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Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)

A few observations inserted below.

Best,
John

jspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxx

On Dec 5, 2007, at 6:34 PM, Tom Fine wrote:

I'm not overly optimistic for a few reasons:

1. as I said in an earlier post -- declining analog knowledge and equipment condition
There are several companies (such as mine) that acquire both hardware and techs to keep legacy equipment operable. Obviously, the trend is not our friend on the hardware side.

But look at the incredible investment being made at the NAVCC in Culpeper - it is very encouraging for me to see them come on-line.

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.
At least in the born-digital space, we have found several "apprentices" that desire to learn the techniques to properly archive recordings. When combined with the above (see #1), there is still hope. We train our engineers every week in analog migration, and I know there are other companies like mine that do so.

Times change - sweeping floors will not equate to a vast knowledge base of best practices. Witness the extreme decline of traditional recording studios, and large format analog recording consoles. It ain't coming back.

I will concur that disc migration best practices are probably those most at risk, but folks like Eric Jacobs, Carl Haber, and others represent a collection of incredible minds that will hopefully fill a void with technologies that may not exist yet.

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.
With approximately 70 million + blogs out there, I refuse to assume they are accurate representations of the current state of analog migration techniques and mindsets. If dB and REP are the "bibles" of the migration process, why do IASA, AES, NARAS, Sound Directions, and other organizations/ projects even bother to do the work they do?

Mix magazine merely reflects the current state of recording - a fragmented industry full of Chinese knock-off products as well as some wonderful handmade analog equipment. They have to sell ads, just as you sell your migration services, and they do address current trends in the recording industry.

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.
We've had incredible success with "brilliant" young men and women that find our archival work intriguing. Sure, there are plenty of recording program graduates that don't find archival work interesting, but your broad brush stroke is not what we've seen in actual practice.

Many young people do enroll in recording programs with the sole intent of becoming the next "hot engineer/ producer", but they are pretty easy to identify, and most likely don't belong in the archival industry.

Regarding the "collapse" of the music industry, I would counter that many artists have chosen a different path that does not involve the traditional major label record industry. The vast increase of independent labels may fill some of the impending void you view as imminent. I'm to understand indies currently represent 70-80% of current releases, and hopefully, their market share (actual sell- through) will increase as well. Artists will continue to create music for public consumption, and those will have to be archived as well.

Many (if not most) of the projects we deal with are recorded in high- resolution digital formats - respect or budget notwithstanding. And you know, they sound pretty darn good!

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.
This is a disappointing perspective. Work-ethic challenged? What generation of our society did not have a segment of the population that could fit that description?

We must not interact with the same folks you do. I remain optimistic that some of those ultimately find there are opportunities beyond becoming the next hot record producer.

Sorry to rain on any parades, but reality hurts sometimes.
As one of our former leaders would say, "I feel your pain", but I'm not throwing in the towel just yet.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Phillips" <scottp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)


One can only hope !!

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RA Friedman
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 4:00 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)

I guess every generation says this! Take heart. Invariably some
youngster comes along and decides to learn the "old school way" and
revive craftsmanship. The real question is "Can they find their niche?"

-----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List on behalf
of Scott Phillips
Sent: Wed 12/5/2007 12:56 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc:
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)



Sometimes I think that mastering (or remastering) skills are
decreasing
at a rate similar to the rate of decline in the quality of
recording
engineers. As the 'old school' talent retires, the younger
replacement
talent has never learned fully to deal with the effort to use
the holes
in the sides of ones' head. Instead there is the mouse and
automatic
digital tools. The most disappointing thing is that it isn't the
tools
that are the problem. They are far, far better than they have
ever been.
It is the people, the attitudes, the 'easy way out' laziness
that is the
most disappointing.

Scott


-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Don Cox
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 10:47 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pristine Audio (?!)

On 05/12/07, Marcos Sueiro Bal wrote:

Tom & Doug,

A-men.

It amazes me how professional mastering engineers can be lured
into
over-processing. A couple of years ago I consulted for a major
box-set

re-issue and the original mastering (from a reputable house)
on Cedar
was full of digi-swish. I believe that they had just gotten
the system

and were a little knob-happy (something that I admit to be
susceptible

of when using a new piece of gear). I convinced them to back
off a bit

(although, alas, they never fixed the pitch drift).

As these tools become more commonplace and we learn to use
them, we
can only hope that these artifacts will be a thing of the
past. 

I think ear fatigue is a major problem. It is very hard even for
an
engineer to avoid adapting to what is coming out of the speakers
after
working for an hour or two.

So you tend to keep turning the knobs a bit further.

Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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