| From: | greenboy |
| Date: | 8 Aug 2000 at 15:55:02 |
| Subject: | RE: Cd`s & Record Decks |
> Don Cox :
>1990s people can't believe that 1960s or 1970s people really wanted it
>like that. But there's no technical reason why a CD can't embody a
>dirty sound if you want one.
It's real simple to make many reissue CDs sound like the LPs they were
nicked from (I'm talking garden variety reissues here - not special
projects where they go back to the multitrack masters and hire engineers
familiar with the style or from the original sessions.
1) Get a random noise generator (or listen while using a popcorn maker
in the other room) and with the use of a mixing board run that signal in
at a lower volume along with the CD output. Also input [at a very low
volume] the sound of rumbling trucks on a viaduct overpass.
2) Use two of the mixing board's channel inputs for the CD outputs and
instead of panning each respectively hard left and hard right - pan them
at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. Turntables have poor separation between
right and left. This trick won't be totally convincing though: crosstalk
is even worse at higher frequencies than it is at mids for even the
best cartridges. Just find a setting that at least simulates the
inefficiency of your particular kit.
{Just kidding folks. I'll get to the serious method now. ; }
1) Get a stereo 10-band [octave centered] graphic EQ of high quality.
2) Roll off bass at 31 and 63 Hz. Start with -3 dB each, or so.
3) Add some mid bass at 125 and 250. Again, at the most 3 dB should do.
4) Starting at 4K Hz, and then 8K and 16K, roll some treble off, maybe
around 1.5-2 dB a band, so that the three sliders are successively lower.
5) While listening to playback dial all the above in closer to better
match your perception of your particular turntable's response. It's
possible you may need to slightly boost 500 Hz and 1K Hz midrange as
well (but probably not 2K). It'll change from CD to CD as well (just as
different masters on LP were handled differently).
If you have a 1/3-octave [30-band or so] equalizer, or a parametric,
you can more accurately build a frequency response curve that matches
RIAA characteristics and allows for turntable non-linearity. Of great
aid as well is a spectrum analyzer (some 10-bands come with a decent one
onboard), which allows you to actually see what is going on in various
frequency bands in the time domain. Warning though: it'll shock some
people to see what your turntable is actually delivering to your EQ and
consequently your playback system.
If you have a programmable equalizer, you can actually store different
curves for several major LP variances, and for cassette (which has
different limitations like headbump bass and high rolloff, which varies
according to tape formulation and noise reduction use), and for CD as
well, to closer match what each sounds like in your listening
environment.
Which is what I have done in the past. After years of experimenting and
watching spectrum curves and being able to quickly correlate a sound
with its general content weighting in the various octaves, I now just
either compensate using my wetware, or a quick dash to the nice and
easy treble, bass and mid controls on my preamp, or tweak the graphic.
I find that very few musicians actually care about the CD/vinyl debate
some audiophiles seem to get so much vindication juice from. Most people
who play or engineer are too busy trying to learn what the construction
of the music and the mix is, guessing what interments and techniques are
being used, trying to decipher the producer and engineering philosophies
(if any), and examining the structure of the composition / songwriting.
And of course experiencing the music itself, and going deeper within it.
<-- greenboy ---<<<
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