#soundguy

“The Sonic Science of Hamilton”

Mixing sound for one of the top jazz bands in the state in a crappy theater with barely enough mics, zero outboard, half as many cables as I need, a halfway functional PA, not enough wedges, a terrible drum set, a ridiculously muddy bass amp, and a beautiful $80k Yamaha concert grand.

My nerdy corner at a cocktail party at an art gallery, super fancy night with a killer singer songwriter. 

Nothing overly flashy, oldschool analogue mixer, Limiter and 31 band eq over FOH to tune the insanely reflective gallery. Couple of senny wireless mics and wireless mic pack used to send a relay half way down the gallery. ( Those black boxes on that pillar to the back right) 

Was the hardest room I have ever rung out. Great challenge though and a killer night.

Sorry for the lack of posts, been working mostly double and triple shifts recently, the train rides have become my time to sleep, its crazy but killer awesome. 

Don’t let audiophiles fool you. There’s zero evidence that burning in a pair of earphones has any effect on the sound quality. Stop wasting time and start enjoying your music.

One of the best common-language explanations to this myth. Yet people who should know better still believe in this! 

My way of debunking burn-in: Dynamic microphones operate in the exact same way mechanically to speakers. Yet there aren’t thousands of arcane rituals to “burning in” an SM58. They sound like an SM58 out of the box, and always will.

Thins wear out, but that is not “burn in”. That is degradation. Things fall apart, it’s scientific (to quote the Talking Heads). But breaking something down never “improves” the quality. Breaking in an engine is done to loosen tight fittings and permeate seals with oil and fuel. But electromagnetic transducers don’t have those things. You don’t need to loosen up electrons. Even vacuum tubes, once the alloy is heated up, behaves predictably. The only change will be downhill as the components  wear out.

Also, there is acclamation. Over time the brain can block out strange differences if they are consistent. Use it enough, and it becomes the new normal. The headphones didn’t burn in, your brain did.

But, don’t tell the ‘audiophiles’ that!

Here’s an update, or a rethink, of an old post that claimed that a high-resolution sample rate is better for audio quality.

Well, it’s wrong.