Great explanation and “inside baseball” look at studio processes. Would like to link to this post in my regular Friday post on Michael Acoustic. We’ve been discussing some of these issues and you’ve explained much of them better than I ever could! Would that be okay with you? Thanks!!
You speak the truth about ears. Cleaning one's ears is a tweak that people ignore. I have heard people say to me that a certain track sounds great on their sound system and I agreed. I said that even though the sound was muddy or shrill. Shit, the buses on the island of Guadeloupe had better sound than most systems in people's home here in the USA.
You build upon so many strawmen, I do not know where to start and clearly you know very little about the Mo-Fi controversy, but it was entertaining to read your "speculation". Alan D. is good friend of mine BTW.
I know Alan has sent you our vinyl in the past. If I missed something crucial about the MoFi controversy please let me know what. I watched your video interviews about it. Thanks for reading my piece!
I think you are confusing a few issues. Yes, people want an analog master tape to be used for a record release (if possible) but that doesn't mean the tape must be played flat and lacquer cut as you suggest. For instance the Contemporary jazz LPs were all recorded with purposely boosted top end that engineer Roy DuNann introduced so in lacquer cutting it could be attenuated to produce 'flat' response. No one suggests it should be left boosted to produce an "authentic" copy of the tape. The goal is to produce the best sounding version of the tape but keep it tape to lacquer and not digitize it because that fundamentally changes the sound regardless of claims of "transparency"! Mo-Fi does messy EQ to their records. People pay big bucks $100+ for the one-step process, that they think produces greater transparency and accuracy because it bypasses two additional plating steps and perhaps it does but the records Mo-Fi masters are often fundamentally changed from what the tape sounds like and what the artists and/or engineers and mixers intend. It's been getting worse lately. If you to my old website "AnalogPlanet" and search Carol King "Tapestry" you can listen to two 96/24 files of "So Far Away", one from the costly Mo-Fi One Step that has absurdly boosted bass and one cut by Chris Bellman at BG mastering and made in the usual 3 step process. Blind, listeners preferred the Bellman mastering to the costly Mo-Fi 70% to 30%....While I was fooled a few times and gave good reviews to the Santana "Abraxas" One-Step and the Jeff Beck "Truth" and a few others, I gave bad reviews to others and no reviews to others that sounded wrong to me but since Mo-Fi said they were all analog and I believed them I blamed other reasons like EQ. If you live near Alan or in the NY NJ area you are welcome to stop over and I'll play you many of these Mo-Fis cut from digital files versus all analog versions and I'm 100% certain you'd hear it. I also have other labels comparisons. There's a label called Analog Spark that does outstanding reissues from tape. They sent me "Nillsson Sings Newman" a short sweet album I have an OP of and as soon as I played theirs I knew it was from a digital file. I called the label head and he said "How did you know?" I said, it's easy to hear! He admitted that the Nilsson estate wouldn't let the tape out so they were forced to use a file....you will leave here realizing analog to digital conversion is anything but transparent! I'm certain of that. Plus there are reasons why cutting a record from a hi-rez digital file can produce a more listenable record than the file from which it was made. If the D/A used in the cutting system is superior to the one at home used for CD playback for instance especially if the file was higher than CD resolution. You might enjoy mastering engineer Dave McNair's take: https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2020/10/17/hi-fi-why-do-records-sound-better-the-ivory-tower/
The Blue Note Tone Poet series almost all cut from tape the right way is a fantastically successful series especially among young to middle agers who got into vinyl only recently. They get the difference! They really do....
Anyway, you are invited to visit and I'll play you a bunch of records you'll enjoy and we can compare all-analog and digital versions.....it's an ear opener....
As for Mo-Fi, I can compare a bunch of those for you too....
BTW: DuNann did that to produce a sort of primitive Dolby system that boosted the top in recording so why attenuated to flat it would take the noise down with it...
