Patent Publication Number: US-7912238-B2

Title: Speaker attenuation system, method and apparatus

Description:
FIELD 
     The present disclosure generally relates to speakers and speaker cabinets for use with musical instruments, and relates in particular to attenuation of a speaker. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art. 
     Speakers and speaker cabinets, and guitar speaker cabinets in particular, have long suffered from a tendency to project frequencies unevenly to an audience, such as performers, listeners, and microphones positioned in front of the speakers. With reference to  FIG. 3A , a typical speaker mounted in a speaker cabinet, tends to project sound in a beam in front of the speaker cabinet. This beam has a central beam region  100 , and outer beam regions  102 A and  102 B. In general, the higher frequencies, such as frequencies above one-thousand Hertz, present in the central beam region  100  are significantly greater in amplitude than the lower frequencies, such as those below one-thousand Hertz, present in that region. Conversely, the higher frequencies present in the outer beam regions  102 A and  102 B tend to be of lesser amplitude than the higher frequencies present in the central beam region  100 . These higher frequencies present in the outer beam regions  102 A and  102 B also tend to more closely match the lower frequencies present in the outer beam regions  102 A and  102 B. As a result, the outer beam regions  102 A and  102 B are generally perceived by musicians, recording professionals, and others as having a more even tone than the central beam region  100 . 
     Turning now to  FIG. 5 , a response curve  500  produced by placing the microphone close to the cabinet of  FIG. 3A  in the central beam region demonstrates the increased amplitude of higher frequencies in the central beam region. As a general rule, the higher the frequency, the more narrow the “beam” of that frequency that tends to be projected forward from the voice coil in the center of the speaker. This voice coil vibrates during operation, causing a conical membrane of the speaker that is attached to the voice coil to similarly vibrate. In contrast to the higher frequencies, lower frequencies tend to project forward from the entire conical membrane and disperse evenly in front of the speaker. 
     While response curve  500  extends from five-hundred Hertz to eight-thousand Hertz, it should be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that the range of human hearing extends from about twenty Hertz to about twenty-thousand Hertz. It should also be readily apparent that musical instruments, such as guitars, are typically only capable of playing notes in a range from about forty Hertz, in the case of a contra base guitar, to about one-thousand seven-hundred sixty Hertz, in the case of an alto guitar. However, musical instruments, and especially electric guitars, can produce higher frequencies as harmonic overtones, especially in the case of tube amp distortion for an electric guitar or use of artificial aural excitation for an electric/acoustic guitar. These harmonic overtones can easily range up to eight-thousand hertz. Thus, the presence of higher frequencies dramatically effects the tone of an amplified guitar signal. 
     Moreover, one skilled in the art will readily recognize that decibels are a logarithmic measure, and that perceived loudness of a sound is generally known to double with an increase of ten decibels. This perceived loudness does not directly relate to actual intensity or amplitude, which doubles with an increase of three decibels. Moreover, perceived loudness, which is an experimentally obtained psychoacoustic measure typically expressed in phons, does not directly correspond to decibels. Typically, a contouring filter, such as an A filter generally accepted for use in musical applications, can be applied to a rough conversion of decibels to phons, with the units expressed as dBA, dBB, or dBC, depending on the filter employed. Alternatively, a conversion table available in acoustics textbooks can be employed to achieve a more accurate conversion expressable as phons. However, the difference between decibels and phons or dBA is mostly significant for frequencies below one thousand Hertz and above eight thousand Hertz. For example, one skilled in the art will readily recognize that application of an A filter to curve  500  would leave points of the curve the same at one-thousand Hertz and five-thousand Hertz, while adjusting other frequencies between one-thousand and eight thousand Hertz by no more than about two decibels. Such application would, however, significantly reflect a decrease in the perceived loudness of lower frequencies below one-thousand Hertz. Accordingly, the difference between perceived loudness of the higher and lower frequencies is even more dramatic than might be otherwise reflected by curve  500 . 
     The increased amplitude of the higher frequencies in the central beam region is generally referred to as “beaminess,” and has long been known to be an undesirable characteristic of speakers, and especially of guitar speaker cabinets, that causes various undesirable results. For example, audience members closer to the stage and positioned to receive the central beam experience “ice pick highs” or “sizzle” generally perceived as unpleasant. Also, recording professionals in the past have discovered that positioning a recording microphone in the central beam region produces undesirable results, and have learned to position the microphone in one of the outer beam regions. Similarly, live sound technicians, especially at larger venues, also need to mic one or more speakers of a guitar speaker cabinet for sound reinforcement through local PA systems. However, more often than not, these live sound technicians tend to place the microphone in the central beam region. As a result, the sound emanating from the PA system tends to be unbalanced, and the entire audience experiences the unpleasant “ice pick highs” or “sizzle.” 
