As practitioners of traditional arts in the "modern" world, we are confronted with varied and challenging venues. Chamber music was once the entertainment of rich patrons and a few companions, performed in intimate, well, chambers. The musics which we call "folk" were played by a few folks for a few folks. Small scale works suffer when, in order to accommodate modern audiences, they must be performed in auditoriums, large churches, on the concert stage, outdoors, and in spaces never intended to enhance musical values.

There are reasons why the amplification of sound was developed which predate, and in fact have nothing to do with rock and roll. Rather, amplification answers the need to provide audiences with an enhanced listening experience, and allows subtle expression and nuance to come to the front of even the largest works. Properly applied, amplification allows greater clarity and intelligibility for lyrics and spoken word. It can allow a singer to be heard over an un-amplified, but still extremely loud, big band, and let an acoustic guitar or double bass be heard among a large brass section. Amplification can bring the delicate voice of a medieval lap harp to the back of the largest performance space.

There is a common misconception that lots of reverberation equals good acoustics. While the long reverb times of a Gothic cathedral can enhance the sound of a church organ or a choir performing works intended for that environment, this same reverb can destroy the rhythmic, timbral, and lyrical content of, for instance, Bluegrass or Jazz. Amplification, properly applied, can bring clarity and an up-front perspective to listeners in the livest environments. Conversely, it can make the smallest, driest spaces sound huge and rich.

Musical traditions are living traditions, and develop in the fullness of time. Fifty years on, Rock and Roll has undergone the folk process, and traditional music from around the world has become electrified and transformed. We are jiggy with this. When electric music is played well, there are few more satisfying pastimes for an engineer than tailoring the sounds of bass and drums into a rhythm section that can’t be stopped. At the same time, we believe, and have demonstrated, that music can be fat, full, big and propulsive well below the threshold of pain.

ALLEN LAM / PROFESSIONAL AUDIO (aka allenlam.com, informally "Allenears" is in our twenty third year of applying appropriate technology to the art of bringing the special qualities of acoustic and music and musics of all traditions to every audience member, despite challenging acoustic environments.