The quest for audio perfection, while laudable, reminds me of one of my favourite Jeff Tweedy lines–'When the Devil came he was not red, he was chrome...'.
You missed out on perhaps the most important step in analog delivery to album, and that is the lacquer. What happens during this process determines how each album sounds to unprecedented degree.
In the end there are even more complexities when listening to music derived from either a fully digital medium, full analog production, or any blend of the two. This includes condition of the output device, humidity, hours of use on that device, (burn-in), state of mind of the listener, and the list just continues almost ad infinitum.
Having worked in many of the stages producing 'professional sound' I feel it is more than fair to state that music is in the ear of the beholder. Which is to say, stop fretting about descriptions of music and begin to learn how to really appreciate what you are listening to in a way that is affordable to you.
The original idea behind PONO is a wonderful one and would have made a HUGE difference to the end user experience, but sadly, that level of willingness is not a part of the current music production paradigm...just too many vested interests, equipment variables etc. etc. Perhaps the day will come when everyone can listen to music to the standard it was originally made, but it's likely a distant reality for most listeners today.
This is interesting and troubling. Are there any streaming services that aren't so ruthless towards the musicians? I'd like to listen to music more ethically conscious of the folks making it, if possible.
With Classical music there is. IDAGIO is a Classical music streaming service and they have fair pay for streams paying directly to the musicians and rights holders. They pay per second streamed, too.
Good article. But the not the bit about streaming lossy compression always being worse, an observation which kind of defeats the argument. Lossy files played through a good system in a good room could very well beat uncompressed audio played through a terrible system in a lousy listening environment. Unless the comment was ironic and I didn’t get it.
Thanks for reading - not ironic, I find lossy compression a bummer, although higher quality conversions are increasingly ok. Streaming generally doesn’t use those, unfortunately. And don’t get me started on Bluetooth!
Excellent observation!
Thank you Tosh!
Great explanation and “inside baseball” look at studio processes. Would like to link to this post in my regular Friday post on Michael Acoustic. We’ve been discussing some of these issues and you’ve explained much of them better than I ever could! Would that be okay with you? Thanks!!
Michael Acoustic
Thanks for linking to the post, always welcome to bring new readers to this site
You speak the truth about ears. Cleaning one's ears is a tweak that people ignore. I have heard people say to me that a certain track sounds great on their sound system and I agreed. I said that even though the sound was muddy or shrill. Shit, the buses on the island of Guadeloupe had better sound than most systems in people's home here in the USA.
Congratulations on the record!
And on eating corn the same day it was picked - the only way to eat it! (I prefer grilling it in the husk tho..)
You build upon so many strawmen, I do not know where to start and clearly you know very little about the Mo-Fi controversy, but it was entertaining to read your "speculation". Alan D. is good friend of mine BTW.
I know Alan has sent you our vinyl in the past. If I missed something crucial about the MoFi controversy please let me know what. I watched your video interviews about it. Thanks for reading my piece!
