Keane louder than Nirvana?
I know very little about the technology of music -- gear, boards, engineering etc. But I really enjoyed this lengthy but compelling argument for why CDs sound so bad these days.
posted by Alex at 11:59 PM
4 Comments:
This one jumped out at me (Pun!)
One result of this is that modern CDs have much more consistent volume levels than ever before. But when is it desirable for music to be at a consistent volume? When it's not being actively listened to; i.e. when it's intended as background music. Sudden (or even gradual) dynamic changes in ambient volume disturb people from what they are otherwise doing (shopping, eating, working) by making them pay attention to the fluctuating sound rather than the task in hand
and I've been noticing this a lot lately
I fidget when I listen to music in public. I tap my feet, nod my head, drum my fingers together. Occasionally, if I’m pretty sure no one’s looking, I’ll break out into a spectacular air-drum roll, swooshing my invisible sticks across fifty tom-toms, thirty cymbals and heaven-only-knows how many snares and kick-drums. While full-on drum rolls might be rare, the rest is commonplace whether I’m on the train or walking through the woods. Other people I see out and about wearing walkmans or MP3 players seldom seem to tap, or nod, or hum along at all though; instead their gazes seem fixed with a steely resolve, their bodies tense and their minds seemingly tenser. To me that isn’t the body language of someone enjoying music.
Hmm -- some of that is certainly people using music as background, or as a means to keep the NYC crazy out. But some of us are doing fifty-tom-tom drum rolls in our heads though, and are too self-conscious/repressed to do it with our muscles. NYC tends to beat the self-consciousness out of you (why bother when you witness all kinds of stunningly inappropriate and/or "private" behavior on the street each day) but some of the Western European reserve likely remains.
also, if you try to air a sweet drum roll while you're running, you are likely to end up facedown. muthascratchas. or maybe that's just me.
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