SBS Interview on Houseaddict.com

[soundmanshorty]

Montreal's Club Stereo has been nominated 2 years in a row by Club Systems International magazine for the world's Best Sound System category in 2004, and now again in 2005 for the Night Stalker award, which is equivalent to the people's choice award by voting online at www.clubworldawards.com. That recognition came mainly due to the efforts of Shorty, the sound engineer for Stereo nightclub & for David Morales, and we would like to thank him for taking the time off his busy schedule to answer a few of our questions.

irGO: Hey there SHORTY. I'd like to start with a warm hello from the HouseAddict website team and members. Any chance you can reveal your birth-given name?

Shorty: it's Craig Bernabeu.

irGO: Let's just cover some background on you - how did you learn about the trade, how did you get into this business, what were your first projects?

Shorty: Well I was always around sound systems from when I was a kid - my father and his friend were really into audio. His best friend owned a consumer hi-fi audio shop so they always brought home different products to audition so I was always around when they did this. Then in the mid 80s I worked in a hi-fi shop selling and installing hi-end home sound systems and I built competition car audio systems where I built custom cabinets for cars & built custom passive x-over networks so I could run 28 speakers on 2 channel amps that were rated for 25 watts per channel that where just incredible. Then in the mid to late 80s I worked for a pro shop in Newark NJ that serviced some of Richard Long RIP accounts, namely Club Zanzibar and Club 88, so I worked on these systems as well as other clubs. From 1995 - 2001 I worked for Steve Dash for Phazon @ Twilo for 6 yrs as the sound tech. Then in 2001 - present I started SBS. So I was always around audio from one aspect to the other.

irGO: Is your Company (SBS, aka Systems By Shorty) one that could be considered very unique, or are there many businesses out there that can offer the same passion and hard work that is put into this kind of trade?

Shorty: I'd like to think we are extremely unique and have different philosophies to any other company in the field and have a lot of passion when it comes to sound. We build sound systems that have a home hi-fi audio / studio monitor reference system type of sound, but with a bottom end that runs thru you like a truck and a top end that has that disco sizzle, where you hear deep into the sound track hearing every inner detail as the producer meant it to be heard and as you're partying you can carry a conversation over the music without yelling to your partner on the floor at levels that are kicking you in the ass, and when leaving the club at the end of the night without your ears fatigued and buzzing and ringing. Our philosophy is use the best products and you get the best results, we hand build all our custom cabinets using the best wood and build the system to each room where no two systems are alike.

irGO: Readers have noticed in other interviews that you're 'self taught' yourself on a lot of the facets of the sound industry, which is quite an accomplishment. Do you know if there are any formal college courses etc. (other than those for music production) that might help steer people towards this type of career path in the electronic music industry?

Shorty: Yeah, most of my learning is self taught from trial & error and from the knowledge I have picked up from engineers in conversations throughout the years. I would have to say that there are no schools today that offer the kind of classes to teach audio the way I engineer systems. I gained most of my knowledge in the field & working with and under the right people. I build analog systems where I modify gear to respond the way I need it to respond & there is a lot of electronic trickery and it's voodoo audio being used in the design of my systems. The industry today is supporting building sound systems digitally and if you went to school this is the way you would learn audio design is got to be done, digitally, and they would say it can't be done analog which is completely untrue. Stereo proves that you can still build sound systems analog and it will work and perform better than the best digital technology can offer.

irGO: We all know that nobody wants to go to a dance club to have their ears blown out. However, people love to be able to hear all the small notes/clips/bings & bangs within the music being played. Can you explain to readers what 'good sound' is, and how it accomplishes the above without people having to put on earplugs? What equipment do you personally use to achieve that?

Shorty: A good system will not hurt you, but a great system will touch you emotionally and make you forget about your everyday troubles and you will never want the night to end because what you're experiencing is magical & sexual. But when it comes to hearing every inner detail of the sound track in a sound system, a system must be structured properly with proper power equations with the right box, driver, processing & amplifier combinations. For instance Stereo is only a mere 19,000 watts from the top end to the bottom end, that's considered to be a low powered system by today's standards. Most clubs today have more power than that in the sub bass alone, and most clubs today with a room similar in size to Stereo have 2-3 times that power & IMHO the problem with 99% of the systems today is that they are built with concert level power ratios with hi-power drivers so they hold up. This is necessary when you design hi-power sound, you have to use very rugged drivers, and when you use hi-power drivers they are built to handle hi-power and be very rugged, and when you use drivers like this you will loose on the inner details & finesse because you need heavier speaker cones and heavier voice coils because they need to handle the kind of current these hi-power amps are distributing, and with audio when you design a driver one way for hi-power and dependability it will loose on something else and that's usually fidelity. With audio you can't have everything - you design for one thing and other things suffer. Another issue you need to do when you're building a very hi-power system you need to limit and protect the system and this as well will play a roll in the fidelity. With Stereo we have no limiters or compressors so it's straight audio. So to really achieve the finest playback with a sound system you need to use gear that is built for an audiophile playback situation for critical listeners for instance, brands like Bryston or TAD. You can achieve hi-fi playback if you really know what you're doing.

irGO: We've also read and heard about the incredible work that you and David Morales did with Stereo in Montreal, Quebec. Can you give us an idea of the amount of time you put into this project? Rumours are that there really was no monetary budget, but we're very interested in the duration of this project since you've taken so much pride in this specific one.