I think you are confusing a few issues. Yes, people want an analog master tape to be used for a record release (if possible) but that doesn't mean the tape must be played flat and lacquer cut as you suggest. For instance the Contemporary jazz LPs were all recorded with purposely boosted top end that engineer Roy DuNann introduced so in lacquer cutting it could be attenuated to produce 'flat' response. No one suggests it should be left boosted to produce an "authentic" copy of the tape. The goal is to produce the best sounding version of the tape but keep it tape to lacquer and not digitize it because that fundamentally changes the sound regardless of claims of "transparency"! Mo-Fi does messy EQ to their records. People pay big bucks $100+ for the one-step process, that they think produces greater transparency and accuracy because it bypasses two additional plating steps and perhaps it does but the records Mo-Fi masters are often fundamentally changed from what the tape sounds like and what the artists and/or engineers and mixers intend. It's been getting worse lately. If you to my old website "AnalogPlanet" and search Carol King "Tapestry" you can listen to two 96/24 files of "So Far Away", one from the costly Mo-Fi One Step that has absurdly boosted bass and one cut by Chris Bellman at BG mastering and made in the usual 3 step process. Blind, listeners preferred the Bellman mastering to the costly Mo-Fi 70% to 30%....While I was fooled a few times and gave good reviews to the Santana "Abraxas" One-Step and the Jeff Beck "Truth" and a few others, I gave bad reviews to others and no reviews to others that sounded wrong to me but since Mo-Fi said they were all analog and I believed them I blamed other reasons like EQ. If you live near Alan or in the NY NJ area you are welcome to stop over and I'll play you many of these Mo-Fis cut from digital files versus all analog versions and I'm 100% certain you'd hear it. I also have other labels comparisons. There's a label called Analog Spark that does outstanding reissues from tape. They sent me "Nillsson Sings Newman" a short sweet album I have an OP of and as soon as I played theirs I knew it was from a digital file. I called the label head and he said "How did you know?" I said, it's easy to hear! He admitted that the Nilsson estate wouldn't let the tape out so they were forced to use a file....you will leave here realizing analog to digital conversion is anything but transparent! I'm certain of that. Plus there are reasons why cutting a record from a hi-rez digital file can produce a more listenable record than the file from which it was made. If the D/A used in the cutting system is superior to the one at home used for CD playback for instance especially if the file was higher than CD resolution. You might enjoy mastering engineer Dave McNair's take: https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2020/10/17/hi-fi-why-do-records-sound-better-the-ivory-tower/
The Blue Note Tone Poet series almost all cut from tape the right way is a fantastically successful series especially among young to middle agers who got into vinyl only recently. They get the difference! They really do....
Anyway, you are invited to visit and I'll play you a bunch of records you'll enjoy and we can compare all-analog and digital versions.....it's an ear opener....
As for Mo-Fi, I can compare a bunch of those for you too....
-Michael
Thanks for the info and the invite!
BTW: DuNann did that to produce a sort of primitive Dolby system that boosted the top in recording so why attenuated to flat it would take the noise down with it...
The quest for audio perfection, while laudable, reminds me of one of my favourite Jeff Tweedy lines–'When the Devil came he was not red, he was chrome...'.
You missed out on perhaps the most important step in analog delivery to album, and that is the lacquer. What happens during this process determines how each album sounds to unprecedented degree.
In the end there are even more complexities when listening to music derived from either a fully digital medium, full analog production, or any blend of the two. This includes condition of the output device, humidity, hours of use on that device, (burn-in), state of mind of the listener, and the list just continues almost ad infinitum.
Having worked in many of the stages producing 'professional sound' I feel it is more than fair to state that music is in the ear of the beholder. Which is to say, stop fretting about descriptions of music and begin to learn how to really appreciate what you are listening to in a way that is affordable to you.
The original idea behind PONO is a wonderful one and would have made a HUGE difference to the end user experience, but sadly, that level of willingness is not a part of the current music production paradigm...just too many vested interests, equipment variables etc. etc. Perhaps the day will come when everyone can listen to music to the standard it was originally made, but it's likely a distant reality for most listeners today.
Support your local artists playing live!
Let's set something up soon!
This is interesting and troubling. Are there any streaming services that aren't so ruthless towards the musicians? I'd like to listen to music more ethically conscious of the folks making it, if possible.
With Classical music there is. IDAGIO is a Classical music streaming service and they have fair pay for streams paying directly to the musicians and rights holders. They pay per second streamed, too.
Good article. But the not the bit about streaming lossy compression always being worse, an observation which kind of defeats the argument. Lossy files played through a good system in a good room could very well beat uncompressed audio played through a terrible system in a lousy listening environment. Unless the comment was ironic and I didn’t get it.
Thanks for reading - not ironic, I find lossy compression a bummer, although higher quality conversions are increasingly ok. Streaming generally doesn’t use those, unfortunately. And don’t get me started on Bluetooth!