[BC] Cascading Algorithms

[cldube]

Message: 24
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 07:01:12 -0700
From: Kevin Tekel <amstereoexp at yahoo.com>
Subject: [BC] Cascading Algorithms
To: broadcast at radiolists.net
Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20060703070057.02c8efb0 at oldradio.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Kevin wrote-
"With all this in mind, however, it's no wonder that quite a few youngsters
have taken up the once-nearly-lost art of vinyl.  Why?  Typical answers
are "rock music was better back then", "LPs have more dynamics", and "I
can get a whole record album, with really cool artwork and a dozen songs
on it, for the same price as downloading only one song onto my iPod".

The sad thing is that it isn't intrinsically that LP's sound better that CDs 
to *most* of these people, it's that
CDs are mastered to sound this way, which audiophiles consider horrendous as 
we know. If you visit some of the
professional engineering lists, you'll find many recording and mastering 
folks lamenting this. They are *acutely* aware of what
they are asked to produce, but the labels want a product from them and they 
want it a certain way. Squashed and loud.
They have to give their clients what is asked of them or the labels go 
elsewhere.

On th other hand, say we have a crowd of people before us.... "Ok- those of 
you who sit at home, carefully positioned in the sweet spot listening to 
your carefully positioned Vandersteens fed by Kimber Cable, raise your 
hands. That's one.... two.... good.

Now, those of you who listen to music primarily while you are working out, 
jogging, in the car stuck in traffic with the windows open, operating a 
chain saw yada, yada, yada, ..... raise your hands...................." .

I think the majority of people really don't care that much. In my years of 
working at commercial stations I never had anyone comment to me that the 
station/music didn't sound good. Not once. They may not have liked the 
playlist, but it all sounded "fine" to them. It had bass, it had treble, it 
was stereo- all's well. Now in public radio it's a little different (thank 
God), but that's another story.

I'm no advocate for bad music or bad recording techniques. I find it sad 
that so many performances are poorly mastered to suit sales figures rather 
than artistic merit and therefore will be relegated to sounding like that 
for eternity (unless someone in 30 years finds a fortunately preserved 
multitrack digital file and can remaster the session more artistically).
We certainly have more options these days to capture, modify, store and 
playback sound than ever before. And we have access to more music, from 
Edison cylinders being archived on the internet, to classic Atlantic Jazz 
recordings of Tom Dowd remastered for CD, to basement tapes of the Buzzcocks 
in mp3, than ever before. It's pretty exciting.
Vinyl isn't dead but it's certainly a niche market. Hopefully the fetish for 
compression will subside soon as the labels realize that square waves aren't 
always the best business model. In the meantime, buy the recordings that 
sound good. It can be your own little political statement; supporting the 
good guys :)

Chuck Dube
WFCR Amherst MA