A question to the Sound Engineers out there


I really enjoy the way in which, some sound engineers have the ability to create tracks that sounds like the recording took place in a much larger physical venue outside of a studio

But based on the pictures I have seen of some studios, i.e. with the large mixing desk in front of a large pane of glass - it hardly looks to be an ideal listening environment.

So I was wondering...

- do Sound engineers listen to the finished master on a TOTL hi-fi system having a more "normal configuration" i.e. like many of us have in our houses, to ensure their end product will sound  just as they want it?

- or is the studio a near field listening environment, which is actually better for the purpose of creating a grander sounding master?

- or are the speakers not really for mixing purposes because the sound engineer relies solely on headphones to create the final product mix?

Just curious - Cheers - Steve



williewonka

Showing 1 response by tomic601

We are Investors in a successful Pac NW studio, we help fund the growing arsenal of microphones. I also have a analog and digital mobile rack, unamplified acoustic voices and instruments in reverberant space is my thing. Some great Church type spaces are amazing.

For the OP ? as others have said the general process is record w monitors in near field. Then mix and as Eric so aptly said might not even be stereo, might be 7.1
then Master it, very typically for the limits of the playback format... car radio or early barnspike phono might be the worst. To put some life back into poor recordings you have some audiophiles and music lovers go down a path of enhanced controls on the preamp - phase, blend, L/R swap, mono, and of course tone. see Cello preamp. Our resident egotist will dismiss that great bit of musicality and electrical engineering but that is just illustrative of how he thinks a particular recording went wrong. 
All manner of reverb to create ambience. The fat analog sounding tanks were viewed as near priceless. Digital became the way, things have morphed a bit. For a hybrid approach see some of the recordings of 2L ( Grammy winners )

for a pure analog experience see the Blue Note work of Rudy Van Gelder, sometimes odd stereo mix but usually drenched in the church like ambience but with some close microphones snap!!!