Alright, since some people felt compelled to take some pot shots at MikeL’s adjectives, I will tell you what they mean to me and I’m sure to a few others as well:
--low-level detail – The quiet subtle parts of music that tend to be blurred over or not even heard with cheaper gear.
--decay in notes- The way that you can hear a note decay all the way out after it is played assuming it was recorded that way.
--space, sense of hall- That you can hear the size of the recording venue and get a good grasp on whether it was recorded in a small club, a large club, or an isolation booth in a recording studio. You also get a sense of where the musicians are playing on the stage relative to each other laterally and depth wise.
--tonal texture and transparency in the mid-range-That a violin doesn’t sound like a cello and that you get a sense of all the different tones that are coming from the instrument as it is played. Instruments have lots of nuances to their sound sometimes referred to as tonal colors and the goal is to capture as much of that “organic signature” as possible.
--fullness and substance-That the sound isn’t bright and threadbare. All the sound of the instruments are fleshed out and captured with their harmonics intact.
--organic signature of instruments-See my above description.
--chestiness of vocals-That it sounds like there is a real body attached to the head and you get a sense of their diaphragm and how they are projecting when they sing. In other words, you are not just picturing a head singing at you, but rather you have a sense of the whole person and how they are projecting their voice from their chest when they sing.
--bloom and openness-That notes naturally sound like they are swelling and decaying as they do in a real space when heard live.
--bass energy and flow. That the bass isn’t being rolled off or sound weak and anemic in comparison to the other instruments in the recording and that you can follow the beat of the bass as it is keeping time with the rest of the band. And for those that don’t know it, the principle time keepers in a band are the drummer and the bass player. If those two guys aren't locked into a groove (there's those words again Amir) and keeping perfect time together, the rest of the band doesn’t have a chance.
--focus and precision-that your images don’t wander around or sound blurry or indistinct and your music doesn’t sound like no one playing can keep time together.
--low-level detail – The quiet subtle parts of music that tend to be blurred over or not even heard with cheaper gear.
--decay in notes- The way that you can hear a note decay all the way out after it is played assuming it was recorded that way.
--space, sense of hall- That you can hear the size of the recording venue and get a good grasp on whether it was recorded in a small club, a large club, or an isolation booth in a recording studio. You also get a sense of where the musicians are playing on the stage relative to each other laterally and depth wise.
--tonal texture and transparency in the mid-range-That a violin doesn’t sound like a cello and that you get a sense of all the different tones that are coming from the instrument as it is played. Instruments have lots of nuances to their sound sometimes referred to as tonal colors and the goal is to capture as much of that “organic signature” as possible.
--fullness and substance-That the sound isn’t bright and threadbare. All the sound of the instruments are fleshed out and captured with their harmonics intact.
--organic signature of instruments-See my above description.
--chestiness of vocals-That it sounds like there is a real body attached to the head and you get a sense of their diaphragm and how they are projecting when they sing. In other words, you are not just picturing a head singing at you, but rather you have a sense of the whole person and how they are projecting their voice from their chest when they sing.
--bloom and openness-That notes naturally sound like they are swelling and decaying as they do in a real space when heard live.
--bass energy and flow. That the bass isn’t being rolled off or sound weak and anemic in comparison to the other instruments in the recording and that you can follow the beat of the bass as it is keeping time with the rest of the band. And for those that don’t know it, the principle time keepers in a band are the drummer and the bass player. If those two guys aren't locked into a groove (there's those words again Amir) and keeping perfect time together, the rest of the band doesn’t have a chance.
--focus and precision-that your images don’t wander around or sound blurry or indistinct and your music doesn’t sound like no one playing can keep time together.
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