BillFitzmaurice.info

My son started a band in high school. I decided to build the boys a PA. It had been a while since I'd done any serious audio stuff, so I did an internet search and found Bill at the old forum. On the old format it was only 3 pages deep, so I was pretty early. Built some 250's and t24's for the boys and was hooked. What started out as fun hobby has turned into my business. I can't tell you how much fun this is.

I don't remember how I got here this past Summer, but I figure I was googling subs and got here that way. In any case, I got here by pure luck. I've been playing keyboards and vocals for about 22 years as solo or duo and starting using subs in about 1993 (EV S181 pair). I put my EV S151 tops right on top of them. Of course I had them placed on each side of me, and was probably in the no-go zone from boundaries for 90% of my jobs. I always thought the bass was not good but didn't know what to do to fix it. In 2008 I got some Mackie 218S subs and it was still status quo...but...these had pole mounts, which was great so I continued my L/R stack with poor placement, now with Mackie SRM 450's on top of the subs.

Before I started to build I implemented the placement and it was an immediate improvement, but since combining placement with the Tubas...good grief...it's just amazing every time I play live or DJ something. I'm in the middle of my OTop 12 pair build right now, and will gig with my small, but fully BFM tops and subs two weeks from today at a small local booking that I do regular. Two more Tuba 30's and OTop 12's will be next followed by some wedges.

Harley wrote:Hehe - wonder what Bill's reason for "what brought you here" is?

+1

I was looking for some subs to replace my 8 Keele boxes for "live" outdoor events.

Found the page through web searches.

Been a cool ride so far.

Made a few friends whom I've cemented some nice long term relationships with in the Pro Sound Industry.

Just for that alone this site has done me well!

Tom Smit wrote:

Harley wrote:Hehe - wonder what Bill's reason for "what brought you here" is?

+1

The same reason men do anything - money, power, and women.

Oh, and the emoticons. He loves emoticons

Robby

I came here after the girl i was engaged to ran off with another guy and i was left living with my best mates ex (no i didnt steal her from him, but i did cop a lot of hate) and another girl that didn't like me. was hiding away from life on my computer and thought horn sub woofers looked pretty extreme and proceeded to google. this site turned up.

I'm an Argentine Tango DJ, very unhappy with the current state of tango festival sound (The best they seem to be able to do is sacrifice bass for midrange clarity; at worst it's a muddy mess). I wanted something portable, but then I decided I really needed 4 DR200s for ultimate sound quality, so naturally I'll need 4 T39s to hang with them.

Haven't decided whether to go in the direction of doing live sound for tango festivals or not yet, but I feel confident I can handle that with all I'm learning here and at the SAC forum.

el_ingeniero wrote:I'm an Argentine Tango DJ, very unhappy with the current state of tango festival sound (The best they seem to be able to do is sacrifice bass for midrange clarity; at worst it's a muddy mess). I wanted something portable, but then I decided I really needed 4 DR200s for ultimate sound quality, so naturally I'll need 4 T39s to hang with them.

Haven't decided whether to go in the direction of doing live sound for tango festivals or not yet, but I feel confident I can handle that with all I'm learning here and at the SAC forum.

Just 4 T39's? How much bass are in these Tango tracks? I'm sure 4 DR200's can handle the Tango Fests, and I'm sure you could too.

Robby

Guitar player and soundman for my band. I was on the Driverack forum learning how to use my Driverack PA unit properly when someone mentioned the tuba sub. I just had to find out what that was....and here I am.
I was a long-time Yorkville fan. Took me about 15 years playing in the band to put together my ultimate Yorkville PA rig. After finding this site, I ditched all my commercial made PA and monitor boxes and replaced with BFM boxes.

Ron P wrote: After finding this site, I ditched all my commercial made PA and monitor boxes and replaced with BFM boxes.

ditto LOL

Scott, why didn't you speak up? They need to get this poll right!!

I came here as a DRUMMER so I would get a decent kick sound in the mains That's all that's important, really

Actually, I've built speakers of my own design for years, done various sound installs and was familiar with Bill's work from "SpeakerBuilder" days. When our band needed a sound system I found this site googling for some older horn designs (and the LAB sub). When I saw Bill's site I knew I didn't need to look any further. Great design work in a quality, common sense package.

Robby Hoinsky wrote:

el_ingeniero wrote:I'm an Argentine Tango DJ, very unhappy with the current state of tango festival sound (The best they seem to be able to do is sacrifice bass for midrange clarity; at worst it's a muddy mess). I wanted something portable, but then I decided I really needed 4 DR200s for ultimate sound quality, so naturally I'll need 4 T39s to hang with them.

Haven't decided whether to go in the direction of doing live sound for tango festivals or not yet, but I feel confident I can handle that with all I'm learning here and at the SAC forum.

Just 4 T39's? How much bass are in these Tango tracks? I'm sure 4 DR200's can handle the Tango Fests, and I'm sure you could too.

Robby

Plenty. The standard 10 to 16 man large group format has a piano and double bass. Sometimes they add a cello to give the strings some heft. There are baritone vocalists in the mix too. Modern quartets and quintets still have keys and/or a bass, and very often a guitar.

I've heard most of the modern groups live and played their recordings over festival PAs, which is usually a small clutch of SRM 450s straining to fill a hotel ballroom. No way is that nasty POS doing a decent job of making it sound like any orchestra has a double bass on it's own. But you can't use a direct radiator sub, because midbass clarity is critical, more important than the bass.

Most of the tracks I have from before 55 or so were remastered from 78s because the masters were lost. There's nothing below 60 Hz on those tracks because 78s from those days can't go lower than that. In that case, every bit that helps along what bass is left is welcome.

Recordings made from about '55 were released to LP, and some late 60's stuff gets thunderously bass heavy in a way that you don't hear in other genres until decades later. It should be fun to make all the tango chicas tummies flutter

el_ingeniero wrote:Argentine Tango DJ

i love Argentine tango, hope to learn it one day.

el_ingeniero wrote:It should be fun to make all the tango chicas tummies flutter

Oh yeah

Let's see . . .

I play keyboards. I was the sound man for my church. I narrowly avoided becoming a DJ due to extreme parental disapproval. I was the kid who spent all his allowance buying stuff to build the ultimate stereo system - which was hard to do in the Caribbean. At 40 i don't know if count as one of the "Old Guys", but having spent thousands on stereo equipment and never being satisfied, I realized that the biggest problem was always the bass. Correcting the room, the right drivers, the right box, the right electronics . . .

Finally I gave up and got married.

To a woman who had only a vague notion of who Bach is . . .

Did I mention I'm a certified organ music freak and also play the organ?

She does have one very great redeeming musical value tho . .

Never met another woman who would STRONGLY Encourage me to "Buy More Subwoofers".

The biggest bass freak I have ever met in a female.

I got here through looking at bass cabs at TalkBass Forum to replace the awful equipment presently in the band.

Through equipment being stolen I need to start slow with some Jacks, but I know if I ever build my wife one of bills subs she'll just keep asking for more . . .