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Question for recording artist/engineers

Let's say you have a jazz band who wants to sell cds of their music with the best quality of sound they can achieve at the lowest out-sourced cost or do-it-yourself. If one wants to do a just-in-time type of manufacturing of their cd, how can they improve things?

Currently they are recording at 48k in Pro-tools, mastered in Sonic Solutions by Air Show Mastering, and then they use top of the line cds (Taiyo Yuden) with a Microboards Orbit II Duplicator. This has produced average cds but we want to do better.

What would you engineers do to improve this so it gets closer to audiophile quality? Would you recommend using a different mastering house, different cds, or a different Duplicator? Or would you just bite the money bullet and go directly to a full-scale manufacturer? We are trying not to have that much money tied up in inventory.

If this is the wrong place to post this question, please suggest another message board to post.

Thank you for your feedback and assistance.
lngbruno
slipknot1
1,423 posts
 
Lngbruno,
Is this jazz band recording material in a studio, or, recording live performances? Why at 48K only to downsample to 44.1 redbook standard for producing CDs?

Your Pro Tools, Sonic Solutions sure ain't the problem, so I would want to take a good hard look at how the data is getting laid down. Duplication is only going to be as good as the original bit stream.

I have made a number of live recordings and subscribe to the minimalist mic technique: (1 HQ matched pair)>Grace Design Lunatec V2 preamp>Apogee a/d1000 analog to digital converter>Tascam DA P1 DAT deck

My recordings were very natural sounding, good soundstage, plenty of depth... If I had access to the Pro Tools/Sonic Solutions WHOA!
matt8268
92 posts
 
My friend who built his own recording studio uses the following a lot as a great resource for these types or questions:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=rec.audio.pro
lngbruno OP
210 posts
 
Slipknot1 - the band is recording in the studio. 48k is what Air Show Mastering uses with the HDCD format. Could the speed of the Duplicator has a negative effect on the sound quality?? I know on consumer recorders and PC drives it does have a negative effect.

Thanks again for the input to mic techniques.
kirk930's avatar
kirk930
285 posts
 
you guys should direct this thread to tom wright at audio forest.com. he has 104 gold records and builds and designs speakers , cables,etc. he is an honery cuss but a great guy .
barz1114's avatar
barz1114
14 posts
 
Check out Mapleshade records and the way Pierre Sprey records the artists on his label. These recordings are the most dynamic, exciting recordings I have ever heard, and I collect DCC Gold discs, MFSL Gold Discs, Sheffield Labs, AudioQuest, Reference Recordings, and, now, Super Audio and DVD-Audio. The Mapleshade recordings just kill them all. Whatever Pierre is doing is the RIGHT thing to do. I know it is live-to-two-track, but there is way more to his methods. He uses custom made gear and cables, as well as gear he modified. You just need to listen to hear that his way is better. I have purchased about half of his catalog. There are many titles that I would have not purchased, were it not for the fact that they were on Mapleshade. So, do what he is doing and you will sound real and dynamic!
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