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Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)
There are still a few of us with ears and decent old analog equipment (and in
fact I don't own one piece of digital noise processing material, so anything
that happens after I do my transfers is someone else's work and is reversible
since I still have the original).
I haven't had a chance to listen to Andrew's work, which is usually highly
praised. But remember the introduction of what is now known as IRENE, where a
totally crapped up copy of a record that is available in thousands of good
original 78 and 45 pressings was processed and was barely listenable?
dl
Marcos Sueiro Bal wrote:
OK, I could not avoid some more optimistic comments.
Tom Fine wrote:
1. as I said in an earlier post -- declining analog knowledge and
equipment condition
This is probably from the second law of thermodynamics --given a closed
system (i.e., no more machines being made, no engineers being trained),
it will take increasingly more energy to extract the content. Not much
we can do about that.
2. there's no apprentice system like in the old days. You don't start
sweeping floors and asking a million questions. There are no crotchety
old-timers who pull magic out of their brains every day over whose
shoulder you can look. Most of the experts are one-person operations,
and struggling to survive under that model. So there's no "guild" or
"professional system" in place anymore. An exception might be
Hollywood, although I understand that's getting more decentralized too.
Fully agreed. Which is why I think IASA, ARSC or AES (or even LC) should
set up an system where you look over the shoulder of the golden-eared,
even if it is just for a summer.
3. what passes for "knowledge" is a giant sludge pool of
misinformation and myths. See any pro-audio oriented web board. Who
has the time to sort out facts from BS in those forums? Also, no
high-quality publications anymore. What takes the place of dB or
Recording Engineer/Producer today? Mags like Mix are just ego shows
and advertiser-testimonials. Very few nuggets of useful or even
interesting information.
There is the good old AES Journal and its publications, and lots and
lots of books. One does have to request them from one's library, though,
but that is easiest now than ever; as is getting used copies of
out-of-print materials.
4. what would motivate a truly brilliant young man or woman to have
anything to do with professional audio? The music business is
collapsing. There are no more magic mythical "temples" of recording
where you get paid little but have a giant "kewl factor" to working
there, and brush elbows with your favorite musicians. Many of us here
are one-person operations, and some of us even _like_ to work alone,
but would we do this if we were 22 and just out of college? And, as
Karl pointed out, there is little budget or respect for anything
approaching high-quality anymore.
Frankly, I do not want anyone looking for glamour or money to work in
the restoration business. Ultimately the collapsing of the giant
record-business machine *will* be a good thing, you will see: It will
get rid of those in the industry whose main purpose was to make lots of
money or to be cool. However, if you need an economic reason, how's
this? If you one of the few with valuable knowledge, you can charge more.
5. the generation coming up, the so-called "millenials" (sp?) are
work-ethic challenged. See the numerous media stories on this trend.
They also seem to think they have little to learn and don't respect
seniority. These are generalizations and I'm sure there are some
wonderful young folks eager to learn and respectful of their elders,
but I sure see and encounter a lot of bad-attitude slackers who have
completely unrealistic ideas of work and wage-earning.
My father taught high school for almost 40 years. He always said kids
are essentially the same generation after generation. I wonder how many
great engineers of today were "bad-attitude slackers" or disinterested
in audio in their youth --I'd venture that very few. The cream rises to
the top.
Pathologically optimistically yours,
Marcos