Hello!
I wanted to start this topic because recently I visited a friend. He is a recording engineer who worked with many artists in Croatia. While I've recorded in a professional studio three times before, I certainly don't consider myself an expert in studio recording techniques or the equipment involved.
While I was there, he gave me a tour of the facility and we had a cup of tea and a discussion about what neutral fideloty is or at least, what it means to him. In a nutshell, neutral-sounding equipment should not add, much less take away, anything from what the artist and the production team had envisioned.
It goes without saying he has numerous choices of microphones, mic preamps, compressors, effects processors etc. I was more impressed with instruments though since he had a beautiful Petrof piano in one of the side rooms so naturally, we had to play it and had so much fun doing it. I was very impressed with the layout of the studio and how neat and tidy everything was.
Anyway, to get to the point. While he is very familiar with each and every part of this puzzle, like which microphone and preamp to use when he has a young female singer in her twenties who is recording her first single, or an experienced guitar virtuoso, when it comes to monitoring , there can only be one thing - a neutral-sounding D/A converter, volume controller and active monitors. The studio console was made by Ampex I believe, but the interface to the PC and the installed Steinberg software (I believe Avid Pro Tools aren't at all popular in Europe) is from a company called Antelope Audio. I believe this is a Romanian company even if the actual products are made in China. Still, the name of this interface was Orion and from what I was told, it is a really top end A/D and D/A converter interface with high precision digital clocking. Fascinating! His monitoring system was comprised of two sets - a Yamaha one and an ATC one. I clearly preferred the latter. No surprise tere since ATC makes simply wonderful loudspeakers.
I was so tired that day I really could not keep my eyes open after the dinner. Two weeks later I told him I would bring my own D/A converter. I was really interested to hear what he had to say about it. I have been an ownder of a BDA-2 converter since 2014 and like it very much. I think it is a tremendously good converter when partnered with it's BDP-2 digital player and it's discrete analogue circuits are a tremendous match with BHA-1 headphone amplifier again.
He connected my BDA-2 to one of the AES outputs on his Orion interface and then trimmed the Orion's own outputs so that the levels would match that of Brystons to very fine tolerace.
We listened to some of his recordings. Nothing I was familiar with. Not that it mattered to me, what I really wanted was his to hear his opinion.
So finally, here are the notes I made during the listening session:
Cymbals: naturally bright but not abrasive
Drums: crisp, well-timed
Kick drum: deep, clean
Bass: weighty, well defined individual notes
Piano: clear, a touch of sweetness but still natural
Steel-stringed acoustic guitar: clear, delicate, natural
Distorted electric guitar: cuts through the mix well, assertive and dominant character
Female voice: beautifully natural
Saxophone: Breathy, natural
So, overall, he thought the sound was natural and that BDA-2 exhibited "every audio trait that's mandatory for audio production".
Now, let's talk a bit about the differences between my BDA-2 and his Orion. WHich sounds better? Well, that question might not have a definitive answer. He did say the Orion possibly had a bit more impact in the low end and the BDA-2 sounded a bit softer. What you have to realize is that "a bit" really does mean a bit. Also, he made a comment about the stereo field dispersion stating that BDA-2 possibly had more width in it's presentation. They were on par in terms of sheer tonal balance obviously.
So, all in all, they were both comparable in his opinion.
Now onto the things he thinks could be improved on the BDA-2. I will list them as he named them:
- only one AES input is not enough
- Apart from clock synchronization, BNC inputs are rarely present on professional equipment - my particular BDA-2 is a special-order machine so it has four RCA S/PDIF inputs so in his opinion, this should be a standard feature
- there is no AES output
- trim controls on analogue outputs would have been useful
- while not mandatory for D/A converters, a BNC clock input and output would have been useful in order to facilitate BDA-2's excellent clock or to improve the sould even further by slaving it to an even lower phase noice clock
I hope you found something of interest in this topic.
Cheers!
Antun
