Octave Records gets closer

Well…you have to have as many channels as you have microphones necessary to do the recording.

As I used to tell my students who seemed overwhelmed (as opposed to those who were excited) by all the knobs on a 48-channel SSL “Each vertical strip is the same - it is simpler than it appears”. Each vertical strip is a preamp (or two), followed by an EQ, etc. Learn the functionality of one, and you have at least half of the equation sorted with regard to the rest of the board/desk.

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Yes sure :wink: My Impression just somehow is, all this stuff is not half as „audiophile“ as ours :wink:

Correct. They are different animals, which is something folks who have no experience with recording fail to grasp.

Although, if many Audiophiles had two channel strips from a Studer board (or any of several other classic desks) as the front end/Preamp of their stereo, they would likely see things differently.

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I’m sure this would sound better than anything else…I’m just unsure what that proves…probably that a lot more is lost after those tapes inspite of any “audiophile” effort. What I don’t think is that audiophile effort would make no difference at the recording/mastering stage. The cases where it was done at least to a certain extent prove it.

“I’m sure this would sound better than anything else”

Nope, it would not, as it has nothing to do with personal experience and personal sonic preferences/one’s system/room of reproduction. It “proves” nothing from an audiophile perspective. There is nothing to prove.

I am saying that it would provide a perspective that most don’t have with respect to the Front End of a recording. It results in understanding that a lot of what we fret over here is not terribly important.

And this is actually only on the input end…from the mic to the pre/channel. The only thing that matters from an Audiophile perspective is the sound in one’s home.

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Content is king so I hope artists can be signed who can create substantial demand.

For example, maybe a major jazz artist who is between major label contracts.

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I would second that. I realize there are many talented lesser known artists out there, but somehow many audiophile labels focus so much on SQ they forget about the element of star power.

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“It results in understanding that a lot of what we fret over here is not terribly important.”

Ok then initially I didn’t get what you wanted to say. If it’s the above I’m also always willing to take our discussions not too important…but anyway for me there’s no reason we just look in awe at what happens before our home listening…I guess there’s a lot happening that could be improved but few care (which isn’t meant towards that mixing board in particular at all). “Audiophile”-like improvements of some mastering chains and the results show it.

In theory, a completely mono recording without any eq, dynamics processing, or console routing, is more audiophile as you would skip a lot of the console circuit, but is it going to sound better?

When I was working in studios Neve, API and SSL consoles costing between $150,000-$1,000,000 were not uncommon. Imagine upgrading those to “audiophile” specs.

Yes, this would be ideal;-)
Just as Chesky contracted Joe Henderson…but I guess it’s an absolute illusion.
I just hope it’s not one more female voice singing standards or some quiet folk :wink:

But maybe Gus has connections to Sony and their artists that help…

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Yes, I don’t say it’s realistic :wink: There’s just no reason why good cabling etc. shouldn’t help the pro equipment just as it helps in our homes I’d say

But back to the topic: are there any ideas about artists or genre yet?

If anybody cares to donate a console to Octave, my partner and I are selling the Manor Helios. It’s maybe too large, but Gus wants it.

Yes, we agree, content is king. We will do our damndest to get some great talent in there and while audio quality is, of course, critical to us the content means more.

One of the potential artists that we have a verbal “nod” to working with is Victor Wooten. This guy’s amazing and a god among bass players. He’s a huge fan of DSD and the Sonoma system and really cares about quality. Fingers crossed we can get
him to actually come in and record with his trio.

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Thanks! Me as well. Now the challenge will be getting this tank up the stairs and into the new control room. Then, we’ll remove the 40 channels and rebuild them with new caps and replace the op amps.

Our chain will be to go from microphone to microphone preamp (looking now at building our own or going with Forsell’s) and from there straight into the ADC then into the 32 track Sonoma recording system. When it comes time to mix we will run the Sonoma output
through DirectStream DACs and into the Studer, mix the analog, then back out to ADCs and the Sonoma system.

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Hi Paul - what will be the product formats available from Octave Records? SACDs? LPs?
Downloadable DSD files? Thanks

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A bass player (and Jazz) would be great to start with!

I guess you can just take out that sentence - sorry - it’s confusing.

Man, that will sound sweet! I’m really curious how you will integrate a multichannel Direcstream DAC setup (32 tracks?). I love the sound of EMM Labs converters that I’ve heard in the Sonoma, but I imagine the Direcstreams would greatly improve the noise levels (assuming you are recording at 64x or 128x), making it much easier to mix many tracks.