Re: [Ardour-users] cheapest setup for 96K recording

From: Paul Winkler (pw_lists_at_slinkp.com)
Date: 11/03/03 01:57 EST


From: Paul Winkler <pw_lists@slinkp.com>
Subject: Re: [Ardour-users] cheapest setup for 96K recording
Message-ID: <20031103065747.GF1085@slinkp.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 01:57:47 -0500

On Mon, Nov 03, 2003 at 12:30:05AM -0600, Joe Cooper wrote:
> Paul Winkler wrote:
> >On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 02:55:33PM +0000, philicorda wrote:
> >
> >>In the end though, I decided the investment was better spent on 
> >>improving room, mics etc.. I was just getting more accurate recordings 
> >>of things that were not sounding how I liked at source.
> >
> >
> >I should have just said that and not blathered on so long :-)
> >
> >For myself, given a limited budget, I prioritize upgrades
> >in roughly this order:
> >
> >1) microphones
> >2) acoustics & monitoring
> >3) mic preamps
> >4) higher quality 24 bit converters
> >5) 96k 
> 
> FWIW, I would put acoustics and monitoring first and second in this 
> list, if these areas aren't already well covered...It is the thing that 
> gets neglected in 'project studios' that produce records that sound like 
> they came from a 'project studio'.  Even some of the best recordings 
> ever made have the lowly SM57 on snare, but I guarantee you that in a 
> bad room, you'll never get that sound with an SM 57 or any mic costing 
> 100 times more.  No matter how sweet the gear, the crummy room is what 
> you'll hear.

hmm.. as usual "it depends" :-)

close-micing can reduce the effects of the room, sometimes to the point
of inaudibility. But you can't do everything with close-micing.
e.g. drum overheads are by definition not very close.
same goes for piano micing etc etc...

> And if you can't hear your mix, you can't possibly get it right.  And 
> the most expensive monitors are still inaccurate in a room with lots of 
> bass frequency cancellation, and weird reflections.  So, acoustics come 
> first.

OK, very good point.

My revised list:

1) acoustics
2) monitoring*
3) mics
4) everything else :-)

> To bring this back on-topic, to measure my room, I generated a bunch of 
> sine waves in audacity, focussing on bass frequencies, and also a bit of 
> pink noise, all in a single ~5 minute long file.  I then imported this 
> file into Ardour, and setup a mic in place of my head in the listening 
> position. 
(snip)

This is a very good and educational thing to do, but I wonder what would happen
if you do it several times with different mic positions. I predict there will
be quite a lot of variation if you move the mic even 1 foot.
Are you going to sit in that exact spot all the time? no!
Testing several positions might make the constistently problematic
frequencies all the more obvious.

-- 

Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com
Look! Up in the sky! It's DINGO SUPER RAINCOAT!
(random hero from isometric.spaceninja.com)


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