Vintage High-Resolution
I briefly thumbed through the latest issue of MIX magazine this morning. My relationship with MIX magazine goes back a long way…since before it was actually a magazine. When I was a second engineer at Moma Jo’s Studio in North Hollywood, California (the home of the band Ambrosia), MIX magazine was printed on newsprint. It grew in importance and style and eventually became a thick glossy rag that everyone in the recording industry read. MIX was the place that you got information about sessions, equipment, music reviews, tech notes, and interviews with the celebrity audio engineers. When the studio business was big business, MIX magazine was a single source.
Now it’s a mere shadow of itself. With the arrival of the Internet, publishing magazines is much more challenging…and not just in this marketplace. But still MIX magazine holds on…and I still get my copy at the house to read over breakfast.
This month’s issue had a photo and brief story about NRG studios in the San Fernando Valley. It’s a studio that caters to commercial rock ‘n roll. Many of my former students have gotten work at NRG and have learned a lot from the heavy traffic and variety of artists that record there. According to the article, they been acquiring lots of vintage instruments and recording equipment. My friend Brian Kehew has made his way through the music industry as one of the go to guys when it comes to vintage instruments. It seems everything old is new again.
And there is a very compelling reason to seek out and acquire vintage instruments and recording gear as long as you know what you’re doing. The sound of a 1962 seafoam green Fender Stratocaster is worth the investment (and it takes quite an investment to get a vintage guitar…$25K to 250K and more). Getting your hands on a classic Neve console or Fairchild Signal Processor is also a major find and will only increase in value…provided you can find a technician to service them.
Vintage instruments produce a particular sound that musicians, engineers and producers appreciate…whether it’s the warm sound of tubes or the gritty edge of a particular delay box. I know, for example, that Albert Lee uses a Lexicon PCM 42 DDL…he cherishes the units that he has. When asked about this particular processor, “I don’t really know why…it just gives me the sound that I want.”
The studio next door is full of leased vintage gear. They have an Echoplex, a Teletronix Compressor/Limiter, a Pultec EQ or two and lots of other rack mountable pieces. They don’t own them…another guy actually holds title to the gear…but Astound Sound leases them. And it’s worth it because it makes their room more desirable than the next guy down the street the uses only plug ins for their Pro Tools rig.
All of this equipment produces and/or process analog sound. The rare guitars, Fender tweed amp or Hammond B3 organ with Leslie all produce analog sound. And it’s up to audio engineers to use their knowledge of microphones to capture that analog sound…with as much accuracy as possible. And the best way to do that is with recording devices that don’t add any “sound” of their own. For me, that’s 96 kHz/24-bit PCM. I can always muck up the sound later but if you don’t capture the best sound possible when the musicians are playing, you don’t get a do over.
See you in Vegas.
Yeah, 65 GHz / * decits {with no filter used} should be enough for LIVE sound reproduction…
Mark wrote: ” I can always muck up the sound later but if you don’t capture the best sound possible when the musicians are playing, you don’t get a do over.”
True, but surely better to capture a superb set with an average recoding than an average set with a superb recording – I’m thinking Motown here.
No argument with me.
Enjoy CES! I hope you have time to check out the Meridian MQA demo at the Venetian. If so, please report back your thoughts to us. I’m particularly curious if it’s a capability Oppo could add as a software/firmware upgrade or if it’s more complicated than that. Thanks!
I know Robert Stuart is coming by the room tomorrow for a session. I’ll try to corner him.
hi mr Waldrep 2 articles ago you mentioned that your 2015 sampler will not be ready for the CES.unfortunately do to unforseen reasons we will not be able to attend that.We would love to have a copy of your 2014 sampler and then when 2015 is ready that too.how do we obtain a copy?thanks love your blogs.
THE AIX Records HD-Audio 2013 Sampler has been available for a couple of years. You can get it at the website under samplers.
After 30 years of playing old-time Chicago blues as alternate gig, I can sum it all up neatly with Craig’s 7th Law: “If you want to make old sounds, you will have to have old gear.” Why, you ask? Because while modern amps will output countless voicings , the magic tones of the distant past were made with a singular guitar, amplifier, and set of hands that made only 1 FANTASTIC tone. In turn , the versatile modern amps can indeed make almost any sound you want, except that 1 FANTASTIC tone that the old gear makes. I recently played my aggregate 125 year old combo of slide guitar and amp for a British man whose pro guitar amp company supplies some big names. I cranked up my vintage amp and ripped off some licks for 3-5 minutes. His jaw dropped. He said, ” Crikey, I’ve never heard anything that sounds like that.” I said, Yes, and that is the ONLY sound this rig can make, but it’s dynamite.” I rest my case.
Sorry to go on, but on your other favorite topic, Pono, I have news
While I wait for my player, I received a lengthy message from Pono that addressed the concerns about which you have so pointedly reported. There was zero evidence of trying to obscure the truth or pull the wool….they fessed up completely as to the nature of tracks currently offered and made clear that despite comments such as you have made, they will keep moving to supplying the highest quality/resolution possible in transferring.
A number of other topics were covered in considerate, frank fashion as well, all leading to the inescapable conclusion that Pono is a very honest technical/sociological endeavor with typical teething pains. Fair criticism is just that, but putting devil’s horns on Neil Young’s head is so far over the top it’s not funny. Why don’t you call Pono up and see how you can help? Oh, I forgot, you have your real agenda to handle.
Craig, you seem to enjoy the sport of bolstering Neil and his charade at every turn. I watched (and videoed) about an hour of him making stuff up about what it and what isn’t high resolution. I will spare you the details and write a thorough evaluation. I shook his hand and spoke with him very briefly and I believe he recognized me (I mentioned the Rust Never Sleeps DVD project). But he started talking about how music died when CD came on the scene and finished claiming they are high-resolution. He’s still playing a game.