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
williewonka
3,072 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
1,784 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.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
Too bad, eh.
donjr
1,335 posts
 
"If we're not using any of this stuff to record the albums, then what are you hearing when you do use it?"

We're correcting your poor recording from sounding worse in our homes.

Seriously though, why should you bother? 99.9% of music listeners listen on their car stereo. I'm sure the decision to use old crap is out of your hands. It's just too bad so few studios try to do better. It's kind of like having a choice between McDonalds and nothing. There is no Eleven Madison Park or even Ruth's Chris.

You guys could be helping out the entire industry. Musicians would sell more music. Hi fi manufacturers would sell more gear. Auto manufacturers would have more stereo options available and I'd be happier. Instead, we have little or no choice but to buy from the industry that doesn't care about their craft.
pops
2,273 posts
 
Its a business and business needs competition, apparently there is no competition to make sonically superior music so there is no reason to spend any money doing it.
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