The problem with the music

Nrchy: Please forgive the tone of my last post, and then let me explain its point. You seem to attribute the poor quality you find in many recordings to the quality of the equipment used in recording studios. I think you're wrong about that. People I've talked to who do recordings generally choose their equipment carefully. They have to think about more than just sound quality, but they will not tolerate anything less than great sound quality. And they know it when they hear it, which is their business. It's only our hooby.

The variability in quality comes not so much from the equipment as from the decisions they make about everything from mike placement to EQ. Getting a good sound is no easy task, as anyone who's tried it will tell you. Plus, they have to make a recording to sound good in a wide variety of environments and systems.

Now, it's often suggested that the majors engineer recordings to sound good on earbuds and boomboxes. There may be some truth to that, especially for pop releases, many of which seem to have little in the way of dynamic range, for example. I haven't heard a really bad jazz recording in a while, though I have heard some with very different recording styles. Depending on your tastes, you might like some styles more than others.

Nrchy,

Just typical audiophile crybaby BS in response to a criticism of your system. I thought being a biker you might have a little thicker skin. I think I tried to make it very clear that I wasn't attacking you or taking a cheap shot.

Yet instead of asking me why I would say what I said, you assume I've got something to sell or my opinion is related to a decision you didn't make that I would have, "buy my system its better." Well that wasn't my answer, infact I was going to engage in a process to help you figure something out that I already know.

There are many ways to solve your problem (better equipment clearly isn't one of them) but you have to make a decision about 2 things, Can you give up the best of what you have now to elevate the quality of a majority of recordings? and Can you define what is missing from so many recordings that it prompted you to make this post in the first place?

Lets fix this problem, I 'll see if i can't get someone who has given me a chance to do what seems to be the impossible around here...make most CD's sound very good on their system.

Now which has a better long term outcome?, having most of your CD's sound good? or continue bitching about the quality of CD's something you have no control over.

What's funny is most people just want to tell me i'm full of it and Mike Large's doom and gloom is acceptable "grumble, grumble". instead of having a curiosity about how I've been able to do it in my system and many others.

Have you seen my system? DIY speakers, Yamaha M35 amp, Cambridge DVD Player....hardly the kind of equipment you have and yet i'm very happy with cd quality.

PS: I'm listening to a compilation disc I got from Paste magazine with many low budget recordings on them and the sound is good and listenable. System (GO8, SCA2, SCM20A-2)

I am not a recording engineer so I am just going by what I have been told...but I thought that the root of the problem was the use of dozens of mics with mixdown happening months later in a studio perhaps in a different country. This is driven by the great cost of hiring an orchestra, and the need to keep sessions short. Going back to play it again because a mic was not perfectly positioned is a NO- NO. In this scheme it is the mixing engineer who really determines how the product sounds, as best he can with the tracks he has to work with. One recording of the Sant Saens Organ concerto was produced by recording the orchestra in one hall, and some time later the organist in another hall (wearing a headset). In this instance it worked quite well.

The Tacet and MDG discs that I recommend always give credits, along with the musicians, to the technical staff, (tonmeister) and usually list the equipment such as mics used. In the Apollo space program one important thing that was done to assure quality was very simple… having a label on every piece of equipment bearing the signatures of the people who assembled and tested the unit.

It is unfortunate that the number of recording labels that do strive for sonic quality are few, and the selection of music therefore limited.

I'm with slappy

pompous pompous pompous

ever heard the saying "all hat & no cattle"?

Hey Slappy-Send Cinematic your Radio Shack speakers you use to use!
What a 'rig'!