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Direct-To-Master Recording

J. I. Agnew S. Steldinger Magnetic Fidelity http://www.magneticfidelity.com info@magneticfidelity.com

July 31, 2016

Abstract

Direct-to-Master Recording is a method of recording sound, where the is performed entirely live and captured directly onto the master medium. This is usually done entirely in the analog domain using either or a disk as the recording medium. The result is an intense and realistic sonic image of the performance with an outstandig dynamic range.

1 The evolution of sound tracks can now also be edited note by note to recording technology compile a solid performance that can be altered or “improved” at will.

Sound recording technology has greatly evolved This technological progress has made it pos- since the 1940’s, when Direct-To-Master record- sible for far less competent musicians to make ing was not actually something special, but more a more or less competent sounding and like one of the few options for recording music. for washed out rock stars who, if all put in the This evolution has enabled us to do things that same room at the same time, would probably would be unthinkable in those early days, such as murder each other, to make an album together. , which allows different in- Or, at least almost together. This ability, how- struments to be recorded at different times, and ever, comes at a certain cost. The recording pro- mixed later to create what sounds like a perfor- cess has been broken up into several stages, per- mance by many instruments at the same time. formed by different people in different environ- The advent of workstations also ments. Typically, it starts with the recording or means that apart from much greater multitrack- tracking session, where all the instruments are ing capabilities of hundreds of tracks of separate recorded, usually separately using multiple mi- recordings being layered over each other, these crophones and each recorded onto

1 a separate track which can be edited and pro- recorded material. cessed individually. Then, these separate tracks go to the mixing stage where they are processed and edited even further and then mixed together 3 The digital multi-stage pro- into a coherent musical piece. This mix goes to cess the pre- stage where the pre- processes it yet some more to optimise There are several myths regarding what exactly it for its final destination medium. Eventually, happens in the digital domain with several peo- the pre-master goes to the final mastering stage ple claiming the ability to produce infinite copies where the mastering/transfer engineer processes without losses. This only holds true when pro- it even more to successfully transfer it to the ducing identical copies of an audio file onto dif- medium, that it is going to be commercially re- ferent storage mediums, which means identical leased in (vinyl record, , CD, etc.). copies of the same audio file onto different hard drives, USB sticks, or CD-Rs. But, it certainly does not hold true when performing signal pro- 2 The analog multi-stage pro- cessing operations, digital mixdown, format con- cess versions and A/D or D/A conversions. So in the typical digital album creation, one Aside from numerous processing units being used would start with a bunch of A/D conversions in all these stages, the recording actually has to from the analog microphone signals and related be bounced to several different mediums to be processors used during tracking into the digi- taken from one stage to the next. In the analog tal audio workstation, then apply a variety of domain, one would typically have a 2” multi- digital signal processing techniques. The multi- track tape mixed down to 1/4” or 1/2” tape, ple tracks are then sent off to the mixing stage, mastered onto 1/4” or 1/2” tape and then trans- where they might need a sample rate and quan- ferred onto a lacquer disk for vinyl records, which tisation conversion for compatibility. There they would later be plated with a thin metal film to undergo further digital signal processing and of- create the stampers, which would be used to ten D/A conversions to use in press the vinyl records. Alternatively, the mas- the mixing studio, followed by more A/D con- ter tape could be copied onto a 1/2” or 1” tape versions to get the signal back to the digital loop, which would be copied onto 1/8” tape, that audio workstation, before performing a digital would later be loaded into cassette shells. mixdown. Next it is sent to the pre-mastering If you do the math, you will find that vinyl studio which may work at a different sample records are actually a fourth generation copy at rate and quantisation, where it would almost best, while cassette tapes are a fifth generation certainly undergo a D/A conversion to be sent copy. Each generation (copy of one tape onto an- to high quality processing units, other tape or disk) introduces losses in the form then another A/D conversion to go back to dig- of an increase of the noise floor, greater distor- ital. Next step is off to the final mastering, tion, loss, less definition and an which again probably works at a different sam- extreme decrease in the the dynamic range of the ple rate/quantisation and there, especially if you

