Major music labels to dump CD format in 2012

[blueblood]

That's the main issue with these young ones...they have never heard anything better. They think that's what recorded music is suppose to sound like. And the more compressed files they can buy or steal to cram on an iPod the better.

Same goes with AM vs FM/satellite/Internet radio.

I have to use the iPod and fm transmitter to listen to grunge rock on the machinery radio, but if I want country music, I switch to the AM radio station. For some reason it sounds better on AM radio

[Wild Bill]

Same goes with AM vs FM/satellite/Internet radio.

I have to use the iPod and fm transmitter to listen to grunge rock on the machinery radio, but if I want country music, I switch to the AM radio station. For some reason it sounds better on AM radio

You're right,BB! And once again there's a technical reason for it. The sound is familiar - it's what you grew up on!

Music on AM radio is put through a compressor/limiter and an equalizer, to boost the mid frequencies and make the average level louder. This is because historically most of that music was listened to in cars or with small, table top radios, where the speaker(s) were small and unable to properly reproduce the full hifi audio spectrum. Car systems today are much better but still nowhere near as good most of the time as a proper home hifi setup.

After a number of generations of this tone it has become a de facto standard, since people have been born, grown old and died listening to it.

Hippy times of rock and roll, in the late 60's and early 70's, was a revolution in radio sound. Formerly you only found classical music but with so much of rock encompassing a wide frequency range, like Moody Blues, Genesis and others, music quickly moved to the FM band. At the time country was much less popular than it had been and so many AM stations took to it in order to survive, having lost much of their popular audience.

If you have them available, try listening to the same rock song on an old 45 and then on an LP. Right away you'll likely notice that it's not just that the LP song is longer than the "3 minutes or less" AM version on the 45. The fidelity on the LP will be far higher as well, as the LP was always used as the source to play the song on FM. The tone will seem louder and "punchier" on the 45, as it was equalized for the AM band.

[bush_cheney2004]

.... The fidelity on the LP will be far higher as well, as the LP was always used as the source to play the song on FM. The tone will seem louder and "punchier" on the 45, as it was equalized for the AM band.

Right, but to be completely accurate, LP's employ linear compression as well, at least your garden variety pressings with RIAA equalization. (I don't know if the RIAA applies in Canada content land, but I will assume it does for any records imported from evil America.)

So what we did in the day was respect the already good dynamic range of an LP (about 60db) and boost it with expanders and companders (e.g. dbx 3bx} in the tape monitor loop, and maybe add an equalizer for sound shaping for the room's acoustics. This is/was active listening by an engaged consumer trying to milk every bit of performance out of a recording.

Records were not only reviewed for artistic performance, but also record engineering. Something like Steely Dan's Aja would just blow your socks off with amazing precision from a hyper elliptical diamond stylus.

[Wild Bill]

Right, but to be completely accurate, LP's employ linear compression as well, at least your garden variety pressings with RIAA equalization. (I don't know if the RIAA applies in Canada content land, but I will assume it does for any records imported from evil America.)

Yep, we used RIAA as well. Our markets were always too integrated to use something different. Even most of our hifi manufacturers were either branch plants of American brands or building American brands under licence.

Radio Speakers of Canada in Kitchener/Waterloo Ontario built Jensen speakers that way. It was a good deal for all parties in the days before NAFTA, when otherwise American speakers couldn't be imported without paying such duties as to make them uncompetitive.

This was one of the major objections up here to the Free Trade deal between our Mulroney and Ronald Reagan. With the tariffs removed much of such manufacturing was shut down. The brands just kept warehouses here, fed by manufacturing down south. The problem of course was that warehouse jobs don't pay as well as manufacturing ones. Now it seems like BOTH of us have nothing but warehouses, with the manufacturing done in China!

[olp1fan]

Right...it's about the size of a postage stamp. Not the same, son.

its the size of a screen

[wyly]

I hear you there, same goes with radio. Listening to country music on anything but AM should be considered a crime.

country music should be considered a crime...

[olp1fan]

country music should be considered a crime...

I'm no Country music buff but there are a few pretty good country songs...anything that is George Strait and Brad Paisley are quality

I like Miranda Lambert too

Edited November 17, 2011 by olp1fan

[wyly]

first my 8-track collection becomes obsolete...then my reel to to reel,...then my cassette collection...then my vinyl collection..then my VHS.....now my cd's? what's next my dvd's??? ...

Edited November 17, 2011 by wyly

[olp1fan]

first my 8-track collection becomes obsolete...then my reel to to reel,...then my cassette collection...then my vinyl collection..then my VHS.....now my cd's? what's next my dvd's??? ...

who nose

Edited November 17, 2011 by olp1fan

[GostHacked]

first my 8-track collection becomes obsolete...then my reel to to reel,...then my cassette collection...then my vinyl collection..then my VHS.....now my cd's? what's next my dvd's??? ...

I'll be more that happy to take your obsolete vinyl collection off your hands!!

[wyly]

I'll be more that happy to take your obsolete vinyl collection off your hands!!

