EQ Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 4)

Talk Box ALL I KNOW IS THERE’S A LOT I DON’T KNOW I don’t believe that running a green felt tip pen around the edge of a CD improves the sound. I don’t believe that you need to burn-in cables. And I don’t believe that the skin effect matters with speaker wires. What I do believe is that many audiophile myths melt under the scrutiny of blind testing. But sometimes. . . . You may recall the article in the 03/08 issue about engineering a Kathleen McIntosh harpsichord session. After doing the mastering, I gave Kathleen, producer Peter Sheehey, and Maricam Studio’s Scott Irving test CDs. They loved it, but wanted to reverse the order of two cuts. No problem. I called up the same file in CD Architect that I’d used previously, reversed the two songs, and burned another set of CDs. Then Scott called, saying they liked the sound of the original CD better. Huh? I used the same files, same program, same everything. I really thought they had talked themselves into thinking there was a difference. I told them that wasn’t possible, and to do some blind testing. So one person swapped CDs randomly without the other two looking, and they had to write down which version they thought it was. Kathleen identified which was which 7 out of 7 times. Peter and Scott each got 6 out of 7 right. Statistically, that’s way more than just “significant.” I took both CDs home, imported the cuts into Wavelab, and ran the program’s file comparison test. The only difference I could find was that the dithering noise distribution was slightly different in each file (and we’re talking extremely low-level signals). Did I use different noise shaping or dithering by mistake? I found a section at the end of a file from each version, past the fadeout, where the only sound was the dither. I cranked up the level so I could hear it, but the sonic quality was seemingly identical. A phase flip test using Sonar’s 64-bit audio engine caused total cancellation, except for the ultra-low-level noise components. So the computer said the files were virtually identical. Yet three sets of incredibly trained ears were almost infallible in identifying a difference. I was not able to participate in the testing, but upon listening to the two files in my studio, I couldn’t hear any difference . . . then again, I was playing back the files through the same D/A converter, without a CD player in between. Maybe there was some interaction between the CDs and the playback system that caused the difference. Or maybe it was the CD media, or a different burn speed. I’m still investigating, but I know one thing for sure: There’s a lot I don’t know! www.eqmag.com Vol. 19 No. 7, July 2008 Executive Editor Craig Anderton, canderton@musicplayer.com Editor Matt Harper, mharper@musicplayer.com Managing Editor Debbie Greenberg, dgreenberg@musicplayer.com Contributors Jeff Anderson, Merrick Angle, Moses Avalon, Janice Brown, Devine Evans, Cliff Goldmacher, Paul Grundman, Garrett Haines, Shane Mehling, Ken Micallef, Greg Reynolds, Angelina Skowronski Art Director Patrick Wong, pwong@musicplayer.com Staff Photographers Paul Haggard, phaggard@musicplayer.com, Craig Anderton, canderton@musicplayer.com Publisher John Pledger Associate Publisher & Advertising Director, Northeast Gary Ciocci gciocci@musicplayer.com, 603.924.9141 Advertising Director, Northwest & New Business Dev. Greg Sutton gsutton@musicplayer.com, 925.425.9967 Advertising Director, Southwest Jon Levy jlevy@musicplayer.com, 818.994.3800 Advertising Director, Midwest Jessica Sullivan jsullivan@musicplayer.com, 661.255.2719 Advertising Director, Southeast & NY Grace Newman gnewman@musicplayer.com, 631.239.1460 Specialty Sales Advertising Director Mike Montgomery mmontgomery@musicplayer.com, 650.238.0307 Specialty Sales Assistant Allison Smith asmith@musicplayer.com, 650.238.0296 Production Manager Amy Santana MUSIC PLAYER NETWORK Group Publisher/VP John Pledger Editorial Director Michael Molenda Senior Financial Analyst Bob Jenkins Production Department Manager Beatrice Kim Group Project Manager Lauren Gerber Web Director Max Sidman Web Editor Lania Cortez Motion Graphics Designer Tim Tsuruda Marketing Director Christen Pocock McFarland Sales and Marketing Coordinator Molly Corman Marketing Designer Joelle Katcher Systems Engineer John Meneses Associate Circulation Director Cheri McElroy Associate Director, Subscription Marketing Christopher Dyson Fulfillment Manager Rosario Perez NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE President & CEO Steve Palm Chief Financial Officer Paul Mastronardi Vice President Web Development Joe Ferrick Circulation Director Denise Robbins Marketing Director Nancy Gregson HR Manager Ray Vollmer IT Director Greg Topf Controller Jack Liedke Please direct all advertising and editorial inquiries to: EQ, 1111 Bayhill Dr., Ste. 125, San Bruno, CA 94066 (650) 238-0300; Fax (650) 238-0262; eq@musicplayer.com Please direct all subscription orders, inquiries, and address changes to: 800-289-9919, outside the U.S. 978-667-0364, eqmag@computerfulfillment.com Back Issues: Back Issues are available for $10 each at 800-289-9919, 978-667-0364, eqmag@computerfulfillment.com EQ (ISSN 1050-7868) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. EQ is a trademark of NewBay Media. All material published in EQ is copyrighted (©) 2008 by NewBay Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in EQ is prohibited without written permission. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EQ., P.O. Box 232, Lowell, MA 01853. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product information is subject to change; publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. All listed model numbers and product names are manufacturers' registered trademarks. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA, and at additional mailing offices. 4 EQ JULY 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - July 2008

EQ Magazine - July 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Louis XIV, Four TET and Steve Reid, Can Your Record Go Gold in the Digital Age Tool Box Death Cab For Cutie Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Propellerhead Reason 4 Sony Acid Pro 6 EDAX Audio Labs VTP-100 M-Audio Profire 2626 Tape Simulator Shootout Tape Simulators Sounds Room With a VU: Infrasonic Sound Recording Company, Los Angeles, CA.

EQ Magazine - July 2008

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