An interview with Josh Kravitz, Production Director

The following is an interview with DayDreamFarmers head of production Joshua Kravitz.

What drew you to production?

I've always been interested in the intersection of technology and music performance. I've been playing guitar since I was 5 years old and quickly get immersed in the music community. When I was in school, I was the kid who would skip lunch and produce music with my friends and programmed the lights for theater productions.

Josh in 2013, in the recording studio he built at high school.

I was at EDC in 2016 when I realized that I really wanted to learn how to do large production and started throwing mini raves in my parents' garage. Eventually I went to any club that would take me and worked doing visuals, lighting and sound. Theres always so much to learn in production, and just when you think you know it all, something else comes out, or people's taste's change and you get to learn all over again.

How do you feel about sound system culture?

I think the fact that so many people are becoming passionate about high quality sound is amazing! There are tons of people asking "what system are they running" which wasn't really happening for a long time! Previously, people would hide their sound systems, whereas now the system is so much a part of the experience that its almost billed as an artist on the flyers. Hopefully this gets more people into the production field too!

But obviously you've been outspoken about the sometimes-toxic nature of the culture though.

Oh, most definitely! The issue is that people believe that sound system design is magic, when it really is a lot of science and math. People get super loyal to their sound system brand of choice, and don't sometimes give enough thought to how the system will be operated, tuned, sized, etc. So, you'll see events with like 100 people in a tiny warehouse with a quarter- million-dollar system in place. And it just echos off the walls and sounds terrible. Plus, there's a lot of the same "I know this person, I know that person" in the community that people will use to make up for their lack of understanding of basic sound design. I think people need to take their passion for sound and do the legwork to learn about the acoustics; the "magic" of these systems really is the knowledge that the sound engineers are able to bring in tuning the system.

Speaking of brands, what are you running?

We have a Four-Way System, meaning we break up the frequencies and run 4 separate speakers to reproduce the sound.

We use Funktion One RES 3EH Mid-Highs and Highs, which are the heart of the system. They are extremely directional with fiberglass waveguides and phase plugs, which allows us to place the sound exactly where we need it. They have been around, basically unchanged, for years now and are fantastic, and they definitely please a lot of the sound system culture people, especially when we're running EDM music.

For our subwoofers we are using Paraflex C2E ELF 21" Subwoofers which we commissioned through WAAT Sound to build. We also use Paraflex C-3D kick bins. They are the "mini subwoofers" that you'll see stacked on top of the big subwoofers. They give you that "punch" that people like from a kick drum.

We run a PreSonus 32R Digital Mixer which we can control from an iPad, so we can walk around and adjust things from the audience point of view. And we run Crown XLS Drivecore amplifiers.

We also run a special DSP and calibration microphone which lets us have a ton of control over how the sound gets split up to the speakers.

I've never heard of Paraflex, what is it?

Paraflex subwoofers refers to a special subwoofer design. It's an open-source design that has a massive community (Shout out to high-order quarter-wave society) The way it works is fascinating!

Most subwoofers are "ported", which uses a tube tuned specifically to enhance the low-end sub-bass of the driver at a specific frequency. This is how a bluetooth speaker is able to have decent bass, even though the speakers are tiny! The paraflex design uses two differently tuned chambers, one on the backside of the speaker and one on the frontside of the speaker. It's so efficient that you have to use special drivers that can handle all the additional force and heat.

The subwoofers are designed by extremely smart members of the community and there is a ton of data and transparency about how they work and how they should sound. DayDreamFarmers is all about community, so we loved the idea of integrating these speakers into our rig.

How do you set up and tune this system?

Tuning is where the magic happens!

Before the show I try to figure out what is going to be the biggest challenge when I look into a new venue in terms of reflections and where the audience will be walking around, etc. I have prediction software that lets me "see" the sound in the room. I can use this to plan how I want to place the speakers, so I usually walk in with a good idea of how it's going to go. My goal is to make the sound is even as possible throughout the audience area and try to reduce any dead zones or weird reflections that would occur.

Once the speakers are set up, we tune them and establish a flat baseline. We send either a "slide whistle" (sine sweep) or "static" (pink noise) through each speaker and record those measurements in the microphone. A lot of non-production people don't know this, but you have to time align the speakers, meaning that the speakers closest to the audience are actually delayed a few milliseconds so that the rear speakers have time to "catch up" as the sound moves from them towards the audience. Rear fills at a large concert might fire like a half second after the mains, but you'd never know because the sound reaches your ear at the same time.

Then we record the same measurements again. My software has a really nice auto-EQ feature that corrects for the room walls enhancing or reducing certain frequencies due to reflections. Then all of that data is programmed into the DSP and run one last time as a check.

What's one tip you have for event companies hiring or choosing production?

You need to look at the actual value that each production element has and be honest to yourself about how many people will be at your show and what elements are actually going to translate to a good experience. For sound, really think about whether you need that big system, and if people are willing to pay more for tickets in order to hear "insert brand name here" system. For lighting, work with someone that has a background in lighting design, and has personally done work of your same scale that you feel matches the "look and feel" that you are going for. If you are looking to bring production in house, make sure you have someone internally with the skill and knowledge to operate the system.

Do you have any tips for people trying to get into production?

Reach out and talk to people and learn as much as you can! I'm not sure about other production companies, but if someone came early or stayed late at our shows to help us set up or take down, I would spend a ton of time with them to show them the entire system in detail!