Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

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  • feather
    Shanghai ooompa loompa
    • Jul 2004
    • 20895

    Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

    If it seems like you are listening to music more but enjoying it less, some people in the recording industry say they know why. They blame that iPod that you can't live without, along with all the compressed MP3 music files you've loaded on it.


    Those who work behind-the-mic in the music industry -- producers, engineers, mixers and the like -- say they increasingly assume their recordings will be heard as MP3s on an iPod music player. That combination is thus becoming the "reference platform" used as a test of how a track should sound. (Movie makers make much the same complaint when they see their filmed images in low-quality digital form.)

    But because both compressed music and the iPod's relatively low-quality earbuds have many limitations, music producers fret that they are engineering music to a technical lowest common denominator. The result, many say, is music that is loud but harsh and flat, and thus not enjoyable for long periods of time.


    "Right now, when you are done recording a track, the first thing the band does is to load it onto an iPod and give it a listen," said Alan Douches, who has worked with Fleetwood Mac and others. "Years ago, we might have checked the sound of a track on a Walkman, but no one believed that was the best it could sound. Today, young artists think MP3s are a high-quality medium and the iPod is state-of-the-art sound."


    It isn't. Producers and engineers say there are many ways they might change a track to accommodate an iPod MP3. Sometimes, the changes are for the worse.


    For example, says veteran Los Angeles studio owner Skip Saylor, high frequencies that might seem splendid on a CD might not sound as good as an MP3 file and so will get taken out of the mix. "The result might make you happy on an MP3, but it wouldn't make you happy on a CD," he says. "Am I glad I am doing this? No. But it's the real world and so you make adjustments."


    This shift to compressed music heard via an iPod is occurring at the same time as another music trend that bothers audiophiles: Music today is released at higher volume levels than ever before, on the assumption that louder music sells better. The process of boosting volume, though, tends to eliminate a track's distinct highs and lows.

    As a result, contemporary pop music has a characteristic sound, says veteran L.A. engineer Jack Joseph Puig, whose credits include the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. "Ten years ago, music was warmer; it was rich and thick, with more tones and more 'real power.' But newer records are more brittle and bright. They have what I call 'implied power.' It's all done with delays and reverbs and compression to fool your brain."


    All these engineers tend to be audiophiles, the sort who would fuss over a track to make it perfect. But they're beginning to wonder if they should bother.

    "I care about quality, even though the kid on the street might like what he hears on MySpace, which is even worse than an MP3," said Stuart Brawley, an L.A. engineer who has recorded Cher and Michael Jackson. "We try to make the best quality sound we can, but we increasingly have to be realistic about how much time we can spend doing it."

    Howard Benson, who has done work for Santana and Chris Daughtry, says members of a studio recording crew will sometimes complain after a session, "I just spent all this time getting the greatest guitar and drums solo, and it ends up as an MP3."

    Even those who complain about MP3s say they own and enjoy iPods, and appreciate how they have made music so widely available. They just wish, they say, the device wasn't setting the technical standard for how music gets made.

    Of course, not all music producers agree that MP3s and iPods are affecting music in quite so bad a way. Larry Klein, noted for his work with Joni Mitchell, said, "If something sounds really good on an average pair of speakers, it will sound great on earbuds. I can't imagine mixing a record so that it sounds better on earbuds."


    And Clif Magness, who has recorded with Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken, says music recorded by young artists in living rooms via MP3s, while technically crude, can sometimes have an urgency and immediacy that might be missing from slick studio projects.

    When CDs were first introduced, they were regarded as cold and flat, compared with vinyl. But their sound improved as engineers learned the medium, a process many hope will happen again with MP3s and portable music players.


    Michael Bradford, who has produced Kid Rock, notes that as storage and bandwidth capabilities grow, music won't need to be as compressed. Even now, some audio buffs, such as Stereophile magazine columnist Michael Fremer, insist on a best-of-both-worlds approach to digital music. He uses $500 earbuds with his iPod to listen to digital, but uncompressed, music he captures from vinyl LPs.


    Still, engineers experience some nostalgia about earlier technologies. Says Mr. Saylor, "What we've lost with this new era of massive compression and low fidelity are the records that sounds so good that you get lost in them. "Dark Side of the Moon" -- records like that just aren't being made today."
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    i_want_to_have_sex_with_electronic_music

    Originally posted by Hoff
    a powerful and insane mothership that occasionally comes commanded by the real ones .. then suck us and makes us appear in the most magical of all lands
    Originally posted by m1sT3rL
    Oh. My. God. James absolutely obliterated the island tonight. The last time there was so much destruction, Obi Wan Kenobi had to take a seat on the Falcon after the Death Star said "hi and bye" to Leia's homeworld.

    I got pics and video. But I will upload them in the morning. I need to smoke this nice phat joint and just close my eyes and replay the amazingness in my head.
  • Dhar_2
    meat and potatoes
    • Jun 2004
    • 18917

    #2
    Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

    too true!

    problem is there is only one practical way to move music around these days!