     Turning now to  FIG. 3B , attempts to reduce “beaminess” of a speaker cabinet have generally involved blocking the sound emanating from the central beam region  100 . For example, others have tried placing a blocking member  106  composed of duct tape, felt, metal, fiber, and/or wood between the speaker and the audience in the central beam region  100 . Typically, the blocking member  106  has been mounted inside the screen of the cabinet by attaching the blocking member  106  to the inside surface of the screen, or by providing one or more spokes extending from the cabinet baffle board on which the speaker is mounted, and attaching it to the spoke or spokes. Specifically, duct tape and/or felt discs have been attached to the screen, while wooden discs or metal and fiber discs have been mounted on spokes. Typically, the discs have been four to six inches in diameter for ten to twelve inch speakers, and slightly larger for fifteen inch speakers. 
     Returning now to  FIG. 5 , a response curve  502  produced by placing the microphone close to the blocked cabinet of  FIG. 3B  in the central beam region demonstrates the decreased amplitude of higher frequencies in the central beam region. Specifically, response curve  502  demonstrates the decreased amplitude of higher frequencies in the central beam region when a square section cut from a 2×4 wooden board made of pine is used as the blocking member  106 . Low peaks  504 A- 504 D in response curve  502  demonstrate that a perceptible “hole in the sound” exists for several of the higher frequencies in the central beam region when blocking is used. Blocking is known to be effective in reducing the “ice pick highs” received directly from the cabinet by audience members positioned in the central beam region. However, the “hole in the sound” is experienced by the audience in the central beam region. This “hole in the sound” is also experienced by the rest of the audience when live sound technicians inevitably place the microphone in the central beam region. As a result, most or all of the audience at a large venue experiences an unpleasantly “muddy” tone from the speaker being piped through the PA system of the venue. 
     Accordingly, the need remains for a way to reduce the unevenness, or “beaminess,” of a speaker without creating a perceptible “hole in the sound” in the central beam region. The present invention fulfills this need. 
     SUMMARY 
     A speaker attenuation system includes an attenuating member comprised of suitable material and having a size and a shape capable of attenuating a speaker when positioned in a central beam region of the speaker. A positioning mechanism is capable of positioning the attenuating member predominantly in the central beam region of the speaker in such a manner that it is between the speaker and an audience in a performance setting. The suitable material, such as open cell foam (i.e., acoustic foam), preferably has a property that it is capable, at one or more thicknesses, of reducing amplitudes of a majority of frequencies between one-thousand and eight-thousand Hertz by at least six decibels without reducing amplitudes of any frequencies in that range by more than eighteen decibels. Accordingly, the “beaminess” of the speaker can be reduced without creating a “hole in the sound.” 
     Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. 
    
    
     
       DRAWINGS 
       The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an attenuated speaker cabinet in accordance with the present teachings. 
         FIGS. 2A and 2B  are cross-sectional side views of the attenuated speaker cabinet of  FIG. 1  in open and closed positions. 
         FIG. 3A  is a cross-sectional side view of a speaker cabinet in accordance with the prior art. 
         FIG. 3B  is a cross-sectional side view of a blocked speaker cabinet in accordance with the prior art. 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional side view of an attenuated speaker cabinet in accordance with the present teachings. 
         FIG. 5  is a two-dimensional, logarithmic scale graph of speaker response curves generated with a microphone positioned in a central beam region of a speaker cabinet, wherein the abscissa denotes frequency in Hertz and the ordinate denotes amplitude in decibels metering AC rms voltage, wherein the reference voltage is one volt rms. 
         FIG. 6A  is a perspective, blow up view of a speaker attenuation apparatus in accordance with the present teachings. 
         FIG. 6B  is a perspective view of the speaker attenuation apparatus of  FIG. 6A  implemented to attenuate a 4×12 guitar speaker cabinet. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , a guitar speaker cabinet  150  has a guitar speaker  152 , such as a twelve inch guitar speaker, mounted on a baffle board  154  affixed within a housing  156  composed of wood and vinyl. A screen  158  is positioned in a front side of the housing  156  to protect the speaker. The screen  158  is removable. Fasteners,  160 A and  160 B, such as Velcro patches, can be used to hold a removable screen in place when it is attached to the housing, yet allow easy removal of the screen  158 . It should be readily understood that when Velcro patches are employed as fasteners  160 A and  160 B, a ring patch is mated to a hook patch in order to effect fastening. Other useful fastening mechanisms will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. 
