2. misc-audio
  3. 1375840071

Does it bother you?

I'm a recording engineer who has worked in some of the world's top facilities. Let me walk you though an example signal path that you might find in a place like, say, Henson Studio A:

1. Microphone: Old. Probably a PCB inside. Copper wiring.
2. Mic cable: Constructed in house with $1/ft Canare Star Quad, solder, and a connector that might have been in the bottom of a box in the back.
3. Wall jack: Just a regular old Neutrik XLR connector on the wall.
4. Cable snake: Bundles of mic cables going to the control room.
5. Another XLR jack.
6. Another cheap mic cable.
7. Mic preamp: Old and lovely sounding. Audio going through 50 year old pots.
8. Patchbay: Another cheap copper cable is soldered into a patchbay where hundreds of connectors practically touch.
9. TT Cable: Goes from one patch to the next in the patch bay. Copper. No brand preference.
10. DB25 connector: Yes, the same connector you used to connect a modem to your computer in 1986. This is the heart and soul of studio audio transfer.
11. DB25 cable to the console: 25 strands of razor-thin copper wire, 8 channels of audio, sharing a ride.
12. The mixing console: PCB after PCB of tiny copper paths carry the audio through countless op amp chips.
13. DB25 cable to the recording device: time to travel through two more DB25 connectors as we make our way to the AD converters or tape machine.
14. AD conversion: More op amp chips.
15. Digital cable: nothing fancy, just whatever works. USB and Firewire cables are just stock.

...and this is just getting the audio into the recorder.

Also:

None of this equipment has vibration reducing rubber feet, it's just stacked haphazardly in racks. Touching.

No fancy power cables are used, just regular ol' IEC cables.

Acoustic treatment is done using scientific measurements.

Words like "soundstage" and "pace" are never uttered.

Does it bother you? Do you find it strange that the people who record the music that you listen to aren't interested in "tweaks," and expensive cables, and alarm clocks with a sticker on them? If we're not using any of this stuff to record the albums, then what are you hearing when you do use it?
trentpancakes
csontos
1,311 posts
 
You're right, they were.

Ricardo, Of course you are correct. But even a cheap violin can drive you to tears when played by a master. A violin is after all, a violin. The basic electronic amplifier circuit is unchanged since it's inception. For all intents and purposes, it is what it is. Same goes for the rest of the gear. The weaker the link, the greater the strides that have been made. But in the end, the actual measureable differences/improvements are relatively small.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,341 posts
 
Yes, and Newton was better than Einstein and Jobs as well. :)
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
obviously, the recording process introduces distortion, and a reduction in the accuracy of timbre. you are at the mercy of the recording process when you purchase a cd or lp.

the recording and speaker are the two variables that still need the most qualitative improvement.
williewonka
3,082 posts
 
Trentpancakes - in answer to your original quation - Doesn't bother me at all.

When I want to "listen" to quality music I put on a TACET recording - the engineers there are as OC as audiophiles - e.g. Das Mikrofon II, side two, has samples from 24 different microphones. OC or what? :-)

Don't listen to that side at all, but the rest of their recordings are amazing.

Alternately there's the JETON label that also goes farther than most at capturing the best possible audio signal with the best technology available.

Deutche Gramafon also goes the extra mile.

As for the rest - well as one other poster said - we are on the reproduction end and our goal is to get as close to the original master recording as we can, regardless of the effort put into (or not) getting it there in the first place

Can't fault us for that can you? :-)
dayglow
1,938 posts
 
No it doesn't bother me. That's why we have Sheffield Labs/Reference Recordings/Chesky or even more mainstream labels like Chandos/Concord Jazz or even Telarc that consistently offer above average sound quality. I view most recording engineers as a person just doing a job with very little(if any) passion(think of Homer Simpson sleeping on the job) regarding sound quality.
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