.  Two new amps and three benchmark amps for comparison.  One new class D digital amp to see if it can generate as smoother sound as the class A/B.  And a new compact amp to compare too.

1. Testing a new top end digital amp.

So how does a new top end digital amp - just new to the market - compare to a top end class A/B amp?

Digital amps - Class D - can have tended to have a slightly harsher sound that the more traditional analogue - class A/B amps.  When music is amplified for several hours that harshness can get really noticeable especially in the mid and top end of the sound.  That said they are more compact, lighter and generate less heat.

In conclusion, the class D effect was not really noticeable on the bass amplification.  On the mid and top end the digital solution didn't beat the class A/B performance, but there was not that much in it.

2. Packing two amps into the space of one.

So how does a new compact 4 channel A/B amp compare to the typical 2 channel taking up the same space?

In our quest for ultimate stealth sizing without compromising quality of sound, this was really interesting.  Amplification usually needs 2 channels, one for each of the two stereo signals - left and right.   Given amps are full of electronics  and generate heat, it's always best practice to have a spare to hand.  In our typical set up we tend to use two amps anyway, one for the top and mid sound and the other for the bass, and the amps are just ticking over..  That means that if one amp goes down it's a simple job to convert to one amp, and it just means that the amp works a bit harder, but still within its comfort zone.

So we were naturally curious about the four channel amp that is still the smooth A/B class, takes up half the space, and is lighter. So smaller and lighter but is the sound quality preserved.

In conclusion, a very comparable performance.  In the end the best of the 2 channel A/B amps won out by a whisker. Just a touch warmer sound.  At that margin, this is also down to some personal preference too.

Wedding Wonder

The modern wedding is a wonder, and in lots of respects.  It's full of wondrous moments in a wondrous day.  It's still typically a once in a lifetime for the bridge and groom.  Behind the wonder of the occasion, it's certainly a wonder of choices, planing, co-ordination and logistics.

There's lots of choices to make, there's the where and when of course.  That's followed by lots of choices about what's needed to help make the day special, and who'll provide that help and those services.  There's plenty of bridal magazines and wedding fairs to choose from.

Here's the offer of a regional bridal magazine. This one is focussed on the East of England.  There's 865 offerings.  There's the usual suspects...gowns [77] and make up [28], catering [53] and cakes [46], and then cars [51], flowers [72] and photography [66].

Then there's the added extras... 18 choices for chocolate fountains , and 14 for fireworks.  Plus Toastmasters [9], wedding planners [21], and balloons and decorations [8].  And 11 insurance choices to cover all of those commitments.

Another wondrous thing is that, besides the fireworks, there's no reception entertainment options.  Research for bridal magazine shows that besides the actual wedding ceremony and the bride's dress, the thing people remember most about a wedding is the entertainment.

Entertainment is the active rather than passive element.  Flowers and balloons can create the environment, but it's the entertainment which creates the atmosphere...the potential harpist, jazz piano, band, and of course the disco.  Even the magician with the close up table magic.  A toastmaster can very helpfully bring structure and style but it's not engaging entertainment. Music of some sort is the added magic, even if it's it's mostly in background.. There's real magic in the bridge and groom's first dance, typically chosen with deep care.  And then of course the possible father and daughter dance....

So this is all about getting that balance right between passive things and actively creating that engaging, entertaining experience that makes magical memories.

Here's that list of choices from that regional wedding magazine...

Venues                    125
Cars and Transport         51
Gowns and Dresses          77
Flowers                    72
Photography                66
Catering                   53
Cakes                      46
Rings and Jewellery        45
Marquee hire               40
Men's formal hire          36
Lingerie                   36
Bridal make up             28
Shoes                      27
Honeymoon                  22

Wedding Planners           21
Horse and Carriage         19
Hen and Stag               19
Chocolate fountains        18
Fireworks                  14
Bridal beauty and health   13
Insurance                  11
Fairs and shows             9
Toastmasters                9
Balloons and decorations    8

Ice Breakers 2: Scenarios, Favourites and Experiences

The right ice breakers can help people relax and hence enable then to enjoy themselves even more, even sooner.  We've discussed previously why icebreakers can be really helpful, see

Ice Breakers 1: Why do it?

Here's a specific sort of ice breaker, or perhaps more correctly "mood maker".  This one is based around some fun questions about scenarios, favourites and experiences.

Getting the right questions is part art and part science.   Best to start generic, which can work in most circumstances.  Then depending on the individuals and the event, then to make it more interestingly specific.

The warm up questions can be  be hypothetical scenarios... these are the "What if..."..... "If you could have a superpower, what would it be? ".

Then to build on that with some personal favourites or preferences...."Who's you're favourite TV detective?".

