Propeller Head Plaza

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RE: Headroom

Posted by Tony Lauck on July 28, 2008 at 08:27:48:
I don't know what DG's problem is, but their sound quality has never been good, except possibly in the Archiv series. They started out with a multiple microphone philosophy which put them on the slippery slope of heavy production processing. Those who eschewed this philosophy had to learn how to make live recordings correctly and they got as a side benefit the opportunity to use better quality equipment.

I would assume that any modern record company seriously interested in making high quality RBCD recordings is, at the least, recording in 24 bits and normalizing their levels before reducing resolution to 16 bits. This makes it more likely that one will achieve the full potential of the RBCD format, and is probably a big reason why newer RBCD masterings are better (when, that is, additional "processing" is not used to attempt to gain position in the "loudness wars").

I have transfered dozens of tapes to RBCD format, some of which are for sale in Innersong. I always follow this procedure. (I also do the original digitization at a higher sample rate as well, because this gives me better control of the production process and allows me to use a higher quality anti-alias filter than is available in my ADC.) Interestingly, when I perform the final reduction stage from 44.1 24 bit to 44.1 16 bit there is usually, but not always, a difference in sound quality. This is rather surprising, considering that the S/N ratio on the tape was no more than 60 DB. (Most of the tapes are dolby B cassettes, but I have also transferred a few 7.5 IPS 2T reel to reel.)

Yes, it is nice to have headroom. But it isn't essential, except for live recording. (And even then it isn't essential because one can run multiple recorders and bracket the level setting.) What it does do is show the engineer how much better 24 bit audio can sound than 16 bit.

Tony Lauck

"Perception, inference and authority are the valid sources of knowledge" - P.R. Sarkar