Traps vs Equalizer

Would you buy an artists' painting only to get it home and touch up the parts you don't like with your own strokes, and if so, why did you buy it?

It takes a whole lot more skill and talent to "touch up the strokes' on an accomplished work of art, than it would to adjust the equalization on a recording. I know you were just trying to make a simple point, but I just don't agree.

The music/sound has already been 'distorted' the moment it leaves the instrument...more so when it bounces around a room, and even more so when some recording engineer makes decisions based upon his own subjective interpretation and manipulates the music for recording. There is no such thing as a pure isolated and undistorted sound. If you could hear it, you may even not like it as much as one that's been distorted by an environment, and or manipulated by an engineer. It's all subjective. It is also relatively easy for an average audiophile type who knows what they are doing, and what kind of sound they prefer to, with the proper equipment, make adjustments to tailor the sound to their liking. If that's what they like, I say, have at it and good on'ya! Whatever brings you closer to the music you enjoy. And yes, if you happen to have the skill and talent to manipulate a great work of art in a similar way so that you enjoy it more than you did in its original state, why the hell not, you paid for it! It's your life after all.

Marco

Dirtyragamuffin...The problem is that unless you use
earphones, or listen with the same speakers and room as the engineer did
you don't hear what he did.

....and even if you did, you STILL may not like it the same way the engineer
chose to interpret it. Regardless of the gear, it is still subjective. Stick ten
different recording engineers in the booth for the same performance, give
them the same gear, same speakers, same headphones, and you'll likely
come back with ten different interpretations of that performance. Give those
ten to a hundred different people and I doubt very much there'd be any
unanimous decision about which one is "best".

Marco

Jax, it's true there is distortion on hitting the mics and
more from there on. So your rationale is, there is already plenty of distortion
so let's cake as much more on as possible?

If that's what floats your boat, sure. I don't think I'd call it "
distortion" because of the negative connotation I think you are taking
advantage of to argue against it. Sure it is that by definition, but then so is
the actual recording.
You are heaping it on whether you like it or not just by playing it on your
system in your room. It will ALWAYS be distorted in some way, there is no
way around it. And ultimately, and perhaps most to the point, it doesn't
matter one wit!

The "Painter" metaphor just doesn't work for me because there is
a difference between "art" and "craft". The sound
engineer is a craftsman (IMO of course), the performers/songwriters are the
"artists". Yes, you could argue the contrary since the engineer
does indeed interpret the music, but for me I'd make the distinction that way.
The metaphor also doesn't work for me partly because music is temporal, it is
not an object. It takes up time as opposed to space. The painting is an
object that takes up space. In the case of a painting it is appreciated by a
different sense (vision) altogether than music is (aural). It is apples to
oranges.

Marco

I keep editing my post because the subject is thought provoking to me. But I
should probably just post again, so here goes:

The music is distorted as soon as it hits the atmosphere. Particles in the air
change it, other sounds and forms of energy may change it. It bounces
around the environment it is being played in which "distorts" it further. Then
of course it goes into a microphone and is fed electronically into some
electrical maze in a box. Someone listens, through their speakers/
headphones and makes decisions as to how further to distort (since you
choose to use that word) the sound. It is edited and finalized and goes
through some other machines which may distort it further to produce
whatever medium it may be offered to the public on. We, Jane and John
Public, order up the plastic discs in whatever form, or horde the original
audio tapes, and we put it on yet another distortion machine with yet more
wires and variables, and we have this machine attempt to reproduce the
sounds through wooden boxes with magnets and cones and wires and
sophisticated technology up the wazoo. And this sound comes out that
somehow resembles the sounds produced in the studio. And it gets "
distorted" as soon as it hits the atmosphere and bounces off the walls
and ceilings in your room, and hey, whady'a know, if you put together a
system that you enjoy, those sounds actually sound pretty darn musical!
Then you take the same plastic disc over to your buddies house and listen on
his system...whady'a know...sounds like music there too...but it sounds
somehow different...hey, I liked the bass better at my place, but the midrange
is marvelous here at my friends house. Who the f*&k cares as long as you
enjoy the music?! They're all 'distortion' machines if you choose to view them
that way. Get the thing working so it 'distorts' the music the way you like it
most of the time and your cooking with gas!

Marco

Marco, You can make the painting analogy work with a bit of effort.

Not unless the only objective of the painter is "photographic realism", which I find pretty boring in most (but not all) cases. Otherwise such knowledge as you suggest (about the conditions under which the painting was 'observed') has absolutely nothing to do with the appreciation of that painting. Nor would it really have much to do with your appreciation of photographic realisim except at the level of how well it succeeds at technique. Whether it moves you has nothing whatsoever to do with technique, or, at best precious little (IMHO).

Marco

I should ammend myself to say "your hifi is a
giant heap of distortion that passes on more distortion, some of it pleasing to
the ear and some not; it's up to you whether or not you want to add what I
consider to be superflous amounts of the displeasing stuff."

On that, I would have to agree completely my friend!

Marco

PS I don't suggest using any of this as a selling point for your next A'gon
classified ad!

Marco

Ah, my bad Newbee. That's what comes from reading and posting while you are trying to work at the same time. Had I stopped and pondered it for more than a nanosecond before responding, I would have noted the tongue firmly planted within the cheek!

Marco