[john_jcb]

I must admit that most of my listening over the years was done with truly inferior equipment. Now that the kids are grown and I have more discretionary income I am gradually upgrading. One thing I have noticed as the equipment gets better I seem to hear more and more in the recorded music. THis is both good and bad as it is easy to pick out poorly recorderd work where before it did not matter. Reading reviews that concentrate on the recording and not the content confirms that there are not alot of truly great cds out there from a purely audio perspective.

My question: Do the artists and engineers hear this when recording and choose to ignore it or are the making compromises in quality all along rationalizing that most will not hear it anyway?

 

[Braver]

they usually try to make the best recordings they can. but some are not as skilled, and not everyone can work with the best equipment. I can (even with my mediocre equipment) which album is made in a small studio for independant labels, and which have the support of a big label and a great producer.

for instance, albums by Arena (they own label) tend to be a bit sharp in the vocals and a bit opaque, simply because they use a smaller studio and can't afford to have a producer around all the time. Specially when they first started, the sound wasn't up to snuff. but albums by Marillion, specially in their days with EMI, and produced by someone who knows how to make stuff sound great (I love Dave Meegan) sound much fuller, cleaner and transparent. all about the money man.