SUBMAN1
01-26-06, 10:39 PM
I'm listening to the first pure digital recording ever (Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms, sampled at 48 thousand samples a sec, with 65,535 levels of volume per track, but downsampled to CD's 44.1 khz legacy standard) and on to James Laid (Anyone remember this one?), and will be moving on to some more modern Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains Passing by (trust me, I don't expect anyone to know who that is!).
Anyway - The point - It has occured to me that part of the music industry's woes as of late happen to be that they are not only releasing sub par music (managed crap is a better word based on what some manager thinks will sell over what the artist is trying to project), but that maybe another reason that people aren't enjoying music as much as they should is that the sound quality just plain out sucks (to put it bluntly)? All the pirate music BS that they talk about is just that, 'BS'. I have yet not to buy a music CD of some form of music that I like from music that I have downloaded. I mean, who can stand an MP3 quality wise? Can someone let me know if I am the only one that feels this way? Every song that I have liked ever that I have downloaded off the net and a CD exists for, I have always bought the CD for the better quality over an MP3. This turns out to be an 'increase' in sales for the music industry from my perspective since I would never have bought this stuff if I didn't 'hear' it first from an online source. Anyway, the easy blame for this is to blame it on some 'other' reason such as music pirates and redirect the stockholders attention from the real reason - they are making pure crap!!!
Still, the CD itself is rather lacking in music quality however due to its 44.1K samples a second. Only the older analog stuff is of any worth since there was 'no' limitation to the samples ubtained persay, but a limitation to the size of the recording medium like tape width. Of course, i understand that it is harder to splice tape over working with it digitally (The true reason that digital exists since analog is far superior in ever other respect except hiss - but hiss is tolerable and desired in trade for the improved sound quality that analog provides). We live in an analog world so get used to it. Digital only exits for no other reason in that it is an easier format to work with, but usually lacks in quality over an analog source in some form or fasion - it is either on or off - no in between since analog can be a pure waveform with no loss. This makes me cringe upon seeing any CD's of old analog stuff in a CD store that has the words "Digitally Remastered" which really means to the consumer as "It has worse sound than the original, but it was easier for us (the producers) to work with it".
Anyway, I picked up a Rotel RDV-1060 DVD player not too long ago with DVD-Audio capabilities (Not to be confused with 'dts') and once again I am enjoying my music, especially some older recordings before Digital, like Fleetwood Mac's Rumors, and with its 96 thousand samples a second and over 16 million levels of volume, it is like playing a game in 65K colors with all the dithering vs. playing a game in flawless 16 mill colors. It is completely night and day. Unfortunately I picked up Dire Straits too, but this is limited to 48 khz due to the digital revolution at the time it was recorded. I do have the Eagles Hotel California (The only good song on the entire DVD-A - can I return the DVD-A and pick up the DV-A single of this?) and it is recorded on the DVD-A at 192 Khz, 24 bit. It's perfect to the point where if I close my eyes, I can tell you where the guy is hitting the drums in my room and where each person is standing as if I have a private concert! Of course, i have a few dollars into my music stereo, and I am paranoid of my wife purchasing a dolly since I am conviced that the only reason I still have my speakers is that they weigh in at almost 200 pounds each! If they were less, my wife would have found a way to get rid of them ages ago!
Anyway (back to the point), I am starting to see the more modern recordings ditch the 48 khz limitation (legacy standard) and I just hope the music industry continues on this approach. To me, it never has been an issue of piracy, but more of the crap that they are putting out. If you live in the US, you almost have no exposure to European music (No more Pink Floyd's, etc) because only 1 company own almost all radio stations in the US (almost 90% of them) and they take payouts from US record companies to play a small selection of crap (over and over) so that it can sell in US markets. This is what we would call a monopoly in the US, and it affecting our ability to experience 'other' music from 'other' places like Europe. I don't doubt however that these same record companies are trying to push our same crap down the European throats either, just that I never picked up the issue with any of my European friends. I suspect they are.
