In keeping with today’s theme, I’ve got some more posts from fellow bass bloggers to share with readers. Hellafrish author and Calgary Philharmonic bassist Matt Heller recently put up an interesting post titled Is it lies, or is it Memorex? (Matt refers to a recent article at SFGate.com: “MP3 music – it’s better than it sounds” by Joel Selvin, which he originally found through this Sounds & Fury post):
I suppose I’m a member of “the iPod generation” that writer refers to – especially since I transferred my entire CD collection onto a hard drive, just before moving up to Calgary. I had been pretty reticent to do this – my CDs have always been a major decorating feature, strewn all around my apartment. And I really do like to look at something while I’m listening to a CD, even if it’s just a note from the performer thanking his Mom.
It was liberating to leave all those boxes behind, though. And if my listening experiences have been lacking in cathartic magic lately, I figured it was mostly because I haven’t hooked up any good speakers yet. Well, maybe I need to rethink this – either send for those CDs I left at my parents’ house, or give up this wicked compromise we call recorded music altogether.
[…]
sic is a bit of a shell game to begin with, I suppose. We love to guess what’s coming, to make a deductive leap, and it’s almost more thrilling to find we’ve been mistaken than to have our guess confirmed. There’s an amazing deceptive cadence in the Bruckner 8 slow movement, and no matter how many times I hear it, it still gives me goosebumps. Though I haven’t listened to it yet in MP3 – I wonder if they compressed out all the goosebumps?
Read Matt’s complete post here.
Listeners definitely seem to be moving in opposing directions simultaneously, with audiophiles on one side (with their tens of thousands of dollars in gear inhabiting a perfectly laid out “listening chamber”) and iPod folks on another (with their chaep earbuds competing against the roar of the train and the din of the gym).
I am definitely on the iPod side of things, usually sacrificing pristine audio quality for the convenience of music (and podcasts!) anytime and anywhere. My lifestyle is simply not conducive to sitting at home and listening to music (although certainly wish that this were possible for me), and with my podcast I produce content intended to be consumed under similar non-ideal circumstances. I am always working in the world of compressed audio, shaky connections for interviews, cleaning up audio files as best as I can, and constantly balancing file size (easy accessibility) with audio fidelity.
Related Posts:
- Advice from Paul Ellison – Rice University double bass professor
- Matt Heller plays Bach Suite No. 1 Prelude
- Matt Heller’s Calgary Philharmonic audition story
- Matt Heller on Joshua Bell
- Matt Heller featured in New York Times
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I love a good audiophile setup, but the convenience of being able to listen to everything on my iPod with headphones anywhere means there is that much greater of a chance that I’ll actually listen to it.
An audio engineer friend of mine says that iPods are the cassette players of the 21st Century. Can’t say I disagree but it IS convenient to be able to carry all those tracks in one’s pocket. Can you say “compromise”?
I don’t think anyone is seriously considering giving up recordings – and with Jason’s podcast coming out each week, we all have a good reason to keep our iPods charged up. But it’s worth remembering that we sacrifice a great deal of quality for convenience. And unfortunately bass seems to suffer disproportionately on cheap speakers and headphones!