Ok, it’s like this thing and is associated with “toe tapping” and such. I confess, I don’t get it. Apparently companies like Linn and Naim get it, and I don’t and find it a bit frustrating. What am I missing? I’m a drummer and am as sensitive as anyone to timing and beats, so why don’t I perceive this PRaT thing that many of you obviously do and prize as it occurs in stereo systems? When I read many Brit reviews a lot of attention goes to “rhythm” and “timing” and it’s useless to me and I just don’t get it. If someone can give me a concrete example of what the hell I’m not getting I’d sincerely be most appreciative. To be clear, enough people I greatly respect consider it a thing so objectively speaking it’s either something I can’t hear or maybe just don’t care about — or both. Can someone finally define this “thing” for me cause I seriously wanna learn something I clearly don’t know or understand.
I'm not sure what's so confusing about it. Audio systems are a combination of mechanical devices that work together to reproduce that elusive thing called music. There are well-made devices and badly-made devices. There are devices that work well together and devices that don't. A Chevy Geo isn't going to give you the same driving experience as a Ferrari. A speaker with woolly, sluggish bass and misaligned drivers isn't going to convey the speed and accuracy of your drumming very well, is it? Likewise, an amp with poor transient response is going to fail to do that. I'm sure you don't need to be told that pace, rhythm and timing are essential qualities in a good musical performance, whether it's a Haydn trio or a Steely Dan song. I think "PRAT" is just a short-hand way of saying that a certain piece of audio equipment, or a combination of them, conveys those qualities (or the lack of them) effectively. (AFAIC, not all the system PRAT in the world can make "Jazz at the Pawnshop" sound like an Eddie Condon group.) I think it's also a shorthand way of saying that a system conveys the emotional qualities of a performance. A system doesn't have to do EVERYTHING perfectly--any system is going to have limitations of some sort--but if it conveys the essentials it can still provide more enjoyment than a far more expensive and unwieldy system that doesn't.
I've been in this hobby a long time too, and I've heard systems that DON'T convey the joy of music. And if you've ever spent any time building your own amps, preamps or speakers, it's not difficult to understand how easy it is to get it wrong.
I have always fancied, however erroneously, that PRAT was often due to very slightly erratic timing which is why tube amps sometimes can be masters of PRAT perhaps because something in some tubes is faintly "off" timing wise. This in turn might create a sense of naturalness or "live" performance even if the tunes have been very precisely guided in the studio.
Sometimes PRAT can be that ineffable thing called "swing." SRV nearly always had it in his playing.
The Stones often made Pratty records perhaps because of their catch-as-catch-can recording practices.
While, in general, I don’t like McGowen’s PRaTel, he certainly acknowledges its existence in the video. So, I agree with him. What he doesn’t talk about is how to sense it. I think it is about the hardest of the attributes to sense (although once you finally get it, it is easy). He alludes to the symptoms of good PRaT, but not what it sounds like.
It is not like detail. In detail, to sense it you collapse your focus of attention to individual sounds with in the sound field… like the tick of a drumstick or a bowed violin and listen intensely. If you are concentrating on bass, you tend to open up your focus of attention because bass is less directional. PRaT is more a function of a very large part of the sound field. To sense it close your eyes and sense the draw or connection to the rhythm. For me, it all came to me at once when I was listening to a system with great PRaT and memories of auditions of several past systems that had emotionally tugged at me (syrupy tube systems) but were unappealing for other shortcomings. That is when it came together. It is like a gestalt attribute produced across the sound field and the symptoms of it are the foot tap and desire to move (if only in your head).
It can take a long time so sense it. Highly contrasting systems can really help. Audition a solid state Luxman / Magico system then a Conrad Johnson or VAC / Sonus Faber system. The former is virtually devoid of PRaT the latter very rich with it. A Pass / DynAudio system is likely to be in the middle.
I've always interpreted it as speed and clarity. The attack and decay of notes are distinct and on time. Some speakers excel at this. I'm less clear about what it means for electronics but I assume the electronics play a role in creating that.
I had a pair of speaker cables that seemed to slow the attack and it felt like notes were actually late in timing and decayed too soon. As soon as I changed cables, that disappeared.
I was a Linn/Naim devotee in the early 80's when my interest in home audio started. My dealer espoused the Linn/Naim credo: Source-first hierarchy, Garbage in/garbage out, single speaker listening rooms, "testing" components by toe tapping and humming the melody, etc. Of course, as my music interests changed, it was hard to hum and toe tap to Schoenberg, but I sort of got what they were saying.
I just started drum lessons again after taking 50 years off. When I was 13, it was a rock and roll backbeat that I was interested in. Now I want to swing my ride cymbals with dotted 8th's and feel the looser syncopated pulse. My drum teacher believes in the metronome, and also in ditching the metronome so you can feel the rhythm with your body.
I think that my Linn dealer used PRaT in that way: You'll know it when you feel it, and you'll feel it with us, and not with the other guys.
I was an art teacher most of my life, and we are always using metaphors and simile to describe the ineffable. I personally think that trying to describe the rhythmic qualities of electronic gear is like that. It points to something that may be important, but it remains out of reach.
Some guys may be conflating what is baked into/inherent to the track/recording itself (instruments, notes being played, etc) as aome accomplishment of their gear. Such a track may seem to have great prrrrrtttt on all kinds of equipment (because in reality it was Bonham making you feel that way).
Otherwise, and if the same track is compared on different equipment, some technical parameters can be attributed to this perception of prrrrrtttttt. On speakers...the stored energy graph can be an indicator, no huge phase shifts from crossover, etc....low power set is a prrrrttttt killer, etc
This perception also varies greatly from listener to listener and the type of music. Some guys may only listen to some sleepy boring gal whispering slowly for hours to a very slow boring string. There may not even be any percussion involved. Such listeners may not think or need to care about prrrrtttt parameters.
@Soix - PRaT is what you get when you engineer a sound that is harmonically lean and emphasises the leading edge of the dynamic envelope. Being a drummer, unless you are a really bad drummer (which I'm sure you aren't), I'm no doubt you are perfectly capable of hearing this if you listen to the kinds of system's favoured by "PRaT" lovers. The term started to be used in the 1980's when Linn/Naim orthodoxy was at it's height in the UK. It started to fall away when a broader range of equipment started to be popular - most of it coming from the USA.
Away from the quasi cultist aspects of this, there is an underlying germ of truth in the sense that some components can be more coherent than others. However, that coherence is exhibited in the reproduction being full frequency and having a natural musical flow i.e. the system is expressing the recording and not superimposing a tailored sonic signature on it.
Thanks @soix, this is a bit of a mystery to me too, though I don’t doubt that it exists. Maybe it goes by other names, or feelings, when everything has that just right feeling.
I would avoid the boogie factor because, being a drummer, you probably have a name for that - triplet feel or whatever. I think the cleanest example would be to take two examples of the same song. One was mastered in the 80s as a bargain basement tape. The other was original - or a strong remaster later. The difference in how they make you feel - despite being the same exact music - is the PRaT. The haze or opaque blocking is removed. I generally put the effect in two groups - transients and bloom. How much definition is there between notes and how much strength is each note afforded. There’s a balance needed - and it changes for each recording.
I had no idea, so I Googled it. Found a lengthy explanation on the-ear.net, but I couldn't get through the article and stay awake. I need Cliffs Notes. Lol.
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