Sometimes our reference standards change to such a degree they turn everything upside down.
Such is the case with the new Listening Lab music room we just built. So much better—and to such a degree better is this new reference room that it's time to reevaluate and readjust many standards and past decisions.
I'll give you an example. When we mix and then master an Octave recording, the decisions we make are based solely on listening. We start in the mixroom, get everything sounding spectacular, make a copy, head to the reference room and make final adjustments. Those adjusted masters then become an Octave record.
Going back and reviewing those decisions through the new lens of this extraordinary room changes many of the sonic decisions we would have made—to the point of working to figure out how to actually do the final mix in the new Listening Lab (more on that as we see the possibilities).
Or, take for example working on new product designs. Where in the old listening room we might have gone back and forth multiple times to make sure of what we're hearing, now it takes only seconds to hit you over the head with those differences.
I suppose a good way to put a label on it would be to suggest a magnitude expander. Or, using an analogy, it's like there was once Vaseline on the microscope's lens. Now it's as clear as a bell.
More updates as they progress.
