The best Fortune Brainstorm Tech Talk: Neil Young challenges tech industry

July 23, 2008 By

“It has got dummied down,” musician Neil Young just told the audience. He is trying to get us all to pressure Apple and the PC industry to give us much better quality.

He chastised us all for not talking about the quality of music and not asking the industry for better quality. He says that if the industry included better digital to analog converters in their boxes he could deliver to all of us a much better experience.

What do you think? Would you like better quality music or do you think MP3 is good enough?

Why is this my favorite talk? Because it is one that put forth a very simple proposal to make all of our lives better.

He says that Apple is holding back the ability to give us all the ability to listen to “high-res” music that has four times the data of MP3′s.

Oh, and now he is talking about his ideas of how to get us better car technology. He is a geek. Love it.

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  • Bob

    Unfortunately, quality will never determine what companies use. People are still using lots of crappy hardware and software because it’s cheap, not because it makes their lives any easier or improves their experience. Switching to CDs made the music we buy sound less like how it was recorded, and the music industry made a bundle. MP3 is obviously crappy compared to some other digital formats out there, and worse than CDs, but I don’t expect anyone to do anything about it. I understand what Neil Young is attempting to do, but he’s been on the losing side of these discussions for years because quality is his main focus.

  • Bob

    Unfortunately, quality will never determine what companies use. People are still using lots of crappy hardware and software because it’s cheap, not because it makes their lives any easier or improves their experience. Switching to CDs made the music we buy sound less like how it was recorded, and the music industry made a bundle. MP3 is obviously crappy compared to some other digital formats out there, and worse than CDs, but I don’t expect anyone to do anything about it. I understand what Neil Young is attempting to do, but he’s been on the losing side of these discussions for years because quality is his main focus.

  • http://bfernald.com/ Beau

    If we could move this discussion from “Quality” to “Completeness” it would be much more constructive. MP3s are to symphonic performances as CliffsNotes are to major works of literature. Any one of them may be best suited to the purpose at hand, and each presents a different experience.

    Could Neil Young really be saying that he’s frustrated that so many people choose to listen at a superficial level? Could consumers really be saying that on average they aren’t looking for a deep musical experience with the artist?

    Come to think of it, if the MP3 gives us a deep “emotional” experience with the music, isn’t that enough?

  • http://bfernald.com/ Beau

    If we could move this discussion from “Quality” to “Completeness” it would be much more constructive. MP3s are to symphonic performances as CliffsNotes are to major works of literature. Any one of them may be best suited to the purpose at hand, and each presents a different experience.

    Could Neil Young really be saying that he’s frustrated that so many people choose to listen at a superficial level? Could consumers really be saying that on average they aren’t looking for a deep musical experience with the artist?

    Come to think of it, if the MP3 gives us a deep “emotional” experience with the music, isn’t that enough?

  • http://www.yostivanich.com/ Justin Yost

    I can tell the difference between an MP3 and a CD, especially with classical music. Granted some difference in quality is overrated but why turn music into crap? Go read some of the articles about how so much of the music industry has turned into a loudness war. I don’t want that for my music. I want something that is interesting and unique.

  • http://www.yostivanich.com/ Justin Yost

    I can tell the difference between an MP3 and a CD, especially with classical music. Granted some difference in quality is overrated but why turn music into crap? Go read some of the articles about how so much of the music industry has turned into a loudness war. I don’t want that for my music. I want something that is interesting and unique.

  • Victor

    For range, depth, and warmth, nothing beats vinyl. Sure it’s not easily portable, but we are talking about sound

  • Victor

    For range, depth, and warmth, nothing beats vinyl. Sure it’s not easily portable, but we are talking about sound

  • Ken

    MP#’s are meant for little earbuds, with a noisy environment in the background. Conviences often have trade-offs. I’m okay with that.

    Anyone who pays attention can tell the difference when you play the music through a decent car stereo or even low end home systems. Cymbals, the bass, that driving beat, the guitar solos … On any decent system, an MP3 sounds like the music is flatter, deader. Get a CD, then burn the MP3 to another CD and compare for yourself.

