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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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In Reply to: It took you a while but... posted by KlausR. on May 9, 2007 at 05:01:51:
In regards to the recording industry:The pop recordings often mix polarities for the sound effect. Aphex Aural Exciters invert phase, add a bit of EQ in order that singers have that husky voice. Compare early Linda Ronstadt (Stone Poneys) to current material: same as Barbara Streisand and many other artists including Neil Diamond, Michael Crawford, etc. Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' is having the background instruments recorded out of phase to the singers in order to give that big, but vague, soundstage.
Check out The Commitments director's cut's comments. He states in no uncertain terms that the instruments were played back out of phase in order to accentuate the lead singer's voice. The LP soundtrack is very different sounding from the soundtrack on the movie itself.In the case of Classical music, polarities become a mixed bag with the advent of heavy multimiking. The mikes are very close to the wind instruments because they are very few in numbers. They are further away from the string instruments because of the larger ensemble. The difference in spacing coupled with the fact that the mikes are mixed in real time, leads to phase and polarity anomalies. You can't have an oboe miked 4 feet above the player and then mix the sound with the violins which may have the mike 15 to 2o feet away from the players.
Even in the older period where the mikes were minimal, polarity was an issue. Ever notice all the Decca recorded RCA's are inverted in respect to the American recordings? Most Decca, Philips, and DDG recordings are inverted, as well as US Columbia's. One cynic told me that was because Philips wanted to make sure no one would ever blow their speakers from too much volume.The fact of the matter that most European labels are seemingly inverted to, say, a Mercury, seems to point out problems in recording convention. This is quite evident if the Decca master tapes were sent to RCA and played back on American equipment.
Early mono Ampex reel to reel machines had pin 3 as the hot on their XLR's. I have RCA LP's, say like the Reiner Scheherazade, where the 1s/1s pressing is phase correct, but the 1s/7s has the 7s side inverted. This points to equipment issues as there is no reason why later masterings should have their polarity changed.
The answer is not to accept the status quo as Clark has been stating. Education and awareness can create change. But, if no one else cares, there will be no reform.
Stu
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Follow Ups
- Re: It took you a while but... - unclestu52 11:59:26 05/09/07 (10)
- "In the case of Classical music, polarities become a mixed bag with the advent of heavy multimiking" . . . no. - markrohr 11:04:42 05/10/07 (3)
- Re: "In the case of Classical music, polarities become a mixed bag with the advent of heavy multimiking" . . . no. - unclestu52 01:19:19 05/12/07 (2)
- Re: "In the case of Classical music, polarities become a mixed bag with the advent of heavy multimiking" . . . no. - markrohr 04:00:39 05/14/07 (0)
- Timing errors - KlausR. 02:44:03 05/12/07 (0)
- Re: The answer is not to accept the status quo - KlausR. 00:14:56 05/10/07 (5)
- "When Dr. Heyser was president of AES, that would have been the very moment for Clark." ROTFLOL! - clarkjohnsen 09:28:29 05/11/07 (4)
- Actually, I didn't do a search on that one, but... - KlausR. 00:02:24 05/12/07 (3)
- Nor have you much searched the Wood effect -- that's the whole problem. - clarkjohnsen 10:10:02 05/12/07 (2)
- Three questions, well, actually four - KlausR. 21:43:54 05/12/07 (1)
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