Audiophile recording question for Bob Katz and others

[mr.gefell]

Originally Posted by Russ (Al) Prat

Some years ago someone sent me a paper you did on Depth and Imaging, Haas effect and the like.

Also I read an article in Mix years ago, where a radical analog guy (he had an Indian type name) mentioned a mic (I think it was a Pearl) that gave a sensation of height as well as width.

His name is ALexander Kavi and he uses Pearl ELM mics check my pictures.
He is somewhat responsible for the mic as he started out coupling the regular rectangular pml capsule in series and Bernt Malmqvist came up with a solution.

[tenor39]

Originally Posted by mohthom

Andy,

Webern used serialist techniques (mathematic principles) to write much of his music (including the, I'm sure you'll agree, beautiful string quartets) - does this relegate him to the lowly status of engineer rather than artist?

MohThoM

Serial composition was started by Schoenberg and really had nothing to do with pure mathematics, as it was really an extension of the already well established cannon and fugue forms. His original "12 tone" (or atonal) style mandated that all 12 notes in a series (it could be any 12 notes) had to be used in order before starting the string over again, hense the name "serial". Webern and others expanded on this idea and developed it into a style of composition that depended entirely on form rather than sound.

On the other hand, all music has mathematical components in it, from time signatures to chordal progressions. Style analysis and figured bass uses numbers to express keys, chords and their inversions, and compositional form.

Is it posible to "engineer" a musical composition? Is it possible to "compose, sculpt, paint" a recording? Yes to both, IMHO.

[Adebar]

Is a photographer an artist. By this line of thinking the answer is no. They are capturing an image of the subject they are photographing. Lighting, angle, depth of field are all scientifically quantitative measures, therefore are photographers merely technicians?

I am proud to be an artist. Let me be clear, in a recording I do not view myself as THE artist, nor would I want to be. I would also never try to or allow anyone else to promote me to a status level that would begin to rival the high art of the performance of my artists. This also does not mean that there needs to be any "Arrogance and misplaced priorities are encountered in the studio and on location" as Plush points out. My favorite musicians (and generally the better performing) do not exude arrogance and misplaced priorities. This is generally reserved for the unprepared and insecure...guess the same goes for engineers.

This does not take away the fact that I am an artist that studies my craft and uses not only technical data and a cookie cutter plan as to how a recording should be done, but uses intuition and creativity to achieve the best result.

Using the trade school mentality of recording works for some people. Not me.

To me, art is in the eye of the beholder, and I view fine recording as high art. It is no different than photography. 20 people can take a picture of the same object under the same light and only the one who has just the right angle a cm different than the others will be viewed over time as art.

Couldn´t have said it better.
thumbsup

[andy_simpson]

Originally Posted by mr.gefell

His name is ALexander Kavi and he uses Pearl ELM mics check my pictures.
He is somewhat responsible for the mic as he started out coupling the regular rectangular pml capsule in series and Bernt Malmqvist came up with a solution.

Are these mics that 'give a sense of height'?

If I recall correctly, elevation cues come from pinna/concha resonances in the region of 10khz or so.

Does anyone have any background on the 'sense of height' ideas or perhaps first-hand experience?

Andy