Testimonials
With respect to their privacy, we will only list their initials.
It was very Informative. W.P.
This has to be the toughest that I’ve taken so far. M.S.
I thought the material was explained decently well. C.P.
It was really professional course. B.R.
After this training. I will think about go for CTS-D exam. Very nice. good explaining about the sound system. P.S.
It was great I learned a lot and very challenging. J.L.
Very well laid out course and easy to follow and understand. S.B.
Well put together, easy to follow. J.P.
Very explanatory, love the videos and graphics. A.D.
This section was certainly a challenge! It taught me a lot about how speaker setups are created within live event spaces, and the intention behind the calculations that are being done by our engineering staff that I as an installer never took heed of. After seeing this section it allowed me to mentally realize some of the issues I was unintentionally causing in my process due to my lack of knowledge of these background materials. Good stuff! A.E.
I like the videos. A.T.
It would be nice if we could do the values of the calculator during the learning with the videos. A.E.
Too much info in one course. W.H.
As someone who worked on speakers daily, I had to learn roughly how much of an SPL difference I would experience by tapping them up or down, it is refreshing knowing there is a calculator that would have saved me so much time and effort. I do think this course would have greatly benefited me a lot more at the start of my AV career as I had limited knowledge of speaker placement, speaker load calculation, how adding a low Z speaker with a high Z speaker affects a line, wattage in relation to SPL. It would have saved me countless days of troubleshooting and headache if I took this course at my old job. F.A.
This was the most detailed course taken yet. Some of the nuances of these systems are tricky, but the course does a good job of addressing all aspects. J.K.
Very informative! D.C.
Good course. It did provide me with a better overall understanding of distributed sound systems. B.H.
Thanks for the follow-up! I really enjoyed the course and am looking forward to putting this new knowledge to test in the field. I’m sure I will be back for more SynAudCon training in the future. J.R.
I really enjoy the structure of the lessons and the videos. I especially appreciate all of the additional information and software tutorials for real world use. A.R.
Loved the flow of the course – no suggestions on this one. S.G.
The concepts within this course were a bit harder for me to grasp, wish we had indefinite access to the courses so we can go over the information at any time within our careers. A.M
We pay we seat. We have thousands of grads and most never look at the course once they graduate. Paying for all those seats when they are not benefiting from the training is not as efficient as we like to be. Our prices would have to increase. Anytime you would like to review, contact me and I will reactivate the course so you can review – I am happy to do it. We enjoy working with motivated learners. Brenda Brown
Test was harder than I was expecting. C.M.
The exam questions requires you to apply the principles taught in the course. They will makes you think. Brenda Brown
It is easy to understand when you use a basis or day to day examples. S.N.
Very informative and detailed. K.A.
Nothing really to add, Very well done. C.T.
Very informative. Great course. Thorough. C.D.
Course is intense and full of useful information which is a good thing. I will definitely go through the videos again to gain additional knowledge. R. O.
Great course, I really liked the demos and tools provided. J.A.
This steps up the use of brainpower! D.W.
Great course, I really like the tools for helping designing and building out. D.K.
As always I’m blown away by how effectively you can condense so much great information into a 5 minute video that is simple and easy to follow – I’ve learned so much! The only issue I ran into was working at a state university is we are provided only MacBooks as our computing option and given I work for the College of the Arts, all the theater/music platforms are Mac based to. So I was unable to even remote to a windows platform to practice with the different calculators. I have ran this up the flag pole, but IT is run by a different department and so it may be sometime until we can utilize windows on campus. Luckily I do own a pc at home, but felt like I was missing out on being able to practice and experiment with these awesome calculators in our venues. Obviously this is not your guys’ fault, but would love a Mac version of intellikwik down the line. W.L.
I have done a number of courses through SynAudCon and I find them much more engaging and informative than the other self paced courses I’ve taken and I highly recommend them to my colleges and others on the pro-audio field. A.T.
This one was tough. D.D.
It was interesting and I can’t wait to start the next one. D.P.
I really enjoy using the different tools you provide while watching the videos. It helps me follow the course information. J.T.
I’m a hands-on guy, its hard for me to learn from just reading or someone telling me about a subject. I would like more availability for in-person lessons.
I agree, getting your hands on the equipment with the instruction is a great way to learn. We gave in-person training from 1973 – 2020 when Covid Lockdown shut us down for 2 years. Giving in-person training, we are greatly limited on the number of people we can train. It is also expensive with the inflation nowadays. We can reach the world with the online training.
