Neil Young in concert in Oslo, Norway in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Everyone who lived long enough remembers the real taste of tomatoes. Long before they were re-engineered to last long transportation journeys, on the expense of their flavor.
When it comes to music we needed someone like Neil Young to spell it out for us. Early this year Young said that MP3 sounds “Like crap”. The same technology that enabled the mass distribution of music, did that on the expense of its quality. In most cases MP3 format does a bad job at retrieving the original recorded sound and reduces its richness.
And there is another issue. In a world where music is so illegally accessible you have to be very popular to make money. So common denominator, in terms of audience taste, rules. Nowadays there is less room for more advanced music and artists.
An artist like Young can afford himself to record with Analog equipment. But what was once a widely spread technology is now very expensive for the rest.
However there are still some good digital options out there. Surprisingly the WAV format is one of them. The following Wired Article – “Why Neil Young Hates MP3 — And What You Can Do About It” as well as the vivid discussion following it, gave me a lot of insight into those formats.
Hardware and software are now available to allow higher quality of sound and musical enjoyment, it’s up to us to demand it from our music providers.
Fisher Dieskau was a mentor and the “golden reference” to many professional and amateur singers. In my 1st voice lesson as an amateur singer, I’ve learned that if I really want to hear how a Lieder should sound I’d better listen to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau performance. Everything he did was perfect starting from technicalities such as diction and all the way to his wonderful and reliable performances and interpretation.
ListenToGoodMusic 