Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Security at concerts here in Stockholm. Does it count?
We noted from last week's results that many of you do play instruments for fun and fortune. But several of you wondered why there were no categories for sound engineers, audio manufacturers, etc.
From my experience, those who listen to music just for fun seem to get the most enjoyment out of it. I have noticed many audio store-owners and salesmen have sold off their personal stereos and do not listen to music at home. And the professional recording engineers pick apart the mix by habit, instead of just enjoying the song. My opinion: keep it a hobby if you can.
It was only after starting to hang around recording studios and doing some engineering myself that I realized how amazing it is when an engineer can really make it work and sound natural AND have it be marketable to the masses. It's a wonder that anyone manages at all.
As an acoustician, I am consistently amazed at the disregard for acoustics in audio. This oversight is not limited to consumer audio, but pro (i.e., recording and live venues) as well. The mentality seems to be to buy another black box, interconnect, cartridge . . . This is in lieu of addressing the ultimate interconnect, the room/ear interface. Go figure.
Although my day job is in telecommunications, I do write "The Vinyl Anachronist" column for the e-zine Perfect Sound Forever. I'm sort of a bastard son of Michael Fremer, attempting to convince a non-audiophile audience that LPs still sound better than CDs.
Well . . . no, but formerly for a very brief time, Yes. When I was a student working on my computer science degree, I had a summer job that involved producing and recording soundtracks in a studio. Now a work for the phone company and dream of building my own recording studio one day.
The High End cannot survive by cannibalization of music professionals. It needs the basic music lover who has an ordinary job (in my case, electrician). Therefore I am the backbone of the industry, and I expect them to damned well listen!!
At various times I have thought about a music-related job, but except for one week in record retail as a 20-year-old, I never have. My father---who also collected records, produced some concerts and wrote a little for Frets and, I think, Downbeat---never actually worked in the business. I have a brother who has been a professional rock'n'roll musician and now is back in college. It's a hard life. Instead, I & my brothers are all music lovers and collectors of recordings.
i get as involved as i can, with all aspects of music. i am trying to get the overall feel of music, from the concept all the way to the reproduction of that strainge abstract called music. no i dont make a living out of it. it is an all consuming thing tho. more satisfying than any drug you care to name. once you hear the fruits of all your emotion and skill.... it is anexperiance like no other.
Since the age of 17 I have sold electronics. I am 27 now and can confidently say that I have learned a lot in those years. I have learned to love music, which has inspired me to learn to play. For the last four years I have worked with one of Vancouver, BC's top specialty audio stores, Hi-Fi Centre, and in that time I have learned something so important I am surprised there isn't more emphasis on this point. We get more enjoyment from the products we prefer to listen to. Sounds obvious, but how often have we been told otherwise? The cult of personality pervading our industry is as dangerous to its future as products like Divx and the other profit-based technologies the big-box retailers promote.
Without getting too weird, I'd like to say that "fan/consumer" is a pretty lame designation for me and, I'm sure, many of your readers. Music is, yes, a business, and audio hardware is "stuff," but you could say the same about the art world, the study of philosophy and beauty, the objective search for truth, the pursuit of perfection in the material world, the practice of religious faith and worthwhile sex. I am a "fan" of Andy Rooney, and I "consume" hot dogs, but there is no awe, there is no magic. I feel differently about music.