Did you know that a simple speaker completely transformed modern music festivals? A vertical line array is a loudspeaker system that stacks speakers on top of each other so that sound is more evenly distributed on a horizontal plane. To learn more about line array, WIRED spoke with sound engineer Dave Rat. Dave, who has provided audio for Coachella since 2001, breaks down exactly how these speakers work, and why modern music festivals sound so much better than they used to.
Check out more of Dave Rat at http://ratsound.com, http://youtube.com/daverat and http://daverat.com
Director: Efrat Kashai
Director of Photography: Ricardo Pomares
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Dave Rat
Producer: Efrat Kashai
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Kevin Balash
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle-Gunst
Audio: Will Miller
Production Assistant: Phillip Arliss
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
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I feel like i’m stupider having watched this video
Yeah but does this take into account the issues with outside venues being wind??? Cause the wind literally will kill the way line array sounds whichever way the wind is blowing hard.
Granted I’ve never heard point but still.
No one is singing live anymore. Backing tracks, passed show track and more…. Shows are not real anymore….
Yet the festivals are getting shittier
This is brilliant.
Lamentablemente en Colombia pasa todo lo contrario. Cada dia suenan peor
U2 used this speaker array in for their 360 tour back in 2009, I saw that concert twice! The stage looked like a spaceship & the Black Eyed Peas opened for them. The sound was insanely good.
If u walk forwards and backwards as opposed to side to side wouldnt it still do the interference thing?
Playing different signals/instruments in side by side line array configuration is such a crazy creative workaround imo
idk man I way prefere a good funktion one stack setup. line arrays never sounded as full to me..they always feel kind of thin an harsh
l-acoustics
Thats cool
I’ve been to both type concerts. At a Rush concert years ago, there were dead spots everywhere due to point source. The modern concerts I have been to are radically improved.
Dave Rat is a Legend in the live sound space!
Awesome idea 💡 Dave is the best
I STILL LOVE POINT SOURCE AND DONT TRUST ANY RAT
Thats is garbage pa. You should hear pa in primavera boiler room
Really curious what this video is about since there’s no visible title or description watching it might reveal something interesting 👀
ugh
Line arrays are infinitely better than the older systems… but, the quality of engineering today is absolutely horrific. The concerts of yesterday sounded way better than today for that very reason. Want to hear amazing sound on a modern line array system– Cirque du Soliel.