DO NOT READ ME UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE NEXT TOPIC Pepsi Chall

[smash]

So...

On first listening I was actually surprised at how good the Pro Tools version sounded...

...but by the end of the song I could easily pick which mix was which...

There seemed to be much more depth and liquidity for lack of a better term in the cymbals in the SSL version.

... Wha'd y'all think?

[Chris H]

What do i think...... I haven't listened to the challenge but there has been a lot of discussion on the web about this topic, and to my mind there are reasons other than how it sounds that can be considered. General consensus seems to be that its the summing in the DAW that where the sound quality of the mix is degraded a bit. One thing that is said to really help is to track into the box at lower levels, sort of treating the occasional yellow meter as red or leaving 6 to 10 dB of headroom on each track. Differences would be more apparent depending on how the recordings were originally tracked...if there is a bit of dimension to the mix as opposed to a mix that is crowded or slammed.
I would rather see / hear a challenge between a pro tools internal bounce mix and a mix on an API console or similar