Recording Classical Music

CHAPTER 6 Tracking

Critical Listening

Critical listening should occur continuously throughout the recording process, but during the tracking and editing/mixing stages of a project, engineers usually spend a great deal of time evaluating the sound quality of the analog information being captured and the digital information being processed in the DAW. The criteria listed below, based on a set of parameters recommended by the European Broadcasting Union for the appraisal of recorded material (1997: 13–15), provide guidelines for assessing various facets of audio signals:

Spatial Environment—appropriateness of the ambience for the sound sources: the duration of the room reverberation, balance between direct and indirect sound, depth perspective, ...