Neil Sounds Off on the Quality of Today's Recorded Music

[MylesBAstor]

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677694/sundance-film-festival-neil-young.jhtml

 

[jazdoc]

He's spot on!

 

[cjfrbw]

Sounds like a crabby old audiophile, he needs to come over here.

 

[MylesBAstor]

LOL....would love to meet him!

 

[Thomas.Dennehy]

This has to be one of the most widely circulated stories around. It's all over Twitter and discussed in virtually every audio forum on the planet.

I would never have pegged Neil Young as a math guy. But his "5% of the original" comment works out pretty closely if you the compare the bit rates of a 256K MP3 and 24/96 lossless.

 

[stellavox]

As I've mentioned before

For a really great look /commentary about the History of Recorded Sound, along with it's continuing "degradation" - suggest you read "Perfecting Sound Forever - an Aural History of Recorded Music", by Greg Milner. Just picked up two more copies for local tapesters - ($15 each)

I feel strongly enough about this to call it "REQUIRED READING". Then, let's talk!

Charles

 

[Thomas.Dennehy]

"Tapesters"?

I'm intrigued by a question in the Amazon summary of Milner -- "Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records?"

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I agree 100%.

 

[mep]

Neil has long spoken out about his dislike of early digital.

 

[RogerD]

Us old farts do remember how it use to be....and sadly the list get's longer every day.

 

[fas42]

"Tapesters"?

I'm intrigued by a question in the Amazon summary of Milner -- "Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records?"

Actually, today we are in the very best time ever; we have more ability than we ever had before to restore, manipulate and enhance, in a positive way, all the recorded material in our audio history. Therefore recordings should always be as faithful as possible, everything, but everything that occurred at the time of the musical event should be permanently captured -- the "improvements" can always be tacked on later as needed, as the fashions, etc, change ...

Frank

 

[MylesBAstor]

Actually, today we are in the very best time ever; we have have more ability than we ever had before to restore, manipulate and enhance, in a positive way, all the recorded material in our audio history. Therefore recordings should always be as faithful as possible, everything, but everything that occurred at the time of the musical event should be permanently captured -- the "improvements" can always be tacked on later as needed, as the fashions, etc, change ...

Frank

New is not necessarily better (see Coke).
Less is more.
KISS

 

[MylesBAstor]

Us old farts do remember how it use to be....and sadly the list get's longer every day.

You know the corollary. The most dangerous time for the use of nuclear weapons is when the generation that was alive when we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all die. No one will be alive who remembers the destructive power, devastation and death caused by what we now call a "tactical" battlefield nuclear weapons. Oh and btw, we still don't know to this day how powerful the bombs were. There were some errors in calculation and any numerical number has to be done with simulations.

Same goes for music

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Actually, today we are in the very best time ever; we have have more ability than we ever had before to restore, manipulate and enhance, in a positive way, all the recorded material in our audio history. Therefore recordings should always be as faithful as possible, everything, but everything that occurred at the time of the musical event should be permanently captured -- the "improvements" can always be tacked on later as needed, as the fashions, etc, change ...

Frank

We may have the ability, unfortunately most of it wasn't worth capturing to begin with.

 

[RogerD]

You know the corollary. The most dangerous time for the use of nuclear weapons is when the generation that was alive when we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all die. No one will be alive who remembers the destructive power, devastation and death caused by what we now call a "tactical" battlefield nuclear weapons. Oh and btw, we still don't know to this day how powerful the bombs were. There were some errors in calculation and any numerical number has to be done with simulations.

Same goes for music

As chilling as the movie "Fail-Safe" is it just doesn't cut it. I was at In and Out Burger for lunch today if that "meat" patty get's any thinner....the new better....give me a 1/2lb burger that you need a bib to eat it! But you can't buy one to save your arse!

 

[MylesBAstor]

As chilling as the movie "Fail-Safe" is it just doesn't cut it. I was at In and Out Burger for lunch today if that "meat" patty get's any thinner....the new better....give me a 1/2lb burger that you need a bib to eat it! But you can't buy one to save your arse!

1984-85

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0pb8QyB9iM

 

[fas42]

We may have the ability, unfortunately most of it wasn't worth capturing to begin with.

You've got to be kidding me!!! From someone who loves music as much as you obviously do ...

Frank

 

[fas42]

I was at In and Out Burger for lunch today if that "meat" patty get's any thinner....the new better....

Just like the new TV screens: turn them sideways and they become invisible!! Just like speakers in a good audio system ... :b:b

Frank

 

[FrantzM]

You know the corollary. The most dangerous time for the use of nuclear weapons is when the generation that was alive when we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all die. No one will be alive who remembers the destructive power, devastation and death caused by what we now call a "tactical" battlefield nuclear weapons. Oh and btw, we still don't know to this day how powerful the bombs were. There were some errors in calculation and any numerical number has to be done with simulations.

Same goes for music

let's agree not to go there. The comparison is not correct.

 

[Thomas.Dennehy]

Actually, today we are in the very best time ever; we have more ability than we ever had before to restore, manipulate and enhance, in a positive way, all the recorded material in our audio history. Therefore recordings should always be as faithful as possible, everything, but everything that occurred at the time of the musical event should be permanently captured -- the "improvements" can always be tacked on later as needed, as the fashions, etc, change ...

Frank

Frank said it perfectly. A recording captures the source material as understood by a particular set of equipment at a moment in time, and should strive to be true to the source. What images can be created from that recording are limited only by the tools and techniques available. Five years from now we'll all be amazed at what limited tools we had five years ago.

Hubble telescope collects high-resolution data. That's what space looks like. The dramatic images we all know are created later in the computer lab. They explain, but they don't document.


TGD