The next step can be to introduce some personal experiences..."What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?".

So here's a sample of some of those ice breaker questions to help encourage the fun along...

A. Scenarios

• If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

• If you could have a secret camera in any room in the world, what room would you choose?

• If you could have a servant come to your house every day for an hour, what would you have them do?

• If you owned a shop, what would it sell?

• If you could commit one crime without being caught what would it be?

• If you could physically transport yourself to any place in the world at this moment, where would you go?

• If you won a million, what would you spend it on?

B. Favourtites

• Who's your favourite TV detective?

• What's your all time favourite movie?

• What isn't strongest craving you get?

• What do you order when you have Chinese food?

• What was eye last thing you bought yourself just for fun?

• What's your favourite knock knock joke?

• Who's your favourite muppet?

• Tell us a quirky habit of yours.

• How much taller or shorter would you like to be?

• What's the skill you're most proud of?

• Which of the seven dwarfs are you most like?

C. Experiences

• What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?

• What's the best bargain you've ever found?

• What's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?

• What's the longest you've ever waited in line?

• What's the biggest surprise you've ever had?

• What was your best ever holiday?

• What's the oddest thing that has ever happened to you?

• What was your most embarrassing moment?

• How did you celebrate your last birthday?

• Have you ever been in a food fight?

• Have you ever been stung by a bee?

• What's the most memorable class you ever taken?

Essential Stereo

I recently picked up some heritage vinyl from a local charity shop.  It was one of the exploratory albums overtly flirting with the wonder of stereo as it came into being.

Some of the effects were very clearly over pronounced and must have been quite magical at the time for recorded music. Over time that use of stereo has become more subtle of course.  And the application and development into home cinema and surround systems is now common place.

However despite that stereo breakthrough, the irony 50 years on is that in a lots of public venues where music is played, and especially where it's played loud in the clubs and late licence pubs, what's being broadcast is in fact mono.  Not surprising really when spaces are not uniform or symmetrical, and often small speakers can be scattered all over, at any one time you're only near a single speaker.  Hence it's generally a more complete sound to hear something blended rather than only half the signal.

Without Music...

...life would be a mistake.

That's a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German Philosopher (1844-1900).  It turns out that he had quite a few philosophical things to say about music, and interestingly also about dance.   Here are some of those quotes...

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Another of Neitzsche's many quotes was "What does not destroy me makes me stronger".  Given those music and dance quotes above, it's fascinating that the stronger quote has itself materialised as paraphrased in pop title and lyrics.....What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger),  Kelly Clarkson (2011).

Ice Breakers 1 - Why do it?

People get together to be social.   Every social environment will be unique, a different place, different people and at least at a different time.  Even the same group of people in the same place but at a different time will have a different feel, those people will be at least be a little older, even wiser.

Add to that, some people are naturally more social than others.  So sometimes it's helpful to encourage things along a little. When individuals can relax into that social environment, they are more likely to have a more enjoyable time.  And so it then stands to reason, that the sooner individuals relax and get comfortable, then the longer they can spend enjoying themselves.  So there's great benefit in getting people comfortable and enjoying themselves quickly.... more people can have a great time sooner.

Ice breakers are a great way to accelerate that process of getting comfortable.  There are lots of different ice breaker approaches, and some more active than others.  This is not really about structured games, which themselves can be really good at engaging people in the right circumstances, but more about enabling and stimulating conversation.  This about using light, informal approaches, mostly built around simple questions, and can be picked up and put down to suit.  This really suits small groups, and often around the naturally occurring tables.

One of the simplest and quickest ways is using neutral, curious, interesting, and sometimes odd questions, to create some common dialogue and build some rapport.  The right questions can generate a flurry of interesting and humorous responses that allow people to start to talk naturally with each other.  It's about creating and having some fun.

So over time here's well share some of those approaches and questions. Here's a sample of those coming ice breakers....

What if....

• If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
• If you owned a shop, what would it sell?
• If you could have a secret camera in any room in the world, what room would you choose?

Favourites...

• What's your all time favourite movie?
• Who's your favourite TV detective?
• What do you order when you have Chinese food?

Experiences...

• What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?
• What's the best bargain you've ever found?
• What's the biggest surprise you've ever had?

Choices....

• Brown sauce or tomato sauce?  
• Bath or Shower?
• Spring or Autumn?

Multi Music Genres

Whenever someone is asked what sort of music they like, it can be become quite a difficult question.  The number of music genres and their sub genres is ever increasing.  So House music has loads of sub-genres including funky, electro, deep, tribal, hip, acid, hard, tech.....

So some wonderful and even odd terminology has emerged.   How about.... liquid funk, booty bass, folktronic, rave breaks, ragga-jungle, atmospheric, glitch and grime....

