The more immersed in the recording arts I become the more I am convinced that when it comes to capturing musical truth the pros have it wrong.
The vast majority of recording studios and engineers rely upon equipment no audiophile would be caught dead with. DACs and ADs that sound mechanical, monitoring and mastering speakers that do not sound like music.
The goal of all but a small handful of studios is to produce recordings playable on the largest number of reproduction systems possible: cars, small home systems, iPhones, portable gear. To do that they record, mix and master on a variety of speakers from ultra-flat studio monitors to tiny car speakers in an effort to please them all.
Oatmeal.
Of course, this makes sense because that’s the market.
One of the beauties of building a label like Octave is we can narrow our focus to our HiFi Family—a small but viable audience.
We could care less how Octave releases sound in the car, your phone, earbuds, MP3 player, or a Sonos soundbar. In fact, if they sounded good on these we might worry.
We can record, mix, and master on the very same equipment we know will be used to reproduce music in the home.
Sometimes less is more.
