I've been thinking of posting this thread for quite some time, but either didn't have the time to thoroughly post my thoughts, or I just plain forgot about it. But for some reason Erin's (bikinpunk) recent Alabama GTG thread and the SQ Demo/Test Disc that he put together for the meet inspired me to take the time to finally post it up. :) See http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...2013-a-13.html
A little background: I obviously don't take any credit for the following videos whatsoever. I just happened to come across this series of YouTube videos by SweetwaterSound (Sweetwater.com) and Fab Dupont a year or so ago when I was searching for a new and better pair of compact studio monitors to use as a small, portable reference system.
I travel A LOT and am sometimes working in a photo studio and/or staying in hotel room for 3 weeks or more at a time across the U.S. or Internationally. I have a decent set of Beyerdynamic and Grado headphones that I travel with, but sometimes I just want to relax and listen/enjoy sans cans, LOL. And sometimes I'll even setup the speakers in the photo studio if I know they don't have a decent system.
(If you're curious, after auditioning dozens of studio monitors, I ended up getting the Neumann KH120AG powered studio monitors and they are amazing for being so compact and employing just 5.25" woofers. Equally important to me, they have a very tough cast aluminum enclosure with integral grills and fit easily in one of my Pelican hard travel cases, so they travel along with the rest of my photo & lighting gear.)
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
I thought that it would be very interesting to learn a bit more about SQ as it relates to THE RECORDING PROCESS, in correlation or contrast to our car audio "Playback" systems that we all design, build, and tune. I'm sure there are at least a few here that are already familiar with this aspect, but IMO I feel that the information and knowledge provided in these videos is very unique and otherwise difficult to acquire without first-hand experience.
FINALLY, the VIDEOS:
Tracking the Band with Fab Dupont at Sweetwater - YouTube (Part 1-6)
and...
Mixing the Band with Fab Dupont - YouTube (Part 1-4)
This series of videos demonstrate the recording and mixing process of a single track from Will Knox - "The Matador & The Acrobat" CD. The Track is titled, "Cog in the Machine". Link to CD: Amazon.com: The Matador & The Acrobat: Music
In order to hear the minute details, make sure to wear a decent pair of headphones or listen to the YouTube videos on your current reference system.
Fabrice "Fab" Dupont is a record producer and recording/mixing/mastering engineer, and a former multi-talented musician and composer, so he understands the language of music intimately and has personal experience regarding how each instrument should sound in real life. He owns and operates Flux Studios in Manhattan, NY and created the PureMix website that offers record engineering tutorial videos.
"Tracking" is the term for the process of recording each individual instrument and/or vocal track that will eventually be mixed down to a "2-track" stereo or Multi-channel/Surround format, and finally mastered and released on CD, Vinyl, DVD, Blu-ray etc.
There are many ways to "Track", and generally it's more common to isolate the individual musicians and vocalists in their own soundproof booth (unless it's a large ensemble or orchestra), with each having headphones to monitor the other musician's playing. There are trade-offs with each technique, which Fab discusses briefly.
Notice the use of the Focal Twin6 Be Studio Monitors and the Focal Sub6 Subwoofer. :) They sound pretty d@mn good, but unfortunately were way too large and delicate for me to travel with, not to mention, expensive! :(
As a final reference, you can DL a lossless (FLAC) copy of the actual CD track, "Cog In The Machine", that appears on the released CD, "The Matador & The Acrobat", by searching in the following SkyDrive link:
http://sdrv.ms/ZGr979
Some notes regarding Recording vs. Playback:
There are LOTs of correlations between the tracking/mixing process and our "Playback" systems, e.g. our car audio source unit (HU), DSP or processor, crossovers, preamps & amplifiers, and finally loudspeaker drivers, as opposed to all of the gear used in the recording process.
When you think about it, a microphone is essentially a speaker in reverse. Some recording studios actually use certain 8-10" Pro Audio midbass drivers to record the low-end dynamics of Kick Drums that would otherwise overload or saturate conventional microphone capsules. ;) Yamaha even makes a commercial version called the #SKRM-100 "SubKick".
Of course, there are many types of microphones, just as there are a vast multitude of loudspeaker designs and motor types, and they all have certain broad or specific purposes, including unique sound signatures/FR characteristics.
The same issues apply to microphones as they do with the individual speakers or drivers in our car audio systems: Phase Response and alignment is a KEY element in the tracking process, as are EQ, levels/amplitude, room nodes, but also at least a bit of compression and/or limiting is usually necessary.
Just like speakers, each microphone make & model also has a unique FR, Fs, Sensitivity, transient response, polar response, etc. that need to be considered, utilized, and sometimes compensated for.
Side Note: You may want to pay particular attention to the Part 5 "Tracking" Video where Fab is tracking the violin, and especially the upright bass. Hint: Spanish Harlem, even though that bloody 3rd bass note exaggeration/phenomenon is attributed to room modes...hmmm? In the past, I've also had to slightly re-tune my snare drum (and sometimes the tom-toms as well) to eliminate resonance/snare buzz when particular notes are played on the bass guitar while performing and/or recording.
