davidlarson6 wroteSurf.Whammy wroteIn particular, most of the important audio occurs below 500-Hz, which makes everything above 500-Hz focused more on clarity and distinctness.
Did you throw this one in as a test to see if we were reading your post?
Most of the range of the violin, flute, oboe, and piccolo are above that frequency, as well as a bit more than two octaves of the piano.
It's not a trick fact . . . THOUGHTSMore correctly, it's 20-Hz to 500-Hz, and until sometime in the early-1970s it was standard for studio monitor systems to have a flat equal-loudness curve running from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz, the "normal" range of human hearing . . .
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NOTE: These studio monitors are the portable versions of the Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater, and they are calibrated full-range studio monitors with a flat equal loudness curve running from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz. I know they are calibrated, because Abbey Road Studios was controlled and managed by degreed Electrical Engineers, Acoustic Physicists, and folks who know about this stuff. As described and explained in "Recording the Beatles" (Curvebender Publishing), these engineers and acoustic physicists were fanatical and quite obsessive-compulsive about having military-style procedures and rules about everything involved in recording, to the level of having a procedure that studio technicians were instructed to follow when setting-up a microphone stand. They also had elaborate procedures that "pop singers" were instructed to follow, including no dancing, fighting, and perform other unnecessary motions when singing, as well as how to position themselves in front and at 45-degree angles (when two or more were singing), which you can observe by watching a live Beatles performance. It's also the reason John Lennon pretended he was riding a horse. George Harrison did a bit of dancing but not obsessively. I think it's accurate to suggest Abbey Road Studios treated the Beatles with the same level of detail and quality control as McDonald's manages its food, beverages, and restaurants. In particular, McDonald's has had an intimate relationship with The Coca-Cola Company since the 1950s and includes a custom syrup mix specifically for serving on ice, stainless steel containers for the Coca-Cola syrup, water filtered four times so the Coca-Cola will be the same anywhere on this planet, keeping the syrup and water refrigerated from storage area to fountain dispensers, controlling the carbonation level, and providing plastic straws that are wider than the straws at other restaurants (larger gulps, better mouth feel, and ensures Coca-Cola is drawn from the bottom of the plastic cup where it is coldest. Totally obsessive vast attention to details, procedures, and everything else, but it works . . . ]
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NOTE: Les Paul did the same thing but monaural. They are portable "Voice of the Theater" units because in those days there would be two of them behind the screen in a movie theater with an audience capacity of 500 to 1,000 people. They were very powerful loudspeakers, but the amplifiers had volume level controls, so you could use them in recording studio control rooms or even in a walk-in closet. Beatles were monaural at first but later did monaural and stereo mixes, and this Les Paul studio was monaural . . . ]
This was abandoned primarily due to the basic rules of acoustic physics, which are (a) that low frequencies require moving a lot of air and (b) moving a lot of air requires big and heavy components, woofer loudspeakers and big cabinets if you prefer . . .
The expense of manufacturing and shipping loudspeakers that provided 20-Hz to 500-Hz response led companies simply to drop support for lower frequencies, based one might suggest on the idea that most listeners are too ignorant to miss the lower frequencies . . .
This caused me considerable trouble, because it did not occur to me that anyone would design and build literally worthless studio monitor systems . . .
I was accustomed to honest studio monitor systems and for a few decades was just too naive and trusting to realize the truth . . .
Over 20 years ago, I discovered SONY MDR-7506 headphones and for the most part switched to using headphones exclusively . . .
This worked to some extent, but it was
not a perfect solution . . .
Doing some research led to discovering the patently evil and highly deceptive trick of simply ignoring low frequencies for studio monitor systems . . .
In a sense, I knew this but was not ready to accept it in an immediately conscious way . . .
Until I had an epiphany, my mixes basically sounded horrible; and nothing I could devise changed this, including having technical consultations with the folks at MOTU . . .
The best advice from MOTU was to stop using large sets of microphones and cascading, external mixers--instead to use two microphones connected to my MOTU 828mkII external digital audio and MIDI interface, which advice made sense considering the sound isolation studio is 6 ft. wide by 7ft. high by 12ft. long--essentially smaller than a walk-in closet . . .
This helped, and it ensured I was getting good recording levels; but it did
not solve the problem . . .
In a real sense, the problem is tied to electric guitars being transposing instruments where guitar players are taught that "Middle C" is the note at the third fret of the low-pitch "
A" string when actually Middle C is the note at the first fret of the high-pitch "
b" string . . .
The required epiphany became more likely when I discovered research done at the University of Heidelberg in Germany on the ways humans hear sounds and music in particular . . .
Specifically, the researchers determined there are two general types of listeners or hearers:
(1) fundamental tone hearers
(2) overtone hearers
The category names are misleading, which took me a while to understand, because (1) fundamental tone hearers
synthesize missing fundamental tones but (2) overtone hearers do
not synthesize missing fundamentals . . .
I am a fundamental tone hearer, and at first I thought this was fabulous and indicated without doubt that I could trust my hearing; but this was wrong, because when the fundamental tone is missing, the auditory perceptual apparatus of fundamental tone hearers synthesizes missing fundamental tones and by doing this create a deep, rich, and patently inaccurate auditory illusion . . .
