Define Industry Standard

[PRS1JAZZ]

What is "Industry Standard" if you had to define it?

[silkysmell]

id say: industry = professional. the standard professionals work with....

[doug_hti]

universally accepted and widely used

[Remoteness]

What Doug said.

[Bob Olhsson]

The tricky part is carefully defining exactly which industry.

[Mike O]

After defining the industry it seems another "tricky part" is to define the circumstances and/or context?

"Industry standard" compressor? Male vocal mic? Drum micing technique?

[Kenny Gioia]

Industry Standard:

Yamaha NS-10m's
Neve and API Mic Pre's
Pultec Eq's
Fairchild Compressors
SSL Consoles
Shure SM57
Neumann U87
Fender Precision Bass Guitar
Fender Telecaster or Strat
Gibson Les Paul & SG
Ludwig Black Beauty Snare Drum
Zildian and Paiste Cymbals
Antares Autotune
Digidesign Pro Tools

[Rail Jon Rogut]

A benchmark by which other similar devices in said industry are compared.

Rail

[Dave Martin]

Industry standards are more often technical standards rather than simply commonly used gear (though Pro Tools is SO widely used that it may be considered to be a standard.

For more information, check the Audio Engineering website, the European Broadcasters Union website, the SMPTE web site, and others like them.

[littledog]

One could define it as the most commonly found and used gear of any particular brand, type, and function. That is, the particular pieces that would be most often found in a large sampling of studio equipment lists.

But these days it is used more often as an advertising cliche and has very little meaning at all.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Originally posted by littledog
One could define it as the most commonly found and used gear of any particular brand, type, and function. That is, the particular pieces that would be most often found in a large sampling of studio equipment lists.

But these days it is used more often as an advertising cliche and has very little meaning at all.

I disagree.. that would make the lowest common denominator the standard - the standard is something that's a benchmark... something that other equipment strives to beat.

By your definition, a 3630 would be the industry standard compressor.

Rail

[littledog]

Originally posted by Rail Jon Rogut
I disagree.. that would make the lowest common denominator the standard - the standard is something that's a benchmark... something that other equipment strives to beat.

By your definition, a 3630 would be the industry standard compressor.

Rail

No, by my definition the industry standard in compressors would probably be the Distressor, followed by the 1176.

I guess it depends on what studios you hang out in. (I can probably count on one hand the tnumber of times I've ever seen a 3630 in any commercial studio's rack. And still have a couple of fingers left over to floss my teeth.)

But you do have a point - standard is often defined to the convenience of whoever is using the term. It often means the most commonly used piece for a given job, or it could mean the highest quality piece. Occasionally the same piece of gear fits both definitions.

The problem in audio is that so much of quality evaluation is subjective that it makes your definition difficult to apply. To use your example, what would the benchmark compressor be? Obviously not the 3630, but with so many flavors to choose from that have so many different applications, you'd probably have trouble coming up with a single benchmark compressor that fits your definition. One might even have trouble keeping the list under a dozen!

[blackcatdigi]

Originally posted by PRS1JAZZ
What is "Industry Standard" if you had to define it?

My definition would be the 'minimum acceptable component' strictly in relative terms...

Could you more precisely define the question?

Happy Holidays!

[Rail Jon Rogut]

I would define the industry standard tube compressors as Fairchild 670/660, the industry standard optical compressor is the LA2A, the solid state industry standard is the 1176LN.

The Fairchild, while it isn't found in as many studios - is still the de facto standard. The Distressor, while an excellent compressor, isn't IMO an industry standard yet.

BTW - while you're right, I was being facetious when I said the 3630.. the dbx160X would probably be more common than any other compressor in a poll of professional recording studios... but I dare anyone to call it the industry standard (other than dbx).

Rail