My UHQR came in and I gave it to the wife to wrap and give it to me for Christmas. She claims I am too hard to find presents for...! She is also giving me a new MacBook Pro...!
Steely Dan UHQR
There is a great interview with audio engineer Bernie Grundman on the new UHQR album "Aja". At $150 it better be amazing. He talks about how they had to modify the sound of albums in the past so they would play on crappy turntables and how this album, at 45rpm, is designed for the best turntables and cartridges. He also speaks about how the "Dan" gang wanted to use their own speakers to listen to the master and not Bernie's. (Wish he had called out the speakers) But let me ask you this, can a sound engineer with 80 year old ears (born 16 December 1943), have the hearing to engineering a UHQR album to audiophile standards......I know my hearing is shot due to what I did in my 20's with Rock n Roll sound levels....At 70, no way could my ears be trusted for such a task.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGLFTm6jMrY
- ...
- 67 posts total
Bernie is being honest, not spinning anything. What he’s talking about is pushing the mids for radio limiters of the day and not too much low end for older turntables and the cartridges of the day, plus limited speaker response below 100 hz. Add those up and Aja is a mid forward record with a lot of room to grow. Short enough in length to get much better on modern vinyl with all the skills learned in 45 years What’s great about Aja was never the mastering it was always everything else, and I’m very happy he’s had this opportunity to do it again, full beans for modern time, putting his name on it once and for all. As to his age ... hearing loss has 0% impact on listening skill. As the hearing goes away the brain compensates and the skill portion that matters most is always going up, we hope! So his age is a non factor. If age was a factor young females would be the best engineers, as they have the best measurable hearing. P.S. If you are interested in how mastering alters things here is an opinion on Aja digitally that I did for myself during the pandemic, using the 80s CD as a basis. Do not share or sell. This is for educational purposes only, referencing the digital (CD) version of the original (LP) work. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ewryuajc58j4dpz0t06og/h?rlkey=43h8t7huoafmw8rlyoxb4vps3&dl=0 Send me a PM that you grabbed the data files. |
- 67 posts total