2 want to produce vinyl records, you need yet an- daily practising with their band? The ones, who other D/A conversion and even more analog sig- will enter a studio, perform a flawless first take nal processing to protect the sensitive disk cut- of their entire album, even with the songs in the ting equipment from the high frequency noise correct order? Do musicians, who play together and other distortions created during the conver- night after night in smoke and alcohol filled base- sion processes, as well as to ensure that the ma- ments all over the world and can deliver fantastic terial has been optimised for the disk medium, performances of their songs, any time any place, which would greatly improve sound quality and really need advanced editing and signal process- compatibility with a wide range of consumer sys- ing capabilities? Especially if you add to this tems. equation the fact, that such musicians usually The less you know about what happens dur- perform on high quality instruments, that de- ing A/D or D/A conversions, format conversions, fine their unique sound, together with a care- DSP and digital mixdown processes, the better fully created acoustic environment in the stu- you will sleep at night. Especially the digital dio, there is very little, if anything at all, that mixdown could cause so many different prob- needs to be worked on. Unfortunately, there is lems, that many engineers working in the digital a common misconception, that everyone nowa- domain nowadays, prefer to perform an individ- days should do multi-track recording just be- ual D/A conversion on each track to bring them cause it can be done and can offer more flexi- down to a good old analog , and bility. But why should such musicians sacrifice do the mixing in the analog domain and record- realism and sound quality for flexibility they do ing the stereo output of the analog desk either not need? Although such musicians are getting onto analog tape or doing another A/D conver- more and more rare, very little has changed for sion to go back into the digital domain. This them through decades of advancements in mu- plethora of conversions end up doing similar and sic technology. As with any industry, in audio usually much worse things to sound as five gener- recording, the trends and developments tend to ations of analog tape copies. Not to mention the follow the masses, rather than the true talent. various problems caused by digital signal pro- cessing at low sample rates, quantisation errors during the conversion processes and dithering. 5 The Direct-To-Master Well, at least these rock stars do not need to Recording process murder each other any more and the talentless singers can explore the wonderful world of auto By removing unnecessary steps during the cre- tune to their heart’s delight. ation of an album the talent of the competent musician can really shine. In the modern multi- stage process the competent and less competent 4 So, what about the talented musicians are sort of equalised to the disadvan- musicians? tage of the more competent. With Direct-To- Master Recording there is no compromise and no What about the musicians, who have spent room for errors either. The performance needs decades honing their skills and multiple hours to be perfect and the sound needs to be just like

3 how the musicians and producers want it to be, served only for the suitably talented musicians, because not much can be done later. The per- who can all be present in the recording session formers enter the room, which contains a number at the same time without any bloodshed. It can of high quality , carefully selected to only be carried out by a suitably qualified engi- capture the magic of each instrument. The mu- neer who has devoted time and thought to this sicians deliver their best performance, and the process and can only be done in a purpose-built signals from the separate microphones undergo space with exceptionally high quality equipment. a very minimal analog signal processing, if any But when it can be done, it does make a huge at all is required, before being mixed together difference! on the fly on a high quality analog mixing con- sole. The stereo signal of the mixing console is 6 The Magnetic Fidelity ap- routed to the mastering processing units, which are also adjusted on the fly during a couple of proach to Direct-To-Master rehearsals and the stereo signal from these is Recording recorded directly on the master medium, analog tape or disk. This is essentially a one step pro- At Magnetic Fidelity, we take great pride in our cess, and the master medium is a first generation Direct-To-Master Recording service. Our studio with no further losses. The sig- was originally designed as a mastering suite, but, nal can and usually does remain entirely in the early on in the design process, we included the analog domain. A much greater dynamic range necessary adjustments to create the ideal envi- can be retained as well as greater transparency, ronment for Direct-To-Master recording. So, our since the signal path is kept as short as possible studio was essentially purpose-built for this pro- with only the absolutely necessary devices be- cess. We took care of every little detail, from ing connected during this process. The master high quality building materials to a carefully de- recording is in itself the master and as such does signed electrical installation with power condi- not need any further processing before transfer- tioning equipment, to the natural acoustic char- ring it to the medium, in which it is going to be acteristics of our four separate recording rooms, distributed to the consumer. Since this process which are wired in a way, that the musicians contains far fewer steps and far fewer people are can either all play in one room or distributed involved, it is also less expensive, compared to in different rooms while still performing simul- the modern multi-stage process. taneously. Since nothing can be edited or changed after The mastering room, which is also the con- the performance, everything needs to be done trol room for the Direct-To-Master Recording, right from the beginning. This requires a lot was given special consideration. It is a floating more skill from the musicians and from the en- construction, internally made of high quality, lo- gineer on the controls. Very few engineers nowa- cally sourced pine wood, with acoustic absorp- days can actually pull this off and they are not tion, insulation, isolation, and mechanical decou- getting any younger. So, while the quality is pling materials, representing the bleeding edge of much higher and the cost is actually lower, this technological innovation. is clearly not for everyone. It is a technique re- Together with our state of the art monitoring