I was cleaning up the storage space the other and had look in the boxes of vinyl, forgot what I even had, first two I pulled out was a never played jimi hendrix LP and a hendrix 45(possibly 33 1/3)...then I put them back in the box a shoved the box back under the stairs...

[GostHacked]

I was cleaning up the storage space the other and had look in the boxes of vinyl, forgot what I even had, first two I pulled out was a never played jimi hendrix LP and a hendrix 45(possibly 33 1/3)...then I put them back in the box a shoved the box back under the stairs...

That might actually be worth something. I have a good deal of James Last records that are in near mint condition. I just need a decent record player..... guess I'll be picking one of those up soon.

In the end I am disappointed you would not want to just give them to me !!

[wyly]

That might actually be worth something. I have a good deal of James Last records that are in near mint condition. I just need a decent record player..... guess I'll be picking one of those up soon.

back in the sixties I had a rare beatles 45 "my bonnie" looking up it's value now it's at 5K, I left it at my mothers house when I moved away from home and she decided it was a good idea to store my vinyl collection in warm spot next to the furnace ...don't think I have anything like that value anymore.... and I still have my turn table stored away somewhere in that crawlspace...

In the end I am disappointed you would not want to just give them to me !!

ya I'm a bit of a packrat something I learned from my dad, never throw out anything that's still good you may have need it someday...stupid habit but hard to break...

[BubberMiley]

back in the sixties I had a rare beatles 45 "my bonnie" looking up it's value now it's at 5K, I left it at my mothers house when I moved away from home and she decided it was a good idea to store my vinyl collection in warm spot next to the furnace

You can probably take comfort that it very likely wasn't the original British pressing from before they were famous and was just one of the many, many subsequent pressings made after they were famous.

[wyly]

You can probably take comfort that it very likely wasn't the original British pressing from before they were famous and was just one of the many, many subsequent pressings made after they were famous.

nope no comfort it was early and very original..now you ruined my day, I did a 2nd search..."my bonnie/saints" canadian pressing decca 10-15K depending on condition, only 5 known copies ...american pressing have been valued as high as 25K...I'd be lucky to $50 for my mint hendrix...

[maple_leafs182]

Young dude! You should ditch those ear buds or those rinky dink small speakers! You know, the ones you bought when your woman complained the old ones were "too big!", that you just couldn't hear with your receiver turned to '10'!

So you go back to the store and the salesman asks you what kind of receiver you have and snorts "That old thing's your problem! You need this 300 watt home theatre machine!"

...

I will take your word for it, you sound very passionate and knowledgeable on the subject. I just don't have that kind of money to spend, downloading music off the internet is a lot cheaper...its free : )

[GostHacked]

I will take your word for it, you sound very passionate and knowledgeable on the subject. I just don't have that kind of money to spend, downloading music off the internet is a lot cheaper...its free : )

I've been using sites like Soundcloud to download music from other people out there creating music. Many have their stuff available for download, and it's free!!

[blueblood]

country music should be considered a crime...

I left the door wide open for that one!

[GostHacked]

country music should be considered a crime...

If you go classic country you'll be fine. The modern format of country is closer to rock now than anything.

[wyly]

If you go classic country you'll be fine. The modern format of country is closer to rock now than anything.

if I was forced to listen to classic country I would drive an ice pick into my ears for relief...

[wyly]

doublepost...

Edited November 20, 2011 by wyly

[blueblood]

If you go classic country you'll be fine. The modern format of country is closer to rock now than anything.

That depends on which artist, although you are right in that more and more are taking that route. It has to be because of modern demographics.

Kenny chesney is a soft rock artist.

[dre]

That depends on which artist, although you are right in that more and more are taking that route. It has to be because of modern demographics.

Kenny chesney is a soft rock artist.

I think the same thing has happened to rock as well. Music in GENERAL has been watered down as artists and the marketing execs they work with try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, and crank out those Top 40 hits.

[GostHacked]

I think the same thing has happened to rock as well. Music in GENERAL has been watered down as artists and the marketing execs they work with try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, and crank out those Top 40 hits.

I jumped the Rock ship (for the most part) almost 20 years ago. For me it's electronic music.

But for good rock, Rush, Tool, Dream Theater, .. and some metal like Arch Enemy.

ANd you are right, it's all watered down and generic sounding after some time. I can't tell what band I am listening to most of the time, they all sound the same to me now. I guess I am not the common denominator.

[blueblood]

I think the same thing has happened to rock as well. Music in GENERAL has been watered down as artists and the marketing execs they work with try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, and crank out those Top 40 hits.

One also has to remember that a music genre lasts for 5 years to a decade and people typically like the music they grew up with. I personally like grunge style music, and rock music like that, I also know they don't make it any more because it's passé. I'm sure hair metal fans were pretty upset when smells like teen spirit put the death blow to hair metal, just as I was upset when eminem helped bury rock music. There has been cheesy dance music for as long as I remember.

I think kids ten years from now will ink music down the line gets watered down for the same reasons you listed. Cest la vie in the music biz.