Majestic Dimensional Fidelity
There is currently no established standard for audio quality, and with the proliferation of low quality DIY music, the need for it has never been greater. So we have created our own.
Majestic Dimensional Fidelity (MDM) is our stamp of approval which guarantees that the audio has been recorded, mixed and mastered to the highest standard of fidelity and that it is exceptional in clarity, detail, dynamics and dimension.
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MDM is based on decades of experimenting with recording, mixing and mastering techniques and equipment modifications. All of this is done with the goal of producing recordings that bring you deeper into the music.
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Below, on the Audio Evolution page and in our discussion groups we share and discuss these techniques.
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How Should Sound Sound?
Judging sound quality, like judging food or art, is rather subjective. At Majestic, the first question we ask is, "Does it have emotional impact?" 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 allow us to answer "yes" to each of these questions?
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Great Songs and Passionate Performances
This is ultimately the reason we listen to and love music. With that understood, what are the quailties of the recordings that will make the listening experience more involving?
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 information we are providing for the listener to discern. Detail gives instruments & voices texture and dimension which in turn and brings us closer to the performer. It reveals the subtleties and nuances that make each performer unique.
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Capturing maximum detail involves every aspect of the recording process: the equipment, the recording techniques, the acoustics, wiring, electrical system etc.
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 the 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 and shapes our emotions around the music.
We have put tremendous effort into our acoustic spaces and how we utilize ambience in our recordings to convey emotion. This is addressed in detail on our page Audio Evolution
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Other 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 recording spaces 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 & Listening
The Control Room is the room where we listen and mix the music. The important decisions are made here and it is essential for this room to be properly designed from the ground up for acoustic clarity. This starts with the studs and beams and includes multi layered walls and acoustic treatments that results in clean, linear and uncolored sound.
While audiophiles, rightfully concerned about the vibration of their speakers, utilize spikes and isolation pads, we have gone a bit further to solve the problem. Our speakers are mounted in 400 pound columns that sit (through cutouts on the floor) on 2000lb concrete blocks that go straight to
earth.
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In addition, we use multiple systems to evaluate the sound from headphones with room simulations and custom EQ curves to a specially designed car system. This "in the field" testing of our recordings assures they will sound consistent on whatever system you may hear them on.
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 intact through the mastering process.
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. We are constantly evaluating gear and doing listening tests to find that extra 1% of sound quality.
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