A division of labour, skill, passion, and MUSIC

Was going to post some music but that may not happen. my comp is being a bitch!!! can’t even get firefox to load!!!

FUCK!!!

*Does quality matter?*

This will be short and somewhat philosophical but what is going to happen to music? What? Can anyone actually answer this? Or is this a question best left un-asked/un-answered? I ask only because the thought disturbs me quite a bit. Recording studios add better and and better hardware with ever increasing emphasis on sonic quality *and the ever elusive goal of finally sounding better then tape*. Yet more and more music is being played on worse and worse sounding systems! I don’t care what anyone says but the best ear buds in the world can NEVER EVER equal a quality home theater rig for music! “Well what about car systems? Some of those are nice”, well what about them? Poor listening environment with distractions, car noise, external noise, and usually a MASSIVE emphasis on as much BASS as possible…. I played a jazz album through a friends “killer” car stereo, and honestly my ipod with the “studio” quality isolation ear buds sounded 5 times better. I should state his car stereo is worth 150 times what i paid for my ear buds (look up the cost of studio or reference ear in ear buds and then think of what he paid *cough*). So cars and Mp3 players and terrible/cheap computer speakers plus streaming internet radio gives us an increasing, and some would say systemic, problem of lower and lower audio quality being used and distributed. The 21st century is the first time in human HISTORY where we have been willing (and without looking for a particular sonic entity, read electronica/punk/early black metal) to accept lower sonic quality. It’s also the first time since we began recording that it is acceptable to have lower and worse sound quality in a music device, and in fact we are willing to pay for it. Just look at the price for a portable cd player versus an ipod. And yes i will have some that say the sonic quality is just as good if not better with an ipod… Yeah well, how many people import at the highest possible settings for their ripping software??? Only music nerds/audiophiles that is who! Most people *see 98% of the purchasing public* would now how to change those settings let alone want to or know why they would want to!

Hmm quite the quandary the music world faces…… More and more studios are going the HD audio route and even looking at replacing pcm audio with 1bit audio, or at least pushing into 32bit, and 192KHz audio. There are companies looking at pushing the limits of PCM audio as far as it can go and to the highest quality ranges to the point where it sounds as good or better then tape (and finally take on the 1bit audio guys). 1bit audio is also referred to as DSD, for all those looking to see what i am talking about (it is the format used in SACD’s and said to be the actual digital equivalent to tape). Back on track here. So studios are going higher tech with greater audio quality and yet more and more of what we listen to is of a lower and lower audio quality. Something needs to give and I sure as hell hope that what gives is the acceptance of lower audio.

Well, what is every-ones thoughts? Or does no care and the consensus is to just shut up and enjoy the music and not give a damn about the quality of it?


YTTAM