    I’m with Neil, the industry could do a lot better (and charge more) with a higher quality option. Why does everybody rip someone for asking for more options?

  • Ken

    MP#’s are meant for little earbuds, with a noisy environment in the background. Conviences often have trade-offs. I’m okay with that.

    Anyone who pays attention can tell the difference when you play the music through a decent car stereo or even low end home systems. Cymbals, the bass, that driving beat, the guitar solos … On any decent system, an MP3 sounds like the music is flatter, deader. Get a CD, then burn the MP3 to another CD and compare for yourself.

    I’m with Neil, the industry could do a lot better (and charge more) with a higher quality option. Why does everybody rip someone for asking for more options?

  • http://benhughes.freehostia.com/ Ben

    I rip all my CDs at 320kbs and listen to them on my ipod through good headphones (UltimateEars SuperFi 3s), and there’s clearly still a difference. Take, for instance, the opening of massive attack’s ‘black milk’ – a very noticeable chunk of the intro is missing due to the low-pass filter used for MP3 compression. Similar for some songs with the high-end missing due to the low-pass filter. Plus there’s the noise introduced by the ipod itself.

    Does it matter? 90% of the time, convenience wins out, but it’s still nice to be able to back to the CD whenever I’m in a ‘bottle of wine, headphones and some good music’ mood. For that reason, I’ll be sticking to CD or lossless downloads written to CD.

    Ben

  • http://benhughes.freehostia.com Ben

    I rip all my CDs at 320kbs and listen to them on my ipod through good headphones (UltimateEars SuperFi 3s), and there’s clearly still a difference. Take, for instance, the opening of massive attack’s ‘black milk’ – a very noticeable chunk of the intro is missing due to the low-pass filter used for MP3 compression. Similar for some songs with the high-end missing due to the low-pass filter. Plus there’s the noise introduced by the ipod itself.

    Does it matter? 90% of the time, convenience wins out, but it’s still nice to be able to back to the CD whenever I’m in a ‘bottle of wine, headphones and some good music’ mood. For that reason, I’ll be sticking to CD or lossless downloads written to CD.

    Ben

  • celery

    Sounds like the new Bose noise-canceling headphones discussion. Neil the music expert lecturing techy types about better quality music is equivilent to the techy types lecturing Neil to write better songs. They cancel each other out!

  • celery

    Sounds like the new Bose noise-canceling headphones discussion. Neil the music expert lecturing techy types about better quality music is equivilent to the techy types lecturing Neil to write better songs. They cancel each other out!

  • http://www.designdelux.com/ Mark Mitchell

    Ok here is the story. I am a former professional audio engineer. The Analog-to-Digital conversion process makes a big difference. Today most albums are recorded into a MAC usually with a program called Protools. This digital equipment is than run back through an analog console to finally be mixed down again back to digital. This mixed version is then converted again to analog in mastering and made digital once again for production. So the conversion process occurs a multitude of times even in a professional environment. Granted most likely with fairly good converters. The average person in my opinion can not tell the difference between 16 bit 44.1 k (cd quality audio) and a compressed MP3. Good work Rob.

  • http://www.designdelux.com Mark Mitchell

    Ok here is the story. I am a former professional audio engineer. The Analog-to-Digital conversion process makes a big difference. Today most albums are recorded into a MAC usually with a program called Protools. This digital equipment is than run back through an analog console to finally be mixed down again back to digital. This mixed version is then converted again to analog in mastering and made digital once again for production. So the conversion process occurs a multitude of times even in a professional environment. Granted most likely with fairly good converters. The average person in my opinion can not tell the difference between 16 bit 44.1 k (cd quality audio) and a compressed MP3. Good work Rob.

  • Keith

    I’m surprised Young has enough brain cells left to string together any coherent thoughts. BTW, his music sounds awful in any format. (Excepting maybe “Down by the River” and “Cinnamon Girl”)

  • Keith

    I’m surprised Young has enough brain cells left to string together any coherent thoughts. BTW, his music sounds awful in any format. (Excepting maybe “Down by the River” and “Cinnamon Girl”)

  • http://markdamonhughes.com/ Mark Hughes

    MP3 is a terrible format, and at 128K, it’s very destructive to music; it sounds good only for somewhat flat vocal rock (unsurprisingly, it was developed with Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” as the primary test case). 256K MP3 is close enough to lossless that only extreme cases will show any distortion.