    Comment

    • DIDI
      Aussie Pest
      • Nov 2004
      • 16844

      #3
      Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

      The first thing ipod owners should do is buy a good set of headphones. The buds are shocking!!
      Originally posted by TheVrk
      it IS incredible isn't it??
      STILL pumpin out great set after great set...never cheesed out, never sold out, never lost his touch..
      Simply does not get any better than Hernan
      The 'club spirit' is in the soul. It Never Dies

      Comment

      • vinnie97
        Are you Kidding me??
        • Jul 2007
        • 3454

        #4
        Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

        When CDs were first introduced, they were regarded as cold and flat, compared with vinyl. But their sound improved as engineers learned the medium, a process many hope will happen again with MP3s and portable music players.
        MP3 is about as good as it's going to get...it's been tweaked for years already. AAC/OGG are a few psychoacoustically improved successors to MP3.

        Comment

        • Jibgolly
          Vortexuralizor
          • Jun 2004
          • 20773

          #5
          Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

          pop music sounds like shit no matter what.

          Comment

          • RiseandShine
            Are you Kidding me??
            • Sep 2006
            • 2910

            #6
            Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

            ok, and when we had cassettes, was this true too?
            If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite. - William Blake

            Comment

            • Jayson
              Addiction started
              • Nov 2004
              • 296

              #7
              Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

              It's not so much the iPods fault as it is the crappy earbuds that come with them. Get the big cans I say and rock out in style!
              Piss off you phucking wanksters!

              Comment

              • rainman
                Platinum Poster
                • Dec 2005
                • 1869

                #8
                Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

                pop music is killing pop music. which is good imo.

                Comment

                • jeffrey collins
                  Not cool enough
                  • Jun 2004
                  • 7427

                  #9
                  Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

                  Originally posted by rainman
                  pop music is killing pop music. which is good imo.

                  This is so true. Those people will blame anything to keep them from having to admit that they are just making crap music...like if it sounded better from your ipod it would suddenly sell more....NOT. Hell Ipod hard drives are so huge now that you could easily make all your files wav and have the best ability to listen. I do agree that you need to get better headphones for those things, but that's not the reason why the music sucks.

                  Hip hop has been producing the same kind of music and popular rappers for the last ten years almost. Exactly how much of this do we need to hear about you in the club with girls and your grill on your cadillac? Hip hop has been so dumbed down since PE left that it is terrible. Not that it was ever really made for intellectuals anyway.

                  Heavy Metal music almost all sounds the same nowadays too. Everyone using the same kind of Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier amplifiers, with their 7 string guitars all tuned down to B or even A to make it more grindy. In trying to sound different from those that have come before, they just end up sounding just like the 100 other bigger named bands that are out there...and the technical ability in the songs has drastically dropped too. BOY when Nirvana came out, they didn't just kill hair metal, they killed a lot of creativity in music, with their depressing lyrics...which instead of bringing people out of their shells...just drove them right back into them.

                  OK. done ranting now.
                  Jeffrey Collins: Painter
                  My Painting Blog

                  http://soundcloud.com/jeffreycollins
                  My Soundcloud page.

                  Comment

                  • |Thrax|
                    Platinum Poster
                    • Mar 2007
                    • 1744

                    #10
                    Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

                    Its not just pop music, crappy engineers are killing all kinds of music that sounds great and has great dynamics on LP.

                    or, they could just be making shitty music.

                    Jack Joseph, the guy in the OP quote, he might have recorded John Mayers second album well but it sounded horribly compressed once it was mixed..
                    This is the voice from planet love. Have no fear we are your friends. To bring peace and love to your world, we are sending you our very special agent. Her name is love love love...

                    -Chris
                    Myspace::Facebook:: NIGHTMOVES.ME nightlife+lifestyle photography

                    Comment

                    • fisheye
                      Addiction started
                      • Aug 2004
                      • 251

                      #11
                      Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

                      Is it possible the same thing is happening with contemporary EDM as opposed to the stuff released say, 10-15 years ago???

                      Comment

                      • |Thrax|
                        Platinum Poster
                        • Mar 2007
                        • 1744

                        #12
                        Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

                        no, because generally, the folks mastering these dance tracks are not professionals, or making it for the cd.

                        they compress and master a track loud!, without clipping (but most do) this is due to inexperience by the producer.or they just want their track loud.

                        but they are mastering for the club.. also, for big systems where compresion would destroy the sound quality,,

                        i would say EDM in general... 10-15 years later now is because generally, people are giant fucking noobs and produce shit.
                        they throw their hands in the air and become popular.

                        This is the voice from planet love. Have no fear we are your friends. To bring peace and love to your world, we are sending you our very special agent. Her name is love love love...

                        -Chris
                        Myspace::Facebook:: NIGHTMOVES.ME nightlife+lifestyle photography

                        Comment

                        • feather
                          Shanghai ooompa loompa
                          • Jul 2004
                          • 20895

                          #13
                          Re: Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?

                          But I remember another thread also talking about how DJs are using COMPRESSED files to play in clubs when they should know better ...

                          i_want_to_have_sex_with_electronic_music

                          Originally posted by Hoff
                          a powerful and insane mothership that occasionally comes commanded by the real ones .. then suck us and makes us appear in the most magical of all lands
                          Originally posted by m1sT3rL
                          Oh. My. God. James absolutely obliterated the island tonight. The last time there was so much destruction, Obi Wan Kenobi had to take a seat on the Falcon after the Death Star said "hi and bye" to Leia's homeworld.

                          I got pics and video. But I will upload them in the morning. I need to smoke this nice phat joint and just close my eyes and replay the amazingness in my head.

                          Comment

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