Quote of the day (Sheryl Crow)

[Nuuk]

Well if you want 'raw' then how about the Michelle Shocked, 'The Texas Campfire tapes' CD.

You can even hear Ron driving past on one of the tracks!

[usekgb]

This has been a common practice for studio engineers for decades. The idea is to get the albut to sound as good as possible on as many different systems as possible. If the engineer only monitored on a pair of Wilson's, the consumer would have to own a pair of Wilson's to hear the album as the engineer intended. Many engineers still use the Yamaha NS10M's. These speakers actually sound quite awfull compared to many "high-end" speakers, but they translate very well to a wide variety of speakers that people will be listening to.

Basically, it all comes down to a big compromise. It is a necessary evil in the rock/pop recording business. I mix on a pair of NHT M-00's with an active Yamaha sub. I have become accustomed to this set-up, and I know how the sound will translate to a wide variety of speaker systems. The reason for using a car system is, most car audio systems aren't that great. If it can sound good in the car, there is a good possibility that it will sound good elsewhere. Also, many American's (USA) spend a great deal of time in their cars. So, many engineers mixing for an American audience will make sure the album sounds good where it will be listened to most of the time. This is not necessarily a bad thing to do. If the album doesn't sound good where you listen to it, you wouldn't want to listen to it in the first place.

Cheers,
Zach

[moamps]

Originally posted by usekgb
This has been a common practice for studio engineers for decades.....

Hi,

you're 100% right. Good studios have few monitoring systems.
In my (where I work) small radio station in production studio are UREI 90x, Genelec 1029, JBL ctrl1 and some car 5W full range mono speaker.(and one moderate TV for TV sound monitoring)

regards

[joensd]

Well if you want 'raw'

I mostly listen to Free and Bad Company.
IMO as raw as it can get.
And thanks for the hint. Will check it out.

[Aud_Mot]

One reason recording engineers use car stereos is the engineer knows what his car system sounds like.

Example: When Micheal Jackson's Thriller album was the fashionable example of a great sounding recording, studio engineers went out and drove around in their car listening to cassttes of Thriller.

When it came time to evaluate their mix, they had a reference system in the parking lot.

It is not a matter of which system is the highest fidelity, but a matter of which sytem you trust.

[matjans]

i must say that i do like sheryl crow and the likes.

anybody listens to lou barlow?

[mrfeedback]

There is NO substitute for extreme high quality monitors/amplifiers for mixdown and mastering.

When a recording sounds 'right' on a high quality system, it also sounds 'right' on just about anything else, including car and portable equipment.

Tailoring a master to sound decent on a pair of say, NS-10's guarantees that the master will sound wrong on pretty well every other system.

A major problem with modern recordings is that the masters that get sent to the final mastering house are often full of clipping and other errors that cannot be fully undone, and this is the lament that I hear from mastering engineers.

Also, MP3 recordings are junk when played on a decent system.
Even FM transmission and reception does not hide this fact - I know the in-studio sound of the local radio station, and from home I can easily pick MP3 recordings going to air.

Eric.

[phase_accurate]

A major problem with modern recordings is that the masters that get sent to the final mastering house are often full of clipping and other errors that cannot be fully undone, and this is the lament that I hear from mastering engineers.

Sometimes it is vice-versa and the mastering guy is introducing all the ******** like clipping and heavy compression.

Regards

Charles

[djk]

"When a recording sounds 'right' on a high quality system, it also sounds 'right' on just about anything else, including car and portable equipment."

Sorry, you're wrong about that.

I wish you were right, then they wouldn't do the things they do.

[mrfeedback]

I still stand by what I am saying.
I find that if a recording is right then it sounds right on all equipment.
That eq needs to be applied on a particular system is only showing up the deficiencies of that system.

Eric.