I thought long and hard about how and where to begin a blog about a subject as deep as pro audio and recording. I also thought about my potential audience and what impact my blog would have. Who is out there listening to me? Well, as with most things, the best place to start is the beginning. As far as what audience I may have out there, I hope for a very diverse group in the understanding of the subject and in opinions about the subject. If you have just begun your journey into the realm of pro audio, or if you find your self somewhere in the midst of a successful career, the one thing that you should understand very well is the digital capture of audio. I think this is one of the most overlooked, but most integral parts of the recording process. Let’s face it, our job is to place a listener a room at the exact time an artist was performing a piece and not to spearhead the next wave of signature plug-ins. In an insightful article written for informit.com, Mastering Engineer extraordinaire Bob Katz from Digital Domain, a world-class Mastering facility in Florida supported the reasoning for the balancing of your digital and your analog gear and the impact this will have of the quality on your final product. I found his article wonderful because Mr. Katz is a well-known audiophile, (someone who excepts no substitute for perfection considering the capture and reproduction of audio) and even he sees the prospects of the digital audio domain and the benefits therein, but knowing where to draw the line is the key. Quickly, digital recording involves the input of an analog signal like your vocal or guitar. This signal is really sound pressure waves, which in their infinitely unique way vibrate at different speeds, (frequency) and make up all the sound around us. In the past, Engineers would capture these waves and through the use of vacuum tube gear, a mountain of electrical knowhow, and extreme human efforts to capture sound. In the process of digital recording, the analog signal waves are converted and sampled. You might have heard the term “sample rate,” that is the number of tiny pictures that are taken of the original analog wave. Higher sample rates result in more pictures taken, thus a more accurate representation of the original analog wave will be captured. According to Mr. Katz, and I strongly agree, we commonly use a tube saturated input stage to try and place a fuzzy blanket that hides the potential resolution of the system we are working with, when a more suitable conclusion would be a better balance throughout your system between analog and digital equipment. Mr. Katz goes on to sum up the two reasons for edgy, harsh sounding digital recordings. One is linear frequency response, which reveals non-linearities in the rest of the recording chain. The other is built-in distortions in the A/D/A (Analog to Digital back to Analog) conversion process. At risk of shooting right over the heads of any potential audience I may find myself entertaining, I am trying to bridge the gap between the super intelligent anomalies like Mr. Bob Katz and the guy who wants to achieve the best recording possible, but not necessarily any hobbyist. I suggest reading a book about digital recording basics to grasp a full understanding of what I am talking about. I myself have a Bachelor’s Degree in Recording Arts and I always find something new I didn’t know or fully understand and that is the real reason for this blog. I want to challenge myself to locate and understand topics interesting enough to blog about, meanwhile picking up tons of information along the way. Hey you never know who you will come in contact with through life’s journey also. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and let’s try and have as many people as possible involved, that way we will all get the most out of it. Please share your knowledge with me; I enjoy reading and learning something new. Until my next post . . . cheers.
Check out the Bob Katz article: http://www.ingelec.uns.edu.ar/pds2803/Materiales/articulos/BobKatzArticles.pdf
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