    AAC (which iTunes uses) is vastly superior; at 128K (iTunes DRM tracks), it’s a little flat but works for almost any kind of music. At 256K (iTunes Plus tracks), it is essentially lossless.

    If the studios will stop demanding DRM on the iTunes store, Neil Young can get his wish. None of his tracks on iTunes are iTunes Plus, but that’s the fault of his greedy record label, not Apple.

  • http://markdamonhughes.com/ Mark Hughes

    MP3 is a terrible format, and at 128K, it’s very destructive to music; it sounds good only for somewhat flat vocal rock (unsurprisingly, it was developed with Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” as the primary test case). 256K MP3 is close enough to lossless that only extreme cases will show any distortion.

    AAC (which iTunes uses) is vastly superior; at 128K (iTunes DRM tracks), it’s a little flat but works for almost any kind of music. At 256K (iTunes Plus tracks), it is essentially lossless.

    If the studios will stop demanding DRM on the iTunes store, Neil Young can get his wish. None of his tracks on iTunes are iTunes Plus, but that’s the fault of his greedy record label, not Apple.

  • Ryan

    There’s a bigger problem than data compression: dynamic range compression. DRC is why every CD released in the last 10 years or so has no fidelity, no peaks and valleys, no quiet and loud sections. Music today is mastered at one “volume” level–AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE. Drums don’t have the punch they once did, and there is no such thing as a subtle background track. Google “Loudness War” for the technical explanation.

    DRC is a much, much bigger threat to music quality than data compression (e.g. MP3).

  • Ryan

    There’s a bigger problem than data compression: dynamic range compression. DRC is why every CD released in the last 10 years or so has no fidelity, no peaks and valleys, no quiet and loud sections. Music today is mastered at one “volume” level–AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE. Drums don’t have the punch they once did, and there is no such thing as a subtle background track. Google “Loudness War” for the technical explanation.

    DRC is a much, much bigger threat to music quality than data compression (e.g. MP3).

  • Andy Freeman

    > I would rather buy the CD and use lossless compression.

    CDs are merely lossless after digital conversion. That conversion loses data (sampling period, quantization, and range). There was a “super CD” format which had better conversion and the difference was A/B discernable given mindbogglingly expensive equipment in a tuned room when at the correct location.

  • Andy Freeman

    > I would rather buy the CD and use lossless compression.

    CDs are merely lossless after digital conversion. That conversion loses data (sampling period, quantization, and range). There was a “super CD” format which had better conversion and the difference was A/B discernable given mindbogglingly expensive equipment in a tuned room when at the correct location.

  • Marc Cota

    This technology is EXACTLY what Niel Young is talking about…I am not in ANY way affiliated with Mr. Bob Lentini as far as marketing or even trying to get his genuis and new software known out there, but this man and his many years of total dedication(years ahead of his time, for he most part) for the kind of sound technology that Mr. Young is talking about. PLEASE, PLEASE….just check out this man and his products out. NO ONE will be dissapointed – and anyone with ears and anything in between them will help to put this man where he belongs…a household(studiohold) name. There’s not enough room here to explain all that he’s done, and I could only make a lame attempt at using the correct terms, but I’m a lifelong musician, I’ve been very lucky until very lately, but I’ve had he honor of playing behind legends, as well as being a bandleader myself at 3 of the most famous resorts in Las Vegas…hey..it was supposed to be for just 6 mo’s..it turned into 16 years…but thats’ another novel in itself.

