Members philbo Posted October 7, 2007 Members Share Posted October 7, 2007 Now, that stuff is bizarre... It's like the illegitimate love child of Beavis and ET! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted October 7, 2007 Members Share Posted October 7, 2007 You know, that could be the very reason why contemporary pop/hip-hop tracks today lack hi-hats or cymbals...because such high-frequency timbres in the music would most likely reveal the shortcomings of MP3 encoding artifacts...so by eliminating those kinds of sounds from the tracking of the song itself, you are in effect tailoring the music to its intended medium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cry Logic Posted October 7, 2007 Members Share Posted October 7, 2007 I reckon the main reason people don't use cymbals in a lot of modern tracksis because they sound old and dated....& they've been way over used in other genres... The occasional cymbal crash does appear in many hip hop and dance tracks,but in general they are not overused in those genres like they are in rock & metal,where they are way over used...bash crash mish mash!!! Use 'em too much and they lose their relevance and effectiveness IMHO... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cry Logic Posted October 7, 2007 Members Share Posted October 7, 2007 wtf is that? how about something like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IISxLrH4tH8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cry Logic Posted October 7, 2007 Members Share Posted October 7, 2007 ... then again there are so many wonderful things out there, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KgjtSOgrtE&mode=related&search= The future is so happening everywhere except in the West, too bad for us.... (sigh)..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphajerk Posted October 7, 2007 Members Share Posted October 7, 2007 from across the other pong in japan... this is all played live. their CD/DVD import is amazing with teh DVD. great video on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8N0Cxhuz8&mode=related&search= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sabriel9v Posted October 9, 2007 Members Share Posted October 9, 2007 There are a lot of reasons why CDs aren't selling like they once did: Digital downloads, piracy, competing forms of entertainment, etc. But I wonder if any of you think that the sound quality itself is affecting sales. MP3s seem to be a major form of distribution, and while they sound "okay," they're not as much fun to listen to as a well-mastered CD (assuming you can find such a thing these days, of course). As for CDs, well, the overcompression thing has gotten out of hand.Do you think people care? Do they consciously say "This doesn't sound very good" and move on? Or do you think it's more of a subconscious thing? Or do you think most listeners aren't sophisticated enough to tell the difference anyway? Just wondering... 1) I think some people do care2) No, I don't think enough listeners are sophisticated enough to understand that sound quality diminishes from a .wav file to mp3. Something just "seems off" to them. Especially if they listen to the radio all day. 3) Ideally...should sound quality drastically affect CD sales. I hope not. I think if an artist is good enough and listeners really care, they will buy the album regardless of the sound quality heard on mp3 snippets. They might want a more professional sound quality after dishing out dollars for the cd, but I think the real container charge attached to the cd is the expectation that the cd will contain material that is somewhat professional and pristine sounding. If one can exceed that then lesser quality mp3 snippets should not harm them too much. As long as the final product is up to snuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jackcheez Posted October 9, 2007 Members Share Posted October 9, 2007 It is minority of the music buying public who are concerned about the sound quality of CDs. I see two big reasons for sagging sales. 1. There are few record stores any more. The only decent one with any selection in our region, Tower, closed up this year. Not everybody wants to buy their CDs on line. Industry wants us (the public) to do business on line a lot more than most of us want to do do business on line. 2. A decade of no emerging major trends in pop music. In the mid 90s, when I was endorsing for Fender, the entire industry from top to bottom was desperate to know what would be "the next big thing". Instead, pop music splintered into endless sub-genre minutia with nobody establishing a trend that would result in major sales across a demographic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 9, 2007 Members Share Posted October 9, 2007 I just smacked down about 6 quid for the new Radiohead album on their what-you-want-to-pay DL plan. I'm not a big RH fan, at all (it'll be my first of their albums) but I wanted to make a point that folks will pay for music if it's a reasonable price. That said, I heard a very convincing analysis by an economist that suggested RH will do very well with this, since, while they're not big sellers in the larger market, they have a very dedicated fan base -- AND that there will be a number of people like me "voting with their pocketbooks" for a more equitable music pricing future... BUT... this analyst said that after the novelty of RH's pay-what-you-want strategy wears off that folks will go back to trying to get whatever they can for free... It was kind of depressing. But I voted with my pocketbook, anyhow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 9, 2007 Members Share Posted October 9, 2007 It is minority of the music buying public who are concerned about the sound quality of CDs. I see two big reasons for sagging sales. 