Music is not dead… At least to me
Today I read an interesting article (and Gizmodo’s take on it) detailing an interesting audio study. Apparently, a music professor at Stanford conducted a study with the aim of determining students’ tastes in music compression methods. Long story short, the students preferred the compression of MP3s (particularly rock at 128 kbps) to to higher quality codecs or uncompressed songs. Gizmodo humorously jabs that young people have “utterly destroyed music.”
Maybe it’s a perfect storm of digital audio compression, the loudness war, and the portable music set of generations? Think about it. In under a century’s time (don’t check the dates on this, I’m just thinking mainstream inventions, widespread acceptance, etc.), we’ve gone from music being exclusively live or performed, to being readily and cheaply available, at whatever volume we like at whatever quantity we like. That boils down to badly mastered, badly compressed music being piped into tinnitus wracked ears on crappy iPod earbuds. For hours a day. I guess it’s better than radio quality.
As a race, maybe we’ve become desensitized to music, leaving us wanting it louder, quicker, more convenient… but not caring about the quality?
I hate to think that that’s true.
CMOY Headphone amp, Grado SR-80s, iAudio X5
My setup doesn’t look the prettiest, nor is it the most high end, but I can hear flautists inhale, and I can tell that the clipping on certain NIN tracks is on purpose. I end up listening to Happy Hardcore and Industrial on it most of the time, ironically.
I know a few audiophiles of my generation that indulge in noise-canceling headphones (particularly the Audio-Technica variety), high quality surround sound systems, FLAC encoded albums, mild flirtations with vinyl (I have a couple of my favorite trance tracks), not to mention my whole involvement with non-mainstream MP3 players. I remember a certain back and forth I had with Klipsch over their 4.1 Promedia speaker set, the subsequent upgrading of my pre-amp, and my eventual surrender to getting a set of Logitech Z-540s.
Are we special or elitist? I wouldn’t say so, wanting good quality music is something that’s just a higher priority to us. Or maybe the rest of my friends are just as finnicky as I am about good sound. What I do know is that we clearly aren’t the majority (at least according to the Stanford study), and this is disheartening. I haven’t seen an MP3 player as suited to my needs since the Rio Karma as my current iAudio X5, and that’s almost 3 years old now (two new batteries later… Thanks for soldering that, Chris!). Maybe that’s because the public just doesn’t care about audiophile sound, and the audiophiles will find their own ways to get by. Oh well.
At least I can tell the difference between a 128 kbps, 256kbps, and uncompressed file… Most of the time.
The Loudness Wars and Dynamic Range
Ever wonder why popular music CDs have no trouble piping out of your stereo/iPod, but when you watch movies you really have to crank your system to hear the quiet parts (not to mention that you get blown away by loud parts)? Well, it has to do with something called dynamic range compression. In a nutshell, if you were to apply this technique to an audio clip of someone whispering quietly and screaming their head off, you’d have most of the qualities and textures of the sound preserved, but the two voices would sound close in volume and power. Conversely, that DVD you’re watching is not as compressed, so whispers sound appropriately quiet, and explosions startlingly loud.
This concept has weighed heavily on the music/audio mastering industry, and more than a few voices have been heard arguing about it. I just stumbled on an interesting site, Turn Me Up! | Bringing Dynamics Back To Music, which details the “loudness wars” in published music and the like.
This video briefly explains the difference between a typical popular song published in 1989 and its theoretical counterpart published in 2006. What this video details is a difference in audio dynamic range, or essentially the range between quiet and loud within a recording. From what I’ve read and heard about the Loudness Wars over the last decade or so, music is being cranked up to the maximum (just shy of clipping) to get the biggest bang for the buck out of your stereo/headphones. On the surface, it seems to satisfy consumers and people seem to want it.
However, in this case (via Mastering Media Blog), Metallica has been accused of compressing the hell out of tracks in “Death Magnetic” and distorting them. Interestingly, the problem doesn’t show up in Guitar Hero 3. Ian Shepherd notes that blame most likely falls on “800 pound gorillas” of the recording industry, which isn’t much of a surprise. I don’t think Metallica appeals to the audiophile demographic anymore anyway.
I know when I balance audio, I typically push it to within a comfortable range as far as it will go before clipping. But I’m usually working with dialog with a musical bed and not the music itself… And it’s usually a corporate market that’s listening on tiny, tinny weak laptop speakers. Or so I’ve heard. Sometimes there are board room presentations and trade shows.
