Digital Musings
July 30, 2008 Filed in: Recording
The digital age can be a quandary.
My gargantuan task of building an acoustically accurate, full range recording studio is finally nearing its end. As I write this, some very skilled carpenters are taking a lunch break on what very well be the last trade work construction day. I didn’t know this, but hanging doors is very tricky…best left to a carpenter. Trim work goes in after that. Inspections will take place over the next few days. Then, I move in.
I have a respectable rack of gear already. I use a combination of Focusrite pre amps and an Avalon Vacuum Tube pre amp/channel strip. With the exception of a few external boxes, most of my processing (compression, eq, and effects) happens in the computer.
Once the studio gets rolling again, invariably, I’m going to want to have a wider selection of pre amps. A pre amp is an electronic device that amplifies a microphone signal to a line level signal. The way the pre amp handles the signal contributes to its perceptible signature sound. There are some pre amps that have desirable “artifacts” (say, for example, from tube processing). There are some pre amps that are ridiculously clean (from having an amazing signal to noise rating). If a studio is worth a damn, you’ll usually see some kind of class A pre amp in line (the ones I tote are the Avalon and Focusrite but other’s might include pre amps by Neve, API, or Summit).
Just mixing and matching various microphones with various pre amps have provided a calculated depth to my latest recordings. It’s one of those things that is hard to judge on an individual track. But, as the tracks get layered, the character and color begins to emerge. To use a computer monitor analogy, if right now I’m able to offer 16 sonic colors, having a few more pre amps might bring that up to 256 colors.
A few years ago, convolution technology became an interlaced feature in pro audio gear. Convolution is the process by which an unprocessed signal is measured against a processed signal and a resultant “process” is extrapolated, recorded, and quantified. In layman’s terms, if A becomes B in a given set of conditions, with convolution technology, we can reproduce how A becomes B with out those conditions.
Convolution pre amps work exactly how you’d think they would. The behavior (and therefore, sonic characteristics) of an expensive, desirable pre amp is measured, recorded, and encoded into a less expensive digital pre amp unit. The behaviors are saved as programs. To get a signal like the expensive one, all you have to do is dial it in and press record.
As I sit here and ponder what to invest in next, I have to wonder if convolution pre amps are too good to be true. After all, what a good pre amp should do is provide a clean signal. Therefore, on the convolution pre amp, is the perceived color just added garbage? Would I be degrading my audio signal by running it through a tube pre simulator?
I honestly don’t know. I do lose sleep over this.
On one hand, a recording studio should be able to provide an accurate representation of a given musical performance. This could be best done with clean pre amps, which, arguably, I already have. On the other hand, sonic color is desirable. So, is it better to have the real thing? Or, just a simulator? Does the outcome change if the real thing costs 10 times as much as a simulator?
One product that has gotten rave reviews from audiophiles is the Focusrite Liquid 4Pre. It has four, transparent, clean, transformerless mono pre amps that can be colored to emulate 39 other pre amps, including a host of Neve’s, SSL’s, API’s, and other boutique pre amps that audiophiles love for one reason or another. Review after review, test after test, Pepsi challenge after Pepsi challenge yields a “we really can’t tell a difference” result, usually admittedly kicking and screaming that it just can’t be true. Is there a difference? How would someone (like me) who’s only used some of this boutique stuff in passing really know?
And, pre amps are about signal to noise ratings. You can’t emulate a signal to noise rating. You can make something similar to the ancillary components (warmth, grit, etc...), but sonic quality isn’t something you can simulate.
In spite of the guarded skepticism I have of this unit, its options and versatility remain attractive to me. The 4Pre is definitely in consideration when its time to expand.
Another product that is of interest to me is the API Lunchbox series. This “500 series” line allows for modular switching and swapping of smallish boxes that would otherwise take up a single rack space. Not only are they cute, but they’re also the real thing, just smaller. For the same price of the 4Pre, I could get a 10 unit rack apparatus and five or six pre amps. The advantage here is that I’d have real units, not emulations of units. The disadvantage is that I’d have less sonic options. But still, I have to wonder if the emulated preamps are merely a clean signal colored in different ways. From a distance, a Camry can look like a Lexus. But, up close, and certainly when you’re driving one or the other, you know the difference.
A third product (and the least expensive option of the three) is the new Arsenal by API stereo pre amp. This looks promising. I look forward to reading some reviews of the product. This is a simple, straight ahead clean stereo pre amp by API. There really are no drawbacks to it. It does what it says it does. No emulations. No shrinking--just a nice looking and probably nice sounding box.
Pro audio catalogs remind me of when I was a kid and the Sears catalog came out. Looking at gear that I can’t afford yet seems a lot like the times when, as a lad, I’d look at the Slave I, or the Millennium Falcon. Sure, I didn’t need the Slave I, but it did make for a nice Christmas present. Similarly, I can run a great studio without snazzy pre amp emulations or even a wider selection of pre amps. I have the gear I need. More pre amps are certainly not necessities. All things in time, though. All things in time.
