All That Expensive Stuff Eventually Pays Off
Posted on | August 28, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that I put a lot of time and money into infrastructure: cables, sound cards, etc. The stuff no one ever sees. And while clients (and potential clients) go gaga over compressors, limiters, and equalizers, the stuff that really pays off is all that behind-the-scenes gear that connects the “important” stuff.
This was made evident to me when I started mastering a project for a client who had a lot of stuff on DAT. It’s been years since anyone’s given me a DAT, but here comes this guy from Northern California with 8 tracks on DAT and 2 on CD.
I guess he’d tried transferring the DAT tracks before himself and was not thrilled with the results. After I sent him a reference disc for approval, one of his comments was “your transfer from the 48K DAT to the CD at 44.1K is most impressive. I tried this and failed ignoflummoxiously…pardon the word description of how I failed; but it was that bad.”
So, for all the money I spend on the best sound cards, converters, and 75ohm digital cable, I’m glad it works.
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
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