stickman wrote on Wed, 23 June 2004 22:35 |
Quote: | Sometimes I hear stuff on the radio where it's obvious that different parts of the drum kit were done with different pres, and then other instruments were done with yet other ones
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Ted, if you are serious about this, im seriously giving this whole audio shit away! i can't even hear (strictly sonically speaking) when someone tells me, "this song sounds digital" on the radio. all i can ever think of is, "this song sounds good/shit". to me, it's always seemed like far, far, far too many factors come into play before the final product (radio or even CD) to define such idiosyncrasies...
now im not denying that what you hear isnt true, im still a young (and poor) buck who hasn't had their hands on the cream of the crop gear, so on the contrary im saying thats amazing!
its just that im gradually perceiving this devolopment of dogmatic views in audio production.
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Well, I try not to be dogmatic, although I am a bit of a fanatic- it's just that some approaches and some results really resonate with me and give me the enthusiasm it takes to tackle some of this stuff. I fully believe M. Wagener that once you know how all these combos of pres and mics will play together in the end, you can work it really well. So often, when you run into a snag, it turns out that if you get to know the ways of the confusing new dimension, you can work it to advantage.
As for what you can discern, that is subject to expansion from experience and lots of listening- I haven't worked with that much great gear, and I couldn't begin to identify individual pres- I'm just hearing, in some cases, and probably missing it entirely in most, some strange stuff on the radio that doesn't seem to work together, really- I'm thinking it's pres. I'm pretty sure that's what I was hearing, but I have no way to verify it.
One part of it that I'm especially aware of, is the space that different pres will create for the sound to do it's thing in- different ones can be very different that way, same with mics, and ultimately I suspect it's the combination of the two that I'm probably hearing.
On the other hand, I can verify that many exceptionally wholistically-consistent-in-tone-and-space albums, such as Beatles albums, were done with a console approach- and while there's often some mud from all that circuitry, the overall sound works together in a common space, and the preamp's signature becomes transparent as you get used to it, and helps you forget about that aspect and just get into the music. I'm sure such changes of space can be very effective artistically, done with awareness and experience.
I haven't always been able to identify such things by any means. My listening and aesthetic awareness has gone through some dramatic changes since getting into working with some good gear and making a lot of mistakes- I'm sure yours might well do that too. I wouldn't do anything hasty!