My gargantuan task of building an acoustically accurate, full range recording studio is finally nearing its end. As I write this, some very skilled carpenters are taking a lunch break on what very well be the last trade work construction day. I didn’t know this, but hanging doors is very tricky…best left to a carpenter. Trim work goes in after that. Inspections will take place over the next few days. Then, I move in.
I have a respectable rack of gear already. I use a combination of Focusrite pre amps and an Avalon Vacuum Tube pre amp/channel strip. With the exception of a few external boxes, most of my processing (compression, eq, and effects) happens in the computer.
Once the studio gets rolling again, invariably, I’m going to want to have a wider selection of pre amps. A pre amp is an electronic device that amplifies a microphone signal to a line level signal. The way the pre amp handles the signal contributes to its perceptible signature sound. There are some pre amps that have desirable “artifacts” (say, for example, from tube processing). There are some pre amps that are ridiculously clean (from having an amazing signal to noise rating). If a studio is worth a damn, you’ll usually see some kind of class A pre amp in line (the ones I tote are the Avalon and Focusrite but other’s might include pre amps by Neve, API, or Summit).
Just mixing and matching various microphones with various pre amps have provided a calculated depth to my latest recordings. It’s one of those things that is hard to judge on an individual track. But, as the tracks get layered, the character and color begins to emerge. To use a computer monitor analogy, if right now I’m able to offer 16 sonic colors, having a few more pre amps might bring that up to 256 colors.
A few years ago, convolution technology became an interlaced feature in pro audio gear. Convolution is the process by which an unprocessed signal is measured against a processed signal and a resultant “process” is extrapolated, recorded, and quantified. In layman’s terms, if A becomes B in a given set of conditions, with convolution technology, we can reproduce how A becomes B with out those conditions.
Convolution pre amps work exactly how you’d think they would. The behavior (and therefore, sonic characteristics) of an expensive, desirable pre amp is measured, recorded, and encoded into a less expensive digital pre amp unit. The behaviors are saved as programs. To get a signal like the expensive one, all you have to do is dial it in and press record.
As I sit here and ponder what to invest in next, I have to wonder if convolution pre amps are too good to be true. After all, what a good pre amp should do is provide a clean signal. Therefore, on the convolution pre amp, is the perceived color just added garbage? Would I be degrading my audio signal by running it through a tube pre simulator?
I honestly don’t know. I do lose sleep over this.
On one hand, a recording studio should be able to provide an accurate representation of a given musical performance. This could be best done with clean pre amps, which, arguably, I already have. On the other hand, sonic color is desirable. So, is it better to have the real thing? Or, just a simulator? Does the outcome change if the real thing costs 10 times as much as a simulator?
One product that has gotten rave reviews from audiophiles is the Focusrite Liquid 4Pre. It has four, transparent, clean, transformerless mono pre amps that can be colored to emulate 39 other pre amps, including a host of Neve’s, SSL’s, API’s, and other boutique pre amps that audiophiles love for one reason or another. Review after review, test after test, Pepsi challenge after Pepsi challenge yields a “we really can’t tell a difference” result, usually admittedly kicking and screaming that it just can’t be true. Is there a difference? How would someone (like me) who’s only used some of this boutique stuff in passing really know?
And, pre amps are about signal to noise ratings. You can’t emulate a signal to noise rating. You can make something similar to the ancillary components (warmth, grit, etc...), but sonic quality isn’t something you can simulate.
In spite of the guarded skepticism I have of this unit, its options and versatility remain attractive to me. The 4Pre is definitely in consideration when its time to expand.
Another product that is of interest to me is the API Lunchbox series. This “500 series” line allows for modular switching and swapping of smallish boxes that would otherwise take up a single rack space. Not only are they cute, but they’re also the real thing, just smaller. For the same price of the 4Pre, I could get a 10 unit rack apparatus and five or six pre amps. The advantage here is that I’d have real units, not emulations of units. The disadvantage is that I’d have less sonic options. But still, I have to wonder if the emulated preamps are merely a clean signal colored in different ways. From a distance, a Camry can look like a Lexus. But, up close, and certainly when you’re driving one or the other, you know the difference.
A third product (and the least expensive option of the three) is the new Arsenal by API stereo pre amp. This looks promising. I look forward to reading some reviews of the product. This is a simple, straight ahead clean stereo pre amp by API. There really are no drawbacks to it. It does what it says it does. No emulations. No shrinking--just a nice looking and probably nice sounding box.
Pro audio catalogs remind me of when I was a kid and the Sears catalog came out. Looking at gear that I can’t afford yet seems a lot like the times when, as a lad, I’d look at the Slave I, or the Millennium Falcon. Sure, I didn’t need the Slave I, but it did make for a nice Christmas present. Similarly, I can run a great studio without snazzy pre amp emulations or even a wider selection of pre amps. I have the gear I need. More pre amps are certainly not necessities. All things in time, though. All things in time.