Musings from a Curmudgeon-Acoustics Forum-Acoustic Fields Forum

Just watched your video about vocal rooms and it struck a chord with me.

40 – some years ago I was fortunate to serve an apprenticeship in a professional recording studio . (The Record Plant in Sausolito). These were the days before digital. Much of what I learned was about microphone selection and placement. Back in these days there was no ability to go back and correct sound digitally, so great care had to be taken to get the sound right in the first place.

Much of what I hear now sounds over manipulated to me, with less initial quality of sound. Especially compared to some of the great sound captured in the pre-digital days. Listen to Muddy Water’s albums on Chess. Or early Beatles albums. When I listen to early Steely Dan albums I hear the layers that were recorded and then assembled.

Maybe I’m just old and a Luddite but I think that in some cases over reliance on digital fixes has eroded the craft of capture quality sound initially.