4 system, capable of reproducing an exceptionally the master tape, or fed to our custom analog disk wide range of frequencies, extending far below cutting electronics of one of our disk mastering and above the human hearing range, we have the lathes for a direct-to-disk recording. perfect environment to be able to fully appreci- Our setup was inspired by the recording stu- ate every detailed aspect of the Direct-To-Master dios of the 1940’s and 50’s but using more re- Recording process. cent vacuum tube designs, benefiting from mod- In the early days of recorded music and later ern electronic component technology. The result revivals of Direct-To-Master Recording, the fo- is a highly authentic analog sound with an ex- cus was on orchestral and chamber music, usu- tremely wide dynamic range, a very low noise ally using two to three microphones with little floor and increased transparency due to the ex- to no signal processing. We offer our service tremely high headroom of vacuum tube electron- for a wide variety of musical styles and different ics. Although vacuum tubes are often associated sizes of ensembles, from Classical String Quar- with a characteristic type of harmonic distortion, tets to Avant-garde/Experimental Music, and this does not always need to be the case. Vac- from Free / Traditional Jazz to Heavy Rock uum tubes have an enormous headroom which and even Harsh Noise, as well as , Folk, means, that they can run very clean at much hot- Rock’n’Roll and everything in between. Depend- ter signal levels before saturation sets in. Even at ing on the task, we can use anything from just a that point, saturation sets in slowly and pleas- stereo pair of high quality microphones plugged antly. Which means, that we can choose how directly into an analog tape machine, to mul- hard we want to drive our system depending on tiple microphones utilising both old fashioned if we want a crystal clear sound or a warm over- far-miking and modern close-miking techniques driven vacuum tube harmonic distortion. An- as well as experimenting with our own unique other benefit we have nowadays, is that modern microphone selection and placement ideas. We tape formulations have lower noise and a higher use a variety of microphones, often with vac- recording level can be obtained before satura- uum tubes in them, connected to a selection of tion. This means that we can capture a much vacuum tube microphone preamplifiers, vacuum greater dynamic range than ever previously pos- tube equalisers and vacuum tube compressors sible while having the option to hit the tape hard when such processing is needed. to produce the unique sound of tape saturation We do not use a traditional mixing console, or to record at lower levels for a transparent and as this has no place in a mastering studio. In- clean sound. stead, we use a 1950’s style vacuum tube sum- We are also very much interested in the hy- ming mixer with some rather unique functions personic effect. Humans can perceive frequency to enhance stereophonic imaging. The stereo content well above the human hearing range and output of the summing mixer drives a vacuum the presence of this content changes their per- tube driven mastering compressor and a passive ception of the music. Therefore, we have care- hybrid parametric/pultec-style equaliser, with a fully selected, designed, built or modified every vacuum tube gain make-up stage. The stereo bit of equipment we use in our signal path to master output is then fed to one or more of our ensure that no part of the frequency spectrum analog tape machines and recorded directly onto is butchered out. Apart from the electronics,

5 we also understand the importance of specialised acoustic environments for the creation of com- mon sound effects, which were originally devel- oped acoustically and nowadays unfortunately emulated digitally. We have designed and built several plate reverb systems as well as a couple of hall reverb structures, which can be used to pro- duce a very natural acoustic reverberation. In addition, we have years of experience in the pro- duction of analog sound effects using tape ma- nipulation techniques, such as tape echoes and loops to name but a few. These are not often re- quired, but it is probably good to know, that if you need it, we have got it. Although we usually do stereophonic recordings, we are also known for our authentic monophonic recordings, when this is deemed the appropriate aesthetic.

7 Is there still hope?

Many talented musicians have one thing in com- mon: After recording and releasing several al- bums using the multi-stage approach, musicians are often disappointed by the result and end up believing, that they are only good in perform- ing live and not much good in the studio. As band psychology is an important skill an must possess, we always enjoy reversing this opinion and proving to disillusioned musi- cians, that they should not give up hope until they have tried our Direct-To-Master Recording service. If you can do a great live performance, we can make a great recording!

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