I used to spend long hours working in my studio. Early in my career, I worked on commercial records that took months\u2026sometime many months\u2026to complete. Studios generally don\u2019t have windows. The musicians, engineers and producers that craft the records that we enjoy spend countless hours in the studio struggling over all of the elements that go into making a great record\u2026and they rarely see the light of day. <\/p>\n
A typical studio books two sessions per day. At least that\u2019s the way it was back when I was doing that kind of work. There were sessions during the day followed by an evening session. Occasionally, bands would \u201clock out\u201d a studio for days, weeks or even months, which meant they had exclusive rights to the studio, engineer and equipment 24 hours a day. Having a room locked out meant that you didn\u2019t have to \u201cclear\u201d the board (return all of the settings to their nominal or neutral position), remove all of the patch cords and put away all of the equipment. In the day\u2019s of analog consoles, this was a huge advantage because you could end one day\u2019s session, take some time to sleep or eat and return to the room and pick up right where you left off.<\/p>\n
The endless days of working on a single track drove me a little crazy. During one year, I worked on only two records. Every day meant I listened to the same tunes over and over again as we added parts and refined the productions. That life might work for a person in their twenties or thirties but it didn\u2019t have long term appeal to me. I moved to mastering and opened up Pacific Coast Sound Works in 1989.<\/p>\n
Mastering requires a completely different sensibility\u2026and much shorter sessions. Mastering studios have the last word in the sound of a particular recording. The engineers that master stereo or surround mixes make sure that all of the tracks on an album reflect the same \u201csonics\u201d and that they match the current standard for fidelity, timbre and level. That can be a good thing in some cases but it can also destroy a great performance and recording as well.<\/p>\n
Working in a recording or mastering studio exposes the individuals working inside to sound over many hours\u2026and usually at levels that are too loud. The reference standard for film mixes is 85 dB SPL but many tracking or overdubbing sessions exceed that amplitude by a large margin. Ear fatigue is a real thing. After 5-6 hours, I found my aural acuity diminishing. If I couldn\u2019t fine tune a particular sound or track because of long term exposure to elevated levels, my productivity suffered\u2026as did the product that I was working on.<\/p>\n
Over the thousands of hours that I\u2019ve spent listening to music produced by analog and digital systems, I\u2019ve noticed certain physical and psychological changes. And those changes were different depending on whether I was listening to analog tape recordings, standard resolution or high-resolution audio digital tracks. Mind you that I have no scientific evidence for these observations but they have been predictable enough to warrant sharing them here.<\/p>\n
Analog tape, in spite of its lack of dynamic range, never gets old. I can listen to analog tapes endlessly and never experience any noticeable negative effects. Yes, I\u2019ve gotten tired and needed time away from a particularly long period of listening but there was always a natural and \u201cwarm\u201d euphonious feeling that accompanied analog tape.<\/p>\n
Standard resolution 44.1 kHz \/ 16-bit compact disc PCM digital recording is different. I have probably mastered 500 albums during my career. They span heavy metal, hard rock, jazz, pop records, acoustic and classical albums. After carefully listening to any type of music over 5-6 hours encoded as Redbook standard audio, my body tells me to take a break. The sound of standard resolution digital can be clear and dynamic but there\u2019s something happening in the sound that affects me\u2026and not in a good way. I can\u2019t describe it any better than to say I noticed a difference once I started mastering CD professionally instead of creating new tracks using analog tape.<\/p>\n
High-resolution digital, on the other hand, presents an entirely new level of sound capture and reproduction. I have sat in my room and listened to unprocessed 96 kHz\/24-bit PCM audio without any negative physical or psychological effects. It\u2019s like being back in the luxurious sound of analog tape without the noise and distortion.<\/p>\n
I know this purely anecdotal but it comes from my experience as a professional audio engineer with over 40 years of experience. Take it for what it\u2019s worth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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