Also note how many freakin' cables, wires, processors, preamps, EQs, patch-bays, A/D-D/A, and other components the "sound" or microphone signal must travel through before it ever reaches the tape machine or hard disk as recorded sound! And this is just the raw recording...it still needs to be mixed and mastered, which nearly always includes additional processing, compression, EQ, etc!
It makes the seemingly complex wiring and signal chain that's in our car audio installs almost appear to be a "straight wire with gain", LOL. However, one thing that all recording engineers regard as being of the utmost importance is the quality of the A/D-D/A converters.
PROBLEMS WITH SOME RECORDINGS or CDs:
It goes without saying that all of us here are interested in listening to our favorite artists and albums/records/CDs with preferably the best SQ possible. We seek out the highest quality recordings that we can in order to demo and properly tune our systems, which naturally makes perfect sense. However, more often than not, some of our favorite performances by the artists we really enjoy are recorded, mixed, and mastered with less than stellar quality, resulting in low-resolution, not-so-dynamic, and sometimes clipped/distorted music. :( Uggghhhh! Just listening to Erin's test disc that had plenty of great 80's-era music, I was constantly adjusting the volume level from 35-40/100 (loudness wars tracks) all the way to 70/100 for tracks with a full range of dynamics.
It's old news for most of us here, but the human ear/brain mechanism is such that when a Blind A/B test audience is played back two identical tracks, with the only difference being that one of them is ~3dB louder overall, the slightly louder track will always be chosen as the "better" or more dynamic track, even if it might have a touch of added distortion or actually be inferior. Recording engineers and record companies know this, and the engineer will typically boost the overall levels (most often using heavy compression and limiting) at the request of the record label execs and/or producers in order to produce a "louder" track.
The real problem with this is when it's applied during the TRACKING process, because no amount of remixing or re-mastering after the fact can recover detail that is not there. It's like trying to reprint a photograph that is way overexposed. The information is not in the negative or digital file. You can make the photographic print darker overall, but that will only recover just a tiny bit of detail or color in the highlights, if any at all, and then you will be sacrificing the detail and color in the midrange and shadow areas. The information is just not there to recover.
Nearly every recording engineer readily admits to this practice during the 80's and 90's, and even to this day record labels and producers request this, and of course, the recording and/or mastering engineer must comply, because that's what sells records (or individual songs on iTunes nowadays).
Side Note: It might seem odd, but Axel Rose actually sought out and collaborated with engineer Bob Ludwig to ensure that the dynamics in the original tracking of the "Chinese Democracy" album were retained as much as possible in the final release. Link:
Bob Ludwig at AES, talking about the "Loudness war" - YouTube
Of course, the record labels and producers know that not everyone out there in the general public has a good enough/high-resolution system to really tell the difference, so they just want their artist's songs to "pop" when it comes up on a radio station or a CD through the stereo in your home, car, or iPod/iPhone with crappy earbuds, etc.
So there's really no incentive for them to produce quality recordings unless the artist, label, or public demand it. Unfortunately, I think that it has just become an automatic or normal practice, and is simply the way most upcoming engineers learn to do things from their peers or mentors.
I personally spent my early teen years listening to popular artists of the late 70's and 80's, and although there are some amazingly recorded studio albums and live performances from that era, there are others towards the mid-to-late 80's (especially in certain genres) that were unfortunate victims of "The Loudness Wars."
It's really sad because a lot of the best Hard Rock, Metal, Heavy Metal, Punk, Ska, and Reggae bands that I really was into were very poorly tracked, mixed, and mastered, simply so that when you heard their song on the radio it would be louder and jump out at you. So obviously then the next song needed to be even louder, and so on, and so on. :(
D@mn...this is starting to get long-winded (I'm a tired lad) and the Loudness wars have already been discussed ad nauseam, so just watch (and listen) to the videos and try to think about how these same practices or techniques might relate to your car audio install and tuning adjustments.
I hope this information helps to give at least a few of us a better understanding and appreciation for how some of the music we listen to is created and recorded. This is obviously just one example, and there are many other techniques required for different situations.
My Take-away: Most, if not all, of the techniques/science/engineering/electronics employed to accurately record music are equally important and usually applicable to the accurate reproduction or playback of this same signal in our vehicles and/or home setups.
I apologize in advance for my disjointed and long-winded commentary! Everyone please feel free to comment, flame, or correct any mistakes or misguided info I may have presented or overlooked, or post related links. ;)
..."Paging Gary Summers, paging Mr. Eldridge??? White courtesy telephone (keyboard) please..." :p
Related LINKS:
FLUX STUDIOS flux-studios
pureMix.net | Online Video Tutorials - Mixing, Recording, Mastering and Producing Music
Also check out the excellent "soundpurestudios" YouTube channel videos, web site, and recording studios in NC. http://www.youtube.com/user/soundpurestudios
MODS...please feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate sub-forum if necessary.