     In accordance with the present teachings, an attenuating member  162  is positioned predominantly in the central beam region of the cabinet speaker  152  when the cabinet  150  is being operated to produce sound in a performance setting. Preferably, the attenuating member is positioned proximate to the speaker in the performance, such as within two or three inches of the speaker. For example, the attenuating member can be attached to one or more portions of the guitar speaker cabinet in such a manner that it is properly positioned when the cabinet is assembled for operation. In a presently preferred embodiment, the attenuating member  162  is disc-shaped and centered in front of the voice coil of the speaker  152 . The attenuating member  162  also preferably includes one or more layers of open cell foam, also known as acoustic foam. A layer can be one inch thick. A layer can also be six inches in diameter, especially for a twelve inch guitar speaker. Thus, two or more layers can be combined to form the attenuating member  162  when the speaker  152  is relatively new and therefore more “beamy.” Then, as the speaker  152  ages and becomes less and less “beamy,” layers can be progressively removed to effect less and less attenuation of the higher frequencies in the central beam region. 
     The attenuating member  162  can, for example, be attached to an interior of the screen  158  in any suitable manner. The attachment of the attenuating member  162  can be accomplished using a bolt assembly through a center of the attenuating member that is received in a wooden strut of the screen  158 . When layers are removed, a shorter bolt can be used. It should be readily understood that the attenuating member can alternatively or additionally be mounted to the exterior of the screen  158 , to the baffle board  154 , the housing  156 , and/or to the speaker  152 . Moreover, any number of attachment mechanisms, such as nails, rivets, screws, staples, glue, gum, thread, latches, straps, etc. can be employed. This list of potential attachment mechanisms is not meant to be limiting in any way. Further, the attenuating member does not have to be attached to the cabinet or any of its components, but can be positioned in the central beam region in any manner. 
     Turning now to  FIGS. 2A and 2B , proper attachment of the attenuating member  162  to an interior of the screen  158  allows the attenuating member  162  to be positioned proximate to the speaker within the central beam region and also out of sight of the audience when the screen  158  is attached to the housing  156 . A third disc layer  164  can be added when the speaker is relatively new to affect more attenuation. Care can be taken to reduce diameter of the third disc layer  164  in order to ensure that the third disc layer  164  does not contact a surface of the speaker when the speaker is in operation. With a twelve inch guitar speaker, a four inch disc of one inch thick open cell foam centered with respect to other disc layers of the attenuating member  162  has been found to work well as a third disc layer. Accordingly, layers of the attenuating member  162  can be of different sizes. It should also be readily appreciated that there can be any number of layers of varying shapes and thicknesses. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 4 , use of attenuating member  162  improves evenness of the speaker tone in a manner and to a degree that is readily perceptible to a listening guitar tone aficionado. In particular, the amplitude of higher frequencies in the central beam region  100  is reduced without creating a “hole in the sound.” Overall, the higher frequency amplitudes are caused to more closely match the amplitudes of the lower frequencies in the central beam region  100 . Moreover, the amplitudes of the lower frequencies in the central beam region  100  are not adversely affected. Accordingly, the amplitudes of higher frequencies in the central beam region  100  are made more similar to those of higher frequencies in the outer beam regions  102 A and  102 B without causing a dramatic mismatch in amplitudes of lower frequencies in the central and outer beam regions. In other words, the “beaminess” of the speaker is effectively reduced without creating a “hole in the sound” in the central beam region  100 . 
     Returning now to  FIG. 5 , response curve  506  produced by placing the microphone close to the attenuated cabinet of  FIG. 1  in the central beam region demonstrates the decreased amplitude of higher frequencies in the central beam region without creating a “hole in the sound”. Response curve  506  was produced using two one-inch thick discs of six inch diameter acoustic foam mounted centered in front of the voice coil of the speaker. The particular open cell foam (Product No. CFR-16070) was manufactured by Flexible Foam Products, Inc.™, located in Spencerville, Ohio. It was centered in front of a Celestion™ Classic Lead 80™ speaker by mounting it to the interior screen of a ported 1×12 Egnater™ speaker cabinet available from Music Products Group™ located in Oak Park, Mich. Compared to response curve  502 , curve  506  clearly lacks low peaks like peaks  504 A- 504 D of curve  506 . Moreover, amplitudes of higher frequencies of curve  506  more closely match amplitudes of lower frequencies of curve  506 , especially compared to curves  500  and  502 . Thus, reduction of “beaminess” without creating a perceptible “hole in the sound” is effectively demonstrated. Finally, each of curves  500  and  506  were found to be significantly identical in the range of zero Hertz to five-hundred Hertz. Accordingly, the attenuating member does not adversely affect the amplitude of these lower frequencies. 
