Ergonomics of Classic Recording Studio Gear

Viridian

Having reviewed a few of your threads, I have great respect for your experience, opinions and in particular, your choice of "all time greatest" speakers.

So perhaps you should have your ears checked?

Im not saying that DSOTM is the holy grail of recordings for the rest of time, but let's face it, it ain't bad and it is still used as a "reference" recording by many audiophiles.

Please do give us some suggestions for some recently recorded material that blows it away for clarity, dynamics and detail. Extra credit if the music is any good.

And it would be really interesting to know what type of equipment this newly recorded music was made on.

Primitive doesn't mean it wasn't capable of excellent sound. DSOTM was recorded on multitrack analog tape and to make edits the engineers took a razor blade to cut and splice the tape. Compared to modern digital audio workstation where you can electronically cut and paste with unlimited levels of "undo" this bit of early 70s technology is primitive.

Here's some comments from one of the engineers, Alan Parsons, regarding recording DSOTM:

The album was recorded on 16-track and effects weren't so readily achieved in those days- nearly everything was done one way or another with tape. On one of the tracks we needed a long stereo echo and that was achieved by running one of the eight-track machines at 7.5ips [inches per second] and then feeding the replay output from the first two tracks into the input of the second two tracks and so on. The album was actually mixed for quadrophonic reproduction and we had echoes coming from all corners. The effects loop on 'Money' was also mixed to move around the speakers.

There's plenty of old equipment that is highly prized today for their sound quality, but that doesn't mean the equipment is better than what's available today. The old stuff was frequently very hard to maintain, the sound changed from one recording take to another, no two pieces sounded exactly alike (a critical problem for stereo recordings) and they constantly broke down. Skilled engineer still made wonderful recordings with this equipment, but people who actually worked with the equipment on a day to day basis aren't all that romantic about the good old days.

It's not unlike motorcycles. Would you rather have a mid-50s Triumph or one of their current bikes? If you want to use the bike to ride regualarly, the answer is obvious.

Good answer! And thanks for the Triumph reference.

I understand more now, but still think the looks and the spirit of a lot of the old gear was very cool compared to what is made today. Which is why I post all these weird look, feel and ergonomic questions.

With the growing popularity of PC based audio, I think this situation will get worse before it gets better, which is another reason I am preoccupied with the topic.