Elliot Scheiner Switches to ATC SCM-25A 3-Way Reference Active Monitors

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Some news from Record Producer, Recording Engineer and Surround Sound mixer Elliot Scheiner:

ATC_Elliot_Scheiner.jpg


Legendary Audio Engineer Elliot Scheiner Retires His NS-10 Monitors for ATC SCM-25A 3-Way Reference Active Monitors

For nearly half a century, Elliot Scheiner has been recording and mixing just about every musician and band of consequence, earning twenty-seven Grammy nominations and eight Grammy wins for his efforts. His wins include work with Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Derek & the Dominos, and Beyoncé; and his larger list of clients includes Toto, Paul Simon, BB King, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Sting, Faith Hill, Foo Fighters, and on and on.

In addition, Scheiner garnered two Emmy Awards and three TEC Award nominations. He is a TEC Hall of Fame inductee and holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, where he currently runs recording and mixing workshops. It was at Berklee that Scheiner fell in love with ATC’s revealing transparency, inspiring him to overcome a “superstitious” attachment to his NS-10s in favor of ATC SCM25A Pro three-way monitors.

Scheiner heard ATCs over a decade ago and thought they sounded “incredible,” but that experience didn’t move him to make the jump. “You can get yourself to a place where you’re superstitious about the tools that brought you to that place,” he explained. “I used NS-10s for most of my life.” Given his unambiguous success, it seemed like an open-and-shut case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’

It was only after Scheiner repeatedly got in front of ATCs to do workshops at Berklee that the practical benefits of their “incredible” sound became apparent. “Every one of the rooms at Berklee has ATC monitors,” he said. “I fell in love with them. The ATCs gave me an honest representation of what I was recording and mixing. At the end of the day, I would bring the work home to my NS-10s to finish, but there was nothing left to do! The decisions I made with the ATCs stuck.” He views the difference between working on the ATCs and the NS-10s not as working faster, but rather working with less effort. “Ears are a funny thing,” he mused. “I could try to throw some facts at you about why I like the ATCs so much, but in the end it’s just that I hear what I want to hear on the ATCs. With other speakers, I know what I want but I have to go out and get it. The ATCs just give it to me.”

Since he first got the ATC SCM25As a few months ago, Scheiner has completed work on forthcoming releases by jazz musicians Kandace Springs and New York Voices.

http://atcloudspeakers.co.uk/2019/0...-for-atc-scm25a-three-way-reference-monitors/
 
Some news from Record Producer, Recording Engineer and Surround Sound mixer Elliot Scheiner:

ATC_Elliot_Scheiner.jpg




http://atcloudspeakers.co.uk/2019/0...-for-atc-scm25a-three-way-reference-monitors/

I often wonder how much the monitors used in mixing contribute to what we get as a final product. I know for a fact that older systems used NPE (non-polarized electrolytic) capacitors which detriorate over time and can make a system sound dull. Can this problem cause a mixing engineer to produce a recording that sounds too hot over newer speaker systems?

In Scheiner's case, I've always found his mixes to be very well balanced tonally. So I have tremendous confidence in his choice of monitors...the "old" NS10 or the ATC.
 
For $7-8 grand a pair, they better sound righteous🤩. Didn’t I read somewhere that he has several MC SDs in the can ready to go - YEARS AGO - WTF (Not his fault - but I’m still 🤤 with anticipation)

Scheiner said in a 2006 interview that just one--Pretzel Logic--was finished. The others probably were never started. In 2004, Universal tantalizingly promised the first five albums (on the forthcoming SACD releases page of its website--you could probably still find it on the Wayback Machine). After a couple of months, the release date was pushed back, then pushed back again--and finally the whole program was cancelled.
 
Scheiner said in a 2006 interview that just one--Pretzel Logic--was finished. The others probably were never started.

I'd add that in 2005, he stated that several of the albums (Thrill, Countdown, Aja) have multitrack-related issues. They actually tried to remix Aja into 5.1 twice, first as a DTS-CD in the '90s then again as an SACD in the early 2000s. The tapes for "Black Cow" and "Aja" were missing both times.

It's a shame, but I suppose we should be happy that we've got quite a few surround releases from SD and Fagen, even if it's not the classic stuff.

