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[Tim McCulloch]

One standout gig the BE brought their own clock but wouldn't allow me to use it to sync other things so that the AES3 connections would work. "The console won't sound as good if other equipment is connected to the clock." OK fine, analog it is!

I take all guest signals as analog and all system drive wiring from FOH to the amp rack is analog.  What the l'Acoustics amps do with signal routing after the analog input is Voodoo to me, but it works.

I think Santa is bringing my RoMoSo venue an MX36 just in time for holiday shows.  I heard that last year, too, so Virginia, we may need to talk.   If that happens I may see what other drive options make sense for the K3 rig...

[Steve-White]

Might be a contraversial view, but if anybody starts talking about the way a converter, preamp, or sample rate sounds, then I know right away that they are not a good and proper sound engineer.

Look at it this way. I can ride a bicycle. Eddy Merckx can also ride a bicycle. If I'm on a 10k dollar thoroughbred race bike, and Eddy was on a Walmart Huffy with streamers on it he would still beat me by miles and miles.

They're always full of shit.  They go on the offensive with a nice tantrum.  None of the behaviors is remotely professional.  Whenever I see one of these threads come up it takes me back to the early days of parametric eq's and the hoards of "engineers" that couldn't use them.  Rather than request assistance and learn, which I am always happy to provide they was throw tantrums.

I just tune the shit out and walk away, there is no way to deal with them.  It's all about enduring and surviving as the case may be while limiting collateral damage.

[Rob Timmerman]

Placebo is a hell of a drug...

[Tim McCulloch]

Back when PM5Ds were the flavor of the month we did a show with "a band you've heard of" doing a corporate event in a hotel ballroom. The BE brought his boutique external clock and spent more than a few minutes extolling how much better it made the console sound. The day progressed swimmingly and I was happy to play system tech for the BE. After their set the BE went off in search of the open bar while the post show music played. Since I had never had occasion to use an external clock with the then fairly new console I punched up the clock source screen and damn if he had patched in the clock but forget to chance the source setting. 

I have a similar story, about the Yamaha M7, an engineer with an external work clock, and lack of "engagement."

After extolling the audible changes of the Black Lion (or whatever it was) makes with "all Yamaha digital consoles", after the show I pointed out that the external WC had not been selected in the option menu.

This is when I confirmed that 97.7% of "golden ears" people are full of bullshit.  The remaining 2.3%?  Maybe half of them have genuine hearing and interpretation skills that are not present in the rest of critical listeners and the other half suffer from some kind of confirmation bias.

[Tim Weaver]

That console clocking group was loud and proud for a while and NO body could convince them otherwise. It lasted all of a couple 3 years and died a quiet slow death. Probably due to a bunch of examples like the above! lol.


I remember one gig many years ago where there were multiple consoles on stage. I was mixing the band that I toured with and a guy I had known for years comes up and says "I can tell you switched to that Midas console! Its so much smoother". Thing is, I was still using the LS9 the band owned. I was mixing on an ipad at the time, but standing in front of a then-new M32 at FOH.

[Chris Hindle]

This is when I confirmed that 97.7% of "golden ears" people are full of bullshit.  The remaining 2.3%?  Maybe half of them have genuine hearing and interpretation skills that are not present in the rest of critical listeners and the other half suffer from some kind of confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is the key.
"Look what i spent Lots-a-bucks on. Sounds great, huh".
Seen it, not heard it many times....
I generally keep my mouth shut, and nod.
Chris.

[Brian Jojade]

Placebo is a hell of a drug...

I had an engineer try and help me once.  He said there were adjustments needed to make the sub sound better.  So I said, sure, let's see what you can do.  Well, he went in and selected the kick and adjusted the EQ a bit and said "see, doesn't that sound so much better?" I couldn't hear a lick of difference, but he could.  Then I looked at the board.  This was a multi-show festival, and the kick he selected was for the drum NOT being used. It was muted! So his own confirmation bias told him that his changes made an imaginary improvement that HE could hear.  Magical.

[Chris Hindle]

I had an engineer try and help me once.  He said there were adjustments needed to make the sub sound better.  So I said, sure, let's see what you can do.  Well, he went in and selected the kick and adjusted the EQ a bit and said "see, doesn't that sound so much better?" I couldn't hear a lick of difference, but he could.  Then I looked at the board.  This was a multi-show festival, and the kick he selected was for the drum NOT being used. It was muted! So his own confirmation bias told him that his changes made an imaginary improvement that HE could hear.  Magical.

I have been know to adjust an unused channel when the wife/girlfriend/manager comes up to bitch about something.  I often leave a blank strip beside lead vocal and lead guitar.
as long as you take SOME action, they are happy. Placebo indeed.
Chris.

[Tim McCulloch]

Recording studio I worked at - we had a new monitor selector box on the meter bridge and it would briefly interrupt the audio.  Probably not ideal but 35 years ago it was acceptable.  But.... the studio engineering team had yet to terminate the smaller monitors to it and match up levels, so no matter what the switch was turned to, nothing changed - it all went to the big control room monitors after that split second interruption.

I sat back as assistant and kept the track sheets and mixing notes while the producer would rotate the knob between two positions, finally landing on one, saying "That's it!  That's the sound I want."  I think this was the beginning of my professional skepticism of "golden ears" and the start of my "inner eye roll".

[Jonathan Johnson]

Might be a contraversial view, but if anybody starts talking about the way a converter, preamp, or sample rate sounds, then I know right away that they are not a good and proper sound engineer.

Hey, now, I bought the cheapest DAC money could buy ($9.99) off of *mazon and I tell you, I can hear it!

No, seriously, I can't really tell any digital effects but I did hear a few things:

• A consistent pulsing (almost like a heartbeat) just faster than every half second
• A rather high noise floor
• When feeding it a 24-bit signal, there's kind of a "sustain" effect that I don't hear with a 16-bit signal (a better DAC doesn't do this, same source device -- Kurzweil PC2x)

The first two probably have something to do with the analog side of the circuitry. Different power supplies (5V fed from USB power supply) didn't make a difference on the pulsing, but did on the noise floor.

But, hey, I knew there was a greater than 50% chance of it being a POS when I ordered it. Buy once something something.

[ProSoundWeb Community]