That truly oversimplifies the recording industry.
Great recordings are possible regardless of era.
I heard a 1958 record that most will never hear, it was Also Sprach in stereo.
Perhaps the greatest recording ever made, even by todays standards.
I think we think we are so smart, so digitally evolved, yet we forget the human element in this, the mastering, the cutting, the engineering, all elements that were decided by humans not computers. The best guys made the best recordings.
When people like the greats rise to the surface again then todays recordings will be great,.
Unfortunately todays recordings are usually regarded as commercial products, driven by profit...quality is not really considered because most people who listen are not audiophiles, MP3's have become the defacto standard for most people on the planet. Why would a industry devote time and money for a great recording, when playback cannot realize it. At least for 99% of the systems people use(not us audiophiles)
Thank god some of the indy labels are trying to produce good sounding stuff, but they are the small guys.
Gaga, Carly Rae, Katy Perry, all bad recordings, most people could care less about the quality of the recording.
I think one of the reasons the websites devoted to audiophiles is so popular is because people realize a problem with the recording industry. We try so hard to get great sound out of mediocre recordings, so much so we spend tons of money to get there. It shouldn't be so hard, we are looking at the surfaces of other planets for Gods sake! Having great recordings should be absolutley assumed, since we are so sophisticated. But really the art in recording has been lost in most art.
We look back to the great days of analogue, and while tubes may have had a big hand in the quality of the recording, we believe it was the tubes alone. It was the guys in the mastering room who gave a shit! If we had some of those guys today working in the digital format , we would have much better results than we have to settle for today!
Carl,
Thank you for hosting this site, it helps prop up those who care about good sound, and that is why we are here.
Sorry for the rant, but sometimes you have to look outside the box. This hobby should not require 1500 dollar power cords, $800 caps, $1000's of dollars of silly tweaks to make music sound good, sometimes I feel like a rat caught in a maze, with this hobby...and someone put me in there, knowing there is no way out. Like putting lipstick on a pig.
Some people have their causes, you have your tree huggers, save the whales, stop nukes...my cause would be better recordings...because the rising tide would bring us all with it.
Mike
