the importance of analog sound in prog

 

This was the scary part ... and Tom Dowd even mentions it and discusses the metal master ... but the fact that was scary was that the Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt Peppers and many other albums, were quite different and clear, compared to the American versions. I still have the DSOTM album I think ... and it is exactly the same as the "remastered" version, where you can see where the instruments were OBVIOUSLY tempered with SINCE!

...

Some weeks ago I bought a copy of Gentle Giant - In a Glass House on 180gm vinyl & it sounds nothing like my original U K. copy. Gone are  the spacial qualities, seperation & dynamic range of the original, it is a louder  & puchier, with the rythm section pushed so far forward in the mix & the rest of instuments so crouded, that I couldn't listen to it.. On examination, in small print on the back cover, I found the reason ''Re-Mastered from the Original1/4 inch tapes 2010".

...

Some weeks ago I bought a copy of Gentle Giant - In a Glass House on 180gm vinyl & it sounds nothing like my original U K. copy. Gone are  the spacial qualities, seperation & dynamic range of the original, it is a louder  & puchier, with the rythm section pushed so far forward in the mix & the rest of instuments so crouded, that I couldn't listen to it.. On examination, in small print on the back cover, I found the reason ''Re-Mastered from the Original1/4 inch tapes 2010".

 

Time for me to take a break from this site.....(at least from a posting position).

 

Have a great evening/day...

Is that a luxury? I grew up with Prog, I also grew up with the Beat explosion of the 60s and I grew up with synth pop of the 80s - I'm 55 and I'm still growing up. If just one artist is being innovative and creative in any given time period or any given era then surely that is enough, that is the real luxury, not the media you hear it on, but the artist that makes you sit up and listen.

 

Look back to 100-400 years ago and the literally thousands of classical composers that were producing scores and manuscripts for sonatas, concertos and symphonies that no one today will ever hear, even those like Louis Spohr who aren't part of the Now That's What I Call Classical Music #34 swathe of popular classics that passes for "Classical Music" now-a-days are reduced to being a side-note of passing interest to a select few. No one alive today had the "luxury" of growing up with that music, and since the only means of recording that music was by pen and ink, few will ever hear it. And it wasn't that much different 40 years ago when we had the "luxury" of only hearing the music that the likes of Tony Stratton Smith or Richard Branson decide we should hear and all those thousands of bands who failed to get a recording contract are now lost forever just because the music they were creating failed to impress one of maybe 100 people involved in signing bands to the few record labels that existed back then. And that was a crap situation regardless of how nostalgic you are or how darkly hued your rose-tinted spectacles are.

 

Now we get to hear everyone who ever made a noise that can be called music if we care to listen. That is the greatest luxury that digital recording can offer us - it removes the power from the record labels and the recording studios to dictate to us what we should listen to and what we can listen to. And only digital media can do this for us - sure a few people have the "luxury" of recording onto antique analogue equipment and then paying to have someone master that onto acetate for a limited production run of a few hundred vinyls, but for the rest of the aspiring musicians out there, (who are not as untalented or creatively vacuous as some would have us believe), digital recording, digital media and digital delivery/distribution has opened the magic box of earthly delights. And that is a luxury I will treasure for the rest of the time I spend on this planet growing up.