ALESIS EC-2 - Manual (Page 12)

EC-2 96kHz A/D/D/A upgrade • appendix A
A-10 EC-2 Manual
Extending the frequency range of
other studio equipment
Even though an ADAT HD24 equipped with the
EC-2 upgrade gives you the capability of recording
audio beyond 40 kHz, many other elements of your
studio may need to be upgraded to truly take
advantage of this capability. Most studio
equipment was designed to meet a 20-20 kHz spec,
not the 44 kHz range that the EC-2 can record.
Many devices treat anything above 20 kHz as
nothing more than noise and may have low-pass
filters that cut it off. To make truly wide-range
recordings, make sure that every component of the
signal chain is capable of ultra-wide response:
• Look for measurement microphones, usually
small-diaphragm condensers, with response
beyond 30 kHz. Most microphones are limited
to 20 kHz response.
• An ideal mic preamp for 96 kHz recording
should be flat to at least 70 kHz. Make sure the
microphone preamp does not have built-in low-
pass filters in an attempt to keep RF (radio
frequency) noise out of the circuitry. They still
need some filtering, but a well-designed
preamp filters out RF without filtering audio.
• Many mixing consoles also have internal
filtering to cut down on crosstalk, etc. These are
often critical to low noise operation, so in some
cases your best bet is to bypass the console
during tracking and save it for only the final
mix. Plug high-grade microphone preamps
directly into the balanced inputs of the
HD24/EC-2. Or, have your console custom-
modified to raise its low-pass point by someone
who understands the tradeoffs between noise,
stability, and frequency response.
• For listening to a high-sample-rate recording,
electrostatic headphones (e.g., Stax) or monitors
with electrostatic or ribbon tweeters are your
best bet. Most studio monitors don’t respond
well to frequencies above 25 kHz, if they
respond at all. A soft-dome tweeter trying to
reproduce 30-40 kHz often goes into irregular
modes that may, oddly, sound “good” to a
listener, but they’re not really playing back
what was recorded.
If you’ve done all the above, and confirmed your
studio’s capability of reproducing the full range of
frequencies the HD24/EC-2 can record, you now
have a truly state-of-the-art studio that’s capable of
mastering audiophile-quality DVDs and SACDs.
Though the extra octave of high end may not be
audible to the majority of listeners (or even to you,
especially if you’ve been listening to loud music for
too many years), you can be assured that what
you’re recording will stand the test of time, for all
listeners. Audio technology won’t get significantly
better than this.
Good luck and thank you for using the ADAT
HD24 with the EC-2 96 kHz Upgrade!