I noticed you have put your self on a learning journey – Kudos to you. We need more in our industry with your motivation (now owns 3 SynAudCon certificates). Learning with a friend or working with your colleagues at a company may be helpful as you apply these principles. Brenda Brown
It’s truly amazing to me how each sentence holds so much information, and yes, practice makes perfect! Currently using this information on a jobsite and I’m loving the serendipity of it all.
50-75% seems practical if notes are taken and the downloads/ tools available are utilized. I’m a life long audio and recording engineer, but this is a level of understanding I’ve yet to come across anywhere else.
The SynAudCon courses have not only inspired me to re-open old passion projects. But the pursuit of just knowing how and why has only grown more and more with each course.
Thank you, Truely, for putting in the work. A.K.
Very easy and clear. Even it very convenient, I can watch it anywhere. C.S.
Very detailed introduction to the subject. I liked the comparison of an audio distributed system to the US power utility and even learned about how household power impedance! Very practical comments and wonderful illustrations. Liked that very involved and in-depth designs were shown, but that very in-depth capability was not strongly tested as it was really too much to absorb I think without actually getting into audio design which I do not need to do. I don’t really like test questions with multiple answers, but was glad that in a couple cases I was told how many answers (like two) were expected. The course was much harder than I expected, but I was told by another person that the typical course was very complete and in-depth which substantiated the cost and I certainly felt the money spent on my behalf was worthwhile. D.R.
I like the use of the calculators and software to help create and sound system. T.S.
Solid Course, just need to test all these lessons physically to really get it. J.V.
This was a Goldilocks course; not too hard, not too easy — just right. J.dB.
Overall great course, it introduced me to useful tools I will likely use in my current work role. S.M.
Diagrams and example questions were helpful. L.L.
Learning the software apps was neat. I can see this being VERY helpful with some practice. T.P.
Very good course. Clear, concise, easy to understand. C.D.
I felt everything was well explained having some background knowledge on transformers, though I’m not sure how well a beginner would do with this course. However, I appreciate how concise it was. D.B.
I appreciate the test and quiz formatting. I don’t love that you need 3rd party software to calculate some of the answers. Doing this for work prevents me from installing said calculation software yet I still need the passing score. D.R. I understand your situation. Many use their home computer when they are in situations like this. We feel like the interactive calculator is a very visual way to understand the principles taught. It is also a great tool. Brenda Brown
Great Training. Your training is some of the best! It keeps the trainee engaged. The videos that cover the material you read are spot on and help it sink in! Bravo seriously. E.T.
I have done a number of courses through SynAudCon and I find them much more engaging and informative than the other self paced courses I’ve taken and I highly recommend them to my colleges and others on the pro-audio field. A.T.
The lab examples went too fast and I could not keep up. Fortunately I can pause and go back. S.K.
There was obviously a lot of thought put into the presentation of the course. The progression of information really helped to make sense of the ideas being taught. This, for me, was a difficult course because it is hard to comprehend and retain this type of information, and would be worth repeating to really cement these ideas. It would also be nice to be able to return to the course because it’s a good reference that includes foundational information that normally isn’t found in manufacture’s manuals. E.T.
Wow, I thought I had a good understanding of this from mixing audio for 25 years as well as installing systems for a contractor here in SoCal. D.H.
I thought the class was very educational! Thank you again!
I would love further classes and quizzes on identifying sound problems in real-world applications! The calculator is very fun and useful; it’d be great to have more practice being presented with real problems and being charged with solving them. B.W.
This is a very elaborate course which is really helpful in my field of work. It also changed my point of view of looking at Transformer distributed systems. A.B.
I enjoyed the class structure and test. R.D.
I thought this training was particularly easy to follow. Reading the video transcriptions and then watching the videos was especially helpful; it was nice to have all of the information in my head while seeing everything explained in the video. Concepts were broken down to a level where I felt like I could more easily grasp everything and then continue to build my knowledge progressively. J.C.
Appreciated, I am a XX rsm. I have improved my knowledge. This course made it more practical. T.L.
It was great, challenging but great! S.S.
This one was a tough. It’s what I needed to learn the most for our installs and it makes me more confident in Transformer Distributed systems. The calculators kick butt. R.Z.
The IntelliKwik software is going to come in handy. Thanks for that! J.W.
The Video information to questions asked were challenging and thought provoking, very well done in getting the core themes to stick in my head. Great Work! T.D.
Great content but a bit overwhelming at times. R.V.
It’s good. S.S.
I found this very informative. I didn’t know much about transformer-distributed loudspeaker systems. This course helped to clarify a lot of things for me. A.H.
I learn so much from the SynAudCon courses. They are amazing! C.F.
