Originally
published in Audio
Media Magazine, October 2003
Reprinted with permission.
This
debilitating mental condition was first reported in an AES paper
in the early 70’s by Helmut Haas, and became known as the
Haas Effect. Highly infectious, this impaired judgment condition
reached epidemic levels in mid 70’s spread to nearly every
recording engineer, producer and AE instructor in the industry.
It impacts the hearing judgment of engineers, causing them to record
talent in acoustic sterile environments, notably devoid of any early
reflections. The evidence of its insidious presence becomes clearly
evident whenever listening to modern recording tracks or mixes.
Long gone are those early recording days when everybody got together
in one big room, opened up 15 mics went direct to tape in 2 takes,
without headphones or isobooths. No one was worried much about catching
early reflections then, because they couldn’t. It isn’t
a social disease, it is a disease born of isolation. Those early
sessions just happened to be self-inoculated. Flush with hundreds
of low-level cross talk signals and early reflections, the engineers
got some of the sweetest the musical noise floors ever recorded
in history and made great sounding records.
Justified by the Haas report and fueled by paranoid
fears of comb filter coloration, every single reflection near the
mic has systematically been exterminated over the last 30 years
in most recording studios. “The only good early reflection
is a dead early reflection.” With this purge of early reflections
nearly complete, today’s music is now completely composed
out of separate sterile, dry tracks, spiced up after the fact with
the FX rack. Mixing has essentially become the work of a sonic funeral
parlor technicians, trying to bring dead sound back to life, for
just one more show.
Finally a cure to modern, lifeless sound recording
has been found. Inoculation process requires that tracks be recorded
in a Haas Saturated Signal Format, the exact opposite from a Haas
Sterile Signal Format (reflection free zone, RFZ). It requires introducing
some 30 to 60 random time offset Specular Reflections accompanying
each direct signal within the first 30 ms. The resultant signal
complex (statistical assembly of discrete, off axis reflections)
has absolutely no comb filter effect and the track is completely
full of acoustical life, the instrument, voice and the music.
Formerly dead mixes can be remixed through an acoustic
process of sweetening by playing the dry mix through an acoustic
package that creates a similar plethora of early reflections. Caution,
the RT-60 of the Haas Saturated early reflection package needs to
be in the range of 1/10 second and a very early time gap is generally
set at about 3 ms.
This
cure was discovered when big studio recording engineers started
fooling around with TubeTraps in the mid 80’s, endorsed early
on by Pete Townshend (Eel Pie Synclavier Sampling Room) and for
the last 10+ years with Studio Traps by Bruce “You’ve
got to hear this” Swedien. ASC remains dedicated to teaching
reflection saturated recording methods and providing acoustic inoculation
packages to recording engineers who recognize that their work suffers
from the debilitating influence of Reflectophobia.
—Acoutic Engineer/Inventor Art Noxon
has developed numerous acoustic products, testing and design techniques
for recording and playback environments. He has delivered five AES
papers, holds five acoustic patents and has written numerous articles
on performance-based (intelligibility) acoustic design. He founded
and remains president of Acoustic Sciences Corporation in Eugene,
Ore.
This
debilitating mental condition was first reported in an AES paper
in the early 70’s by Helmut Haas, and became known as the
Haas Effect. Highly infectious, this impaired judgment condition
reached epidemic levels in mid 70’s spread to nearly every
recording engineer, producer and AE instructor in the industry.
It impacts the hearing judgment of engineers, causing them to record
talent in acoustic sterile environments, notably devoid of any early
reflections. The evidence of its insidious presence becomes clearly
evident whenever listening to modern recording tracks or mixes.
This
cure was discovered when big studio recording engineers started
fooling around with TubeTraps in the mid 80’s, endorsed early
on by Pete Townshend (Eel Pie Synclavier Sampling Room) and for
the last 10+ years with Studio Traps by Bruce “You’ve
got to hear this” Swedien. ASC remains dedicated to teaching
reflection saturated recording methods and providing acoustic inoculation
packages to recording engineers who recognize that their work suffers
from the debilitating influence of Reflectophobia.