Anyway, now that I am completely off on a tangent and I don't really want to catch up to Skybirds word count, I am sugning off on this issue till have more thoughts to add.
-S
Anyway - The point - It has occured to me that part of the music industry's woes as of late happen to be that they are not only releasing sub par music (managed crap is a better word based on what some manager thinks will sell over what the artist is trying to project), but that maybe another reason that people aren't enjoying music as much as they should is that the sound quality just plain out sucks (to put it bluntly)? All the pirate music BS that they talk about is just that, 'BS'. I have yet not to buy a music CD of some form of music that I like from music that I have downloaded. I mean, who can stand an MP3 quality wise? Can someone let me know if I am the only one that feels this way? Every song that I have liked ever that I have downloaded off the net and a CD exists for, I have always bought the CD for the better quality over an MP3. This turns out to be an 'increase' in sales for the music industry from my perspective since I would never have bought this stuff if I didn't 'hear' it first from an online source. Anyway, the easy blame for this is to blame it on some 'other' reason such as music pirates and redirect the stockholders attention from the real reason - they are making pure crap!!!
Still, the CD itself is rather lacking in music quality however due to its 44.1K samples a second. Only the older analog stuff is of any worth since there was 'no' limitation to the samples ubtained persay, but a limitation to the size of the recording medium like tape width. Of course, i understand that it is harder to splice tape over working with it digitally (The true reason that digital exists since analog is far superior in ever other respect except hiss - but hiss is tolerable and desired in trade for the improved sound quality that analog provides). We live in an analog world so get used to it. Digital only exits for no other reason in that it is an easier format to work with, but usually lacks in quality over an analog source in some form or fasion - it is either on or off - no in between since analog can be a pure waveform with no loss. This makes me cringe upon seeing any CD's of old analog stuff in a CD store that has the words "Digitally Remastered" which really means to the consumer as "It has worse sound than the original, but it was easier for us (the producers) to work with it".
Anyway, I picked up a Rotel RDV-1060 DVD player not too long ago with DVD-Audio capabilities (Not to be confused with 'dts') and once again I am enjoying my music, especially some older recordings before Digital, like Fleetwood Mac's Rumors, and with its 96 thousand samples a second and over 16 million levels of volume, it is like playing a game in 65K colors with all the dithering vs. playing a game in flawless 16 mill colors. It is completely night and day. Unfortunately I picked up Dire Straits too, but this is limited to 48 khz due to the digital revolution at the time it was recorded. I do have the Eagles Hotel California (The only good song on the entire DVD-A - can I return the DVD-A and pick up the DV-A single of this?) and it is recorded on the DVD-A at 192 Khz, 24 bit. It's perfect to the point where if I close my eyes, I can tell you where the guy is hitting the drums in my room and where each person is standing as if I have a private concert! Of course, i have a few dollars into my music stereo, and I am paranoid of my wife purchasing a dolly since I am conviced that the only reason I still have my speakers is that they weigh in at almost 200 pounds each! If they were less, my wife would have found a way to get rid of them ages ago!
Anyway (back to the point), I am starting to see the more modern recordings ditch the 48 khz limitation (legacy standard) and I just hope the music industry continues on this approach. To me, it never has been an issue of piracy, but more of the crap that they are putting out. If you live in the US, you almost have no exposure to European music (No more Pink Floyd's, etc) because only 1 company own almost all radio stations in the US (almost 90% of them) and they take payouts from US record companies to play a small selection of crap (over and over) so that it can sell in US markets. This is what we would call a monopoly in the US, and it affecting our ability to experience 'other' music from 'other' places like Europe. I don't doubt however that these same record companies are trying to push our same crap down the European throats either, just that I never picked up the issue with any of my European friends. I suspect they are.
Anyway, now that I am completely off on a tangent and I don't really want to catch up to Skybirds word count, I am sugning off on this issue till have more thoughts to add.
-S