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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Pro Studio Gear Vs. Consumer High End Gear posted by Dynaudio_Rules on January 13, 2007 at 15:11:10:
I think it's useful first to define the term. Pro Studio Gear is different than Pro "Sound Reinforcement Gear". A lot of the criticism of "pro amplifiers" is for the latter.The most important components of a recording studio (in a general order of importance) are: Microphones, Microphone Preamps (bears no relation to home preamp), processors (for compression, EQ, etc.), Mixing products, recording equipment (A/D, tape machines etc.). The more money that can be put in these will result in better recordings (if the engineer is truly an expert). None of these things are used in a home playback system. All these are several orders of magnitude more important to the sound than the monitoring amplifiers and speakers, and cable. If you have dollars to spend, they are almost always better spent in those important categories. All these components are not 'neutral' by audiophile standards, but have a distinct sound, which the engineer will use to craft the recording to create the sound they are going for.
As an example, if the cable used in the studio has a flat sound or lacks bass, the engineer will be moving the microphone to capture a 'fatter' sound (the ideal solution), adjusting the gain of the mic preamp, adjusting the EQ etc. to get the sound he wants. So ultimately, the cable matters a lot less than in a home system, where we are stuck with a static recording that allows only post processing.
This is why a recording engineer wants a very revealing (maybe bright to our ears) monitoring setup (amplifiers, speakers etc.) to allow them to hear these nuances quickly and cleanly. They do not want a pretty, easy sound, because that makes it harder to hear they kind of errors they need to pick up. And they want to spend the minimum needed for that.
The assumption that bright, flat, cold pro monitoring equipment leads to bright, compressed, flat recordings is wrong. That kind of monitoring would lead to recordings that sound the opposite as a good engineer would compensate in the mix. It's bad engineering, ignorance and intent that leads to bad mixes, not bad gear.
Also, most recording studios have more than a thousand feet of cable. The big ones have over 5,000 feet (what few left there are). Good recording studios will spend for Mogami etc. to cable a studio (adding several thousand dollars to the budget), but more than that goes against the formula I stated above. Why spend more on cable when it would buy you another set of better vocal mics or a classic mic preamp? The most important cable in the studio is between the mic and the mic preamp, as it is a very low signal (like a phono cable). The good engineers have learned to keep that cable as short as possible and use better cable. Preserving detail and rejecting noise is what a good cable will do in the studio. Looking for more is not the best use of time and money.
I have never heard a pro monitoring speaker I wanted to live with in my home. But they have qualities that most home gear, and even high end gear don't posses, mainly a much flatter resonse curve.
Pro monitoring amps can sound very good, but do tend to be fatiguing over time.
Pro cable for the home is a good place to start, but that cable is not really designed to be best with the kind of signals used in a typical RCA cable between a CD player and a preamp (for instance), and you may not be hearing them at their best.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Pro Studio Gear Vs. Consumer High End Gear - Tuckers 01/13/0718:35:49 01/13/07 (4)
- Nice pic of a post production room. - Vic D 10:06:00 01/15/07 (0)
- Great Post - Julien43 19:28:22 01/13/07 (2)
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