Interesting Thesis on IC's

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Reproduced music, stored music is the engineers medium. What you hear is largely a product of the engineers work. He records the tracks and his signature is even on that - microphone choices, placement, eq settings, effects. Then comes the mixdown. All the while, the engineer works in a different room, separated from the performance. The engineer may blend 60 tracks to sounds together to make the final composite stereo product.

What if I choose to do a direct to disc recording with no EQ and no processing aside from just balancing the mix. Who's medium is that? It is not being stored anywhere in the studio, and you are not getting the engineer's artistic impression on the mix itself, just the balance.

Microphone choices are not an engineers signature, it a equipment signature. Some microphones don't have a signature at all. Microphone placement is not a signature, as it is not changing the sound of the instrument.

Some live recordings are done with the audio engineer in the same room as the musicians, so all that you mention here does not always happen as a practice.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I do believe that some cables sound different than others. For me it is a question of whether those differences are worth the investment. During my studio's great cable hunt of 2009, I heard 17 different cables in two of my high end studio rooms. The best sounding cable would have set me back $76,000 in cash to outfit one room. The second best sounding cable $25,000 to outfit the entire room. I had to decide if the minuscule sonic difference between the two was worth $50,000 dollars. The 10 of us audio engineers that participated in the test all agreed it was not worth it, and the cheaper gave us about 98% of what the more expensive cable gave.

I say buy the best made cable your budget will allow, because the sonic differences are not huge between cables, and probably far more subtle than many care to mention.

[Smokey]

Yes.

But that's precisely my point.

If the recording is compensated for a given monitor, then the recording itself is the inverse of that compensation.

In other words, the recording is optimized for that given monitor.

So playing that recording back on any speaker other than that particular monitor wouldn't give you the same result as what was intended and heard in the studio.

Ofcourse you are asssuming that studio monitors have not beeen calibrated. As I said before, I be surprise if ther are no standards regarding how studio montor should sound or be calibrated.

If ther are no standard or guidelines, then you are right. Recording back on any speaker other than that particular monitor will not give the same result as what was intended and heard in the studio.

[Steve Eddy]

Ofcourse you are asssuming that studio monitors have not beeen calibrated. As I said before, I be surprise if ther are no standards regarding how studio montor should sound or be calibrated.

About the only calibration would be perhaps a bit of EQing to get a bit flatter response.

But a flat response doesn't give you a speaker that sounds like every other speaker with a similarly flat response.

No matter what you do with the frequency response, a B&W 801 isn't going to sound like a JBL 4350, or a Westlake HR-1, etc.

They each have their own characteristics beyond frequency response.

se

[Dual-500]

What if I choose to do a direct to disc recording with no EQ and no processing aside from just balancing the mix. Who's medium is that? It is not being stored anywhere in the studio, and you are not getting the engineer's artistic impression on the mix itself, just the balance.

Microphone choices are not an engineers signature, it a equipment signature. Some microphones don't have a signature at all. Microphone placement is not a signature, as it is not changing the sound of the instrument.

Some live recordings are done with the audio engineer in the same room as the musicians, so all that you mention here does not always happen as a practice.

Cmon T. Mic choice and placement mic'ing up a drum kit are what make the sound. The engineer chooses the mics and placement most of the time - sometimes the artist will have a preference - most don't.

Just the balance, is just the balance. "Just the balance"? That is the engineer. Pure and simple.

Mic's are chosen for the sound by many, many engineers. No, not every engineer - but most I know do.

What are you suggesting here? Take each individual instrument into an anechoic chamber and record them there?

There are too many variables to list in the making of a music recording.

[Steve Eddy]

Mic's are chosen for the sound by many, many engineers. No, not every engineer - but most I know do.

Not to mention mic preamps.

Many prefer tube pre's over solid state, and Chandler even sells a mic pre using old germanium transistors.

se

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Cmon T. Mic choice and placement mic'ing up a drum kit are what make the sound. The engineer chooses the mics and placement most of the time - sometimes the artist will have a preference - most don't.

Microphones capture sound, they don't make it. Mike placement is about capturing the best sound, not creating a sound signature.

Just the balance, is just the balance. "Just the balance"? That is the engineer. Pure and simple.

Balancing is just making sure all of the instruments are heard equally. There is no sound signature in balancing an ensemble. There is no personalization in balancing an ensemble...plain and simple.

Mic's are chosen for the sound by many, many engineers. No, not every engineer - but most I know do.

Only in the pop and rock world are mikes chosen for their sound signature. For more acoustical situations, mikes are chosen for their neutrality, not their sound signature. You know audio engineers, I am one and have been for 25 years.

What are you suggesting here? Take each individual instrument into an anechoic chamber and record them there?

I don't believe I said that anywhere, where did you read that? How could you even interpret what I wrote into this?

There are too many variables to list in the making of a music recording.

The amount of variables depends on the complexity of the what you are recording. Some recordings are a simple as two microphones going through a pre-amp and straight to hard drive, no board, no processing. Others can involve 85 microphones mixed to 5.1 or 7.1 with a wide variety of processing.

[Steve Eddy]

Only in the pop and rock world are mikes chosen for their sound signature. For more acoustical situations, mikes are chosen for their neutrality, not their sound signature.

You know, I can't say I can recall ever seeing any classical music recordings made using laboratory grade Bruel & Kjaer microphones.

se

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

You know, I can't say I can recall ever seeing any classical music recordings made using laboratory grade Bruel & Kjaer microphones.

se

Ever heard of DPA microphones? How about the Pearl’s CC 22. I could name more....

[Steve Eddy]

Ever heard of DPA microphones? How about the Pearl’s CC 22. I could name more....

Yes.

So tell me, how exactly are they gauged for their "neutrality"?

se

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Yes.

So tell me, how exactly are they gauged for their "neutrality"?

se

They don't color what they are picking up. They have no sound signature in and of themselves.

[Dual-500]

Microphones capture sound, they don't make it. Mike placement is about capturing the best sound, not creating a sound signature.

Balancing is just making sure all of the instruments are heard equally. There is no sound signature in balancing an ensemble. There is no personalization in balancing an ensemble...plain and simple.

Only in the pop and rock world are mikes chosen for their sound signature. For more acoustical situations, mikes are chosen for their neutrality, not their sound signature. You know audio engineers, I am one and have been for 25 years.

I don't believe I said that anywhere, where did you read that? How could you even interpret what I wrote into this?

The amount of variables depends on the complexity of the what you are recording. Some recordings are a simple as two microphones going through a pre-amp and straight to hard drive, no board, no processing. Others can involve 85 microphones mixed to 5.1 or 7.1 with a wide variety of processing.

Very good. If you mic up something and record it. Then I go mic the same think and record it, what will the results be? Identical? No, never. Similar? Probably. But never identical. Why? Because along the way we will make different decisions. The final product you created will have your signature on it and the final product I created will have my signature on it.

Cheers to ya!