What defines a good recording?

[Q00 0]

I had this thought while i was having dinner alone at a coffeeshop earlier. Dun laugh please

 

I was thinking of all the comments of other people about how some recordings of the past can outshine some of today's recordings. What are the signatures and hallmarks of a good recording to you? Be it classical or jazz or anykind of music.

 

I remember somebody mentioning that some record or music or audio company did a side by side by side comparison of digital and analogue recordings and chose the analogue recording to press instead. This would be pretty much in tune with what kind of equipment that older recordings had to use and deal with.

 

With sacd and dvd-audio catching on, i think that some standards for recordings should be kept as a sort of baseline for music lovers. What do u all think?

 

I hope this is related to music, because if it isnt, mod pls feel free to move this thread.

 

 

[cmk 0]

Past vs Present.

Well in the past, most recordings were simple 2 mic in studio/concert hall, while those of today are multimic'd on a mixing console, a much more complicated exercise. Now depending on the type of equipment used, some tube, some solid state, the older recordings generally had less electronics involved in the recording - hence were more true to the performance. Just think about performances recorded direct to master tape, while current recordings going to mixers, equalisation, re-mix, etc... Especially in current pop recordings, each performer is recorded separately in diff recording chambers and mixed. Equalisation, timing, L/R pan, front/depth perspective all has to be done on the console. In the past, tube equipment was also more prevalent, which contributed to the warmth in the recordings.

 

That is not to say that current recordings are no good. With the advancement in technology, digital recordings now are of a much higher quality than they used to be. The current equipment used in a number of studios is the EMM Labs DSD machine which has a very broad bandwidth 0-100khz and over 100db dynamic range. Also with higher sampling rates, there is less digital noise, jitter, etc...So with SACD and DVDA now becoming available, recordings are now kept in DSD format.

 

Hallmarks of a good recording.

Well there are many. Tonal quality, low noise, good dynamics, recording venue spacial cues = or air/soundstage. Most important is whether the emotional content in the music is captured and brought to your listening room, ops cans.