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| Jack Renner and “Prof” Keith O. Johnson |
UltraAudio published a fantastic article about “The Role of the Recording Engineer” and included our own Keith O. Johnson.
“One of Professor Keith O. Johnson’s favorite recording spaces is the Meyerson Symphony Center, in Dallas, Texas. I asked Johnson, renowned recording engineer for Reference Recordings and Director of Engineering for Spectral Audio Inc., for his candid opinion on why he considers this to be a world-class hall, and as usual, he presented me with a thorough analysis.
‘At concerts roughly 70% of the sound we hear from a symphony orchestra is from the hall, its acoustic reflections and reverberations. The other 30% is from a direct path from listener to instruments. We must decode these sounds — a very complex activity that includes feedback paths that change properties in hair cells of our ears as well as feedforward biasing from our vision and knowledge that summon experiential processes in our brain.
‘Sonic learning includes familiarity with halls and instruments that have evolved and coexisted for hundreds of years. From this historical evolution and proper concert settings, a good artist can communicate as well as manipulate his audience to maximize the concert experience. Clearly, the hall must fit the scene…'”