Home » R/E/P » Brad Blackwood » New clarity
| New clarity [message #378003] |
Fri, 10 October 2008 17:40  |
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 Andrew Hamilton
Messages: 287
Registered: June 2005
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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I have bitten the bullet and finally done what my mentor and local hero (Dave Davis) was doing with his room 10 years ago and what veteran ME Doug Sax has recently done with his new multichannel room, in Ojai. I've put the console behind me. The sound has never been this good. I feel I have wasted so much time combatting the high mid presence that the console surface used to create from speaker reflections. My only resistance to doing this obvious setup was that I didn't think EQ'ing would work so well if the controls were behind me. The fact is, what I'm hearing is so much clearer than before that even with my back to the speakers, the information translates so much better that it's worth the ergonomic inconvenience. Hearing with your back turned to a source seems counterintuitive, but when compared to hearing while facing the speakers but with a large object between you and the speakers, the unobstructed way wins - even when monitoring backwards! You always make the judgement call on the success of a new setting by facing the tweeters, of course. But then, you really get a great idea of what the average listener will hear (who doesn't normally have any console!).
I may repent if the novelty wears off - it's only been a few days, now. But the room sounds so much better that I'll probably only at the very most add some nearfields to the console for head-on work - or, possibly, I could make do with some HD-650s. I think I need some good phones, anyway, to QC noise redux. Still, as I indicated, even when monitoring with my back to the Duns, the sound is much truer, clearer, and less shrill. All the time I thought Duns were just a tad strident. Naw. They are just so precise that any obstruction is 2 f*ing much of an obstruction, thank you very much! (:
Now get somma dis'...
http://www.serifsound.com/masteringstudio.html
http://www.serifsound.com/console.html
(Note working bitscope under left of console, using Bob's FCN-1/opt for DATA and WC signal jacking to Tek 465.)
Andrew
Cappin' the rap in the M&Ms.
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| Re: New clarity [message #378072 is a reply to message #378013 ] |
Sat, 11 October 2008 01:03  |
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Andrew Hamilton
Messages: 287
Registered: June 2005
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
Active Member |
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I feel your resistance (or is it reactance?): For years, I tried to meet the bull head-on. What a pile of coasters I've made. I wondered why major release albums sounded so bad once I heard them in the studio. Not in an obvious, overcompressed way. I mean in an insidious, mildly shrill way. Even "audiophile jazz," though it tended to be more tolerable than some types. Now, I feel I am hearing what the engineers were hearing when they decided on where to stop boosting.
I have tried speaker placement, room treatment, and even taking a Milwaukee reciprocating saw to the aluminum frame of the vintage Neve console and hacked off the VU meter bridge, as well as the long frame jackfield and a part of the corner on the other side... After all that work, the problem was still right in front of me.
Also, I'm able to make changes of settings and hear whether or not they work while my back is still to the speakers. That's how good the focus is, now. So far, on most tweaks, when I turn around, it just sounds even better. My goal in eq is only to correct phase and level of frequency zones. I'm not trying to make things sound surreal. To me, that's best done in mixing, anyway. It's not that bizarre when you realize how good a well mixed recording already sounds when you have your back to the speakers (in an otherwise unobstructed path). Jethro Tull's Minstrel In the Gallery remaster sounds really sweet, even with my back turned. (It's not digital that I'm turning my back on, mind you.  ) When a recording is badly mixed, it sounds bad from all directions, generally. What needs to be fixed usually rears its head after some filter sweeping. And with stepped switches on my EQs, I can easily decide which notch feels best. After all, there aren't that many choices! With a plug in, you've got to deliberate on tenths of a cycle. Sheesh. Now that's un-ergonomic.
I heartily recommend anyone try it out in his or her room. The thing that got me off the fence was when I would walk in front of the console - even though I had walked in front of where the sweet spot actually "began," the high mids sounded instantly better - less bright, and even less honkish, depending on the program and passage. I put couch pillows on the top of the console and things sounded duller (but in a kind of good way). So I had to see what would happen, when seated in the room's Golden spot (38.2% in front of the back wall), if I hadn't found what I was looking for. Panacea. Nirvana. Wellville. You name it. This is the recipe for critical listening, iyam.
One thing I'd like to see developed is based on something that I read about in the Art of Mixing. VR glasses for mastering. Your console could be displayed on the inside of your glasses and your gaze could move faders and flip switches. Weiss RayBans come to mind. Or TC FosterGrants? 
Andrew
Cappin' the rap in the M&Ms.
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| Re: New clarity [message #378182 is a reply to message #378003 ] |
Sun, 12 October 2008 00:04 |
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The difference to me was amazing, when I set up my room to have nothing between me and the speakers.
Any inconvenience caused by having to move with any change is well offset.
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| Re: New clarity [message #378214 is a reply to message #378003 ] |
Sun, 12 October 2008 10:01 |
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FMPPOV, once you listen with nothing in between but air, you cannot go back.
What's the big deal about moving around a bit to make changes?
Doesn't pure, direct sound with far less comb filtering mean a lot more?
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| Re: New clarity [message #378535 is a reply to message #378309 ] |
Tue, 14 October 2008 05:44 |
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Andrew Hamilton
Messages: 287
Registered: June 2005
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
Active Member |
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One thing you seem to be underestimating is the audibility of effective and noneffective bands when your back is to the unobstructed speaker. The boon is still audible and clear. The only thing turning around gives is the perfect audition of said tweak - unavailable to those who have a console in front of them. Try putting your hands out in front of you, as if they were an open book. There is a boost in high mid presence. Put the hands back down, the boost is gone. This is referring, of course, to being in front of loudspeakers, and the loudspeaker output is what gets "eq'd" by the hands. Better to have nothing in the way for mid and far field monitoring.
It's true that the console must be adding some back-fire reflections, but, after placing a mirror on top of the equipment, I confirmed that the ricochet would not be direct - coming, instead, from the ceiling (12.5', plus air space above), which is farther than the speakers and requires a round trip to get to the console, alone, which doubles the length to the ceiling, and then it goes about 3 or 4 more feet to get back to my head. By then most of the reflection has lost energy, coherence, and has been delayed beyond the Haas window, iianm. It's at least in the 3 to 1 mic placement ballpark, as I am sitting only 10 feet or so from the speakers, when in the sweet spot. (;
For the time being, quite coincidentally, prior to reading the post about Mr. Purcell, I have tried mounting a pair of NS-10Ms on the far back corners of the console to serve as smalls and to look a little more traditional (for the uninitiated). They fit neatly there and, although a little low, provide some semblance of normalcy. This is an effective option during track naming and as an alternative reassurance to headphones. Being nearfields, their being behind the console is less problematic. Furthermore, these are just a safety and aid when critical listening is less important than ergonomic considerations. It should also help break the ice when newcomers arrive who are not familiar with the fame of Dave Davis, Denny Purcell, or, now, Doug Sax.
But the most revealing sound is bellowing at me from behind, whilst I rotate the switches. I can always walk around behind the console and tweak a setting from that vantage, I suppose. But that would kill the point. That being, the tweak is going to be more spot on in the first place when you don't have anything the size of a breadbox in between you and the source. And who doesn't like to swivel?  Headphones are also useful, in any scenario. And with the rear-firing room, they offer additional revealing, and ergonomically-familiar territory. Still, the mains are singing, now that they are free to breath without interruptions. Please try it, if you can.
Andrew
Cappin' the rap in the M&Ms.
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