     It should be noted that open cell foam, while presently preferred as a material for the attenuating member, may be replaced with a future equivalent when it is discovered to have properties suitable for use as an attenuating member. Further, other shapes, sizes, and varieties of acoustic foam are available and may reveal different attenuation characteristics. In general, suitable properties for material used to form the attenuating member include the ability, at some uniform or non-uniform thickness, to reduce amplitude of a majority of frequencies between one-thousand and eight-thousand Hertz by at least six decibels without reducing amplitude of any frequencies in that range by more than eighteen decibels. It should be readily understood that the material need not be employed at a thickness to accomplish at least six decibels of attenuation for the majority of frequencies in the range. Rather, it is sufficient that the material be capable of so attenuating the frequencies at some thickness. More preferably, suitable properties for material used to form the attenuating member include the ability, at some uniform or non-uniform thickness, to reduce amplitude of a majority of frequencies between one-thousand and eight-thousand Hertz by at least eight decibels without reducing amplitude of any frequencies in that range by more than sixteen decibels. Moreover, it is envisioned that layers of different materials having different properties that are suitable when layered can be combined to form the attenuating member. In this case, the combination of materials has the suitable properties. One skilled in the art is reminded that the layers can be of different thicknesses, shapes, and sizes. 
     Various embodiments are possible according to suitable properties of material for forming the attenuating member. For example, in some embodiments, suitable properties will allow the material to reduce amplitudes of all frequencies between two and five thousand Hertz by at least four decibels without succeeding in reducing amplitudes of any of those frequencies by more than twelve decibels. In another additional or alternative embodiment, suitable properties will allow the material to reduce amplitudes of a majority of frequencies between two thousand and five thousand Hertz by at least four decibels without reducing amplitudes of any frequencies between one and five thousand Hertz by more than twelve decibels. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 6A , a speaker attenuation apparatus  600  according to the present teachings includes an attenuating member. It also includes a positioning mechanism operable to position the attenuating member predominantly in the central beam region of a speaker when the speaker is being operated to produce sound in a performance setting. The positioning mechanism can be an attachment mechanism that is operable to attach the attenuating member to a speaker cabinet. For example, a strap  602  and sticky and/or Velcro patches  604 A- 604 D can be provided in order to attach discs  606 A- 606 D of acoustic foam to an exterior of a guitar cabinet. The discs  606 A- 606 D can be colored or covered with material that causes them to have an appearance similar to a screen of a speaker cabinet. The strap  602  can be made of Velcro and/or elastic, can be light transmissive, and can be of sufficient length to vertically encircle one or more models of guitar cabinets. The patches  604 A- 604 D can be attached by their sticky backs to the discs  606 A- 606 D and mated to opposite surfaces of strap  602  so as to be hidden from sight when the apparatus  600  is assembled. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 6B , one or more assembled apparatuses can be implemented to attenuate cabinets having multiple speakers, such as a 4×12 guitar cabinet. It should be readily appreciated that 1×12 cabinets will require that only one speaker be attenuated, while 2×12 cabinets and 4×12 cabinets can be provided with an attenuating member for one or more speakers. Running the strap vertically instead of horizontally facilitates effective positioning of the attenuating members with slanted cabinets. A clear strap and screen-colored discs assist in hiding the apparatus from the audience when applied externally. However, it is envisioned that some manufacturers and/or performers may choose to decorate or modify the appearance of the apparatus. For example, the attachment mechanism can appear as a chain and the attenuating members as skulls or pocket watches. Alternatively, the attachment mechanism can appear as a vine, and the attenuating members as flower blossoms. Other possible motifs and similar variation in equipment will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, such as ropes and nets with fish, eyeballs, sports equipment, and others. 
     As taught herein, the speaker attenuation method, system, and apparatus is capable of improving evenness of tone of a speaker by reducing “beaminess” of the speaker without creating a “hole in the sound.” As a result, audiences in large venues will be treated to a pleasing tone even when the sound technician places the microphone to the local PA system in the central beam region of the speaker. Moreover, audience members proximate to the speaker in the central beam region will also experience the pleasing tone, and not the “ice pick highs” or “sizzle” of an unattenuated speaker, or the “muddy” tone of a blocked speaker.