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From www.potluckcon.com:
The Pot Luck Audio Conference is a yearly gathering of people who are passionate about signals, sounds, music, and recordings.
Formerly TapeOpCon, we are now moving into our seventh year. There will be three days of fun and informative workshops and panels. We will be featuring three different working studios, four main panels, and over thirty-two workshops.
Pat McMakin has 30 successful years of experience as a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and studio manager. He’s worked with great artists such as Dolly Parton, NSync, Brenda Lee, Brooks & Dunn, George Jones and Ray Charles. Ever wonder who inspired and influenced him? Well, I asked him, so you can take a moment and find out! Recorded 4/12/2008 at the Southeastern U.S. Music Industry Showcase.
Are you wasting money on high-end audio equipment?
In the April edition of MIX magazine, Paul Lehrman reported on a double-blind study published in the AES journal which compared the sonic resolution of high-end SACDs, DVD-As, and the lowly CD. The 60 subjects were recording professionals, audiophiles, and college students in an audio recording program. In 554 trials, there was no statistical difference between “high-resolution” audio and the standard CD 44.1kHz/16 bit format.
So why should I spend more money for equipment w/ astronomically high sample rates/depth capacity? The answer seems to be that I shouldn’t. Read another way, it seems that spending lots of money for the high end stuff doesn’t equal a relative increase in the quality of your recordings (or Live sound system, for that matter).
Lehrman says …”something is causing people to say they are hearing differences” and offers a theory by Ethan Winer (RealTraps manufacturer) that could be one answer. Ethan says “I am convinced that comb filtering is at the root of people reporting a change in the sound of cables and electronics, even when no significant change is likely. If someone listens to their system using one pair of cables and gets up and switches cables and sits down again, the frequency response heard is sure to be very different because it’s impossible to sit down again in exactly the same place. So the sound really did change, but probably not because the cables sound different.”
I’m digging this Gospel, so I went on Winer’s site and started reading. From an article in a 2005 edition of Skeptic magazine, I found this gem:
Among devoted audiophiles, one of the most hotly debated topics is the notion that ultrasonic frequencies are necessary for high fidelity reproduction. Put aside for a moment that no human can hear much past 20 KHz. Few microphones respond to frequencies beyond that, and even fewer loudspeakers can reproduce that high. If maintaining an extended frequency response were free, I’d have little objection. But in this digital age, storing frequencies higher than necessary wastes memory, media space, and bandwidth. Even sillier is the way audio is handled on DVD soundtracks. DVDs accommodate frequencies up to 96 KHz, but then lossy* data compression, which is audible is often needed to make it fit! Record companies and equipment manufacturers just love that millions of people replaced all their old LPs and cassettes with CDs. They’re trying very hard to get us to buy all the same titles, and new gear to play them, yet again with the false promise of fidelity that exceeds CDs.
So if much of what we perceive as improvements in quality are due to our listening environment (changes in head position), are there any things that seem to make a difference?
Years ago I bought a BBE Sonic Maximizer because I heard a big difference in my PA system when I added it in the loop. Now I don’t have any inside knowledge about what these guys are actually doing to the signal, but it sounds like it’s doing something! I can peel away mud and adjust bass with a simple twist of the knob, but it’s still “magic” to me; - it’s some sort of smart eq/phase cancellation black box. Why can’t I do the same thing with an EQ and maybe a spatial enhancing plugin within Protools? Hopefully if I can get a free moment this week, I’ll try to create an audio shootout between the BBE box and my plugins. It should be interesting…
Well, it’s almost time to pack; –Monday a few dozen of my students and I will embark on a 2 day trip to Nashville to tour some studios and the Hall of Fame, attend a music showcase, and visit with the BMI and NARAS people. And stare at the statue of naked people on Music Row.
When Nashville went looking for a statue that symbolized their rich musical heritage, apparently the majority agreed that a bunch of naked dancing people summed it all up. Am I the only one scratching my head about this choice? And to think that they placed it in the center of a traffic roundabout (whose bright idea was this?)…I guess it’s there to slow down the traffic.
Here’s a few more places on the itinerary:
RCA Studio B - “Home of a Thousand Hits”
Oceanway Studio, another famous space created from an old church:
and Kristen Cothron’s industry showcase concert at the Rutledge.
She’s hoping the right people come and hear her show and “make her a big star.” Of course, not all musicians think that Nashville is on their side. In 1998, a very angry singer placed this ad in Billboard magazine to let the Nashville industry people know just how much he appreciated their support. Geez, Johnny, I didn’t know ya had it in ya!
So that’s the week to come; hope I can squeeze in a post or two before the bus leaves.
Peace, Ya’ll…
J
Promedia’s blog tells us how to get started with the Elastic Time feature in Pro Tools 7.4.
Protooler announces the new Digidesign update to Pro Tools 7.4 cs3 is now available and lists all the bug fixes.
The Good Musician blog calls it quits; B5 Media is looking for a new blogger to take his place. Goodbye, Arjun, it’s sad to see you go.
From BigBlue Lounge, Tarekith’s guide to the mixdown process.
And here’s a site to teach you the Circle of 4ths/5ths.
From the Womb Boards, Here is What Is - a DVD documentary about Daniel Lanois recording his music in recording studios from Toronto to Morocco. Here’s what his site says about the project: (I’ve already ordered my copy!)
For those of you who might not know, the film is a camera following me around over the course of a year, in and out of recording studios documenting once and for all the way it really happens. We start in Toronto and end in Morocco.
The film will be showing in select cities and the dvd will be available soon.
If you’re not familiar with the Womb Boards’ CAPE Project, here’s some tunes from the latest REVEAL to peak your interest.
Peace-
j
Audiogeekzine.com inspired me to echo his post about Before The Music Dies, one of the greatest documentary reflections on the current state of the music industry. It reveals some of the dirt that goes on behind the scenes that the general public may not realize. The clip below illustrates how the industry can “create” a pop star from someone who has NO MUSICAL TALENT! The Eryikah Badu quotes are priceless, but not necessarily safe for work.
The other movie is a documentary tribute to one of the most amazing recording engineers ever to have walked the planet; Tom Dowd. Not only was he one of the atomic scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project, but he pioneered stereo recording and built one of the first eight-track recording consoles. The synoposis of Tom Dowd and the Language of music reads:
A long-time engineer and producer for Atlantic Record, Tom Dowd was responsible for some of the most important R&B, rock, and jazz records ever made. In his own words, Tom Dowd relates how he went from working on the Manhattan Project, while still high school age, to recording some of the greatest music ever made over the last half of the 20th Century.
This guy produced some of the greatest recordings of all time and I learned so much from just watching him interact with the musicians. His discography reads like the Who’s Who of 20th Century Popular Music. It reminds me just how important it is to get the right team behind the musicians. Tom was the best. He passed away on Oct. 27th, 2002. He was one of the most important pioneers of our industry and we owe a huge debt of gratitude for showing us how recording should be done.
Youtube clip follows the break…
This is a cool video tip I found at http://www.recordbetteraudio.com/ :
The clinician is Terry Howard (3 time grammy award winner).
10 Bloopers that made it on the final album. Priceless.
Check it out here:
See, guys; –the good of the whole outweighs the problems. We don’t have to be perfect (but it helps).
If you thought this was entertaining, then try:
All Linkin Park songs look alike. Classic!
Thanks and credits to www.hometracked.com for assembling these!
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