Archive for 'January,2012'
What is a good recording?
In response to my post Making Peace a reader asked the question “what exactly is a good recording?” Great question and here’s what’s interesting: we all know a great or poor recording the moment we hear one. [...]
Computers in the listening room
Spending time in Holland this week speaking with people about streaming audio brings home a point made to me over and over – “I don’t want a computer in my listening room”. This even with the [...]
Making peace
Many of you are familiar with the Audiophile’s dilemma: well recorded music sounds better on a high-end system and poorly recorded music sounds worse. It’s the problem of extremes: a high-end system extends the extremes – [...]
Out of our control
Yesterday’s post on our macro view of complexity brought to mind an interesting change in technology that took place in less than 100 years: we no longer have individual understanding of our machines. When Emil Berliner [...]
Macro disortions
I am always fascinated by macro views – those all encompassing views of complex interactions we tend to think of as simple and explainable when in reality they are terribly complicated and intertwined. Let me give you some [...]
Chamber Music Magic
Lawrence Schenbeck surveys music for two, three, or four strings, featuring exceptional new recordings from young performers. [...]
How much is enough?
A question being raised by folks interested in the debate on sharing is how creators (musicians, authors, inventors, artists) get back to where they were before the internet changed everything for them? The simple answer is [...]
Gene Krupa
I have had the privilege of seeing and hearing some incredible drummers in my lifetime. Because of the physicality and endurance required to play the drums, I don’t recall seeing very many drummers smiling, laughing and [...]
Donate music?
There are hundreds of ways musicians and authors can make a great living being rewarded for their efforts in a world where music and literature are openly and freely shared. Here's just one. I [...]
Sharing
Sharing books and music has been a part of our culture for as long as there have been books and music and the mere notion that industries want to change that dynamic by shaming us into [...]
Musicians are Occupied Right Now
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the lack of music produced in conjunction with the Occupiers and various social reform movements that characterized the past year. Seeger, Guthrie, Baez, et al. played their way [...]
Squishing dynamics
Have you ever wanted music playing at a background level to be easier to hear the full content? To do that you need to squish the loudest notes and turn up the volume on the [...]
What’s in a name?
Names are used to identify people, places, things in our lives. Sometimes we use nonsensical names to describe a function that otherwise confuses and straight wire is just such a name. [...]
Computer Audiophiles
Chris Connaker, the founder and head of Computer Audiophile sent a note out that the webzine just turned 4 years old and hit 200,000 unique visitors. Quite an accomplishment and our congratulations to Chris and the crew. [...]
$100K turntables, circus act?
Does the mere fact there are $100K plus turntables and $250K plus power amplifiers available as serious products, featured and reviewed by the magazines, hurt or help the high-end? Of course an argument can be made [...]
What happened to my free service?
Yesterday Wikipedia went dark in English speaking countries to protest what they believe is a threat to the freedom of the internet. I am not going to comment on that as most of you know my [...]
Is anything really new?
Is there really anything new out there? Seems like it but then I think this may depend on your point of view. [...]
The map
Some recordists offer a map that details how the recordings were made and where the performers and recording equipment was located. How great this is to help us evaluate our equipment and systems. [...]
Absolute what?
A recording is true to what? To the studio monitors used to balance the sound? To the way the studio monitors sound in the mixing room? What is the "actual" sound of an [...]
If you had to do it over again
Once in a while I get the itch to clear the decks of all my equipment in the system and start over. The propects of doing this are both exciting and frightening. [...]
The elephant in the room
It's so easy to miss the big problem while you're focusing on the little stuff. [...]
Flavor of the month
It wasn't that long ago that loudspeaker and receiver manufacturers were building products based on their sizzle and flash - their great bass performance or hot tweeters. It was an era of demoing with sound [...]
Studio speakers
We spend so much time and energy getting our systems just right so we can get as close to the music as possible but then are reminded the recording engineers making that music use really poor [...]
Why can’t we have both?
Is it a reasonably trade off to give up accuracy for emotional stimulation or vice-versa? I don't see why we can't have both. [...]
A matter of perspective
Absolute numbers used to judge quality and performance can be quite misleading when the trends of the numbers means so much more. [...]
Who are you building for?
Producing shows and building equipment is really the same sort of process with one of the key elements being who are you designing for? The distribution/sponsor channel or the end user? [...]
Shame on you
Shame on you for buying online. Really? What century are you from? There's no shame in buying online but there is shame in buying from those who conduct their business on the backs [...]
They work but …
In yesterday’s post Bad Storytelling I got a lot of flame mail suggesting I was being critical of tweaks that work like CD rings, green pens, RainX CD cleaner. I was not. I guess I should take [...]
Bad storytelling
Marketing is storytelling - has been forever. We should work hard at telling a good story and when that story is fabricated to explain something we don't understand, that's not helping anyone in our industry. [...]
Is magic real?
Is magic real? Of course not, but maybe, just maybe our propensity to discover the trick only gets in our way of enjoying the show. [...]
Harmony
Ever notice how the most popular music in all genre's has harmony? I think we love harmony in music and in every day life. [...]
Look for trouble not solutions
Most of us immediately try various fixes and solutions before we actually identify the problem. That's a bad way to diagnose something. [...]
Banished
The 200C power amplifier had a few hiccups when it was first introduced - one of them was it could erupt into a ball of fire - and it happened at the worst possible moment. [...]
Schubert. Innigkeit. Discuss.
Lawrence Schenbeck welcomes in the new year with new recordings of Franz Schubert's timeless music and thoughts about his harmonic innovation. [...]
Finding your rhythm
Music connects all of humanity together and helps us resonate in harmony with each other. We're a group dedicated to preserving music and making it sound better in our homes. What a great adventure. [...]
Microphones like lenses
Is a most important point that you are stressing here, Paul. But wh
Microphones like lenses
Spot on!
Microphones like lenses
A Chris Botti concert in our city's concert hall provided an interesti
Microphones like lenses
Placing microphones close to musical instruments, especially direction
Microphones
I don't think anyone is anything other than appreciative of your comme