The Human Body...Bass trap or high end absorption?

[Rodney Gene]

Anyone know how much effect the 'engineer' in mix position is affecting the top end or low end?
I was curious during my recent test of my room if I was affecting the performance of the RTA by standing in the room. Then it made me wonder how much we actual do, if any affect the sound and at what frequencies.

Is body mass a consideration with how well we can 'feel' low end?Do 'larger' guys hear differently?

What about a whole band (5 or 6 people) in the control room during mixdown compared to just the engineer? Change anything?

[lefthando]

Great question.

This might be one for the FOH guys who do sound checks to empty rooms and have to plan for the multitude of 'bags of water' that fill up the room for the show.

[jajjguy]

Yes, people are absorptive. We absorb high end better than low end, but we absorb some low end too, about half as much at 125Hz as at 2kHz.

Believe it or not, this is something that is quite well studied by people who design performance spaces, and there is lots of literature on it. The main reason is that it's much easier to measure a concert hall when no one's in it than to get a paying audience to sit still while we do sine sweeps! So it's really important to know what effect filling a hall up with people will have, so we can adjust our measurements of the empty hall.

[ProfessorFrink]

I've been doing sit ups to increase diffusion and low freq absorbtion. I'll let you know in 6-10 years how it affects the sound in the control room.

[Rodney Gene]

Originally posted by ProfessorFrink
I've been doing sit ups to increase diffusion and low freq absorbtion. I'll let you know in 6-10 years how it affects the sound in the control room.

I have actually gone the opposite route and am back on the Twinkies and cupcakes in order to increase high frequency absorption.

Honesty I understand the concert hall analogy and I also understand how serious live sound techs take thier craft. I was primarily curious about a sound studio with smaller monitors, smaller room and where 5 to 6 people could take up a considerate percentage.

[genericperson]

i've been keeping my weight at 177 to serve as a very high prime number primitive root diffusor.

[Ethan Winer]

Rodney,

> Anyone know how much effect the 'engineer' in mix position is affecting the top end or low end? <

You already got the right answers. I'll add that the biggest influence of your being in the room while testing might be blocking the direct sound or reflections from getting to the measuring microphone. That is, one person standing out of the way is not likely to affect anything, but if you're in or near the mix position you could skew the results. Especially if you're using a sophisticated analyzer that shows reflections versus time.

--Ethan

[Midlandmorgan]

Kinda gives a new meaning to a "fat" sound, doesn't it?

Smartass mode off now: clothing also makes a difference...summer clothing and winter clothing (with heavy coats laying around) are sure to make SOME kind of difference...I would guess the effects are much more pronounced in a small room.