CDs are Officially Over

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Utter rubbish. Who convinced you of that.

A record technically has the actual sound waves recorded on it. Anything other format that we have has digital representations of the sound waves on it. Nowadays, when the recording process itself involves digital representations of the sound wave, pressing a record will obviously have only the digital representations that were recorded onto a hard drive. So, new records would have whatever quality they recorded at, provided that they kept that quality throughout the entire process. If they kept 24 bit quality throughout the process, the record could have 24 bit quality. CDs are 16 bit 44.1 kHz - meaning that 44100 times per second, there is a 16 bit (1s and 0s) code that represents the waveform at that moment.

DVD-Audio (which never caught on) is up to 24 bit, up to 96 khz for 5.1 sound, or up to 192 khz for stereo sound.

Any recording studio has been able to record at least DVD Audio quality for years.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

I wish they would hurry with another format, I need yet another version of Darkside of the Moon

I get the sarcasm, but there is a 4.1 unofficial mix of DSOTM (DVD-audio format) that is absolutely brilliant, there is no need for a higher sampling rate it's about as good as it will get considering the age of the source.

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I know what you were getting at but concert music is hardly the best quality. Venues suck, band makes mistakes and other factors make it inferior to an album recording.

I admit that good live performances are few and far between, but a good (especially outdoor) live performance is far and away the best audio experience I've had. Classical music (which I don't listen to much at at home) especially lends itself to the live experience.

Right now the major problem is that most people don't care about music quality. Using crappy headphones and having lossy music makes it sound like listening to AM radio.

I would not go that far, but true most people really don't care about sound quality, as long as it's "good enough". Many people I've talked to actually think the mp3 format produces superior sound to the compact disc.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by zamler

Classical music (which I don't listen to much at at home) especially lends itself to the live experience.

Classical music is MUCH better live. Often there are so many quiet things going on, that they get lost on a recording. Meanwhile, you can hear it all when listening live.

For example, I went to the CPO on Friday eve, they were playing Mahler's third symphony. In the first movement, a percussionist goes backstage to play a snare drum, to get a different sound out of the drum. In the third movement, there is a trumpet solo that comes from behind you up on a balcony. Those kinds of things are totally lost on a recording.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Utter rubbish. Who convinced you of that.

The best sound quality I have heard, hands down, was from vinyl played through a high end system. A CD on that same system was spectacular, but it did not have the warmth and natural, organic tone that vinyl produces. We can argue all day on what is technically better, but given the right playback equipment, vinyl is incredible. One of the records we played was Smackwater Jack by Quincy Jones, this recording is so incredibly dynamic on vinyl, it literally makes you jump out of your chair. And it's an all analogue process, recording to mastering to playback (discounting digital processing you may have in your playback equipment).

Problem is the format is very delicate, and wears itself out the more you use it.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

They don't care because it's good enough, and the best its ever been. Today's audio, even with the "crappy" headphones and lossy music, is light years ahead of cassette, 8 track, most home turntable gear, etc. The amps and tuners have lower distortion, the digital gear has better signal to noise ratios, speakers are far beyond where they used to be in terms of performance, sensitivity, frequency response, etc.

It's fine to be an audiophile, but at least recognize that you're sitting at the top 1% or less of music listeners, and that the gear that the common person has today is far superior to anything that's come before it - there's absolutely no way the average music listener is experiencing the equivalent of AM radio.

Have you heard some of the crap people download?

If everything you get is off itunes it won't make too much of a difference unless you are an audiophile.

Anything off a torrent site is totally unaccounted for. It could be a rip of a rip of a rip.

In fact, I'm not sure why you brought up home audio equipment at all. I only mentioned crappy internet rips and cheap $10 Radio Shack headphones. It amazes me that people can listen to that muffled garbage and not care. And why are you comparing it to technology from 30-50 years ago? Isn't this a thread about CDs?

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

It amazes me that people can listen to that muffled garbage and not care. And why are you comparing it to technology from 30 years ago? Isn't this a thread about CDs?

