Terry Howard on the Importance of Sound Quality

[misterplops]

Digital is all well and good for ease of use in mixing.

But since so much of this posting is focused on getting the best sound quality, then the studios should take the time and effort to use top of the line analog equipment.

No matter how good the digital equipment, it is still sampled. The source (analog) to digital conversion, and then the at home digital back to analog conversion can only hurt.

Analog straight through, when done right, is the best. But, there go the profits.

[SonicHall]

I think better investment for consumer will be in getting a "right" computer processor,.. ,..and finding "proper" power supply,...but that process is very complex for average not well informed and experienced consumer. So,...lesson about digital world will cost ,..a most.

..and some wiil get lucky for a while.

[SonicHall]

product consumer operating energy range is totally interfered by plenty of factors ,..so anything he says does not going to really apply as stable sound quality as soon as reach the buyer ,,..digital data quality is like a leaf on a tree waving on a wind,..if there is no wind ,..then this that he talks about could apply,..but consumer mode is very "windy",....and those at industrial strategy headquarters could understand what i mean.

[SonicHall]

i tested software and hardware for a years

and i can tell you,..that i found unstable quality at a 90% of digital products,..starting with operating systems,...industry is playing with a customer mind,..Characteristics of Sonar could be as he says,..but that characteristics can apply to other software if "designed"at same code (condition),..and easily can be interfered and corrupted.

[SonicHall]

with respect...everything he said is true,.but some costumers do own research,..and we know industrial crap guidance,... different softwares produce different amounts of spectrum harmonic distortion ,..for various reasons,..main reason is in field of electrodynamics,..

.

[drzcrazy]

my questinon is will sonar work same way and speed on a mac wit boot camp

[CakewalkSoftware]

Yes it will. We've seen lots of people using SONAR on a Mac through boot camp, and have not hear of any issues to date.

[jz33040]

The problem is that you have a rich guy who's helping Sonar SELL their new platform. This misleads people into thinking they MUST have it. It's not true for nearly all cases. The needed extra headroom can be covered by much less. Also by placing such a demand for data, a studio will end up limiting it's tracks unnecessarily. Don't get me wrong. I like the option of 64bit, etc, but only when/if it's needed. It's nice, but my point is don't think it's a MUST to get good results.

[CakewalkSoftware]

Hey there, if you thing Terry Howard is rich you are sorely mistaken. He's just a dedicated audio engineer who loves music and technology.

[CakewalkSoftware]

You also have misconceptions about 64-bit audio quality and its data requirements. When you record the source file is 24-Bit, everything that happens to it in SONAR's mix engine is 64-bit but that is non-destructive and is not written to the file until final output. And if your PC is not up to snuff you can turn on the mix engine only on file export, without having to use it during tracking, and still get the higher quality.

[jz33040]

I hate to say this, but the guy is NOT fully correct in what he's saying. Given a choice, I would record in higher bits if there was no such thing as system restraints. But there is little to be gained for a the average user in 64bits. He talks about the math and his point is valid, but that is mostly about the implementation, not the bits. Mixing at higher bit levels can lead to higher accuracy for mixing (summing) many tracks, but it reaches a point of diminishing returns.

[CakewalkSoftware]

Terry is talking about mixing using a 64-bit engine. Not recording at 64-bit.

[CakewalkSoftware]

You can run SONAR on Intel-macs with Bootcamp

[maxhodges]

why does the guy who's recordinig move the mic away from the guy in the audience with the questions in order to record Terry. Terry has his own mic. Doh!

[CakewalkSoftware]

We were not getting a feed from the board, the ambient noise at tradeshows is so loud that if I didn't have the directional Mic pointed at Terry, his response would have been lost in the same manner as the guy with the question's were