When I have time, I like to listen to my old albums. (For the older people, who know what I'm talking about, don't giggle.) For the younger people out there, albums came before CD's.
They were made out of thick vinyl. About 12 inches across. Had LOTS of grooves for the music to be stored on. And they were delicate, you had to hold them carefully as not to damage them.
Think of how much music you could store on a 12 inch wide CD or MP3 disk. WOW! Now you know why we loved them.
OH! And the music was on BOTH sides.
They held almost a full hour on each full disk. MORE WOW!!!!
OK. So that isn't so great, but..
the sound you got off of one, was as pure to the screwed up sound you get from a live band. Mistakes were included because if the band made a little mistake, the process of correcting it usually meant re-recording the whole song over. Too much time wasted there. So mistakes were a part of the recording.
And hey, bands make mistakes.
Also, if you weren't careful in handling them, they got scratches. Scratches of course change the sound that came off the record. Much like CD's. Only worse. Laser doesn't play an album, a needle actually goes into the groove to "read" the recorded sounds impressed into the vinyl. Same practice, different method of retrieval.
The big thing is, A CD is digitally mastered. A computer puts out all the finished sound. The band doesn't even have to be there for most of a song.
A musician puts down a couple chords, or riffs, and goes home. A TECHIE does all the rest of the work at a keyboard and sound board. NO SCREW UPS. YAAYYY!
No soul either. The sound ends up sterile. Everything perfect.
I have talked to the younger people at work and most of them say they were disappointed when they heard the band play live. I quote, "Man, they sucked." They can't play the "perfect" sound their CD had, not in a million years. Major bummer, Dude.
Man, I love old "live" music. The bands sometimes sound better live because they can let loose on a song, with no time limits, and no "PERFECT" sound competition from themselves.
I'll take the "pop" and "hiss" any day.
..I once heard someone say the following -"they were perfect, it was just as if we had put a poster of them up on our wall and pressed play on the cd, they never played a wrong note"...I decided there and then never to go see dire straits live :^)...
Posted by: billy | October 02, 2003 at 02:39 PM
One of the overnight announcers on WGN in Chicago feels strongly that the old albums have better sound than CDs. I've heard them discuss it again and again. It's possible he was referring to the fact that the errors aren't removed.
Posted by: Buffy | October 02, 2003 at 04:05 PM
Old albums have a "personality" to them you just can't get on CD. I used to listen to a group years ago on album, until it was broken. I replaced it with a CD, (I had a tape of the album), it sounded "wrong". I played the tape and the CD side by side and there were definitely differences. The CD was remastered with Dolby for better sound quality. All that did was level the peaks and valleys in the original music and made it sound "FLAT".
Posted by: Wichi Dude | October 02, 2003 at 09:10 PM
Albums are definately better than CD's. (My dad's collection is awesome), but being a kid of the CD generation I hae to say that watching bands play live is so much better than both.
Ok, the sound guy may stuff up for the first two songs and get the levels wrong, but the sound itself is excellent - best described as raw. Both CDs and albums are no substitute for going to gigs, the athmosphere, the noise, the sweat of other people.. ;-)
Posted by: Jester | October 03, 2003 at 08:40 AM
I'd have to agree with you Jester. Live is an experience. Few bands can duplicate the sound of a recording, (though I've been to a few, even before lip-synch). A GOOD band can make a live show better. A lot of people I've talked to today, expect a band to be as "clean" as the recoreded sound is. Ain't gonna happen. Garbage will get through, as well as mistakes. It will be closer to the album sound than the CD sound.
As far as live goes otherwise, you can't beat the atmosphere that comes with it. Makes it a "total" experience you can't find anywhere else.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | October 03, 2003 at 09:06 AM
...hehehehehehe...could I recommend fate::unknown if you download their mp3's you might think they are awful - but live they are awesome!!...but I think that can be said for a lot of groups - u2, queen, sex pistols, fate::unknown, cheap trick, oasis these are groups that love their music and their love comes through so much better live...david bowie (who is one of my rock idols) looks and acts bored on stage (he even checked the time twice on his watch) - by the end I was glad to leave and go back home to my albums :^(...
[ps. sorry for the plugs for fate::unknown but I am a very proud dad :^)]
Posted by: billy | October 03, 2003 at 10:28 AM
Gee, billy, I hadn't noticed. A couple groups I have seen live that were as crisp as their recordings or better, were Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Queen, Rush, Heart, Sammy Hagar, Styx, Van Halen, Blue Oyster Cult, ZZ Top and a couple more. Most of these groups are "old school". I've seen newer groups and most don't compare. Like I said, they relied to much on the digital world. Not that they aren't good, just not honed on the road like older groups had to be.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | October 03, 2003 at 02:51 PM
....eeeeekkkkk...not boc :^(...the rest I'll give you :^)..but I reckon that 'old skool' came thru the basis of being good and the selling..as opposed to groups these days who start by selling first and then being good :^(..
Posted by: billy | October 03, 2003 at 04:45 PM
Could very well be the case. What is wrong with B.O.C.? I got lucky when I saw them last, ALL the members (from who knows how many incarnations there were. Kind of like YES, almost a new band every other week.) were on stage, about 13 of them total. Unbelievable sound. Had to be there to appreciate it.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | October 03, 2003 at 04:50 PM
Wichi Dude - got here via your comment at my joint. Hey, my mon has a giant stack of 78rpm records! Too bad they aren't in very good shape or thry would be worth some $$$ to someone, somewhere. My aunt has some of those old metal records with the perforations and the machine that plays them - too cool! Take whatever you want from that collection of fine invectives!
Posted by: The Bartender | October 09, 2003 at 09:46 PM