The compact disc IS 30 years old.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by zamler

The compact disc IS 30 years old.

Yeah that's why I changed it. I originally wrote 20 then had to change that. Damn, even I'm getting old.

Nevertheless, I don't know why he brought 8 tracks into this conversation or what that has to do with craptacular rips found on the internet.

I guess things used to be worse when my parents were kids so I'm not allowed to complain. Seems a bit weird to me.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Nevertheless, I don't know why he brought 8 tracks into this conversation or what that has to do with craptacular rips found on the internet.

In fairness, many encodes that I've heard from iTunes were absolutely terrible, I can do much, much better myself. But people don't care, I rescued some music for a friend from iTunes because the files were being held hostage by Apple's usage rights policy, some I was able to free up without re-encoding, others I could not. The person did not complain one bit or notice that some of the tracks are now encodes of encodes. "Good enough" is all most people want.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by troutman

What about small bands that sell CDs at concerts?

This will also be the end of cover art, liner notes and lyric sheets.

Communities need record stores.

Bands won't make albums any more - just release singles?

Probably. People don't listen to albums anymore. Most people I know don't buy music anyways. Actually, come to think of it, they don't even listen to music. They just "listen" to whatever is on the radio or pub in the background and maybe torrent some of it for their iphone.

Just don't tell them they're not music fans -- you'll be branded a music snob.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by zamler

In fairness, many encodes that I've heard from iTunes were absolutely terrible, I can do much, much better myself. But people don't care, I rescued some music for a friend from iTunes because the files were being held hostage by Apple's usage rights policy, some I was able to free up without re-encoding, others I could not. The person did not complain one bit or notice that some of the tracks are now encodes of encodes. "Good enough" is all most people want.

Ugh. I have a few rips of CDs that are harder to find in stores or that I didn't want to pay montrous amounts of money for.

I had to delete them from my ipod because the sound was so, I don't even know the word, choppy? fuzzy? No not quite fuzzy. Like I could hear the digitalness. That makes no sense. You know that sound from the Matrix when they go "into" the Matrix. That digital type sound? I hate that so much.

Then there's music that sounds like it has been ripped by some guy who recorded the song on his cell phone from a nite club.

And you're right, even on itunes there are some awful rips sometimes. Drives me nuts.

Luckily most of my music collection is from CDs and most of the rest from itunes.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by troutman

What about small bands that sell CDs at concerts?

This will also be the end of cover art, liner notes and lyric sheets.

Communities need record stores.

Bands won't make albums any more - just release singles?

I find some of those smaller bands get you by redirecting you to FB, Twitter or MySpace.

At the end of the day most artists don't get rich from selling CDs. They just need to get their name out there.

Hell they can hand out business cards with those barcode things on them like a BB barcode. Scan it, be redirected to their site. They're easy to produce.

[Azure]

About bloody time. 9/10 songs on a cd these days suck anyways.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Azure

About bloody time. 9/10 songs on a cd these days suck anyways.

What the hell did you expect from a Justin Beiber album?

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Azure

About bloody time. 9/10 songs on a cd these days suck anyways.

Must be the cds you listen to.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Azure

About bloody time. 9/10 songs on a cd these days suck anyways.

Then don't buy anymore ABBA CD's.

[Dion]

I used to have a rather large vinyl collection that I regret selling. To me the sound was so much better than what you get on a CD. A Theorns turntable with a high end reciever and speakers..... Nothing compares.

[Yeah_Baby]

I refuse to believe that people just listen to singles now.


/music snob.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Dion

I used to have a rather large vinyl collection that I regret selling. To me the sound was so much better than what you get on a CD. A Theorns turntable with a high end reciever and speakers..... Nothing compares.

Still got the Thorens?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Still got the Thorens?

Sold it to the guy who bought my vinyl collection.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Dion

Sold it to the guy who bought my vinyl collection.

damn, would have taken it off your hands, am using an Oracle right now but need a second table for the study