Really intuitive.
The course was great! Another very well developed course explaining the subject matter in depth. The IntelliKwik software will without a doubt come in handy on the job, and I appreciated the demonstrations on how to use the EASE address software also. The course challenged me more than I expected it to; I think the notes I took weren’t as good as the ones from the previous two courses. Thank you for putting together and offering this course. R.H.
This course is no different than other SynAudCon courses. It’s informative, practical and applicable in a real life scenarios. Like always, complex things are simplified for better understanding and processing. G.O.
The explanation of transformers and their applications was extremely helpful. I’ve never quite understood that concept until now 🙂 E.N.
Easy to understand. L.M.
The calculation exercises were very useful! C.A.
I liked it. More scenarios with practice would be nice. I learn by doing. M.B
This was a well developed course with good videos and summaries. S.R.
Excellent graphics and use of visual aids!!, great video intro graphic animation. I really appreciate the succinct video format. R.M.
It was very informative. J.K.
Good course on loudspeaker design. A.C.
I learn so much about transformers and how they work. It was a great course. Z.V.
I really enjoyed how easily I grasped the concepts of this lesson. A.W.
Simple to follow and review and laid out in a clear way. Great way to learn. C.L.
Easy to follow and great pace with examples. R.J.
Good content coverage. J.L.
This course contains a lot of information regarding the the high impedance knowledge which current market in Malaysia don’t cover in details about how specific the calculation should be. We only know how to add in Power wattage for all speaker and use the Power Amplifier that goes beyond 30% of power calculated for future expansion. However in this course clearly stated what is the use of transformer, the turn ratio which is something new to me. I do see a lot transformer behind the 100V Ceiling Speaker but never study the reason why and how is the function. One more topic that makes me interested is how to select the wire gauge for the speaker in long distance, with the calculator provided in the course, it helps a lot for the design part. T.Y.
The course is very specific and intense. I have learned new things. A couple of times I had to go back and review the videos to have a better understanding. D.V.
It was a good course, good length. A.D.
The calculators are a nice bonus gift, I have many of the formulas in excel sheets but the visual layout of the calculators makes it easier to understand and use. G.K.
The content is great, very helpful and in depth. J.R.
I enjoyed the calculations as they came to be exactly what was needed. I love how the math provides the proof. More calculations would be helpful and setting it up even more for us to integrate it. D.C.
Your response time and customer service has always been amazing. Have fantastic day! S.S.
Did well explaining speaker systems and how to calculate for your particular room/system. M.N.
I enjoy this training because its more videos than reading. M.G.
The course was really good. Lots of basic was cleared up. The calculator and how to use it was awesome. I used it for one of my projects the very next day, thank you guys for that. R.W.
Good course. I feel I have a better understanding of speaker distribution systems. C.C.
Love the analogies and real-world examples. Truly wish XXXX would adopt this method to help connect dots and explain foreign ideas. S.S.
I thought the content was very good and well presented. J.B.
These courses are very informative. I enjoy listening and the ability to repeat sections until it is clear. S.B.
So I think I feel like I am rather experienced in the Audio side of the AV industry. But, every time I take one of your courses I find my self re-watching the videos and re-reading the course notes because there is stuff that I don’t know, or don’t know well enough. The Videos in this course were enjoyable because they were short and informative without the Dry boring aspect to them. Another reason I like your courses is because I feel like I learn and retain things more when I get an explanation as to why they are the way they are rather than this is just the way it is. J.M.
I found the course very informative and helpful. I will quickly be able to apply the knowledge to my next project where there is an requirement of Transformer distributed system for Background music playback. I would like to thank Pat for designing such a wonderful and informative course. I look forwarded to enrolling for more courses in Future. M.A.
Really enjoyed the course and the animations really help to grasp the subject.
Would be great to have some more Pat video demonstrations especially with setting levels in transformer distribution systems where several zones such as surface mounted loudspeakers and ceiling speakers have to balanced for level
Definitely filled in some knowledge gaps.
Hint to me is to get used to using the click rule before taking the test and to have the click rule open on my PC at the same time as the test taken on my Tablet device 🙂 duh….gueses without the click rule results in a poor score! R.M.
I enjoyed the technical aspect of the course. I would love to have this in person only because I learn better when seeing it laid out and taught in person. However, materials were very good. N.B.
“I really have enjoyed this Transformer course, it’s given me a tone of information to digest and the best part about it being an online course is I can pause, take notes, rewind and re-watch until the information sticks and my notes make sense to me.” G.C.
The training are really good and I already see a lot of benefits, Thank you! C.W.