Shorty: It is true that there is no budget with Stereo, in order to achieve the goal that David Morales and I wanted to achieve - building the best sound system at any cost. For the best sonic experience in a club you need to build an audiophile system, and a system the size of Stereo the budget is huge. So budget is the last thing you worry about, but the end result is how it sounds and that is what counts with us, so when you walk thru the doors to dance or listen to the system or if you're the jock playing on that system in Stereo it's gonna be the best sonic experience in a club possible. This project has taken us 2 years to date and we will never be finished with it, we will always upgrade and groom this system to be 5 steps ahead of everyone else. Just when people think it can't get any better & we're finished with it, we are changing and improving it. The first week in April '05 we will be installing & debuting our 1st prototype piece of gear that I designed, which is a custom built vacuum tube Isolator which will take this system sonically to the next level; this piece is that good. I am currently working with a hi-end company designing all kinds of products for nightclubs and DJs, and Stereo is the guinea pig for this product. Then once it's tested and approved after use in Stereo it will eventually be released commercially to the public. The Isolator is the 1st of many products that will be available.

irGO: Given that HouseAddict.com is a Toronto-based website, we have some very selfish questions to ask you. Have you visited our lovely city to party in any clubs? (recently vs. the past).

Shorty: Yes, it's a nice city, in the 80s I DJed at the Spectrum, I was at the Guvernment a few years ago and recently I was at a club that brought me out to design a system for them but they wanted to wait till they open their new room. So who knows, sometime soon there might be a huge SBS Analog rig coming to Toronto.

irGO: The reason we ask this question is that the 'mega-clubs' in Toronto have all undergone sound system renovations in the past 1-2 years (i.e. Boa, System Sound Bar, & The Docks). All three of these clubs have chosen to boast products of Germany's own Dynacord (Alpha Concept). Local partiers have really noticed the difference in sound quality, and are more than pleased with the results in all of these clubs. Can you give us a little technical information on the Alpha Concept System that us lay-people can understand?

Shorty: I know a couple of the owners of Boa and they are great guys, I have never been there but I heard great things about the sound in Boa and the space. The alpha concept is a digital out of the box package system that features EV (Electro Voice Drivers) but this is a package system that provides you with everything from the cables to the amps to the processing to the speakers & is cost effective. It's a good system, I only heard one alpha concept in NYC at a club and it was good.

irGO: Given that you more than likely have personal favourites for each component of a system (Bryston, BSS, BGW, TAD), do you feel Dynacord makes some of the top quality systems in the world?

Shorty: I'm more of a custom design guy; each room SBS designs a system for is totally unique and different from one to the next for every budget. So the club owner that buys a system from SBS offers something totally unique & amazing to their clientele. But I like the finer things in audio, so when a club owner wants the best product I like to use in my systems the best products available, to name a few, Bryston custom built processors & amps, TAD Drivers, BSS EQs, Urei 1620 Mixer, BGW amps. I feel when you use a out of the box product in multiple rooms that rooms sound too similar to each other, so I like one room to have its own personality & different from the next. I think the Dynacord product is a good product.

irGO: Understanding that there are many variables affecting how you tailor a sound system to a club, does the building architecture stand out as a significant influence? (i.e. basement club vs. 'mega dance hall' vs. a renovated movie theatre... sorry, more selfish questions here).

Shorty: Room acoustics play a major roll, you can have good acoustics in a basement, you can also have horrible acoustics in a basement as well and this goes for every room from mega clubs to theatres, some rooms you can get very lucky and it can be amazing or it can be disastrous. So architecture has a play in your sound. You can walk in a room that has great acoustics but because of design placement it can work against you with sound, because where the sound can go in some cases physically, sometimes that does not work with the designer & owners theme for the room so you need to work around that as well.

irGO: I'm sure none of us readers can fathom what it must take to customize a system in order to function properly in a specific venue. Therefore, we're sure it must burn you up when DJ's such as 'Billy Big Guns' come in and crank all the levels, which inevitably chases people off the dance floor. Do you have any words of wisdom for DJs out there that need schooling on proper sound systems?

Shorty: The user can be amazing or disastrous with a system the night of the event. Jocks need to listen & walk a floor to see where they are at. You can't just come in and crank the booth and forget about your floor and stay in the booth all night. Today's DJ plays so many rooms it's hard to know them all, so walking the floor IMO is a must as you see how you're handling the system so you know where to make your adjustments level and EQ wise. Walking the floor for level is very important so you know how the level is to the dancers on the floor. Also paying attention to how the floor is from when it's packed till when it's dying down you have to pay attention, because the levels that are good while it's packed will be too loud for a smaller crowd so pulling back is a must so you don't hurt and damage people ears. Once you loose your hearing that's it they can't be restored so the people coming to dance come to have fun not get hurt by a system.

irGO: Have any other Canadian venues contacted SBS to look at potential sound upgrades in the near future?

Shorty: Yes 2 venues...

irGO: Finally…..since we all love our beer up here in Canada, what's your poison?

Shorty: Music and good sound that the best drug in the world

...Potential clients can contact Shorty @ www.systemsbyshorty.com / by email: soundmanshorty@hotmail.com / by phone at 1-732-763-0734 or Montreal office 1-514-286-0325 x223

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[housedog]

GREAT Article, I think Shorty is BRILLIANT. I like how Stereo is his prototype and they just keep tweakin it to make it sound great.

I want to go to Stereo, just to hear this system. The next time DT is there is when I am going to go.