Every time a knowledgeable audiophile tells me how true to life a recording sounds, or how a system lacks warmth, or how it has a brittle top, I think to myself - how does he know?? Was he really sitting in the audience at the recording session? Does he know what microphones the recording engineer used? Does he have an absolute reference?
Here is an album that IMHO should be in the toolkit of every audiophile - for its natural and accurate sound. It's not warm, it's not bright, it's just plain accurate. A true reference-quality recording!!
Lyn Stanley International Recording Artist was kind enough to grace the Genesis room at the recent California Audio Show. She brought along the Master Tape of her forthcoming album Potions of the 50s with her to introduce. She not only introduced each song on the album with interesting anecdotes and information about the recording, she sang along to quite a few of them!!!
The album was recorded on analog - except that for us audiophiles, she put in two ringers! One song was recorded entirely in Protools, and another is a hybrid with some tracks recorded in analog and others in Protools. Everything was then put on 2-inch multi-track, and mixed in analog. Bernie Grundman did the mastering to 1/2-inch master - also completely in analog.
We did a video, and even over YouTube, the recorded voice and the un-mic'ed and un-amplified singer sounded exactly the same. As Lyn said, the instrumentation sounded to her exactly like what she heard during the recording sessions. Since most of the tracks were done in only one take, even the emotion and feeling of the performance comes across nicely. For the audience, we were not in the studio (Capitol Studio A by the way) and so we cannot know for sure that the recording of the instruments is accurate, and we do not know what mics were used.
However, we have to believe that if we cannot distinguish between the recorded voice and the 'Live' voice, it's gotta be close. Lyn told us that her voice was recorded using a vintage Neumann U47 microphone that was in the archives of Capitol Studios - it was the exact same microphone that Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole used.
One of my design goals for Genesis is that all my products should "Do No Wrong". If the music is warm, you should hear it as warm. If it is brightly-recorded, it should sound bright. You should be hearing what the musicians intended.
If you prefer a warm-sounding system, by all means go ahead! Insert a warm-sounding tube preamp and the system will sound warm. All the time.
I have a friend who will put chilli sauce on everything he eats - he loves the warmth that chilli brings to the food. It is what he is used to and can't do without.
I, on the other hand, prefer to taste the sea when I get a freshly shucked oyster just plucked from the clear, clean waters off Seattle. Not even a squeeze of lemon necessary in that case. However, if the oyster is less than fresh, then I mix up eggs, arrowroot flour and fish sauce, and scramble up a Singaporean Or-Luak (oyster omelet) served with chilli sauce.
Here's where to pre-order the album:
http://lynstanley.com/products-page/
Here is an album that IMHO should be in the toolkit of every audiophile - for its natural and accurate sound. It's not warm, it's not bright, it's just plain accurate. A true reference-quality recording!!
Lyn Stanley International Recording Artist was kind enough to grace the Genesis room at the recent California Audio Show. She brought along the Master Tape of her forthcoming album Potions of the 50s with her to introduce. She not only introduced each song on the album with interesting anecdotes and information about the recording, she sang along to quite a few of them!!!
The album was recorded on analog - except that for us audiophiles, she put in two ringers! One song was recorded entirely in Protools, and another is a hybrid with some tracks recorded in analog and others in Protools. Everything was then put on 2-inch multi-track, and mixed in analog. Bernie Grundman did the mastering to 1/2-inch master - also completely in analog.
We did a video, and even over YouTube, the recorded voice and the un-mic'ed and un-amplified singer sounded exactly the same. As Lyn said, the instrumentation sounded to her exactly like what she heard during the recording sessions. Since most of the tracks were done in only one take, even the emotion and feeling of the performance comes across nicely. For the audience, we were not in the studio (Capitol Studio A by the way) and so we cannot know for sure that the recording of the instruments is accurate, and we do not know what mics were used.
However, we have to believe that if we cannot distinguish between the recorded voice and the 'Live' voice, it's gotta be close. Lyn told us that her voice was recorded using a vintage Neumann U47 microphone that was in the archives of Capitol Studios - it was the exact same microphone that Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole used.
One of my design goals for Genesis is that all my products should "Do No Wrong". If the music is warm, you should hear it as warm. If it is brightly-recorded, it should sound bright. You should be hearing what the musicians intended.
If you prefer a warm-sounding system, by all means go ahead! Insert a warm-sounding tube preamp and the system will sound warm. All the time.
I have a friend who will put chilli sauce on everything he eats - he loves the warmth that chilli brings to the food. It is what he is used to and can't do without.
I, on the other hand, prefer to taste the sea when I get a freshly shucked oyster just plucked from the clear, clean waters off Seattle. Not even a squeeze of lemon necessary in that case. However, if the oyster is less than fresh, then I mix up eggs, arrowroot flour and fish sauce, and scramble up a Singaporean Or-Luak (oyster omelet) served with chilli sauce.
Here's where to pre-order the album:
http://lynstanley.com/products-page/