This training is very important to us that are working in the AV industry. R.P.
I appreciated this one very much. It’s all starting to gel inside my brain space. So that’s good. 🙂 D.R.
This was an excellent course and very well organized. S.G
As a teacher myself I’ve found the most effective way to package and share information and concepts is analogies. Those used in this course were helpful so I’d say, keep them coming and then some. J.V.
This course was a challenge for me. With superb class material, excellent videos and the Audio Click-Rule, I was able to go over the material multiple times which was a great benefit for my understanding of Transformer-Distributed Loudspeaker Systems. S.S.
“The math is a little complicated in this course, I wish the formulas were a little easier to understand. I did enjoy this course though! I install 70 V systems all the time, and now it makes a lot more sense.” B.P.
It was good information. J.D.
Excellent material, this is the course that I love the most out of the 3 (50, 100,110).
Good practical tips how to design or troubleshoot a sound system. A.M.
Again, lots of great information. Would maybe have divided it up into two. C.S.
Thank you very much! I really enjoyed the course.
I actually enjoy going back to seek out the questions that I missed in order to fully understand the content. T.B.
The calculators are BRILLIANT! Thanks for doing that – they are amazing. Pat should be VERY proud of his work in audio. He truly is an industry leader and has genuine mastery over the material. Only a gifted person can make the subjective world of audio and math seem simple. R.S.
I will certainly be taking more courses from SynAudCon in the future, and will be recommending these courses to my colleagues. C.C.
I really enjoyed the in-depth training from this course. It was a really good stretch and exceptional in terms of practical use for my job and for designing systems. I would highly recommend this to others. J.L.
Thank you. You’ve created a very informative course. Soon I’ll be getting the Principles of Audio to cement some topics of Course 110. Thanks again. F.O.
I thought this was a good refresher class. I have a few new team members that will have to take this class in the future. J.V.
I’ve been an audio visual technician for 10 years, this course clarify a lot of question about how distributed system work. A.R.
“I absolutely love your courses. It’s amazing to share this love of audio with such talented team as yourselves.
I loved the fact that some questions actually made me scratch my head and were all “fair”. Nothing to simple and nothing too annoying. It’s a thin line to walk and I salute you for succeeding doing that.” Y.K.
I enjoyed the course. E.J.
This was a great course and very relevant to my work. D.S.
I have found this course well structured, clear. All information were valuable and relevant and logically located within the course. G.A.
One of the things I enjoyed about this course is the time taken to really explain and teach each topic. A.N.
I thought the course material was extremely informative and the calculation app is a great to include with the course. D.T.
This course was a good general course on the systems we commonly use and how it works. I enjoyed the course and learned a lot from it. M.D.
The illustrations/animations help convey the content. T.N.
“I thoroughly enjoy the way in which the content is delivered. Not too dry, not too wordy. Just facts! S.S.
This is a good course. Comparing key words to content could be improved when looking through the transcript for question answers it is harder to find the relevant material.
This is intentional. The instructor would like to make sure you understand the principles. Understanding the principles will help you reason through the problems. Brenda Brown
I really loved the course. It opened my eyes to a branch of technology that I was not very well acquainted with. I hope in the near future that management offers me the opportunity to further my education by allowing me to take other courses provided by your company. Your company provides a great way for engineers working with AUDIO to further their education/knowledge. A.D.
Thank you for putting this course together! I have enjoyed the classes I’ve taken and look forward to taking more! D.H.
I learned a lot with this one! It is perfect like it is. M.F.
I enjoyed this course a lot. I’ve been doing distributed systems for quite a few years now, but never knew the science and math going on in the back ground. W.G.
Great breakdown of what can be a tricky topic. Included calculator is perfect for system designers. P.K.
It was pretty straight forward with the learning tools. J.C.
The course was good, all the information was very clear. The Audio-Click-Rule is AMAZING. D.C.
I love the DistSpkCalc software.
This is the second class I have taken and I have learned a lot from both. M.W
Great material. B.I.
The audio click rule was helpful. J.D.
This site is one of my favorite sites to learn and train on audio Thank you ! D.K.
No complaints from me. I enjoyed this course. B.E.
I love the layout of this course and how well its defined. Coming from a live sound background, 70 volt and etc. systems were somewhat foreign to me. After taking this course it really gave me a deeper knowledge of how to install and tune rooms, as well as a much deeper understanding of how those amplifiers and systems work together. In terms of installation audio this has been the most informative course I’ve taken in my career path. S.P.
I appreciated the example situations walking us through the use of the calculator. In general, I haven’t done much math in 20 years, so the more practical examples of math or calculations, the better. B.G.
