Two responses:
1. I rarely deal with such small changes, so this is an extreme example.
2. The real life example came from a mastering session where I was the mix engineer, not the mastering one. In a discussion between the artist and the mastering guy, she asked for a change, he made one, she said "Great! Much better. how much did you change it?" He said, "One tenth of a dB." Incredulous, she asked him to toggle it back and forth, and the change was real. I think it was EQ, low or high end response.
I was just the observer, but we could all distinguish the difference on his $6,000 Dunleavy speakers... I might not be able to hear that small a change on my humble Tannoys.
And it is not just software - a good pot can change minute levels, and always have been able to, though some high end controls use 1 dB steps...
Heck, I can totally not hear something if I am distracted - or if nearly asleep, a tiny, block away sound can wake me up. It is all so psychological!
<L> On Mar 25, 2006, at 9:58 AM, Marcos Sueiro wrote:
Lou,
Although I am glad we have software that can change levels by 0.1 dB, when I get into that kind of minutiae in a project it is usually a red flag for "you're losing perspective". For example, I wonder how much air temperature and humidity change levels (not to mention things like mood change the artistic impact of a recording). I'd daresay more than 0.1 dB.
One man's opinion.
Marcos
--On Tuesday, March 21, 2006 12:43 PM -0800 Lou Judson <loujudson@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks. I never said we *should* except when it counts. That's when great monitors make a difference!