Room curve variations across control rooms distort recordings’ spectral balance

Evidence

It is relevant to consider what professional recording engineers think is good spectral balance, because their opinions get incorporated into the recordings they create. Mäkivirta and Anet (2001) measured room curves at the recording engineer’s location in 250 control rooms, using functionally similar Genelec loudspeakers (see Figure 9.7). Although the median curve is commendably flat, the variations that exist in these control rooms can be large, especially at low frequencies. Recording engineers who work in these circumstances demonstrate the truth in the “circle of confusion” (Figure 1.8). They cannot be certain of hearing the same sounds when moving among different recording studios, much less anticipate what consumers are hearing with any certainty. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 923

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘circle of confusion’ resonates with the reader’s interest in how listening conditions shape what gets encoded — parallels the social construction of audio standards.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how large are the low-frequency room curve variations across the 250 control rooms, and do engineers compensate perceptually for their own room?