Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
It's extremely difficult to find good recordings nowadays on the artists one follows. Compression is a plague that is slowly killing the audio world.
Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound "atrocious . . . There
It depends on what you are listening to and the label. I have purchased some CDs from smaller labels that sound very, very good. And some from the big boys labels that do not sound good at all. Depending on what kind of music you like there is a lot more available than static. If it is today's AM/FM top 40 oriented towards the pre-teen and teen crowd what difference does quality make? Video killed the radio star...a prediction that turned out to be very, very true.
Of course, not all recordings sound like this, but Bob has been the noble bard of popular music for over 40 years now, so he certainly has the right to speak out about the quality of contemporary recordings. Neil Young is another artist who has been challenging the current state of recording for years now (at least since CD "quality" sound became good enough for all listeners). Music has been reduced to a commoditya compressed, limited-dynamic, commodity of ephemeral value.
I think Bob is right on target if he is referring to Rock. Many recordings are engineered to be loud! Because there is very little distinction of what used to be a dynamic range, I think the music does not have a long term emotional impact. It's great for about two weeks, probably because it does have some merit, but in a short time the thrill is gone. I think it is amazing when you have a band that thrives on power cords change it's format on unplugged versions. The unplugged versions of songs are more powerful 9 out of 10 times. There aren't many songs that are going to impact the world today as the ones that Bob and a lot of others recorded in the 60's & 70's. Bob isn't saying that the songs or bands aren't good. He is singling out the engineers, mixers, and producers and I think he raises some valid points.
I think the modern recordings do suck. But I am not sure I listen to old music or old recordings. However, modern studios do use too many audio channels and this does degrade fidelity. Of course, I like the sound of old analogue studio recordings, so I cant really say.
Recording technology has gotten so much better. There is so much more definition in today's recordings. Listen to the new Rx Bandits album ...And The Battle Begun. There are so many subtle sounds going on that you would not have been able to capture and reproduce in the old recordings.
Dynamic range has been killed. The CD promised increased dynamic range and modern engineers, at the behest of bands and producers, have squandered this advantage. We still get the A/D D/A artifacts, yet less pops, but on the whole I think we are behind where we were just prior to the launch of CDs. To be fair, vinyl was pretty cheap then too. As the playback equipment reaches ever higher levels, the media reaches ever lower lows.
Dylan is a little bit right and a little bit wrong. I do find great recordings from independent labels, but seldom from the majors. Perhaps he should think of moving from Sony, but that would be a severe pay cut and no number one CD.. Also, as an audio pro, I can