ABSTRACT
There is an expansive range of accepted practices in audio engineering throughout the recording industry, and this highly subjective field is guided by individual taste and consumer expectation. In popular music production, for instance, one engineer might prefer a “bright” mix, while another might choose a “warmer” or darker presentation, and both approaches may be entirely valid. I like to draw on metaphors from the culinary discipline, as both audio recording and preparing food are executed “to taste”. For instance, what exact measure constitutes a bright mix? This is a subjective value, just as how salty or spicy is the stew? How much garlic is too much garlic, or how much reverb is too much reverb? My point here is not that garlic and reverb have much to do with each other, rather that these questions of preference in audio, like food, will yield a wide range of responses when presented to a large group of people.