It makes you think, though. The industry seems to be struggling to strike a balance between what pleases the masses and what has integrity. I know that’s been argued about for decades in terms of what’s popular versus what’s worth listening to… But the fact that it gets down to an issue of how it was mastered is amazing to me. I guess having that “popular music sound” isn’t just an issue of beat, chord progressions, and subject matter, but which technician was in the studio?
Recession, Accidents, and Hope for the Future
Testing Caption
Re-Potting with Resources: What Would You Make?
This is an interesting article. The jist of it is that nothing in life is certain, and that concentrating on the possibility of what you really want is important. Which is why I’ve purchased this book. It’s always been a dream of mine to really be involved with the music that I love, but I wasn’t exactly sure how. I’ve figured out how to take it to the next level though: DJing. I make no presumption that it’s going to be easy or glamorous, but that’s not the point.
The simple truth of it is that I think the music I like just isn’t very common in circles around here. A few names dominating my play lists are Bonkers, Mind.In.A.Box, Iambia (thanks for the limited edition CD, Ben!)… Alternative electronica, UK Hardcore, and electronic body music. I’m not looking into this stuff because it’s not around here, either. I have a genuine love for this music that’s shared by a couple close friends… but it really doesn’t go any further than that in this country.
I also think that this love for music and active involvement with it ties closely to my love for storytelling and motionography. I can’t really look at something that’s well made or composed without thinking “damn, what’s stopping me from doing that?” Well, time to stop thinking that about music and motionography, at least.
But anyway, the point is that I have a fire in my belly when it comes to music and I’ve got to do something about it. Stay tuned for future developments.
Speaking of fire, there was a nasty accident on I-40 yesterday, and I passed it going to Chapel Hill. After cresting a hill and seeing a long line of traffic ahead, I knew there had to be a wreck or something. Leah then pointed out to me a huge column of smoke, and I noticed a fire truck and ambulance screaming up the road. Fast forward to driving past what looked like an accident (with firefighters scrambling, police milling about, and ambulances freshly gone) with a swath of fire on the side of the road and an overturned garbage hauling truck (not a collection truck, more like a freighter). I spotted a few hundred small fires smoldering on the side of the highway where it met the forest, and then the huge overturned truck full of garbage. A little bit up the road we spotted the tracks where it crossed the median before slamming into the embankment after going out of control through oncoming traffic lanes.
So in the midst of economic recession and the whole world acting crazy, something like a devastating five vehicle accident can bring things into sharp focus. At least we’re all alive to dream about what we want to do, and most of us are safe for the moment. Go think about what you’d do if you had the chance, and maybe fortune will force you to do it tomorrow (or later today).
8-Bit Nostalgia
Happy retro vector art!
I just stumbled on a band after Youtubing a new game on Steam, Audiosurf.
After listening to the tracks they have posted on their Myspace Page I’ve become a big fan. They’re mostly guitar accompaniment to a pre-written Nintendo synth track (from what I can tell), but the appeal is undeniable. A lot of bitpop bands that I’ve heard just seem to write normal music and filter it through the old-style instruments. Anamanaguchi really knows what made the old music special; they impart that certain simplicity and sincerity that was inherent to the old music, and a real sense of adventure. Their song “Helix Nebula” does an excellent job of this. The bouncy lead with its close harmony, with the thumping authentic Nintendo beat behind it drives the whole feeling of old-school Nintendo home.
Finding stuff like this makes me jones for the classic NES/SNES vs. Genesis days. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but games seemed simpler and better back then. Games actually needed merit to do well (although I know there were a fair share of big name flops that sold well), emphasizing solid control, replayability, and innovative system tricks (hell, SNES games were written in Assembly. That’s hardcore) that pushed the hardware to its limits. Plus, any modern RPG has yet to top Final Fantasy III (Japanese VI) or Chrono Trigger, even with their fancy polygons and DVD quality FMV.
If I hear one more person exalt Halo as an excellent game, I’m gonna send them a download link to Starsiege: Tribes, a game that’s better in every way (except graphics) and beat them to the punch by 3 years. Not that they’re qualified for direct comparison, but there are so many first person shooter games that wipe the floor with Halo several times over.