Here's a common selection is a wordcloud....

Testing... one two... one two...

Ever heard a mic sound test.  You'll almost certainly hear something along the lines of testing "one, two, one two".  For many it's just what's always used, often to set the volume.  But there's another good reason behind this too.

It's not usual to assume that it's a very unimaginative and short test.  In fact it's a very specific test.  Firstly it's short for convenience and subtlety  but most importantly, it's testing the sounds that microphones struggle most with to reproduce well.    It's the "w" of one and the "t" of two which are the especially tricky sounds and so important to to test out in more discerning situation.  In these situations, it;s not just about setting the level or volume but tweaking the equalisation - the high, middle and low frequencies to  get the right balance for the venue.

Bare in mind that microphones are hugely variable in their quality and price too.. having seen new mic for sale at staggering 99p!  More expensive, to certain limit, does tend to give a better sound, but some much is down to all the other factors at play and especially the tone of the voice being amplified too.

Surround Me with Sound

In the world of sound amplification  there are two separate universes.  The first is domestic hi-fi and the other is PA - public address.

In the domestic environment the nature and quality of the acoustic experience has really come on.  Quality and affordable domestic Hi-Fi is now well established, certainly beyond the very entry level kit.  The development of home theatre and surround sound has added a new dimension too.   Also this quality has been applied to the in-car sound systems ,especially given the very predictable acoustic environment.  Add to that developments like DAB radio, and what people hear at home and in the car, whether consciously or not, can be really good quality.  That represents a real challenge for PA which is more challenging, but where expectations can be set really high.

Amplifying music well at the higher volumes of PA is technically more difficult to get right.  It tends to be about getting the sound to travel well over distances, and so create a full wrap around, especially in the lower bass end of the sound.  This is especially so for larger venues and volumes.  Also, the acoustic properties of the space start to have a relatively stronger influence on the quality and projection of the sound.  The laws of physics are such that bigger speaker cones deliver and project a fuller, deeper and lower bass, and that's where the smaller speakers will always suffer, especially those little satellite speakers dotted around a venue.  That said high spec small speakers, 10", even 8" can be excellent  when combined with a dedicated but bigger bass speaker, which tends to b our approach.  So for lots of technical reasons amplified music can be missing that quality edge, unless the effort is invested to overcome those challenges.

Interestingly in lots of pubs, clubs and restaurant, the sound is often amplified in mono, rather than stereo.  This is to reflect the fact that speaker location can be less than optimal, and hence difficult to hear a stereo effect.  Much better to hear a combined and full sound in mono rather than just one half of a signal.  So the challenge for public address is to continually strive to create that domestic finesse and in larger spaces at higher volumes.

A Sound Quote

We really believe in the magic of music, and regularly see that magic engage people individually and connect people together.

Expressing that is words can be a bit of a challenge for most of us.   For great philosophers and musicians  this can come quite naturally.  So here are some of those insights that we've come across...

• I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by.  No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music.  Billy Joel

• After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.  Aldus Huxley

• If music be the food of love, play on.  William Shakespeare

• Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.  Frank Zappa

• Music is the shorthand of emotion.  Leo Tolstoy

• Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.  Ludwig van Beethoven

• Music is well said to be the speech of angels.  Thomas Carlyle

• Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.  William Congreve

• Music is very spiritual, it has the power to bring people together. Edgar Winter

• Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.  Herbie Hancock

• Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions. Jacques Barzun

• Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. Plato

• Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. Victor Hugo

• Music is my religion.  Jimi Hendrix

• Music is the soul of language.  Max Heindel

• There's nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it. Mickey Hart

• Who hears music feels his solitude peopled at once. Robert Browning

Why Blog

From time to time we think something, hear something, see something, that's really relevant and interesting. So from 2012 we've been writing those things down as short articles, and sharing them through our blog on a regular basis. So there's a real mix of quite important perspectives  balanced with some interesting reference items plus some more fun thoughts too.

We've found that a number of benefits have come from doing this, and we feel they're worth sharing too.

1.  Actually writing things down helps us to structure and refine our thinking from which we can reflect, learn, and so continually improve.  There's always something that can be done better, however small. It gives us a neat way of preserving and referencing too.

2. We can easily share thoughts and perspectives with fellow professionals, interested in the same things as us. In fact, these articles have often resulted from, or lead to, some really interesting professional conversations.

3. We like openness and transparency and from these articles, our clients can get a real sense of what we're about, wider and deeper that the usual headlines.

We like the idea of that our articles and their content can be applied and developed.  So to help make a wider and positive difference, were making our articles available under a Creative Commons Licence.  This is a way to maximise creativity and innovation, while also respecting and crediting the original work and effort.

Hope you find our observations and reflection are informative and enjoyable.