Majestic Dimensional Fidelity
Overview by Angelo Montrone
Majestic Dimensional Fidelity (MDM) is our own standard of audio excellence assuring the listener that the audio has been recorded, mixed and mastered to the highest standard of fidelity and is exceptional in clarity, detail, dynamics and dimension.
The determination for this is made by audio professionals at Majestic Music and we stake our reputation on it.
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In the past, as a Staff Producer/A&R at record labels I was tasked with assuring the mixes and final masters met their standards of quality.​
With MDM I have established an even higher standard of audio excellence. It is based on decades of experimenting with recording, mixing and mastering techniques, custom equipment modifications, endless listening tests of equipment, converters, wire, electrical systems etc, and it encompasses our own unique techniques and audio philosophy.
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Most often the recordings we make in-house will bear the MDM stamp, however, we also showcase music that we feel is musically noteworthy but may not meet the audio standards of MDM, so these recordings will not bear that stamp.
We constantly strive to push the boundaries of what can be done. Our techniques, tools and general philosophy are outlined below and on our Audio Evolution page.
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How Should Sound Sound?
Judging sound quality, like judging food or art, is rather subjective. At Majestic, we first ask a question: does it have emotional impact? In other words, does the sound capture and involve you and does it make you want to listen more?
The second question is does it achieve the intended goal of the production? In some cases, the goal might be to make you feel as if you are in the room with the musicians with the instruments so real you feel you can reach out and touch them. In other cases, the intention might be artistic abstraction: retro, huge in a stadium, a 50's vibe etc. In each of these cases, you want to be fully convinced of the intended sonic vision.
So, what are the common factors that contribute to great sound?
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Great Songs and Passionate Performances
This has to be said first. It's the reason we listen to and love music.
Detail
Our brains are highly evolved to process sound and can pick up on the most subtle aural cues to create a sound picture. This means that the more detail we deliver in our recordings, the more impactful and involving the listening experience will be.
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Capturing maximum detail is a holistic process involving every aspect of the recording process: the equipment, the recording techniques, the acoustics, wiring, electrical system etc. Majestic Music Studio was built with all of this in mind.
Ambience (the acoustics around the sound source)
Milliseconds after we hear a sound, we begin to hear reflections of that sound bouncing off of walls, the floor, the ceiling and any other objects in the room, which gives us vital information about what type of acoustic space the sound is in. This is called ambience, and it has a strong emotional impact on us. An instrument or voice in a small room can sound intimate, and in a huge concert hall it can sound powerful and majestic. Ambience creates a sense of dimensional space for the listener.
We have put tremendous effort into our acoustic spaces and how we use and manipulate ambience both real and artificial (ie any devices used to create reverb & echo). This is addressed in detail on our page Audio Evolution
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Additional important factors are…
Recording Technique
Quality recordings start with a mastery of the fundamentals of recording and mixing learned from golden ear engineers of the past. From there we add our own techniques and insight to move things forward.
Microphone technique, the sometimes overlooked art of selecting the right microphone and position(s) to capture an instrument can have a huge impact on sound quality and realism.
Our Dimensional Ambience Process, Hybrid Mixing Technique, Enhancement Chamber, and use of Analog Tape are just a few of the techniques we've developed/adapted in order to provide the detail and ambience that results in an impactful and involving listening experience.
Our page Audio Evolution pulls back the curtain on many of these techniques.
Equipment
World class equipment in the hands of an experienced recording engineer is a recipe for success. Microphones, mic preamps, compressers, equalizers, tape machines and effects processors form the pallet of colors from which an engineer can paint the sound: accurate, romantic, exciting, somber etc. In particular, Digital Converters (AD, DA) are of utmost importance. Great converters will accurately capture all the detail of the performance and the equipment used to capture it.
Acoustics
Microphones hear the room along with the instrument, so live rooms embed their sonic signature into the recording. Every acoustic space has a personality: a kitchen, a shower, tunnel, a club. Ideally, a studio live room compliments the instruments, surrounding them with an ambience that helps to define them and provides a good starting point for additional reverb/echo and processing.
The control room is where the decisions are made, and hearing clearly is essential. This room should be linear and uncolored.
Mastering and Dynamics
Dynamics are so important to music that Beethoven actually devised his own notation for this. However, dynamics can be easily lost in mixing & mastering with a process called “Brickwall Limiting” which digitally chops off peaks in level, reducing dynamics in an attempt to make the music seem louder (see Loudness Wars). It’s essentially a way to trick the listener, LIKE USING ALL CAPS TO MAKE A POINT, rather than having a good point to make. It would be like Beethoven telling his symphony to only play LOUD, since that’s the most exciting part!
We go into this in greater detail on the Audio Evolution page, but suffice to say that we keep the dynamics through the mastering process (adhering to at lease the current recommendation of -14LUFS).
Instruments and Musicians
Even with all of the above, a great musician really makes a difference not just in performance, but in sound quality. Great musicians have both musical virtuosity and the ability to make their instruments sing beautifully! Pairing a musician with a beautifully resonant instrument gives them an expressive tool with which to convey their feelings and can inspire them. We have a collection of instruments (new and vintage) ranging from drums to guitars, amps & keyboards that were all hand picked for their sonic excellence and took decades to acquire.
The Little Things
It's the little things that add up, and attention to them yields an incremental improvement in sound quality. Attention to tubes, wire, electrical system, sample rates, direct boxes and anything else that can effect the signal helps to squeeze every ounce of fidelity out of a recording.
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