Getting back to the thread, it's great to see Elliot still at work. I still have the GnR 5.1 in heavy rotation :)
 
I often wonder how much the monitors used in mixing contribute to what we get as a final product. I know for a fact that older systems used NPE (non-polarized electrolytic) capacitors which detriorate over time and can make a system sound dull. Can this problem cause a mixing engineer to produce a recording that sounds too hot over newer speaker systems?

In Scheiner's case, I've always found his mixes to be very well balanced tonally. So I have tremendous confidence in his choice of monitors...the "old" NS10 or the ATC.

7-ATC-CDA2-Mk-II-Player-Preamp-DAC-with-SE50-Speakers.jpg


I haven't heard the ATC SCM 25A active monitors but I have listened to the flagship ATC SCM 50 Special Edition active monitors.
They are amazing. Easily among the best speakers I have ever listened to. They received one of my Writer's Choice Awards at Positive Feedback for 2018.

Like Merging Technologies, ATC (Acoustic Transducer Company) got its start in the pro audio market. The company was founded in the UK by speaker designer and musician Billy Woodman. At ATC his first product was the ATC SCM50 loudspeaker with its now famous 3.5" mid-dome driver. After becoming a great success with their studio monitor speakers in the pro audio market, ATC created speakers in more richly appointed cabinets for the home audio market.

ATC is a strong believer in Active Speakers that feature built in amps (although they also offer passive editions of their speaker line). Something we rarely see in the high-end home audio market. They feel that the active speaker approach lets ATC have full control over the crossover, amplification and electronics of the speaker. Resulting in better imaging, phase accuracy and eliminating issues with impedance loads presented by speaker cabling.

At RMAF, ATC demonstrated a new version of their CDA CD Preamp and DAC ($4,249). The CDA2 Mk 2 CD Preamp now features Stereo DSD playback up to DSD 256. At the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, the new CDA2 was connected to a pair of the Special Edition ATC SCM50SE powered speakers ($65,999/pair) and was playing music from CDs and music files via a Mac laptop running JRiver Media Center.

Selections included music from a CD as well as music downloads from Shelby Lynne's album Just A Little Lovin' and finally an Analog to DSD 128 music download from the Native DSD Music store featuring 2xHD-Storyville Records with Jazz Saxophone Legend Ben Webster's album Gentle Ben. The sound from this system was easily among the best heard at the 2018 RMAF show. Detailed, smooth, warm and very musical. Music that you could listen to for hours at a time. This setup is on my 2018 Writer's Choice Award list—and for good reason.

https://positive-feedback.com/show-reports/a-return-to-denver-rmaf/
 
For $7-8 grand a pair, they better sound righteous🤩. Didn’t I read somewhere that he has several MC SDs in the can ready to go - YEARS AGO - WTF (Not his fault - but I’m still 🤤 with anticipation)


In trying to find specs on these speakers found a more reasonable price point, but still not in my range. These are used in most of the top studios today so Scheiner may be correct in changing to these.

Would be great to hear these, not sure what their return policy is and if you could even convince them to send you a pair (to sample). Break in period may not be within return timeframe with possible restocking fees your probable cost. Send them back and wait for an open box price 😁😊 for an even better option.

https://westlakepro.com/product/atc-scm25a-pro/
 
The NS-10s are notoriously bad speakers.

This article says that people either loved them or hated them:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-ns10-story#para7
I've never heard the Yamaha NS-10...or most other speaker systems for that matter. It's interesting that whatever Scheiner engineered via those speakers sound so great given that so many thought they were so bad.

Geez, I think I'll just stick with what I have. No one who has ever heard my ancient, reworked AR behemoths has said anything bad about them. A couple of people have noted that I could find better speakers but I'd need to spend oodles of cash.
 
In trying to find specs on these speakers found a more reasonable price point, but still not in my range. These are used in most of the top studios today so Scheiner may be correct in changing to these.

Would be great to hear these, not sure what their return policy is and if you could even convince them to send you a pair (to sample). Break in period may not be within return timeframe with possible restocking fees your probable cost. Send them back and wait for an open box price 😁😊 for an even better option.

https://westlakepro.com/product/atc-scm25a-pro/

Probably easier for Scheiner to make the switch as I doubt he paid for his pair. :LOL:
 
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