Pro vs Audiophile Obssession

[barrows]

Anyone who thinks that (at least good) pro audio engineers are not as obsessive about sound as audiophiles needs to read this:

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/mike-shipley-recording-alison-krauss-paper-airplane?fbclid=IwAR28nr87p1rT4AyUwMSLj-JiwX55RgmoTBZ8ny4qTqNwlvp-anaJxo6WwNg

[kirkmc]

I have a friend who has run a number of small record labels, mostly classical. I went to a recording session in a cathedral in the UK, where a choir was being recorded by Abbey Road Remote for a new album. The friend and I have similar feelings about expensive cables, and before the recording, he pointed at the floor, and said, "See, miles of plain copper cables." 

 

Imagine if, at least outside the studio, producers bought expensive cables, or those thingies to keep the cables off the floor? In this case, there were dozens of mics set up - for stereo and surround sound - with cables overlapping, looped, etc; the resulting album sounded perfect.

[barrows]

2 hours ago, kirkmc said:

I have a friend who has run a number of small record labels, mostly classical. I went to a recording session in a cathedral in the UK, where a choir was being recorded by Abbey Road Remote for a new album. The friend and I have similar feelings about expensive cables, and before the recording, he pointed at the floor, and said, "See, miles of plain copper cables." 

 

Imagine if, at least outside the studio, producers bought expensive cables, or those thingies to keep the cables off the floor? In this case, there were dozens of mics set up - for stereo and surround sound - with cables overlapping, looped, etc; the resulting album sounded perfect.

 

Did you read the linked article?  Clearly those recording engineers who care about good sound do pay attention to cabling, within reason.  Of course cable elevators and such are not going to be used, that would be entirely inconvenient, and untenable in a recording environment.  But, take a look over at gearslutz, there are endless forums discussions amongst recording engineers regarding which cables are better amongst the usual pro audio brands of bulk cabling, Belden vs. Mogami, vs. Canara-not much different than what we see from audiophiles.

[Lone Mountain Audio]

33 minutes ago, barrows said:

 

Did you read the linked article?  Clearly those recording engineers who care about good sound do pay attention to cabling, within reason.  Of course cable elevators and such are not going to be used, that would be entirely inconvenient, and untenable in a recording environment.  But, take a look over at gearslutz, there are endless forums discussions amongst recording engineers regarding which cables are better amongst the usual pro audio brands of bulk cabling, Belden vs. Mogami, vs. Canara-not much different than what we see from audiophiles.

 

 

I'm in that business and I can tell you a tiny fraction of engineers fuss over cables.  The studio infrastructure is not something that's easy to "fix" as its all built in to the room, the floor etc.  There are literally miles of wire built in to the floor from the console/control room to a patch bay, from the patch bay to the multiple track rooms and back again.    Adding 10 feet of something good to 250 feet of industrial wire is almost impossible to hear- I know I've tried it (at Electric Lady, East West and Blackbird and quite a few other well known rooms).  Replacing the entire mic cable with something good is easy to hear but the studio could never afford to replace existing wire with expensive wire.  Studios don't make much money anymore since the advent of the 99 Cent Apple song.  Clients generally come in because "the room sounds good" or it feels like a "creative space" to work in.  They may need a big console for a lot of tracks at once (recording orchestra, Drum tracking, large ensembles, choir etc) so that gets them into a studio.   If you record in the field, there is less infrastructure and its easier to use this nice wire and then many do.  

 

Michel Bishop, the guy that's probably won more high resolution grammies than anyone (used to work for Telarc and now works with a few other partners), DOES fuss over cables and such.    He records mostly in the field, and brings all his own stuff.  He uses MIT if I recall, ATC monitors, DSD recorders, a relatively small number of Ribbon mics, few condensers.  If you listen to his recordings they are truly stunning.  Hiromi is a good example of his work.  This is where "better" wire does have a significant impact.

 

Brad     

[barrows]

Yes Brad, I am aware of that.  And I have also met Michael Bishop (Telarc) many years back at CES.  By no means am I suggesting that recording studios are building in wiring from audiophile suppliers!  All I am saying is that there are indeed, respected, recording engineers who do consider the quality and sonics of the wire which they specify, whether it is the first ten feet, or the wire built into the studio.  I think we actually agree here!

And the state of the music industry is sad.  My GF is a performing musician, who also records occasionally, she used to make a considerable portion of her income from CD sales, now those sales have mostly dried up, and this reduces her motivation to record (although she is, slowly, working on a new album anyway).

 

As to the emphasis that a recording engineer might put on cabling, well yes I understand that would be low down on the list of concerns (if at all).  To me this is analogous to an audio designer like Nelson Pass.  Nelson's primary focus is on choice of active devices, and circuit design, as that is what he does, and those things make the largest differences in  the performance of the products he develops.  For this reason, he does not concern himself much with the choices of passive parts used in his designs: he usually specifies good quality, reliable, industrial parts, and not things like highly specialized resistors or capacitors.  I would say it is similar for recording engineers, who would put much more emphasis on first order concerns like microphone placement, rather than more subtle things like cable choice.

 

[Lone Mountain Audio]

Barrows

Very well said and a very accurate post!

Brad