Home HiFi Company Starting Record Label

[Ricardus]

Has anyone else seen the new record label that the fine folks at PS Audio are starting? You know, the fine folks who sell $5000 IEC cables and $3500 1 meter RCA cables. It's called Octave Records.

I follow their videos just to hear the wild claims promoting their label, and how it is going to produce the best sounding records in the world, because DSD.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for new studios and new labels, but I'm wondering if they'll be able to deliver, considering their videos are commonly filled with misinformation, and the wrong terms used to describe the most common pro audio devices.

 

[rock soderstrom]

There is certainly a market for recordings with quantum-optimized recording chains and instruments processed with multivocal C37 lacquer.

 

[iampoor1]

It's a shame that PS Audio has some really good videos mixed in with the audiophile craziness. Its a minefield out there lol

 

[Ricardus]

It's a shame that PS Audio has some really good videos mixed in with the audiophile craziness. Its a minefield out there lol

Serious question, but I would be interested in seeing one of their videos that you say is good. Because everything I see is the proclamation of the word of Paul, and all of his minions just accept it as fact.

 

[Ricardus]

He has a vintage Studer console, and there was word of him restoring that to be used as the studio centerpiece, and I was interested in seeing them document that, but now there's talk about them designing and building their own custom console. Which would be interesting to see as well. Their videos are a little all over the place with respect to the console, so it's hard to know what's up.

There are also some videos of them building out the studio itself. Control room, live room, ISO booth, and machine room.

I am interested in learning more about their 32 track DSD workstation though. Haven't seen them do much but talk about that.

 

[iampoor1]

Serious question, but I would be interested in seeing one of their videos that you say is good. Because everything I see is the proclamation of the word of Paul, and all of his minions just accept it as fact.

I think he has some good explanations of technical topics for non technical people


But I dont recommend people go watch his channel because of all the craziness mixed in. Too confusing without a doubt.

 

[Ricardus]

I just watched a video where he was playing tracks from a singer songwriter they had recorded. 3 tracks taken live. A room mic, a guitar mic, and a vocal mic.

He was giving a "lesson" on why consoles have polarity/phase buttons. So that when you have time arrival differences you can fix them by flipping that switch (as if every time arrival difference is exactly 180 degrees). So he flipped the vocal mic and the sound changed. I heard a fair amount more comb filtering than when the button was not flipped. Be he said the vocal sounded better.

Then he flipped the button on the guitar track and I heard even more comb filtering.

All in all I liked the sound of the recording with no phase buttons pressed.

But if he wasn't hearing that comb filtering I'm thinking maybe he shouldn't be producing music??

And why wasn't more time taken with mic placement? These are the details he claims they are going to get right at his label, so that they don't have to do much processing.

And in all your time sitting in front of a console, how often have any of you pressed the polarity/phase button to fix a problem?

 

[Ricardus]

I think he has some good explanations of technical topics for non technical people


But I dont recommend people go watch his channel because of all the craziness mixed in. Too confusing without a doubt.

Yeah, I've seen that one. When it's purely technical he does OK.

 

[Brian Roth]

I know a little bit about Octave Records, having worked with Gus Skinas a number of times,

Quoting from the website:

"Gus Skinas, our world-renowned mastering engineer, has hundreds of album credits and helped design the Sonoma DSD system."

https://www.discogs.com/artist/406473-Gus-Skinas
He's a great guy.

Bri

 

[pucho812]

Paul mcgowan, however you spell is last name, I think he makes a lot of those letters up. I also think he says a lot of things that are questionable. He once proclaimed he could hear the direction of the audio in a cable. almost everyone would call bullshit on that, I won't, I can't argue what he hears or doesn't hear even if I feel it is b.s.
proceed with caution. I wish them well in their venture, dsd has it's own pros and cons. I was involved with the mastering lab when doug sax was still around and was part of the sadie beta team. Doug did beta on all their dsd stuff. it had it's own set of challenges. Something as simple as a over meter did not exist in sony land. Lets not even get into the no plugin's or any real editing tools. The end result though did sound fantastic, the sacd. However there is a whole list why that never took off. I wish it would have.

 

[Brian Roth]

We ended up with two Sadie boxes along with all the other TML lathe gear. At one point when Gus was in town, we tried to get at least one working by swapping cards around, but both are still doorstops.

Bri

 

[Ricardus]

Gus's credentials speak for themselves. But if I were him I'd run for the hills. Paul routinely goes online and criticizes everyone's work, calling out albums by name. In a recent video he said Supertramp, Crime of the Century sounded like garbage. I'm sure Ken Scott feels differently.

I mean, he can do what he wants, but I would call that bad practice. Particularly when in one video Paul can't even hear comb filtering, and in most of his studio videos he sounds like an 8th grader BS'ing his way through a written question.

I learned early on how important bedside manner was in studio ownership. Alienating the community is not the way to do it.

 

[Gold]

They have an online magazine called Copper that's pretty good. I was interviewed in one of the articles.

https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/the-giants-of-tape-part-one/

 

[ruffrecords]

I think he has some good explanations of technical topics for non technical people


But I dont recommend people go watch his channel because of all the craziness mixed in. Too confusing without a doubt.

That video is so wrong in so many ways.

Cheers

ian

 

[Ricardus]

In his latest video the clown said Adele's latest record sounds "flat," and said they would do better at his studio, and invited Adele to record there.

Yeah, good luck with that.