Steve,
Thanks for taking the time to offer a lengthy reply. I agree with your comments about pro monitors - indeed they tend to be unforgiving, controlled accurate but limited bass extension, and harsh sounding with some playback material (especially hyper-compressed pop music, for example). Your comments are a fair assessment of potential drawbacks of pro monitor use in the home.
Apparently Dog Sax still uses his brother's designed tube EQ system!!! He listens to each track once or twice and then writes down the EQ settings he wants to use - then he goes through the whole thing one more time adjusting the EQ settings at the start of each track and makes a master. (He does not mess with EQ settings within the tracks) Essentially anything Doug does has gone to analog domain and then back to digital. He uses very little compression 1 or 1.5 db or so....which means most of what he produces retains the quality of the dynamics from the recording studio (now we know why his masters always sound good or at least natural). The tubes are probably used to sweeten the sound a bit....give the kick drum more punch for example.
A very good example of his work appears to be the re-masters of the first three Aerosmith albums...a HUGE improvement on what was previously issued.
This stuff really belongs to another thread, however, I thought I would share it. I have come to realize that you can only do so much with audio reproduction gear and you run into diminishing returns quite quickly.....at some point the quality coming out of the recording studio, mix and mastering becomes, by far, the biggest variable.
Indeed, I am astonished that audiophiles care so much about gear and yet seem to pay so very little attention to who is responsible in the studios for the sound production!!! I mean this is like building the most expensive chefs kitchen and then not caring where you buy your meat and vegetables!!!! Often a simple kitchen and simple recipe with great ingredients can suffice....
After selecting an artist or genre, the next thing I look for on a CD is the producer, mix engineer and the Mastering Engineer! If I don't like the crew I don't buy the CD!! Conversely, if I like the ME, such as Doug Sax, then I will be much more likely to buy a CD on a whim - even if I don't like the artist, at least it will have great sound!
Thanks for taking the time to offer a lengthy reply. I agree with your comments about pro monitors - indeed they tend to be unforgiving, controlled accurate but limited bass extension, and harsh sounding with some playback material (especially hyper-compressed pop music, for example). Your comments are a fair assessment of potential drawbacks of pro monitor use in the home.
Apparently Dog Sax still uses his brother's designed tube EQ system!!! He listens to each track once or twice and then writes down the EQ settings he wants to use - then he goes through the whole thing one more time adjusting the EQ settings at the start of each track and makes a master. (He does not mess with EQ settings within the tracks) Essentially anything Doug does has gone to analog domain and then back to digital. He uses very little compression 1 or 1.5 db or so....which means most of what he produces retains the quality of the dynamics from the recording studio (now we know why his masters always sound good or at least natural). The tubes are probably used to sweeten the sound a bit....give the kick drum more punch for example.
A very good example of his work appears to be the re-masters of the first three Aerosmith albums...a HUGE improvement on what was previously issued.
This stuff really belongs to another thread, however, I thought I would share it. I have come to realize that you can only do so much with audio reproduction gear and you run into diminishing returns quite quickly.....at some point the quality coming out of the recording studio, mix and mastering becomes, by far, the biggest variable.
Indeed, I am astonished that audiophiles care so much about gear and yet seem to pay so very little attention to who is responsible in the studios for the sound production!!! I mean this is like building the most expensive chefs kitchen and then not caring where you buy your meat and vegetables!!!! Often a simple kitchen and simple recipe with great ingredients can suffice....
After selecting an artist or genre, the next thing I look for on a CD is the producer, mix engineer and the Mastering Engineer! If I don't like the crew I don't buy the CD!! Conversely, if I like the ME, such as Doug Sax, then I will be much more likely to buy a CD on a whim - even if I don't like the artist, at least it will have great sound!