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The problem with the music

There are lots of people who frequent this site that have spent significant amounts of money to buy the gear that they use to reproduce their music. I would never suggest that you should not have done that, but I wonder if the music industry is not working against you, or at least, not with you.

For the most part studios are using expensive gear to record with, but is it really all that good? Do the people doing the recording have good systems that can reproduce soundstage, detail and all the other things that audiophiles desire, or do they even care about playback?

I know there are labels that are sympathetic to our obsessions, but does Sony/Columbia, Mercury, or RCA etc. give a rats #$%&@ about what we want?

Recordings (digital) have gotten a lot better since the garbage released in the mid 80's. Some of them are even listenable! BUT lots of people are spending lots of money to get great music when the studios don't seem that interested in doing good recordings. Mike Large, director of operations for Real Worl Studios said "The aim of the music is to connect with you on an emotional level; and I'd be prepared to bet that the system you have at home does that better than any of the systems we make records on."

Do recording engineers even care about relating the emotion of the music, or are they just concerned about the mechanics?

What do you think, and can/ should anything be done about it?
nrchy

Showing 4 responses by nrchy

nrchy's avatar
nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
Pabelson, which ones, since none or few of them seem to agree on how things should sound. There are some companies that continually put out quality recordings, others that consistantly put out poor quality recordings.

What am I not hearing that I should be hearing?

Which of these are doing it right. Or don't you really have anything to contribute to this discussion? How about the quote from a gentleman involved in the business? Doesn't he know anything either?
nrchy's avatar
nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
Cinematic_systems while I am not as smart as you, so I am incapable of putting together a quality system (appearantly only people with the same gear as you are capable of this, does this mean that all the other manufactureres should just go out of business?), you ignore the comments made by Mike Large. He is deeply involved in the process, but maybe he too doesn't know as much as you.

What level of system does a person have to own to be able to hear or comment on the quality of recordings? If I only have a boombox will that prevent me from hearing the difference between and good CD and a poorly recorded, mastered, or produced CD?
nrchy's avatar
nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
It's hard to type through the tears, the screen is all foggy.

Cinematic you still ignore the points of my post. "you ignore the comments made by Mike Large. He is deeply involved in the process, but maybe he too doesn't know as much as you?" and "What level of system does a person have to own to be able to hear or comment on the quality of recordings? If I only have a boombox will that prevent me from hearing the difference between and good CD and a poorly recorded, mastered, or produced CD?"

The questions were prompted by the comments of Mike Large, not that my system sounds like crap, and I need cinematic to help me replace everything I own with lo-fi gear.
nrchy's avatar
nrchy OP
2,124 posts
 
The point remains that one does not have to have a great system to hear that something is amiss in many of the recordings being sold today. I say this not to make the point, but to reinforce it; why are there so many people remastering, or selling 'audiophile' recordings if this is not true.

Maybe it's not worth arguing this point as cinematic and others seem to think that everything is fine.

If no one is holding the manufacturers, and engineers, responsible there is really no reason for them to offer anything more than what they are offering today.
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