> The best sounding recordings I have come in several areas
> 1960s Decca SXL or ARGO. 3 microphones used simple mixing
> sound fantastic
> 1970s Philips however, have to be careful the sound got
> brighter and more
> brittle towards the end of that decade
> 1980s Telarc 3 microphones no filterring or processing.
> soundstream
> digital only. NOT the later sony PCM. By the 80s Decca had
> gone made with
> microhpones and it shows with the sound.
Don't forget that Decca had a specific miking configuration that
didn't cause problems with the cutters either. It was very
difficult (but not impossible) to get an out-of-phase sound that
would kick the cutter out. The Decca miking array also provided
for excellent stereo seperation and localization. Later, when
they started adding other mikes and mixing them in, the
localization went to pot. Telarc used a radically different
miking configuration that is quite dry and lifeless in my
opinion. I personally prefer a lot of the BBC recordings,
except that the dynamic range is too wide and "ppp" solos get
lost in the noise floor.
Speaking of localization, this is THE reason why LPs sound
"better", along with the overtones generated as a function of
the medium. During playback the Stylus becomes a musical
instrument actually creating (vs recreating) an original
waveform based on the influence of the bumps in the groove.
Another aspect that cannot be overlooked has to do with the
microphones used by the majority of sound engineers today
recording classical music. The "bigger is better" thinking when
it comes to diaphram size in the condensor mikes is wrong.
Nuemanns and AKGs have absolutely lousy localization capability
due to excessive time smear. B&K mikes (preferrably omnis or
wide cardoid pattern) or Earthworks mikes have very little smear
and coupled with 96/24 digital recording are able to record the
time-domain nuances that give you exceptional localization
characteristics.
No amount of digital post production with wiz-bang tools can
give you the time-domain finess to allow you to identify the
position of individual instruments in an orchestra. You can
hear the violins, but can you hear a specific violin?
AG-you got me started-Schnozz
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