Origins of Sound
Posted on | August 2, 2008 |
I see tons of ads for audio software and hardware that claim to “warm up” your cold/sterile digital mixes, make them more “life-like”, and improve the clarity. IMO, most of this stuff (99%, give-or-take) is crap. The best way to get great sounding recordings is never needing stuff like this.
Why don’t they work? Well, for starters it’s a mystery what really creates good sound in gear. Even very knowledgeable design engineers don’t really have any idea what about great gear that defines it’s sound. Is it the tubes? The transformers? The absence of transformers? The short signal path? Or the over-built power supplies?
The problem is, you can find examples of designs that implement all of these and still give great results. There are too many elements to gear to isolate one (i.e. the character of the tubes) to really pinpoint it and say “this is what creates great sound reproduction.”
My experience is that there’s one thing that leads to a clear, warm, life-like sound…and that’s making a recording with as few steps as possible. No matter what type of gear you use, what style of music you’re making, or how you decide to record (as long as you’re using good, solid principles of sound recording), this keeps the integrity of the signal intact and provides the most visceral listening experience.
Comments
Leave a Reply
About This Blog
From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
We welcome comments from readers...pro or con!
