Pictures and Songbites

Note: Some of the soundclips on this page allow you to hear only the "A" equipment songbite. All soundclips on this page have been data compressed to MP3 audio and therefore have been technically compromised.
The A/B CD presents a great format for leaning about and understanding the things that can effect a recording's sonic quality. A specification of this format is that most comparisons involve more than one style of music. This allows the listener to hear the equipment compared using different musical elements.Track 1 consists of all acoustical instruments (country rock) mixed through an analog mixer then through the digital mixer. Track 2 compares the sonic differences of all midi instrumentation with vocal stacks (R&B vocals) mixed through an analog mixer then through the digital mixer. For the O2R digital mix, the 24 track ADAT optical outputs were used and the O2R's digital out was connected to the digital input of the DAT recorder

A

B

Track 1 - COUNTRY ROCK - This songbite was mixed using a Mackie analog mixer. On the CD, it is followed by the same 12 second section of 24 track music as mixed through the Yamaha O2R digital mixer.

Track 1 - Yamaha O2R "B" songbites only available on The A/B CD.

Some of the best analog recording equipment ever made can be heard on The A/B CD volume 1.

Trident analog mixer

Track 3 - This songbite is from one of the the tracks that compares a 2" 24 track analog recorder to a 16 bit 24 track digital recorder. On The A/B CD, this 11 second songbite (A) is followed by the same 11 second section of music recorded by the other 24 track recorder(B) Each analog/digital comparison includes mix variations. Ê
Otari MTR analog recorder

The A/B CD volume 1 includes a number of tracks highlighting the importance and influence of a room's acoustics. SOUNDCLIP PLAYS A/B COMPARISON

Track 19.... 0:00 "A" Drums with close & room mics 0:08 "B" Drums with close mics only
Computer based recording is happening. But can it make a recording that sounds as good as hardware based recording equipment? Can a home computer with stock -10db RCA sound inputs rival the sound quality of a pro digital (+ 4db balanced) multitrack.? Does a hardware based reverb sound better than a "Native plug in" reverb? ...The A/B CD lets you decide. . .
WEB PAGE SOUNDCLIP PLAYS "BLIND" A/B COMPARISON (see CD booklet page 15 to find out which is which)
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ÊTrack 22 Lexicon PCM 70 Concert Hall / WavesTrueVerb edited Concert Hall.
The A/B CD counter balances written opinion on emerging technologies. Here is one of the numerous threads on a user group degrading the Line 6 POD: .the POD sucks big time man... we used it and it's awful. ...nothing beats an Amp and a box. Nothing. POD was noisy, hissy, sounds wimped ..out, but what can you expect......
WEB PAGE SOUNDCLIP PLAYS "BLIND" A/B COMPARISON (see CD booklet page 15 to find out which is which)
Track 24 Marshal 50 watt & 4-12 mic'd with SM57 / Line 6 Pod (see CD booklet track notes).
From the musical instrument's influence on sonic quality to the all important "Elements of Production", The A/B CD volume 1 lets you discover the whole picture of audio production .

Track 24 - Concert violinist Janice Martin multitracks a 1708 Stradivarius violin

"Elements Of Production" comparisons focus on what the people are doing to influence the sonic qualities. The visual representation of Track 32 counter 0:33 - 1:06 is pictured above.

16bit / 24bit blind

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