| The Hardest Thing To Learn [message #3578] |
Fri, 25 August 2006 09:03  |
Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009
|
Illuminati (13th Degree) |
|
|
is that in the act of playing recorded music; whatever you decide to play it on if it is enjoyable then that is as good as it gets. Chasing some phanthom of perfect sound reproduction is actually in Reductio Ad Absurdum; it is a spiral that has no point. There is no perfect reproduction and the closer you get; the further away you are.
There is never-ending debates about what makes recorded music sound better; but the times you listen and are emotionally transported are so few and far between that in the end; a simple tube amp and speakers do that for you as many times as the mega-buck or endlessly tweaked system does. Probably an AM radio would also.
Tweaking and debating and designing are ends in themselves; listening is something entirely different.
We came a long way to see the wizard. "The wizard will see no one!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The part I can never understand... [message #3581 is a reply to message #3578] |
Sat, 26 August 2006 03:28  |
wunhuanglo
Messages: 912
Registered: May 2009
|
Illuminati (2nd Degree) |
|
|
|
is that the implicit assumption that the recording actually contains that "perfect" source material to be reproduced. Seen a modern recording and production facility lately? Most of the time the people on the recording were never even co-located in space and time, but people go on and on about how one brand of tube brings out the ambience of the recording space and the interplay between instruments so much better than another. The perfect capacitor in the speaker crossover is essential. Meanwhile the signal from microphone to pits or grooves has passed through such an array of direct boxes, mic preamps, mixers, compressors, expanders, effects processors, A/D and D/A converters it's literally mind boggling. But dammit, that one perfect cap will put the artist in your living room.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: The part I can never understand... [message #3583 is a reply to message #3581] |
Sat, 26 August 2006 08:11 |
Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009
|
Illuminati (3rd Degree) |
|
|
Agreed. All I ever hear about is to build a DIY amp with either a 2A3 or 300B. Those seem to be the only tubes you can use and possibly make a righteous amp out of.  I've heard them both and I still like the somewhat shunned EL34 as much, for instance.What about recordings that garage bands make. We did some 5-6 years ago where we mic'd everything or ran direct to the board, which had a built in hard drive. No effects, just bypassed everything. You could definitely hear the "room ambience". LOL!! They sounded decent and listenable and I wish I had just one recording of the stuff we did for posterity. Interplay between instruments. That's a good one. Unless it was recorded at a live show, all the people I know record one instrument at a time. Got that damn click track and a faint POS dirty recording of the song in the headphones to listen to. I hated that when we tried it. By the way -- what is the perfect cap now?
|
|
|
|
| Re: The Hardest Thing To Learn [message #3584 is a reply to message #3578] |
Sat, 26 August 2006 08:24 |
Norris Wilson
Messages: 361
Registered: May 2009
|
Grand Master |
|
|
I have been chasing my tail since 1988. In this time I have had better systems evolve out of my neurosis.
But, it is what you say, up to the individual perseption of what you think you hear, self satisfaction. When I was in my teens, I enjoyed a cheap console stereo without any question of sound quality. Unless you take in the fact that it had to play loud and have plenty of bass frequencies.
In the past 8 years or so. I have considered this more of a hobby and have persued the DIY route. During this time, I have had more fun, and met more interesting people who make this hobby more enjoyable.
To me, this hobby is as much about fellowship, sharing and learning. Than it is an obsession for the cleanest and most spirtual out of body aural experience via my stereo's ability to reproduce the perfect sounds. Nothing is perfect, especially the recordings.
My father use to ask me what my obsession was about with the desire to hear every mouse fart on a recording?????
Have fun!
Norris
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: The Hardest Thing To Learn [message #3587 is a reply to message #3586] |
Sat, 26 August 2006 11:00 |
Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009
|
Illuminati (13th Degree) |
|
|
Yes; thats true. I mean't to address something a little different here and without getting long-winded about it. So let me give a short anecdote.
Two times I remmember recorded music to be very emotionally involving. On the AM radio on a summer day at the beach hearing Stevie Wonder singing " My Cherie Amour" on hundreds of AM radios tuned to the same station.
The Star Spangled Banner played at Yankee Stadium during the game after 9/11 over the crappy PA.Thats as important and as good as music can ever get. It has no relation to price/value ratios or sweat-equity; or recording quality or room-placement. Thats what interests me about this thread. It just never can get better than that no matter what it is played on. Does this mean anything or inform our hobby?
|
|
|
|
| Re: What's a Clicktrack? [message #3588 is a reply to message #3585] |
Sat, 26 August 2006 16:20 |
Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
|
Illuminati (2nd Degree) |
|
|
|
Don't know that one. What you fella's say is obviously true only for the type of music that is laid up in tracks. I do wonder how many comments by tweakers on capacitors and such, as you say, are made in the context of this "created" music where there is no ambience. No venue, e-vunn.(As Snagglepuss A. Lion would say) Is the day already here when Hilary Hahn plays in a booth and her track mixed with the Deutsche Samplofon Orchestra.
|
|
|
|
Posting Rules
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Get a T-Shirt!
