Re: [LAU] digital voodoo: master fader should be set at 0db

From: Jörn Nettingsmeier <nettings@email-addr-hidden-hochschule.de>
Date: Mon Apr 12 2010 - 17:31:28 EEST

On 04/10/2010 08:50 PM, Atte André Jensen wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm thinking harder and harder about my mixes and have been reading
> this (written for renoise, but should apply to every DAW, so any
> ardour users/devs, please speak up!):

i just stumbled upon this quote (which i had missed on my first diagonal
reading):

> Whatever method you choose, it will sound better if you’re adjusting
> the playback volume with an analogue fader – digital adjustment isn’t
> bit-perfect and can kill representation of dynamics at settings other
> than 0dB.

oh yeah. analog summing is soooo all the rage these days.

imnsho, it's utter hogwash. the only thing that's noticeably nicer with
analog summing is that you get to sit at an analog console with an
analog UI, a leather armrest, glowing vu meters and an eq that just
"feels" right.
in short, it's a matter of how the engineer feels and likes to do
his/her job (all very valid). but nobody i repeat nobody would be able
to pick out anything wrong with digital summing in a blind ABX test.

and this leads to all kinds of spin-off voodoo like "killing the
representation of dynamics". problem is, this guy has a partial idea of
what he's talking about. the most dangerous kind, since it makes it
difficult to tell the wisdom from the drivel...

just create an ardour session with 24 busses in a row. one at +6db, next
at -6db, and so on. next to that, a single bus at 0dB. feed them both
the same signal, from a 10k analog record drive if you must.

then have somebody do an ABX test on that guy...
anybody taking bets on the outcome?
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Received on Mon Apr 12 20:15:03 2010

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