Cookie's Corner - #190 Why don't more pro audio engineers record to DSD?
From Cookie Marenco - Founder and Producer Blue Coast Records and Music
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Can you hear the difference?
The above photo is Jenna Mammina doing an impression of John R Burr at a recording session. Do we have fun? Oh, yeah!
High resolution recording isn't taught in audio schools. Sad. I think the real problem is the industry doesn't see "money" in being able to hear the difference so they don't record with quality in mind.
The audio recording industry sells and promotes gear that is affordable to most musicians. Those musicians often become the engineers building their own studios (that’s what I did). I started on a 1/2” 8 track tape machine and mixed to 1/4” 2 tracks tape. If I gave a run down of the gear I bought and home renovations I did after 40 years, this bill is probably over a million dollars spent. Many of those recording systems are now obsolete but still sound fantastic so I use them.
Unfortunately, in today’s economics, affordable gear is winning out over quality gear. Recording to DSD in a multi-track system is a very expensive proposition. There is only one choice of systems to buy right now - the Pyramix. There are hundreds of PCM recording systems at all price points.
OTR Studios (my studio) has to compete and blend with what most engineers are using if I want to stay in business - which is PCM digital gear. Artists want quick easy fixes to those notes they sang out of tune or played offbeat. I train my in house engineers to use PCM in a way that gets the most sonic quality possible. And we don’t have to give up great performances.
For my label, Blue Coast Records, we record to DSD 256 on the Pyramix system. I always choose emotional impact over perfection. The nice thing is you don’t have to give up quality of sound for a great performance.
More than formats and sound quality - how does one teach emotional impact to young engineers when artists and producers often choose perfection and fixes? This is a much longer process, but not impossible. It takes time to teach emotional impact… maybe years. I’ve had hundreds of assistants I’ve trained over the years. The assistants who last at my studio seem to be the ones that relearn what they’ve been taught in school. Yes, they learn emotional impact.
Getting back to normal
My apologies for not sending out more newsletters here. Those of you following me on Facebook (the only social platform I use right now) know that I’ve been dealing with a lot of family issues lately. Getting my mother into long term care after a nasty fall has taken up most of the last 3 months. I’m happy to say that we’ve found a wonderful place that’s 10 minutes from the studio. I should have more time for newsletters coming up and am looking forward to starting a Producer’s Workshop newsletter.
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Have a wonderful day!
Cookie
From past newsletters…..
Do I really own a hip hop label?
Well, if you believe Google’s Artificial Intelligence, I own OTR Records… a hip hop label based out of Los Angeles. But no…. no… no…. they got it wrong.
I own OTR Studios…… a recording facility that’s been around since 1981 - before hip hop was invented. Still, every now and then, I get a text or call from some one looking up OTR Records, finds me from AI generated answers and wants a hip hop record deal. Hey, for the right price, I’ll go to LA to produce a hip hop album… are they really ready for DSD? The last call I got was from from a billionaire son of someone who owned an airport in Nigeria… so they say.
New Music coming soon to Blue Coast Records!
https://bluecoastmusic.com/art-paul-bruce/spirits
The first single from the album Spirits is a track called “Queen of Sydney” composed by Paul McCandless (of Oregon fame) and features his oboe playing along with Art Lande on piano and Bruce Williamson on flute. The EP with 3 additional songs was launched on March 14, 2025. Have a listen!
Sirius XM - old school radio programming with good taste!
I’ve discovered Sirius XM and found I love the programming. Musically, it’s much better than an algorithm from Spotify.
There’s a lot of ECM type channels (like Ralph Towner, Oregon, Keith Jarret, Pat Metheny, etc) that is the music I grew up on as a jazz player. There’s also a Tony Furtado channel where I heard one of the first tracks I recorded for Tony and Rounder… more than 30 years ago. Plus, there’s new music added every day… but not in the hundred of thousands of tracks… carefully selected. Enchantment, on Blue Coast Records, a Fiona Joy Hawkins/Rebecca Daniel track is in heavy rotation. Somehow the blend of old and new is refreshing.
And even better news… Sirius XM actually pays royalties to labels and artists that makes sense (unlike the streaming channels). Consider a subscription for 2025. They’re currently offering a 3 month free trial.
As always, thank you for being a subscriber and enjoying our music!
Cookie Marenco
Founder and Producer
Blue Coast Records and Music
Thank you, Dad! Gone but never forgotten….
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Recording in DSD doesn't fit the way that most current day pop records are made. They make heavy use of digital synthesizers, either standalone or on a computer (PCM), add sounds from sample libraries (PCM), and use computer-based effects processing plugins (PCM). Original recorded material is only a small part of the completed track, and even that is likely to be heavily processed, including the ubiquitous use of Auto-Tune.
Imagine producing Blinding Lights, the hit song by The Weeknd. I believe that the only original non-synthetic sounds in the entire song are his vocals, which have been processed with Auto-Tune (or a similar plugin) to sound robotic. Everything else is synthesizers and what sounds like a drum machine. Even those synthesizers don't sound like they are being played live; they were either captured from a MIDI keyboard and quantized, or perhaps simply painted in a DAW.
What meaningful use could DSD recording play in a song like that? I suppose you could record his vocals in DSD, but by the time they have been converted to PCM for the Auto-Tune processing and thoroughly mangled there would be no benefit. One could argue that such a synthetic concoction isn't really music but that's another discussion, and there is no denying the fact that it sells. It's not being played for emotion; the sound is mechanical by design, right down to the processed vocals.