In-ear monitors have revolutionized live performance, but they're not without their drawbacks. One of these is their inability to create bass that you can actually feel. Tactile transducers were invented to compensate for this by physically vibrating the chair or stool the musician is sitting on--or even the stage itself. Tactile transducers have grown more popular in this post-wedge era, especially for performing drummers and bass players yearning to get a more-complete picture of their sound.
But even a modern tactile transducer can be an imperfect solution. A tactile processor works much like a speaker, but the physics are different enough to make the bass sensation sometimes feel artificial or mechanical. Monitoring innovator Aviom claims to have an answer for this in its new Boom-1 tactile transducer processor. Boom-1 offers DSP processing to optimize the bass sensation, compensating for different transducer designs, mounting systems and even music styles.
Device details
Boom-1 is a two-rackspace device that one might mistake for a power amp at first glance. That’s no coincidence. Boom-1 is, at its essence, a DSP-enhanced power amp. Instead of driving a loudspeaker to create sound, Boom-1 drives a tactile transducer to create vibrations.
Boom-1 is, at its essence, a DSP-enhanced power amp.
As with a power amp, controls on Boom-1 are quite simple. A "Strength" knob controls the intensity of the vibrations (much like a volume control). Next to this knob are LEDs for "Clip" and "Signal," which should come in handy when setting levels or troubleshooting a signal flow problem. Also on Boom-1's front panel is a Mute button to turn off the transducer output.
The main control on Boom-1 is a "Feel" button, which is where the real DSP magic is supposed to happen. Each press of this button toggles through three levels of processing ranging from "Loose" to "Tight." Though available press information gives no details on how this control operates, it apparently affects the damping of the transducer output.
The main control on Boom-1 is a "Feel" button, which is where the real DSP magic is supposed to happen.
Set to tight, the transducer should closely track the input waveform with little additional motion. On a looser setting, the transducer may be slightly slower to respond to the waveform and more inclined to "overshoot" when the waveform ends. The end result may mimic the difference in sound between standing very close to a subwoofer (tight, defined bass) and at a greater distance (looser, "smoother" bass). We look forward to checking out how these settings change the feel of Boom-1's output.
Headphone inputs and outputs allow you to loop Boom-1 into any monitoring system, while a dedicated back-panel input allows direct connection to the "Mono Mix Out" jack of most Aviom personal monitor mixers. Boom-1 also has an XLR output with level knob. This is used to drive an external power amp for when a larger transducer (or an array of transducers) is needed. Boom-1 puts out roughly 100 watts into an 8 ohm load, or 200 watts into a 4 ohm load. A hands-on test will reveal if this is enough power to drive a typical tactile transducer system.
Also on the back panel is a block of small DIP switches used to fine-tune Boom-1's operation. The first set of switches allow you to optimize Boom-1's response to various transducer systems. An additional switch engages a high-pass filter, which is useful to remove ultra-low frequencies that cannot be effectively felt but waste significant amplifier power. The last switch inverts the phase of the transducer output for a more seamless transition from physical vibrations to in-ear sound.
As a leader in personal monitor mixing, Aviom's products have been reviewed many times here in Church Production Magazine. We look forward to testing its Boom-1 to see how much of an improvement it makes as compared to an un-processed tactile transducer setup.
