Matthew74
Stalwart
- Messages
- 597
- Reaction score
- 26
- Points
- 93
I love music. I didn't really pay too much attention to it until I started playing in middle school, and then I got to know it more through live music than recorded music. In college I used to just sit and play notes on the baby grand pianos to listen to the sound. I love the way playing in tune feels. I love a great recording. That's the half full part.
The half empty part is that music today sounds terrible! (I don't mean that all music in the whole world today is bad, I am generalizing.)
I have some pet peeves, like musicians using amplification when it's not necessary (try to find someone performing who's not using a mike), people playing too loud, and too much bass. At concerts things are usually so loud and have so much bass that you can't hear anything at all. I'm not talking just about rock concerts (which I don't go to because it TOO LOUD.) It's ubiquitous, sometimes even with classical or jazz. One other thing is that headphones sound terrible, they're all "bass boosting", or just plain hurt your ears. Of course all that says nothing about the volume when you go to the movies!
The reason I'm writing though, is that I got an iTunes gift card, and bought a bunch of 80s singles. There were usually 2 or 3 different "mixes" of the same recording. Almost without exception the "remastered" versions were terrible. They literally hurt my ears. You could hear some of the parts more distinctly, but there was just no blend. No dynamics. Too much bass, and the treble was piercing. So, I started googling. Apparently this is the "loudness wars", where record companies are boosting the volume levels in recordings to the point where the loudest sounds are clipped and the softest are boosted.
For example, I have a Tears for Fears CD from the early 90s. It sounds incredible. At one point I had a really good set of headphones, and I couldn't believe the stuff I heard. I have some James Taylor recordings, old and new, and they all sound incredible. You can hear all the parts, they are balanced, and the dynamics are great. I have some great jazz recordings like "Joe Henderson, Musings for Miles", or "Charlie Haden, Quartet West". They just sound good. With the tunes that I was listening to and downloading on iTunes I inevitably bought the older versions, because they didn't hurt my ears, they had dynamics, and I could hear the music.
Anyone feel the same way?
The half empty part is that music today sounds terrible! (I don't mean that all music in the whole world today is bad, I am generalizing.)
I have some pet peeves, like musicians using amplification when it's not necessary (try to find someone performing who's not using a mike), people playing too loud, and too much bass. At concerts things are usually so loud and have so much bass that you can't hear anything at all. I'm not talking just about rock concerts (which I don't go to because it TOO LOUD.) It's ubiquitous, sometimes even with classical or jazz. One other thing is that headphones sound terrible, they're all "bass boosting", or just plain hurt your ears. Of course all that says nothing about the volume when you go to the movies!
The reason I'm writing though, is that I got an iTunes gift card, and bought a bunch of 80s singles. There were usually 2 or 3 different "mixes" of the same recording. Almost without exception the "remastered" versions were terrible. They literally hurt my ears. You could hear some of the parts more distinctly, but there was just no blend. No dynamics. Too much bass, and the treble was piercing. So, I started googling. Apparently this is the "loudness wars", where record companies are boosting the volume levels in recordings to the point where the loudest sounds are clipped and the softest are boosted.
For example, I have a Tears for Fears CD from the early 90s. It sounds incredible. At one point I had a really good set of headphones, and I couldn't believe the stuff I heard. I have some James Taylor recordings, old and new, and they all sound incredible. You can hear all the parts, they are balanced, and the dynamics are great. I have some great jazz recordings like "Joe Henderson, Musings for Miles", or "Charlie Haden, Quartet West". They just sound good. With the tunes that I was listening to and downloading on iTunes I inevitably bought the older versions, because they didn't hurt my ears, they had dynamics, and I could hear the music.
Anyone feel the same way?