  • Marc Cota

    This technology is EXACTLY what Niel Young is talking about…I am not in ANY way affiliated with Mr. Bob Lentini as far as marketing or even trying to get his genuis and new software known out there, but this man and his many years of total dedication(years ahead of his time, for he most part) for the kind of sound technology that Mr. Young is talking about. PLEASE, PLEASE….just check out this man and his products out. NO ONE will be dissapointed – and anyone with ears and anything in between them will help to put this man where he belongs…a household(studiohold) name. There’s not enough room here to explain all that he’s done, and I could only make a lame attempt at using the correct terms, but I’m a lifelong musician, I’ve been very lucky until very lately, but I’ve had he honor of playing behind legends, as well as being a bandleader myself at 3 of the most famous resorts in Las Vegas…hey..it was supposed to be for just 6 mo’s..it turned into 16 years…but thats’ another novel in itself.

  • http://spoppe.livejournal.com/ Steve Poppe

    Harvest this:

    Will I see you give more than I can take?
    Will I only harvest some?
    As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
    Or fuse it in the sun?

  • http://spoppe.livejournal.com Steve Poppe

    Harvest this:

    Will I see you give more than I can take?
    Will I only harvest some?
    As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
    Or fuse it in the sun?

  • http://hauntingthunder.wordpress.com/ Neuromancer

    yes its the compresion that makes a lot of modern music sound muddy.

  • http://hauntingthunder.wordpress.com/ Neuromancer

    yes its the compresion that makes a lot of modern music sound muddy.

  • Mark Schmidt

    Alright, I’m sorry, but I’m going to be an ass.

    Audiophiles are idiots. If you read and believe the moronic reviews in magazines like Stereophile, you’re an idiot too. High-end audio is a mythology, a religion, not science. Analog audio fundamentalists = idiots. People who believe they can hear the differences between two low-distortion (< 1%), flat, level-matched amplifiers or formats like CD and SACD (Stupid Audio CD) = deluded (excluding multi-channel formts, that comes down to subjective preference mainly).

    The fact is that no one has ever been able to show that they can perceive (with human ears) these alleged differences in scientifically sound, double blind tests. This is iron-clad fact no matter how much you want to believe otherwise and no matter how many thousands you spent on your 15-watt tube amp. Yes, you can measure differences with electronic equipment. The differences are too small to be perceived and have been for some time. Go pound sand.

    It has been well-understood for decades how to construct a decent D/A converter. People think they can hear vast differences in various audio components, but they rarely can. You will not be able to tell the difference between audio components with low distortion (< 1%) and a linear frequency response – which is nearly everything on the market today.

    Yes, speakers and headphones do matter, and this is where distortion comes in. You will rarely see any distortion measurement on speakers or headphone drivers, and the reason is because they are all well above the threshold of audible distortion – 1%. It’s absolutely ludicrous that you can find people willing to buy into “higher resolution” formats and claiming to hear some magical difference on their crappy home-theater-in-a-box speaker rig. What a joke.

    MP3s. An MP3 at a bitrate of 128K/sec does sound like ass. Well, that’s subjective, but at least you can easily prove an audible difference between the file and the source. Use the LAME encoder with the “alt-preset normal” switch, however, and it suddenly becomes close to impossible to differentiate the file from the original source on even very high-end gear. Again, this has been proven. Google it.

    If you want outstanding audio quality, you need two things that are becoming rare today: sane mixing and mastering engineers who will take advantage of the excellent dynamic range offered by the CD format and really good, accurate set of speakers.

    Notes:
    Andy Freeman: To the guy claiming that SACD and CD are A/B discernable – this is not the whole story. SACD releases are specifically mastered for the format. This is the difference being heard. Indeed, the mastering job on an SACD is typically superior to the CD release, but this has nothing to do with the increased resolution of the format. It’s just a better master. BTW, SACD is “lossy” too in that is also a sampled format, just like CD. It’s just a higher sampling frequency.

    Mark Mitchell: You are right – my points are (mostly) not targeted at the recording realm.

    Ben: The iPod itself has a high-pass filter (cuts out very low bass). It is virtually not possible to distinguish between a 320kbit MP3 file and the source despite what many people claim.

    Required reading: http://www.zaphaudio.com/evaluation.html

  • Mark Schmidt

    Alright, I’m sorry, but I’m going to be an ass.

