The excitement of last week’s cliffhanger continues:
So I sez to him, I sez, “how old are you?”.”65,” he sez, “It really started when I turned 60” sez he. He sez “I know some guys that have their entire back fused” (as we discussed our surgeries and medical issues we never thought we would have when we were younger). So he sez “It’s just gonna get worse”. I thought to myself it ain’t gonna get any better. It should be a fun song anyway…
Well, let’s talk about this music nowadays. I need to vent some more after last week. Ok, so mp3s are about as good as an 8track cartridge back in the 70s, then listen thru a goddam telephone and what do you get? Another day older with shitty sounding music, as bad or worse than the 1960s transistor radios. Does anyone care about sound quality anymore? On top of that, you might be listening on line with streaming issues. The technology will get better and should improve with time though…
In the 1990s digital recording and CDs were state of the art and finally became affordable to almost anyone. Now recording gear that used to cost 2,000,000 cost 2,000 dollars. Some of the older engineers who had worked years for the privilege of operating the expensive recording equipment aren’t happy with what they hear, their main gripe seems to be what they refer to as “over use of compression”. I won’t go into a definition of this, if you are interested there are plenty internet articles that explain it. Well, they say it ruins the dynamics of the music and causes ear fatigue. I say dynamics are created by musical tension and release, not necessarily just a difference between quiet or loud. Anyhoo, I get irritated when I watch a movie with everyone speaking in whispers, (how dramatic), and then a big explosion, I don’t want those kind of dynamics. Then I have to ride the remote to turn up the volume for the whispers and turn it down for the explosions.
When I listen to the classic recordings from the 50s and 60s, they used tons of breathing compression all the time, especially when compressed for radio transmission, of course, the tube compressors back then were really great sounding.
On my “Welcome To Earth” album I remastered the songs for streaming, (mp3s are required by download music sites), with a little less compression, which helps, but full CD quality smokes an mp3 anytime.
On another note, it looks like “House of Durantula Studios” is moving to St. Pete Beach, Florida in the coming months!! Stay tuned for further developments!