[Jenn]

From The Rolling Stone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...f_high_fidelit
y

Thoughts?

[George M. Middius]

Jenn said:

From The Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity
Thoughts?

Compressing of dynamic range... check
Louder, louder, louder... check
Catering to MP3 devices, computer speakers, and IPOD-type gear... check

Here's one claim I didn't follow:

"Computer programs like Pro Tools ... make musicians sound unnaturally
perfect."

How is this a new phenomenon? Before PC-based mastering, didn't studio
goons mix and match the final recording from several different attempts?


Also, the reporter interviewed David Bendeth, who "works with rock bands
like Hawthorne Heights". That's not the band to hold up as a benchmark of
subtle intonations. They are loud, strident, and cacophonous.

Donald Fagen, producer and Steely Dan frontman, gives a nod to the inroads
made by audio 'borgism: "We're conforming to the way machines play music.
It's robots' choice. It used to be ladies' choice — now it's robots'
choice." Pretty grim.

[George M. Middius]

Herbert Viola said:

I don't understand why the music industry doesn't offer multiple
versions of the same song.

Cost.

[Jenn]

In article ,
Herbert Viola wrote:

In article

om,
Jenn wrote:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...f_high_fidelit
y

from the article:

"David Bendeth, a producer who works with rock bands like Hawthorne
Heights and Paramore, knows that the albums he makes are often played
through tiny computer speakers by fans who are busy surfing the
Internet. So he's not surprised when record labels ask the mastering
engineers who work on his CDs to crank up the sound levels so high that
even the soft parts sound loud."

I don't understand why the music industry doesn't offer multiple
versions of the same song. There would be more than enough room for this
on DVDs and the mass market has moved to using DVD players as the
preffered music source over dedicate CD players. It wouldn't take that
much trouble to offer small speaker and large speaker versions on a DVD,
or to offer multiple takes of the same song. At some point in the '80s
the music industry abandoned creativity, both in the music and the
business side. Its hard to think of a more poorly run business with
crappier products.

I would think that the market dictates that sort of thing. The record
companies probably see difficulty in marketing the DVDs. I wonder what
percentage of consumers use DVD players to play their music.