    Audiophiles are idiots. If you read and believe the moronic reviews in magazines like Stereophile, you’re an idiot too. High-end audio is a mythology, a religion, not science. Analog audio fundamentalists = idiots. People who believe they can hear the differences between two low-distortion (< 1%), flat, level-matched amplifiers or formats like CD and SACD (Stupid Audio CD) = deluded (excluding multi-channel formts, that comes down to subjective preference mainly).

    The fact is that no one has ever been able to show that they can perceive (with human ears) these alleged differences in scientifically sound, double blind tests. This is iron-clad fact no matter how much you want to believe otherwise and no matter how many thousands you spent on your 15-watt tube amp. Yes, you can measure differences with electronic equipment. The differences are too small to be perceived and have been for some time. Go pound sand.

    It has been well-understood for decades how to construct a decent D/A converter. People think they can hear vast differences in various audio components, but they rarely can. You will not be able to tell the difference between audio components with low distortion (< 1%) and a linear frequency response – which is nearly everything on the market today.

    Yes, speakers and headphones do matter, and this is where distortion comes in. You will rarely see any distortion measurement on speakers or headphone drivers, and the reason is because they are all well above the threshold of audible distortion – 1%. It’s absolutely ludicrous that you can find people willing to buy into “higher resolution” formats and claiming to hear some magical difference on their crappy home-theater-in-a-box speaker rig. What a joke.

    MP3s. An MP3 at a bitrate of 128K/sec does sound like ass. Well, that’s subjective, but at least you can easily prove an audible difference between the file and the source. Use the LAME encoder with the “alt-preset normal” switch, however, and it suddenly becomes close to impossible to differentiate the file from the original source on even very high-end gear. Again, this has been proven. Google it.

    If you want outstanding audio quality, you need two things that are becoming rare today: sane mixing and mastering engineers who will take advantage of the excellent dynamic range offered by the CD format and really good, accurate set of speakers.

    Notes:
    Andy Freeman: To the guy claiming that SACD and CD are A/B discernable – this is not the whole story. SACD releases are specifically mastered for the format. This is the difference being heard. Indeed, the mastering job on an SACD is typically superior to the CD release, but this has nothing to do with the increased resolution of the format. It’s just a better master. BTW, SACD is “lossy” too in that is also a sampled format, just like CD. It’s just a higher sampling frequency.

    Mark Mitchell: You are right – my points are (mostly) not targeted at the recording realm.

    Ben: The iPod itself has a high-pass filter (cuts out very low bass). It is virtually not possible to distinguish between a 320kbit MP3 file and the source despite what many people claim.

    Required reading: http://www.zaphaudio.com/evaluation.html

  • reader

    lots of confusion here ….

    The iTunes store sells music using the AAC encoder, not the MP3 encoder. AAC and MP3 are both ‘perceptual audio codecs’, and AAC has a much better perceptual model than that of MP3. Much better. Apple gives you two bit rate options for AAC, the higher one being of insane high quality.

    However, an even bigger point – NONE OF THIS MATTERS!

    Looking at music history:
    - First recordings meant for consumers: really shitty
    - 8 Track: shitty
    - Vinyl: shitty but in a way people love (‘warmth’ from analog distortions, etc)
    - Cassette Tape: shitty *but* recordable!
    - CD: pretty decent actually *and* recordable!
    - MP3: on par CD quality, recordable, and easily transferable
    - AAC: *hella* good quality, recordable, and easily transferable.

    So okay – things are getting better!

    But not really .. music really doesn’t sound as good .. and it’s for reasons which have been brought up here: dynamic range.

    this is not an issue of technology, it’s an issue of the application of technology. it’s an issue of society saying “louder = better”, or more correctly … those in the music industry realizing “louder = paying more attention”.

    (this also happens to be why commercials are so loud)

    much love to neil, but he’s confused on where the problem really lies.

  • reader

    lots of confusion here ….

    The iTunes store sells music using the AAC encoder, not the MP3 encoder. AAC and MP3 are both ‘perceptual audio codecs’, and AAC has a much better perceptual model than that of MP3. Much better. Apple gives you two bit rate options for AAC, the higher one being of insane high quality.

    However, an even bigger point – NONE OF THIS MATTERS!

