In the world of hifi I often hear people talking about how xyz music sounds when played with such-n-such kit but are we missing the point here? I mean shouldn't the aim be to reproduce the music to sound exactly as the artist intended? I think this is particularly relevant when playing vinyl where I hear comments like people like the warmth of the vinyl sound where the "warmth" of the sound really means a bass sound that is less accurate to the source. So the aim, IMO, should be to reproduce the music as close and as accurate as intended by the artist i.e. as it sounded in the mixing booth or studio (or stage if live). To that end surely the only hope of achieving this nirvana is using a digital source where the recording is taken as close as possible from the digital mixing?
So talk of this system or equipment sounding better than another should really come down to which sounds the closest to the original. Not which has the best bass extension, or sweeter treble, or better sound stage but which is the closest to the source. If the source has rubbish bass then the reproduction should sound the same even if it sounds rubbish!
If you get what I'm saying :-)
Posted on: 09 January 2019 by SongStream
With all the variables to be considered, what is the best thing a speaker or electronics designer could do to preserve artistic intent? I mean, not the actual sound from the mixing desk and studio monitors used, because that would be impossible, but the musical message. What approach would best achieve the emotional response desired, regardless of the recording / mix quality?
Posted on: 09 January 2019 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Emotion is an interesting one.. the AES published an interesting paper on this a little while back.. in summary from memory this paper demonstrated the emotional response cues were largely cultural and nurtured, but not entirely. There were certain sounds and musical phrases when prominent in a mix or solo were perceived to trigger emotional responses and feels... what I seem to remember was that this correlation of musical phrase/ sound to emotional response for the most part was not dependent on the fidelity of the reproduced sound.
Another trick and technique related to the above is to create a rhythm, groove or phrase that is not entirely what is expected.. this in turn creates a tension and interest... in mixing one can draw attention to this to create a tension and interest in the track, or an infectious groove. Of course this technique has been famously used in sound tracks of certain horror films..such as Carpenter’s Halloween.
