From the Mic to the Disc: Production Counts
I’ve attended most of the audio shows in North America over the past 10 years and have noticed that exhibitors AND attendees are only being given half the story. All of the emphasis is on the source recording to the speaker without any consideration about the production process that leads up to the actual recording. That’s why I’ve decided to write a book. The ultimate fidelity and the type of musical reproduction that you experience depends more on the choices made by the producer and engineer of the project than whether you’ve got the latest cryogenically frozen cables, beryllium drivers in your speakers or high-definition specs associated with a particular soundfile. The fidelity of a track is locked down at the time of the recording during the tracking, mixing and mastering stages.
There are as many different ways to produce a new recording, as there are types of music. As a recording engineer (I also am the head of the recording arts area at CSU Dominguez Hills in Southern California), I have done live concert recording of classical music and jazz when a single stereo pair of microphones captures the entire ensemble. This “true stereo” production alternative is used by my friend Todd Garfinkle at MA Records and is derived from the work that Alan Blumlein did over 60 years ago (he is credited with inventing stereo recording). Morten Lynberg of 2L also uses a dedicated 5.1 array of microphones placed at some distance from a circular gathering of musicians. The sound that results is very nature, open, reverberant and timbrally precise. However, there is no chance of post production modification of the soundfield.
Most commercial pop/rock/hip-hop recordings are done in acoustically controlled studios over many months. An additional stage of production called “overdubbing” is added to the overall process. Overdubs are musical layers that are added to an existing rhythm track. The track is assembled. It is not recorded as a single pass. This type of recording started with Les Paul and Mary Ford back in the 50s on the world’s first 4-track tape recorder. These days it is not uncommon to have over 100 stacked tracks for an individual tune. It’s simply another way of building a piece of music.
For my own recordings, I adopted a sort of hybrid approach between these two. Back in the 70s when Windham Hill caused such a stir with their “new age” guitar and piano CDs, they introduced a very intimate sound by placing microphones very close to the instruments. I like that closeness and experimented using stereo pairs of mics placed around all of the instruments. This gave me depth and space AND the flexibility to mix my albums in stereo or surround. In addition, I chose to record in an acoustically rich space with all of the musicians on stage at the same time. I make “live” recordings but without the need to a PA system or monitors. It’s a sound that is unique to AIX Records.
At every stage of making a new recording, the engineer can choose to employ signal processors to “shape” the sounds on the tracks. Some of these include tone controls called equalization and dynamics processors known as compressors or limiters. Whether these tools are used or not depends on the type of music in question, the artistic preferences of the artist, the target market and whether the track will be headed to radio. Mastering, the final stage, makes further adjustments to the timbral characteristics and dynamic range of a track. Most classical and jazz recordings are only slightly modified during mastering and most commercial tracks are heavily compressed to make them “punchy” and “loud”. Again, these are all choices that affect the final listening experience.
So when you’re at a trade show or shopping for new equipment, you should make sure to listen to tracks that feature a lot of dynamic range, spectral variety and contrasts. A great sound system can sound lousy when a lousy record is played. However, a marginal system can sound great if a wonderful recording is playing.
