Have you ever heard a recording studio?

No but I don't think they actually make any sound unless someone or something is in it.

Yes, it was the sound I heard recording music in a studio that prompted my interest in hifi. It was amazing to hear the recording played back so close to how the session actually sounded. I don't think hifi playback is any different with the right setup and speakers. The speakers I use remind me of that studio sound, probably because ATC active speakers are to be found in many recording studios around the world.

Halloween Man posted:

Yes, it was the sound I heard recording music in a studio that prompted my interest in hifi. It was amazing to hear the recording played back so close to how the session actually sounded. I don't think hifi playback is any different with the right setup and speakers. The speakers I use remind me of that studio sound, probably because ATC active speakers are to be found in many recording studios around the world.

I use Naim ND5XS and Chord Hugo into ATC SCA2 Preamp and active ATC SCM50ASL - just out of interest, what are you using? 

Hugo TT direct to scm40a.

Excellent

Recording studio monitoring systems allow everything, warts and all to be heard to ensure the engineer gets the mix right. You'd probably not want this from your system at home. Near field Yamaha S10's anyone ? 

Have you heard a live band, Surely no Hi-Fi can match this might be a more interesting discussion...

One of my clients is a studio. It's a weird world and I've never heard anything during recording or studio playback which is even roughly an analogue of a good HiFi system in a lounge. They are designed for different things, as are concert venues.  

Totally agree .... ATC's show poor recordings for what they are, but excellent recordings are awesome.

There is absolutely no contest between my former Linn Keltik active system, which in real terms cost considerably more than the ATC set up. At the time (16 years ago and the equipment is still current!) £15K Linn setup v's £7K ATC

Absolutely night and day ... certainly at least 3-4 times improvement in sound quality. Which goes to show, expensive kit doesn't always bring the best sound. Obviously I can only comment on my Linn experience here.

Then again, we all know to listen and trust our own ears as opposed to blindly upgrading - which is the trap I unfortunately fell into with the Linn stuff. Constantly improving source, amps and speakers ----- yet the ATC kit at half the cost, simply wiped the floor in comparison.

Concert venues are very, very different but I think there can be similarities between studio recording and home hifi when it comes to playback. You only have to look at ATC and PMC to realise that. Studios and HiFiers are effectively both playing back the same digital data.

I heard a session at Real World back in 1992. The studio's monitors (and presumably amps etc) were top class and the playback of a finished track on these was fantastic. However the producer for the session - a well-known producer of some note - used his own monitors for mixing etc, which were the original AE1s, driven if I remember from a Quad 405, none of which sounded exceptional to me, in fact rather as if the sound were being squeezed out (an experience I'd had at home with AE1s). 

Sadly, also, the end-result CD sounded horribly over-processed to me.

Mr Frog posted:

There is absolutely no contest between my former Linn Keltik active system, which in real terms cost considerably more than the ATC set up. At the time (16 years ago and the equipment is still current!) £15K Linn setup v's £7K ATC

 

Linn Keltiks are still current?

Having had both original AE1s and a couple of Quad 405s, I'd say that's likely to be a match made in hell...

Salmon Dave posted:

Mr Frog posted:

There is absolutely no contest between my former Linn Keltik active system, which in real terms cost considerably more than the ATC set up. At the time (16 years ago and the equipment is still current!) £15K Linn setup v's £7K ATC

 

Linn Keltiks are still current?

No, the Linn stuff went out with the Ark ... its the ATC equipment that is still current i.e. same models purchased 1999 are still in production and I've obviously had them recapped etc

Consciousmess - you must be a very curious person since  you ask all these Strange questions - you surely keep the forum busy.

I've been in/used a few recording studios, from very lowly setups up to the BBC's Maida Vale complex.