In practice this means there is only one way a fundamental tone hearer can trust what they hear; and for producing and audio engineering this requires a calibrated full-range studio monitor system with a flat equal-loudness curve running from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz at 85 dB SPL measured with a dBA weighting--at least some of the time--although 90 dB SPL with a dBC weighting is OSHA-approved for 8 hours per day to avoid hearing loss . . .
There are three general ways achieve this worthy goal:
(1) JBL Pro has this type of studio monitor system, and last time i checked cost approximately $20,000 (USD).
(2) PreSonus has a more affordable studio monitor system that requires a pair of PreSonus Sceptre S8 8" Powered Monitors and a pair of PreSonus Temblor T10 10" Powered Studio Subwoofers, where two of the deep bass subwoofers are needed if you expect to do accurate stereo mixing, which requires avoid the arbitrary deep bass"blending" that is done when there is only one deep bass subwoofer. Total cost--but
not including equalizers and measuring equipment--is approximately $2,500 (USD), including cables and Tripp-Lite surge protectors. I recommend this solution for two reasons: (a) the PreSonus specifications are honest and trustworthy and (b) it's safer for folks who unlike me have no understanding or experience doing sound reinforcement.
(3) Kustom PA loudspeakers and deep bass subwoofers, which is the strategy I use. The loudspeakers and deep bass subwoofers cost less than $1,000 (USD), but you need OSHA-approved hearing protection and good knowledge of computer audio to configure the studio monitor system safely, but this cost does not include external processors, software from IK multimedia, and a digital SPL meter . . .
This is the studio monitor system I use in the sound isolation studio; and for practical purposes it's the sound system of a small nightclub, which means it can be dangerous if not carefully configured, hence the need to wear OSHA-approved hearing protection when configuring it . . .
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NOTE: There was a standing wave at approximately 70-Hz, so I put a lot of rolls of fiberglass insulation and cubes of cellulose insulation in the sound isolation studio, with the result that the audio is crisp with no booming, standing waves, and so forth . . . ]
The calibration is done with a combination of a Behringer digital mastering processor, Behringer loudspeaker management unit, and IK Multimedia ARC 3 Advanced Room Correction System with Measurement Microphone (which I use to get an accurate snapshot of the studio acoustics after doing the Behringer calibration, which includes using pink noise) . . .
When properly and safely configured and calibrated, these three solutions make it possible for fundamental tone hearers to trust what they hear; and after a while, this leads to developing a set of habits and practices that make it possible to do accurate headphone mixing, but only after doing studio monitor mixing for a sufficient time to develop guidelines and strategies for virtual instruments, effects plug-in settings, and audio-engineering . . .
There is an audio test to determine whether one is a fundamental tone hearer, an overtone hearer, of a combination of both . . .
Missing Fundamental ~ WikipediaThere is more information on the audio test at these links, and the test should be done when you are listening with studio-quality headphones like SONY MDR-7506 headphones (
a personal favorite):
[ur=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213012614/http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t40690.html]How do you hear tones? (hydrogenaudio.org, "Internet Archive Wayback Machine") [/url]
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NOTE: This has an interesting example of Tuvan throat singing, which Wolfgang Saus calls "overtone singing" . . . ]
Hearing Test (Wolfgang Saus)[
NOTE: This is the link to the University of Heidelberg hearing test . . . ]
Hearing Test (Dr. Peter Schneider)Regarding Tuvan throat singing, I think Paul McCartney does this at the start of a live performance of "Help" (Beatles) where he sings a two-part vocal harmony by himself, which causes John Lennon to do a double-take (occurs after the acoustic guitar in the background falls over, the fourth "Help!") . . .
FACT: If your studio monitor system does
not reproduce frequencies below 60-Hz, 90-Hz, or 100-Hz, then you
cannot hear the fundamental tone of the low-pitch "
E" string on Paul McCartney's Höfner Beatle bass, which is 41.20344-Hz where "Concert A" is 440-Hz. Middle C (C4 in the US) is 261.6256-Hz at standard "Concert A" tuning, and Treble C is 523.2511-Hz.
Put into perspective for what one might call "popular" music--
Rock,
Metal,
Rhythm & Blues,
Jazz, and so forth) this is the notes on electric guitar up to the eighth fret on the high-pitch "
e" string . . .
This is the reason I suggest frequencies above 500-Hz are focused primarily on clarity and distinctness, even with a lyrical soprano, violin, and piccolo when playing or singing higher notes.
In a very real sense, deep bass is the magic carpet upon which the music rides . . .
In general, the higher frequencies are what makes it possible to distinguish a violin from an oboe, electric guitar, or vocalist . . .
Harmonics and overtones allow us to distinguish specific instruments and voices and certainly are important, but what I consider to be the primary "action" occurs below 500-Hz . . .
500-Hz generally is where "midrange" begins and is where reproduction duties shift from (a) woofers to (b) horns and tweeters . . .
Lots of FUN!