1. There are few record stores any more. The only decent one with any selection in our region, Tower, closed up this year. Not everybody wants to buy their CDs on line. Industry wants us (the public) to do business on line a lot more than most of us want to do do business on line. 2. A decade of no emerging major trends in pop music. In the mid 90s, when I was endorsing for Fender, the entire industry from top to bottom was desperate to know what would be "the next big thing". Instead, pop music splintered into endless sub-genre minutia with nobody establishing a trend that would establish major sales across a demographic. I think the section I bolded above cuts to the heart of the problem -- the industry was sitting around looking to the next guy to find and identify the next big thing... waiting to see how the sea changed. Everyone wanted/wants a sure thing in this new funding structure that has evolved in the era of "artist free-agentry." And faint heart ne'er won fair maiden's music expenditure budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HCarlH Posted October 9, 2007 Members Share Posted October 9, 2007 BUT... this analyst said that after the novelty of RH's pay-what-you-want strategy wears off that folks will go back to trying to get whatever they can for free...It was kind of depressing. But I voted with my pocketbook, anyhow... I totally agree with the analyst.FREE wins out over cool in the long run. And with the cost of living increasing (especially housing going through the roof the past decade), music sales will only get worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cry Logic Posted October 10, 2007 Members Share Posted October 10, 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS9J36D7KsE from across the other pong in japan... this is all played live. their CD/DVD import is amazing with teh DVD. great video on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8N0Cxhuz8&mode=related&search= Good stuff..... Those guys are clever.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 10, 2007 Members Share Posted October 10, 2007 Let me compare my latest three purchases... One -- CD release of the 70's cult classic Fearless by Family. (OK... it's a pretty small cult outside the UK and Europe, I think.) Two -- "Rehab," the single, by Amy Winehouse, a 256 kbps non-DRM'd MP3 bought via Amazon's new non-DRM Mp3 store. Three -- Radiohead's "In Rainbows" (160 kbps non-DRM'd Mp3). I listened to Fearless on CD and then immediately ripped it into high VBR mp3's. An early 70s album, it's very well recorded but doesn't have the exagerated high end of much of the intervening decades. Watching my players oscilloscope view, levels clearly take up the full bandwidth at their peak -- but leave a lot of air. It sounds great on the CD and it sounds damn fine on Mp3 (I'm listening now... cymbals sound like... cymbals... not trash can lids!) "Rehab" is a very infectious piece of music and I played it twice through when I first got it... but midway through the second listen, I could feel discomfort and listener fatigue from the overcompression. It was... uncomfortable. (I'm almost kind of glad I don't have the whole album because I think it might be fatiguing to listen to the whole thing.) In Rainbows mostly sounds pretty good. At its best, it sounds very good. But it is somewhat over compressed. Some of that is clearly "artistic" and done in the mix... there's overmodulation distortion on a few instrument tracks that's clearly intentional. But on some tracks the overall program limiting/buss compression is disconcerting, maybe a bit fatiguing at times. Not NEARLY as bad as most pop product these days. But it's a bit of an issue. The 160 kbps RH stuff, at its best, definitely sounds better than the 256 kbps Amy Winehouse track -- but, again, I think that can be attributed to mixing and mastering decisions. So... I would say, at least from some perspectives, the fault is not so much the limitations of the Mp3 format as the current practices in production and, you should pardon the expression, mastering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 12, 2007 Members Share Posted October 12, 2007 Is the limited vibe transference ratio of binary audio storage vs analog delivery methods affecting music sales and appeal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DVaz Posted October 14, 2007 Members Share Posted October 14, 2007 There is the fact that a cheap one-box stereo or basic PC sound system isnt transparent enough to fully show the differences between CD and and reasonable bit rate (>192, say) MP3. High end gear shows it up clear as day, but most people dont have it. Plus most people find it ridiculous to pay hundreds or thousands of pounds/dollars for a music system. Thats their choice, but it indicates a certain apathy toward sound quality from most casual listeners. Its not a big leap to say that the same apathy applies to source quality. On the topic of MP3 quality: I rip all my CDs to hard drive as 320Kbs and listen to them in winamp with an up-sampling plug in to extrapolate them to 24 bit 48k on an emu 1616M. I realise that this wont be a perfect extrapolation since its from a lossy source, but I cant hear a difference in quality between that and my CD players (technics SLPG409 and aiwa XC005). They sound different, but not better or worse. Speakers are Adam A7s and B&W DM602 S2s. Same story on HD25s, future sonics atrios and shure E4s. Not the greatest gear (and not the greatest ears listening to it), but a LOT better than I see in most people listening on, which means (IMO) that for most (consumer) stereos/PC sound systems MP3 quality probably sounds perfectly acceptable compared to CD (bare in mind that on most mini-system, which is what I see mostly being sold in currys and dixons, and in most homes, even a well mastered CD can sound like {censored}). Add to that the fact its mostly free and more convenient and theres no contest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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