mr bharath, by far your entry into this discussion was what i was waiting for...sensible,fact-rich and logically unbiassed between north and south music industry.
great stuff man! do send our collective love to our Guru when you see him next! --Balamurugan Ramakrishnan-- --- In [email protected], "Bharath Venkatesan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > That is an interesting discussion going on here, but I think, we need to > take few steps and take a brief look at the workflow employed by both ARR > and HJ and try to understand the perceived sound quality differences. > > > ARR's tracks go directly from his Logic Pro on Digidesign platform into > either Euphonix System 5 or Neve 88R which then gets recorded back into Pro > Tools. Most of the mix or creating space for every instrument in the song, > takes place at the Euphonix/Neve level. > > > > Now you have to understand that, System 5 is a digital console whereas Neve > 88R is a vintage sounding modern analog console which introduces its own > sound/distortion to the mix. Part of western music industry loves this > vintage sound and describes the crystal clear digital sound as lifeless. > > > > The songs we heard few years ago were all mixed totally either on Euphonix > System 5 or completely in the box on Pro Tools, whereas the new ones are > probably done fully on Neve which gives a different sonic characters, which > few of you describe as "not clear". I absolutely trust ARR/H. Sridhar's > choice to use a particular gear to achieve the sound they have in mind. > > > > Now, somebody mentioned HJ having Euphonix MC and mentioned that it was > advanced. I actually found it bit funny, no offence intended of course. From > a simple man's viewpoint, Euphonix Media Applications controller, which is > what HJ has, is a powerful keyboard and mouse, which offers lot of short cut > keys, knobs, jog wheels, buttons etc, which improves the time you take to do > certain operations on programs like Logic Pro, Pro Tools. I have used MC few > times and HJ himself showed me things, he feels, help him do things > efficiently. Simply put, HJ's gadget doesn't have onboard signal processing > as the big brother version installed at ARR's studio. > > > > With HJ's workflow, it is slightly different. Everything is recorded and mixed > directly on Pro Tools. If you look at Digidesign's website, you can see that > he has ICON, which is a powerful controller for Pro Tools, but doesn't have > onboard signal processing. Instead, it uses high quality plugins/tools that > are available from within Pro Tools for sound processing. Once the sound > enters the computer, it stays digital until the end. So you feel that it is > clear, as there is no distortion introduced anywhere in the signal chain, as > compared to the effect Neve has on songs mixed at ARR's studio. > > > > With "Guru", I think, it gets much more complex, when the tracks are brought > from different studios across the world (e.g. Phase one Toronto, and may be > some studio from Mumbai). Each session might have had different microphones, > different recording techniques, engineers etc and the responsibility to make > it sound even/good, falls on mixing engineer's shoulders. > > > > Having met both, being fan of both and, H. Sridhar, being my indirect > mentor, I will refrain from judging which one is better. I like both and of > course, I would feel proud and earn more bragging brownie points, if ARR > mixes everything on Pro Tools. > > > > Apart from this whole technology gizmos, as somebody else pointed out, > orchestration/arrangement matters a lot. With ARR songs, there are so many > things happening that I learn something new, every time I listen to it. > > > > So, personally, I don't really bog myself down too much on the sound quality > and trust the judgment of professionals doing the job and just enjoy the > music they create. > > > > Disclaimer: BTW if anyone thinks or knows that I am totally wrong on the > technology side of things, please let me know. These are few things I picked > up when I had the privilege of meeting the greats and I very well could have > misunderstood. I really admire your concentration, if you really read each > and every line so far :) > > -- > :: Bharath > http://singingphotons.net >
