回复: 名人谈唱片录音资料汇集(最新:BBC电台经理、录音师Martin Fenton谈商业发行开盘带、LP、CD)
DMP唱片公司录音师Tom Jung谈模拟与数码录音Tom Jung作为录音师,其专业生涯开始与1969年:那一年他在明尼亚波利斯(明尼苏达州城市)创立了“Sound 80”录音室;而他最大的贡献则是他后来创建并且亲任录音工作的DMP唱片(Digital Music Products)。DMP主要以发行发烧级Jazz录音为主。在77年的时候,Jung的录音室已经开始采用3M公司的数码录音机,是当时首先采用数码录音的录音室之一。
Stereophile杂志的记者David Lander在2004年6月发表了Tom Jung的访谈录(
http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/604jung/index.html),里面谈到了Jung的从业历程。由于DMP是一个注重数码技术的公司,因此采访里有相当多事后涉及录音技术的讨论。以下是一些值得注意的地方:
1. 记者David Lander问,在1983年的时候,当时市面上只有大概百余款CD,并且主要还是古典音乐,为何Jung要说服日本三洋公司帮忙压制爵士乐录音CD。Jung回答道,因为在这之前他已经花费了很多年的时间来试图解决模拟录音的缺点,但未果。Jung也认为数码录音也有自己的缺点,但他认为这些缺点并没有像模拟录音的缺点那样有害。(原话:Because I'd spent so many years trying to get around analog problems. To me, the side effects of digital weren't as harmful. )并且Jung也认为世界上没有完美的东西,所以他的决定是权衡了优与劣的,他决定采用数码录音,淘汰模拟录音。(Nothing's perfect, but good or bad, I made a conscious decision to go digital and leave analog behind. )
2. 1977年的时候3M公司提供的数码录音机是一个原型产品,记者David Lander问Jung当时对这个录音机的声音有什么印象。Jung回答说他首先感觉到的是那种没有了抖晃失真的声音(The thing that grabbed me in that first playback was the absence of wow and flutter)。并且Jung说,爵士乐里面经常要用到钢琴,他觉得只有采用直刻技术,或者数码录音,才能接近他心目中想要的声音(Most of the recording we were doing included a piano, and getting a piano sound was always a real struggle. Doing it direct to disc or on digital tape, I could get a lot closer to what I was after)。同时数码录音的背噪很低,正是这两样因素使得Jung决定采用数码录音(And the noise floor was just a real shocker. Those two things won me over)。
3. 科学技术是不断进步的,所以DMP现在出版SACD。Jung在一开始也清楚CD格式的PCM技术的缺点,他认为其中一个主要因素是44.1kHz的取样率决定了ADC要有一个20kHz左右的滤波器,而很多这样的滤波器在上限频率的范围内会有严重的相位漂移,对音质有不好的影响(With PCM, the brick-wall filter at approximately 20kHz has so much phase shift that it manifests itself down at 2kHz and 3kHz, where the ear is very sensitive)。甚至Jung笑着说,他后来对PCM的缺点不能容忍的程度,曾使得他想重新采用模拟录音,但他最后没有这样做(I got so I really, really didn't like the way PCM sounded—to the point that I even considered trying some analog recording again—but I caught myself before I did that. [laughs])
4. Sony曾经向Jung演示过DSD录音技术:现场有爵士乐四重奏在演奏,他们比较麦克风拾取的现场声音、传统的16bit PCM、20bit PCM和DSD这四种,Jung觉得DSD的效果最接近麦克风所拾取的声音。(They had a jazz quartet set up in the studio, and David Smith, who is Sony's technical guru, had built a passive four-way switch that would allow us to listen to and switch between the live output of the mixing desk, conventional 16-bit digital, the latest and greatest 20-bit [PCM] converter, and finally to DSD. The DSD was so much closer to the live signal than either PCM converter that it was obvious this was a direction I really wanted to pursue.)
所以从Jung的采访可以看出,他决定采用哪种录音方式,是由该录音方式的音质是否能让他满足为准。PCM数码录音跟模拟录音相比,前者更让Jung满意,所以当年就采用了数码录音;现在传统的16ibt、20bitPCM数码录音跟DSD相比,DSD效果更好,所以现在他就自然要采用DSD录音,发行SACD了。
(待续)