Concert Sound Quality & Bob Heil

[MediumRare]

Concert sound quality has advanced dramatically in the past 10-20 years, despite the massive acoustic challenges of venues. This thread is to discuss the technical issues. To kick us off, we note the passing of Bob Heil, who is credited with creating some of the first adequate sound systems for large, loud concerts.

Bob Heil, Whose Innovations Enhanced the Sound of Rock, Dies at 83

A groundbreaking audio engineer, he provided the large-scale systems that brought tours by the Who and the Grateful Dead to life.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Punter]

Heils "Talk Box" was a brilliantly simple device. It was nothing more than a speaker in an enclosure that was fed a split of the guitar (in Framptons case). The tube was held in the mouth and out of it came a sample of the guitar sound. The vocalist mixed his own voice or simply mouthed words which became a modulated version of the guitar sample. The mouth-manipulated guitar sound went back into the mix via his vocal mic. For many years I thought it was more complex than this, maybe an amp with some sort of AGC or limiter in it which was operated by pressurizing the air in the tube. I was surprised to find out how basic it was but hey, that's the KISS principle right there!