Weekly Q&A: Answers | Week of January 8, 2023

Clearing up Confusion on BACCH4Mac...

(Note: We got some strong reactions to Tom Martin’s recent review of the BACCH4Mac Stereo Purifier. You may want to watch that video or read that review if you haven’t, before reading what is below. The original review is here.)

Q: This whole notion of the right and wrong way to think about where performers are located seems quite insane to me. Oftentimes the vocalist isn’t to the left or right of the room. The vocalist is directly in front of the mic in a recording booth in Seattle. The guitarist is plugged directly into the mixing board and doesn’t “exist” anywhere. The only way BACCH would make any sense to use is if the recordings were specifically encoded to be decoded by this thing and if the recording engineers used it during their work…

-ECM

A: We think you put your finger on something Tom didn’t distinguish fully in his BACCH review: what many listeners would really enjoy about BACCH is that it creates a “sense” of space and performer placement that “seems” more real than conven…