Re: spacial sound

["L Tremblay" <ltct@concentric.net>]

>I'm interested in this discussion of surround sound during live sets.
>I'm looking into 2 possibilities for my live gigs:-
>1. This is one I used on a theatre project once and I know it works.
>What you do is get a couple of these piezo electric tweeters. They're
>quite cheap and attatch them in parallel with your existing PA speakers,
>(they are high impedance so you don't have to worry about your amp).
>Then you stick them high up on a hook on the wall, window sill, beam
>etc, (preferably behind the audience). What happens then is that when
>your playing the tweeters will naturally pass certain high frequencies
>and they will appear to be coming from above/behind. I've actually had
>people look around them to locate the sounds. Like I say its dead cheap
>and very easy to do live.
>


I've used this exact set-up before. Works as advertized. :)

>2 I've not tried this one. It involves placing a full range speaker
>behind the audience and wiring it up to the two live terminals on a
>stereo amp. The speaker signal passes the difference between the two
>normal stereo channels. Does anyone know the impedance implications of
>this before I try it? The theory is that if say you pan a sound from
>hard right to hard left, the initial sound will come from right front
>and behind , move to the two front speakers only at centre pan and
>finally hard left and behind. You can imagine what this would do to a
>full dynamic mix. It's an interesting idea. 
>Has anyone on this list tried these methods?
>


This is not disimilar from Eno's ambient set-up as explained on the 
liner notes of Music for Airports (or Discreet Music, I forget which).
I've tried this before and it works. What can I say? It sounds very
ambient. I would like to try it in a live setting, though. Anyone done 
it?

- Larry (not so grumpy anymore) ;)