Jim Alfredson

I can't say I do. I'll have to check him out. Thanks for posting!

Maybe you need to study psychoacoustics as well.

Do you think they were using $300 power cords on the equipment to record that?

The Hawks don't know they're supposed to lose to Boston.

I missed this the first time around. I cannot get her to go anything but clockwise. Feet or no feet.

For instance, on the mixes I've been doing of the new organissimo stuff (for my own pleasure... we're heading into a pro studio on Monday to mix the album), I've been using compression mainly on the drums and organ / Leslie bass. The top mics on the Leslie are totally natural (no EQ even), as is the guitar so far. I have been compressing the bass drum slightly, to tame some peaks. I also added a bit to the toms, to make them sit better in the stereo spectrum. And finally, I've been sending the entire drum submix to an SSL-style bus compressor and mixing that in with the uncompressed submix, just underneath, which gives the drums a nice, full sound, without hurting the original dynamics. My use of compression is to be as transparent as possible, because that sound fits this type of music. And not to nitpick, but the original post in this article and the links are really referring to extreme limiting, which is a bit different than compression.

Amen!

Again, compression in and of itself is not evil, it's the over-use of it. It can be used, very transparently, to make things "glue" together better in a mix. For my own recordings, the way I see it is that any plays on radio are going to be compressed any way (radio, with the exception of some classical stations, compress the living bejesus out of the audio before it is transmitted), so there is no reason to smash the crap out of the recording in mastering. Trying to convince other engineers of that, however, is sometimes an uphill battle.

http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=articl...cleid=CA6418215

Your observations are most likely colored, but probably by how much the cables cost. Give me a sound, scientific reason why 6 feet of expensive power cable would make a difference.

Probably no "echo chamber" on Kind of Blue. The 30th St studio was a very resonant room - that's why most people loved it. Ah, it slipped my mind that it was recorded at 30th St. Of course. Which itself was a converted church. So that makes the guy's "unnatural" comment even more nonsensical.

So these are illegal, correct?

I am skeptical because of what I know about electronics and the fact that if you think about this logically, there is no reason why a six foot length of cable going from the wall to your component would make any difference in how it sounds. Like Daniel A stated, the power is being delivered from the plant through miles and miles and miles of cable. Is another six feet of "audiophile grade" power cable going to really offset all that? As far as the tests, whenever one is testing audio equipment, one quickly enters the realm of the subjective. There are just too many variables. For instance, what kind of music did you listen to? Was it music that each person was familar with? How familar? What volume was it at? Was it the same exact db each time? Did you always use one cable the first time you listened an the other the second time or did you mix them up for different tunes? Was everyone sitting and listening together? People in groups can be influenced by the perception of other people in the group. A better way to test the power cables would be to have two completely identical systems set up or at least two identical CD players (or SACD or whatever you're using) and an input selector to switch between the two. Have one player with the normal cord, the other with the expensive cord and play the same CD at the same time so you can switch back and forth between the two and really compare. Then again, you'd have to first test both with a regular cord to make sure they both sound the same to begin with. If you really think it makes a difference, hey it's your money. But I guarantee a line conditioner would yield better results and add protection to your equipment as well.

In fact, to expound on this a bit more, compression was devised because of the dynamic limitations of the mediums of the day (AM radio, vinyl and tape). With today's 24bit recordings, that have a theoretical dynamic range of 144db (which is greater than what our ears can ever hear), there is really no need for compression at all. But... we're so used to the sound within certain genres that recordings without it sound dull, flat, and non-professional, especially at low volumes (at higher volumes our ears tend to "naturally" compress things in the way that they react to certain frequencies.) Like any other tool, compression itself isn't the enemy. It's the people that over-use it.

I thought we might be talking about data compression (mp3s). Thankfully, the "loudness wars" are mainly centered around popular music. That stuff is so slammed the waveform looks like a big rectangular block. It's horrendous and sounds terrible. I disagree with the poster in the other thread about Kind of Blue. He needs to research Columbia's echo chambers before saying the reverb is "unnatural".

All a power cord does is transfer AC from your wall to whatever component. The component itself converts that AC into DC, which is what all the internal electronics of said component run on. Why would a different power cord make any difference? AC is AC. As long as it is (in the US) around 115vac and 60Hz, gear does not care. Power supplies in gear are designed to work with slight voltage variances, which can occur from any number of sources (power company, your home's internal wiring, etc.) A six foot long cable from the wall to the component is not going to have an effect on any of that. It's a scam. You'd be better off getting some sort of line conditioner, which will smooth any flucuations in your home's power and give the components a nice, steady diet of 115vac. That will have more of an effect than a cable. In fact, some digital gear won't even work with too low of voltage or will produce multiple errors. If you live in an older home in an older neighborhood you would probably hear improvement. Then again, if your power is stable, it won't do much except protect your equipment from a brownout or a sudden surge coming down the line.

Are these illegal?

It is good for Herbie. He definitely deserves any accolades, however superfluous.

Yes, rather than just contacting the site, contact the company that hosts the site. If it's in the US, you have to agree not to host copyrighted material in your contract. You can use www.dnsstuff.com to find out who hosts the site.

Real easy to say if you don't have to pay the band or publishing royalties. It's not easy to say; I'm not making any money on any of the four discs that I have been a part of the last 6 years. Yet each one of those discs cost between $8000 and $12000 to make. None of them are paid off, yet. What good does suing single moms do? Especially some, as in this case, who are innocent? Are you seeing any money from those lawsuits? Are you seeing any decline in the number of people ripping off your label's music? No? Then what's the point? It's a Pandora's Box that cannot be closed. I don't know what the answer is, but it's not going to change and it's not going to go away regardless of how much we complain or sue.

As someone who's spending his own money to put out records, money that is getting harder and harder to come by as far as decent paying gigs are concerned, I completely understand and empathize with Chuck. However, the bare facts are that downloading is not going away and the RIAA's tactics will not even make a dent in the problem. And if they wrongly accuse even one person and scare them into paying money that is not warranted, then that makes the whole thing even more wrong. And two wrongs don't make a right.

Brown should've waited... he could've been hired to a franchise with a more immediate future than Charlotte.

Dang.... Mavs didn't waste any time firing Avery.

Are you sure that isn't a recurring nightmare? That is totally awesome! Somebody needs to invent that horn-switcheroo-bar-thingy. Post haste!