    Looking at music history:
    - First recordings meant for consumers: really shitty
    - 8 Track: shitty
    - Vinyl: shitty but in a way people love (‘warmth’ from analog distortions, etc)
    - Cassette Tape: shitty *but* recordable!
    - CD: pretty decent actually *and* recordable!
    - MP3: on par CD quality, recordable, and easily transferable
    - AAC: *hella* good quality, recordable, and easily transferable.

    So okay – things are getting better!

    But not really .. music really doesn’t sound as good .. and it’s for reasons which have been brought up here: dynamic range.

    this is not an issue of technology, it’s an issue of the application of technology. it’s an issue of society saying “louder = better”, or more correctly … those in the music industry realizing “louder = paying more attention”.

    (this also happens to be why commercials are so loud)

    much love to neil, but he’s confused on where the problem really lies.

  • Nerdboy

    The music industry needs better content, period. Neil Young is right, but with the kind of stuff that is being recorded, it doesn’t matter what technology you use to play it. It’s still useless.

  • Nerdboy

    The music industry needs better content, period. Neil Young is right, but with the kind of stuff that is being recorded, it doesn’t matter what technology you use to play it. It’s still useless.

  • Scooter

    Mp3 and other size compromised formats were created only to alleviate storage limits and download speeds. No one ever thought they were as good or comparable to full quality audio formats. As we move closer and closer to unlimited storage (terabyte ipods) and faster download speeds, size will not be an issue. And audio quality will again reign supreme in music. And we’ll all have to go back and buy The Beatles catalog again. Which might even save the music industry.

  • Scooter

    Mp3 and other size compromised formats were created only to alleviate storage limits and download speeds. No one ever thought they were as good or comparable to full quality audio formats. As we move closer and closer to unlimited storage (terabyte ipods) and faster download speeds, size will not be an issue. And audio quality will again reign supreme in music. And we’ll all have to go back and buy The Beatles catalog again. Which might even save the music industry.

  • Ian Benson

    Enough about compression and sound quality. Who cares what the quality of the soundwave is when the message is crap. The real tragedy in ‘music quality’ is what record companies have been force-feeding us as music for the last 25 years (I’ll give the late 80′s and early 90′s a get out of jail free card for the most part). And, as anyone can attest to, the best sound quality is being at the show. So, go support musicians, go support live music.

  • Ian Benson

    Enough about compression and sound quality. Who cares what the quality of the soundwave is when the message is crap. The real tragedy in ‘music quality’ is what record companies have been force-feeding us as music for the last 25 years (I’ll give the late 80′s and early 90′s a get out of jail free card for the most part). And, as anyone can attest to, the best sound quality is being at the show. So, go support musicians, go support live music.

  • Stiv Bator

    I’ve loved Neil since the Buffalo Springfield, but his take on audio leaves me a bit confused.
    HE’s always been about recording quickly, with a lo fi ethos.

    In fact a big portion of his work is deliberately distorted, mushy, loud, etc.

  • Stiv Bator

    I’ve loved Neil since the Buffalo Springfield, but his take on audio leaves me a bit confused.
    HE’s always been about recording quickly, with a lo fi ethos.

    In fact a big portion of his work is deliberately distorted, mushy, loud, etc.

  • Wilhelm Reuch

    MP3 was developed for disitributing muzak to german stores via ISDN (which is limited to 128kbps). The psychacoustic filtering is modelled after typical german schalger/pop with a central singer and instruments in the background that do not carry any significant part of the tune (and based on the rules about 90% of the audio onformation is removed from an audio file).

    That is why MP3 sounds o.k. on simple pop – but awful with jazz, classical

    The basic CD format (44khz/16bit) is good enough for distribution (not one of the controlled research experiments have shown that humans can hear above 20khz) but vinyl will sound sp much better. For recording you need 24-bit as every DSP-operation you do on the saound cause digital distortion.Personally I still always mix to a big Studer mastering analog tape machine – I have found that the tape noise masks the digital distrion residues from 24-bit digital audio manipulaton.