Great content, examples, graphics and tests. Length of course was also good. G.D.
The length of each lesson was good. They were brief but thoroughly covered the topics. D.C.
Thanks Brenda was a good course. J.H.
Great information at a great value! G.V.
The click-rule calculator is an amazing tool! I did not realized it existed until this course. J.G.
It’s good information. J.C.
I appreciate the online options to earn renewal credits. I prefer to support you rather than take alternative training. I always learn (or remember) something useful. T.F. (12X SynAudCon Grad)
I liked how comparisons to more familiar objects and scenarios we made. It help out a lot understanding some of the concepts. C.M.
“I like it. Don’t change a thing. B.W.
Thank you very much! We are finding this training invaluable to being efficient in the field. My other colleagues in Service will also likely be taking them. F.T.
This was my favorite course this far. I struggled on the test with turns ratio and figuring out the ratio but other than that thought everything was explained very well. T.F.
It was a great course. I failed the final exam but I still think the course was beneficial and worth the price. I just had a hard time wrapping my head around conversions between voltage watts and ohms. B.S.
You guys are awesome for having created this course and making these things accessible for so many. This has already helped me in many situations at work. J.S.
Good info. Glad to see it broken into a separate course as it is very relevant to the Enterprise/Corporate AV World. A.F.
These should be perquisite for CTS training. D.K.
Very easy to follow and understand. I enjoyed being able to re watch lessons until I understood. T.F.
Helpful. I learned more about the speaker and amplifier installation. B. D.
I’m Happy with the course 🙂 E.C.
It’s wonderfully clear. The pace is slow enough that I can really think about every word that’s spoken. F. M
Very well put together. F. T.
I’ve enjoyed all my SynAudCon courses so far. I look forward to completing more. R.B.
It was an overall great course! Loved the videos and written dialogue to follow along with. H. B.
This was challenging and very well presented. I appreciate Pat’s knowledge and wisdom on this subject. It definitely connected the dots for me, and will help me tremendously in the lab at AtlasIED in Ennis. Thank you also for SAC Click Rule! Well done. Thank you, again, for an outstanding course! J.P.
I just enjoy your classes. D. C.
This was a great course. D.H.
I really enjoyed the course. I’ve been using the PDF documents to supplement the videos which has been a big help. One suggestion I have would be to include some of the graphics used in the video with the text. N.B.
I rate the training as a 5, with 5 being the highest score. I have one suggestion, I used a iPad for this course, but couldn’t use the audio click rule on my iPad. It would be great if it were available. D.T.
I liked the ability to go over sections multiple times to figure out the concepts and the math – which I am getting better. The Click Rule is a great tool! G.W.
The formulas went by really fast. I got the theories, fine (which seem to be drilled more), but could have used more time and examples, to learn how to know which formula to use for each situation. J.E.
I enjoy what you guys are doing.
I really enjoy the use of comedy throughout the courses. S.A.
Very interactive, easy instructions, well thought-out modules. A. P.
I was very pleased with the course over all. I have been working with transformer distributed systems for quite some time and still learned new things or clarification of things I was taught to do but didn’t really understand why. R.T.
Our audio guys are learning a ton.
Just a note to say thanks and that our audio guys are learning a ton and loving your courses. Thanks for the blogs and communication. Keep up the great work.
Mark Richards, The Way International
I gave SynAudCon online training as a gift.
Since my first SAC class at The Farm in 1992 with Don and Carolyn (and Pat s first appearance as a guest instructor!), I’ve followed up with several more SAC courses and workshops over the years, founded and built a company that is fortunate enough to be a contributor to the SAC community through sponsorship and have met the most brilliant people in our industry. I cherish the friendships and long relationships on a global scale. This listserv is something I look forward to reading every day and the education (and some great laughter) never ends.
So before the holidays with those gift giving ideas swirling around, the obvious occurred to me. I wanted to give my daughter and step son something enduring and special. I gave them the gift of SAC online courses. They were totally jazzed when they opened the cards with the news of a pair of courses for each of them. They dove into one of my mix desks and a DAW was set up on a dedicated PC in anticipation.
I’m convinced that learning the fundamentals of audio and sound system design will serve them well in their lives through observation if not a skill. I would be thrilled if they both join our ranks in the future, but only time will tell.
Far be this note a commercial but rather my finding a particular joy in audio gift giving and wanting to share it with you because I’m convinced that we all got here through quality mentoring and sheer passion. Perhaps a SAC course is a way you can pay it forward.
Michael McCook, SurgeX International