Crystals, Metal, Plastic, and the Pod People
Funny, ironic, eye and ear opening is that in spite of advancements in the state of the art in music media, a "good old fashioned" vinyl LP with all of it's warts and imperfections is often more enjoyable than a CD aluminum disc, and usually more so than an mp3 file. Not as convenient, but more satisfying, musically. More invloving. More of the "there" is there.
What is essentially a rock being dragged through grooves on a piece of plastic still gives 24 bit digital to analog converters being fed bit for bit "perfect" data clocked to picosecond precision a run for their money when it comes to endorphins---experiencing the feeling and emotions of the artist---the essence of music, the soul, the ongaku. The why.
Through a transmission medium from sampling/capture/recording to archiving to distribution to replaying, something happens along the way, a little something is altered or lost in one or more of the steps. Digitization only facilitates archiving and distribution in the digital domain. In conversion from and to the real world of analog, the meatspace where we actually hear, listen and feel, practice and theory diverge slightly and it is not quite so textbook simple as the hype of "perfect sound forever" would lead one to believe.
Further adding insult to injury, the mp3 lossy compression process throws out the majority of the information, retaining a simple envelope or shell with essentially tuned whistle filters to reconstruct just enough of the original to be recognizable. Representational cartoon art in a way, just of enough of the original textures remain for your ear/brain to fill in the missing details. Digital fatigue.
A junk food diet of processed, filtered and fake items ultimately leaves one less than satiated no matter how flashy the packaging: feelings of emptiness, restlessness, boredom, disconnectedness will eventually demand attention, could take minutes, could take decades, but eventually the lack from an empty shelled, superficial experience will kick in. Dumbing down, while exploited as cute, is ultimately boring. Then the search for soul, depth, spirit, meaning, connection, and fulfillment begins.
Processed music is like that: flashy and enticing and convenient but sooner or later, boring and lacking something.
Ever experience the joys of visiting a good LP/vinyl record store and discovering the smells, the textures, the history, the cover art --- the stories waiting to be told again?
What is essentially a rock being dragged through grooves on a piece of plastic still gives 24 bit digital to analog converters being fed bit for bit "perfect" data clocked to picosecond precision a run for their money when it comes to endorphins---experiencing the feeling and emotions of the artist---the essence of music, the soul, the ongaku. The why.
Through a transmission medium from sampling/capture/recording to archiving to distribution to replaying, something happens along the way, a little something is altered or lost in one or more of the steps. Digitization only facilitates archiving and distribution in the digital domain. In conversion from and to the real world of analog, the meatspace where we actually hear, listen and feel, practice and theory diverge slightly and it is not quite so textbook simple as the hype of "perfect sound forever" would lead one to believe.
Further adding insult to injury, the mp3 lossy compression process throws out the majority of the information, retaining a simple envelope or shell with essentially tuned whistle filters to reconstruct just enough of the original to be recognizable. Representational cartoon art in a way, just of enough of the original textures remain for your ear/brain to fill in the missing details. Digital fatigue.
A junk food diet of processed, filtered and fake items ultimately leaves one less than satiated no matter how flashy the packaging: feelings of emptiness, restlessness, boredom, disconnectedness will eventually demand attention, could take minutes, could take decades, but eventually the lack from an empty shelled, superficial experience will kick in. Dumbing down, while exploited as cute, is ultimately boring. Then the search for soul, depth, spirit, meaning, connection, and fulfillment begins.
Processed music is like that: flashy and enticing and convenient but sooner or later, boring and lacking something.
Ever experience the joys of visiting a good LP/vinyl record store and discovering the smells, the textures, the history, the cover art --- the stories waiting to be told again?
posted by wildmonkeysects at 7:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home