[BC] "Media Player" Sound Quality ?

[Rich Wood]

------ At 11:30 AM 9/9/2006, Ray Thomson wrote: -------

>Bob Dylan's recent comments regarding modern music sound  brought 
>to  mind the different sonic qualities of the various "media 
>players" out there. Here's Bob at his Best ? :
>
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1857099,00.html

 >"Referring to sound technology, Mike Howlett, who chairs the Music 
Producers Guild, said: "If there is a problem then it lies with the 
quality of the music; therefore Dylan seems to be confusing quality 
of performance with sound quality. The top end of digital equipment 
gives a highly accurate reproduction of the signal coming in, so it 
is neither helping nor hindering the sound." But he said the sound of 
analogue equipment gave "some interesting distortions", which lent 
music "a certain character"."<

I think Mr. Howlett is misunderstanding Bob Dylan's complaint. 
Dylan's complaint doesn't seem to be with digital audio. I read it as 
a complaint against heavy processing in the mastering process to make 
it loud. To me, that takes the musicality away. I studied piano 
privately at the New England Conservatory (can't play two notes that 
make sense now). I remember my teacher emphasizing the importance of 
dynamics and silence as critical parts of composition. Music 101.

The last sentence in the quote leads me to believe they aren't 
talking about musicianship, but technical quality. Several columns in 
Sound and Vision Magazine have covered the horrible loudness wars in 
the music business. In Broadcasting we carry it several steps further 
and, I believe, we'll do the same with IBUZ and its lack of 
preemphasis. For two reasons: we can and it'll be necessary to make 
the digital sound the same as the analog so mode switching won't be 
unbearably annoying. Seedy Quality dropping back to heavily processed 
analog is going to be a serious problem. I use Sound and Vision 
because it has more of a Joe Six-Pack approach than Absolute Sound 
and Sterophile

I'd love to have Dylan listen to IBUZ. With his ears, he'll hear all 
the artifacts piled on top of the processing. I propose that any 
claim of CD quality that doesn't meet the Red Book standard be 
translated as Seedy Qualty. That'll get us off the hook when we 
promote this deception on the air. It'll still be a problem in print. 
Of the manufacturers, Polk is the biggest offender, which is strange 
since their receiver with a CD player allows a direct comparison 
between Red Book CD quality and IBUZ Seedy Quality.

Personally, I believe part of our problem is the crud being released 
as contemporary music. It seems the goal is to make everything sound 
like Heavy Metal. With the exception of formats that use music from 
past decades we're stuck with bad quality even before we damage it 
further. It's also safe (nearly guaranteed to sell - multi-hit 
artists). Same ol, same ol.

It would seem to me that an artist of Dylan's stature should be able 
to demand the kind of quality he seems to want. I wonder if he's just 
being cranky.

Rich