  • Wilhelm Reuch

    MP3 was developed for disitributing muzak to german stores via ISDN (which is limited to 128kbps). The psychacoustic filtering is modelled after typical german schalger/pop with a central singer and instruments in the background that do not carry any significant part of the tune (and based on the rules about 90% of the audio onformation is removed from an audio file).

    That is why MP3 sounds o.k. on simple pop – but awful with jazz, classical

    The basic CD format (44khz/16bit) is good enough for distribution (not one of the controlled research experiments have shown that humans can hear above 20khz) but vinyl will sound sp much better. For recording you need 24-bit as every DSP-operation you do on the saound cause digital distortion.Personally I still always mix to a big Studer mastering analog tape machine – I have found that the tape noise masks the digital distrion residues from 24-bit digital audio manipulaton.

  • Wilhelm Reuch

    Personally I see the dumbing down of the popular music market as caused by 1) tampering with the music business by replacing their music interested personale with bean counters and 2) the widespread use of distribution formats like MP3 that cannot carry music where there is more than one thing going on at a time.

    This of course doesnt matter to those who use music just to fill a void, make a statement and so on. But it makes a difference if we think about old fashioned musicality – the reason why people got hooked on music from the start.

    and of course the net-nerds (mostly from the small club of white males in the western world) who needs free content or their so-called “business models” (both personal and corporate) wont fly and they cannot use all their shiny new toys.

  • Wilhelm Reuch

    Personally I see the dumbing down of the popular music market as caused by 1) tampering with the music business by replacing their music interested personale with bean counters and 2) the widespread use of distribution formats like MP3 that cannot carry music where there is more than one thing going on at a time.

    This of course doesnt matter to those who use music just to fill a void, make a statement and so on. But it makes a difference if we think about old fashioned musicality – the reason why people got hooked on music from the start.

    and of course the net-nerds (mostly from the small club of white males in the western world) who needs free content or their so-called “business models” (both personal and corporate) wont fly and they cannot use all their shiny new toys.

  • http://www.buzzonlinemedia.com/ james svenson

    Great guy-amazing interview on http://www.charlierose.com from 2 weeks ago talking about his car / power initiatives and goals. Warm, earthy and cozy analog kicks ‘mp3′ / digital’s ass. It’s a sad thing the deprecation of that medium.

  • http://www.buzzonlinemedia.com james svenson

    Great guy-amazing interview on http://www.charlierose.com from 2 weeks ago talking about his car / power initiatives and goals. Warm, earthy and cozy analog kicks ‘mp3′ / digital’s ass. It’s a sad thing the deprecation of that medium.

  • Guest

    So, guys. A friend of mine did some CDs in his HomeRecording Studio with some analog synthesizers, some digital ones and an Emac with Mac OS 9 and an external Analog – Digital Converter that is really great.

    He uses speakers as monitors for 100 Euros together, that he bought at a local supermarket. These speakers are not “high end”, but when he masters his CDs on this speakers, everyone who hears the CD on only “normal” Speakers said “awesome sound”, how did you make it.

    To my opinion its a mixture of getting the best in the process of mastering and converting the audio files. I think the industry should go over to give the users the best quality that comes near to the original, and that is MP3 with 256KB and FLAC ( flawless audiocodec -> if you don#t know it, search wikipedia, but it is mainly like winzip for WAV-Files … ) and on the other hand let the user choose which quality he wants.

    Best, Jens

  • http://www.grazer.de Jens Schwoon

    So, guys. A friend of mine did some CDs in his HomeRecording Studio with some analog synthesizers, some digital ones and an Emac with Mac OS 9 and an external Analog – Digital Converter that is really great.

    He uses speakers as monitors for 100 Euros together, that he bought at a local supermarket. These speakers are not “high end”, but when he masters his CDs on this speakers, everyone who hears the CD on only “normal” Speakers said “awesome sound”, how did you make it.

    To my opinion its a mixture of getting the best in the process of mastering and converting the audio files. I think the industry should go over to give the users the best quality that comes near to the original, and that is MP3 with 256KB and FLAC ( flawless audiocodec -> if you don#t know it, search wikipedia, but it is mainly like winzip for WAV-Files … ) and on the other hand let the user choose which quality he wants.

    Best, Jens

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