The bottom line was stated above - they're for a different job than home HiFi. Recording and mixing are best done on speakers with a very flat response at less than impressive levels, usually referred to as monitors. They're not for sounding good, they're for picking up details, often in a much more sterile way than would be desirable in a home setting. Better equipped studios will then have a setup a bit more like a home system to test the work done using the monitors. But that latter system isn't necessarily any better than the systems of some people here. If it's better, it'll usually be because it's really good, expensive gear which still wouldn't be as good as, say, a Statement system, not because there's some kind of magic involved.

The balancing act of testing a mix/master on home or home-style equipment and making changes on a more clinical monitor system can be very tricky, but the direction of fit is more one of using the studio stuff to achieve optimal performance on systems people will actually listen to the result on, rather than there being some mythical studio experience which home users can only hope to approximate. Live recordings may be different, but certainly in my experience, the best a studio recording will ever sound is probably through a top end HiFi system rather than in a studio control room.

There may well be other (contradictory) views, but that's been my experience.

Mr. Jensen posted:

Consciousmess - you must be a very curious person since  you ask all these Strange questions - you surely keep the forum busy.

Maybe the Forum is strange, good work Consciousmess !

At least this post hasn't been moved to the padded cell.

Allante93!

Yes - indeed the recording studio experience is very different from the typical domestic hifi experience. if nothing else the studio has sound room treatments that are way superior to what would be acceptable in a normal domestic environment. A recording studio also is designed to be natural and flat - some home hifi environments accentuate bass and treble to give a 'nicer' but less neutral sound experience. Personally I like my hifi to sound flat and neutral  as well - and I can certainly hear the different mastering balances no doubt caused in part by the different studio performance profiles and engineer tastes

If you look at ATC SCM25A compact three-way active studio monitors that are very popular in studios then they share very similar attributes and almost identical response to my own hifi speakers SCM40A. I consider my home hifi system to have a flat response/transparent and can relay fine detail in the recordings. Others will prefer bumps and dips. Indeed, many equipment in the studio has anything but flat response, microphones for example.

Don't forget headphones too as the same headphones are used for mixing/mastering as hifiers will use to listen at home. The same DACS can also be used in the studio.

In my time in the studio we recorded reel to reel, there was no digital. To test how it sounded from the monitors we recorded to cassette tape and played it back in the car!

For playback only I would not say there was a large difference, not in my experience.

Just buy a Exposure 3010S2-D....you will be there...I got mine today. I'm in the "studio control room" at the moment having a coffee...scary...honestly!

Just to claryfy....I have been few times in a studio recording..as a musician...

Cheers

Same as above - recorded with my band. I actually did all my takes sitting in a control room, playing raw into a mixing console. Than re-amping, effects overlay....

Did mixing too.

But absolutely nothing compares to being in a rehearsal studio or on stage with floor monitors, and just hearing your own band raw. I typically stand to themleft of a drum kit, so my right ear is no longer as good as my left...

+1

Then you are also familiar with that...special sound...with studio monitors..or floor monitors...the " real deal" ��

sjbabbey posted:

No but I don't think they actually make any sound unless someone or something is in it.

The funniest thing is that during the last recording session I was in a studio, 8 hours each day, for 3 days just to lay down my parts. Only with a recording engineer and his dog for company. The rest of the band was either on tracks already, or still to be recorded. A click track was my best friend then...

fenderized posted:

+1

Then you are also familiar with that...special sound...with studio monitors..or floor monitors...the " real deal" ��

 

 

Very much so... Nothing sounds like a Mesa Boogie amp cranked up 3 meters away from you

For gigs I'm starting to use in-ear monitors via AKG wireless unit. Feels a bit disorientating to begin with - spatial recognition is all messed up when I move.  Takes some getting used to... Before my mate's guitar has always been to my left when I had drums behind to my right. Now that I move around, the sound is constantly in the same place, but that does not match the visual any longer  

Mr. Jensen posted:

Consciousmess - you must be a very curious person since  you ask all these Strange questions - you surely keep the forum busy.

It's just a shame that our friend doesn't seem to have anything to contribute to the discussion.