All information in these pages is copyright (c) 1989-2003 by Roger Nichols.
All rights reserved. Permission for personal reference only, and may not
be reproduced by any method without written permission.
Lame and More Lamer
by Roger Nichols
I have been cruising the Internet. It is just like cruising the drive-in
Restaurants in the 60s. Up and down the Boulevards with your windows rolled
down and the radio blasting, hoping to be noticed by some cuties of the
opposite sex doing the same thing.
I have noticed that there is a new way to ascertain if your opinion on a
particular subject is valid or not. You post your opinion on the appropriate
news group, and then wait to see how many respondents agree or disagree
with you. If you post to the rec.audio.pro news group that hard disks sound
better if they are in blue cabinets and you get no replies for awhile, it
means that either everyone thinks that you may have a valid argument, or
that everyone is busy painting their hard disk cabinets blue to see for
themselves.
I have been sucked into this mess myself. I remember buying blue Sharpies
to coat the edge of my CDs to see if they actually sounded better. I won't
admit it to anyone but you, but I bought one of those Radio Shack clocks
that was supposed to improve the sound of your stereo if you plugged it
in anywhere in your house. I won't tell you if it made any difference, you
have to try it yourself.
It seems like there are tons of people (I'm not sure whether that means
lots of skinny ones or just a few porkers) who look for meaningless factoids
and try to turn them into a "cause." They lock on to them like
a Pit Bull locks onto a mailman. I used to see pro nuclear activists in
airports around the country proclaiming that "More people have been
killed in Ted Kennedy's car than in all of the nuclear power plants."
I guess Chernobyl ended that discussion.
It is funny how these activist type dudes only seem to find enough facts
to support their position and conveniently don't find any conflicting facts.
In the case of the nuclear airport guys, they seem to have left out the
SL-1 accident in the Western US in the early 60's where some technician
goosed the guy who was connecting the control rods to their drive motors.
The guy holding the rods stood up quickly without letting go of the control
rods. The reactor went critical, the water in the reactor boiled and the
steam bubble blew the top off of the reactor ( just like the Chernobyl accident).
Because these guys were instantly killed, no one knew of the accident until
the radiation alarm went off at a fire station many miles away. I guess
in the eyes of the activists, this didn't count because not many people
knew about it.
I see the same sort of blind rampages in dealing with all sorts of topics
(I like lists because I don't have to complete my sentences):
Tube mics vs. solid state mics. Active DI boxes or passive DIs. Digital
recording and analog recording. CDs against vinyl records. Project studios
against professional recording studios. Good 16 bit recordings compared
to bad 20 bit recordings. Baking old tapes as opposed to vacuum moisture
removal. Tape recording or hard disk recording. SSL or Neve. Flying Faders
or Ultimation or GML console automation. 48KHz sample rates vs. 96KHz sample
rates. DAT or analog for final mixes. DCC as opposed to MiniDisc. In Ear
monitors or wedges. SPDIF or AES. Optical or coax. Mac or PC. Sony or everyone
else. Buss, star or ring topology networks. Differential GPS approaches
or ILS. Flying "VFR On Top" or IFR. Hang gliding or Base jumping.
In the above topics, decide which side you are on and find someone on the
other side to argue with. They are all probably on rec.audio.pro. Let me
know the winner in each case and I will tabulate the results. I don't have
to find someone to argue with me because I can take up most of my time arguing
with myself. I usually lose.
New CDs
I noticed that the decision was made to go with the two sided CD for video,
CD-ROM and maybe audio. I still can't believe that they picked a format
that leaves no room for a label. I am going to be the first person to misplace
his CDs. The article I read stated that the new format does not allow for
recording, and that is one of the reasons for its choice. The record companies
try to get in the act again and just screw up everything for everybody.
Some of the record companies are also looking at audio notches for copy
guard. Last time they let the word out and the artists and producers stopped
it cold. This time they are doing it on the Q.T. hoping that no one will
notice. I know that there will be a CD-R version of the format. The recordable
version may be one-sided for a while, but it will be available. Hide and
watch.
People Watching
In case you haven't noticed, there are more and more ads every month for
time available at project studios and mastering services for pretty low
rates. These places may do a good job, but just because they can afford
a Sound Tools system and a CD-R recorder, doesn't mean they know what to
do with it. There is a reason why people like Bob Ludwig, Bernie Grundman,
Doug Sax, Scott Hull, Greg Calbi and other mastering engineers have achieved
the reputation they have. It is because they have good ears and can tell
what needs to be done to the product before it goes to CD production, not
just because they could afford to buy the equipment. When you select a place
to do your recording, mixing or mastering, find a place that has the right
person at the helm. A talented engineer can do wonders with marginal equipment,
but the best equipment in the world won't help the engineer who doesn't
have a clue.
If you are going to a project studio or "project mastering" facility
get a list of previous clients and talk to them. Just because there is a
famous name on the client list doesn't mean that they did a good job. Maybe
the artist threw it away and went somewhere else. Or, maybe they were perfectly
happy with the results. You have to make some phone calls.
On the recording studio end of things, make sure you find a place that wants
to help "you" make "your" record. If the staff engineer
or studio owner has a suggestion that helps, then fine, you can decide whether
to act on it or not. If on the other hand, you are trying to do something
and the studio owner says "Well why would you want to do that?",
then you are probably in the wrong studio. These guys are in the studio
business and you are the most important person in the business, you are
the CLIENT, and don't let them forget it.
Ending
By the way, I now have my own World Wide Web site and a new e-mail address.
The web site is http:/www.digital-atomics.com and the e-mail address is
rnichols@digital-atomics.com. The web site should be in pretty good shape
by the time you read this. It also contains a link to the new Steely Dan
web page. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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