issue19

EMUSIC-L Digest                                      Volume 55, Issue 19

This issue's topics:
	
	Do You Miss The Hiss???? (2 messages)

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Date:         Wed, 11 Aug 1993 08:01:00 EDT
From:         Mario Vergona 
Subject:      Do You Miss The Hiss????

...Date line Old Rockers Home, London:
                                      Keth Richards commited suicide today
after hearing the latest dititally re-processed mix of SATISFACTION, they
finally cleared out all that distortion on the lead line.

Anyway,
        Last night I went to the B.B. KING BLUES fest, which featured
KOKO TAYLOR, LONNIE BROOKS, BUDDY GUY, ERIC JOHNSON and that most famous
star of stage screen etc AND OTHERS. So what does that have to do with the
ditital/anolog de-bate/tie-rate?  THIS: I had purchased the BB KING BLUES
SUMMET CD and listended to it about 2 hours before the concert. Some of
the songs on the CD were played at the concert, but they were far better.
No they were not that different, just better. After realizing this during
the concert I tried to put my finger on why this was true. I believe it is
that hiss from the interplay of the instriments, the amps the mikes the breath
of the people. This is what CDs strive so mightilly to eliminate. Records and
cassettes had their own built in ambiant noise, CDs do not. One of the things
that make the Korg Wavestation so great is that the sound is evolving, changing
as you play it. This causes its own ambiant hiss in the listeners ears. This may
why no matter how much time you spend recording something, it NEVER sounds like
what you were playing when you played it. Its the room noise, the hiss that is
missing. CDs are great for music recorded and heard first on CD, but whenever yo
hear something that you heard first on records they seem a little off. If the
purpose of recording is to capture a live performac, why are we trying to
sanitize/sterilize it so much? One of the reasons that U2 and Peter Gabrial reco
sound so great is that they are so dense. The producer has given interviews stat
that the room noise is a great part of the recording process. He even mikes it
on its own channel, having mikes placed in corners, close to the ceilings and
in the middle of the room. Digital is great, but sometimes there is such a
state of too much of a good thing.
                                   m

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Date:         Wed, 11 Aug 1993 14:44:03 EDT
From:         Bill Fox 
Subject:      Re: Do You Miss The Hiss????

Mario Vergona posted, in part:
> what you were playing when you played it. Its the room noise, the hiss that is
> missing. CDs are great for music recorded and heard first on CD, but whenever
 yo
> hear something that you heard first on records they seem a little off. If the
> purpose of recording is to capture a live performac, why are we trying to
> sanitize/sterilize it so much? One of the reasons that U2 and Peter Gabrial
 reco
> sound so great is that they are so dense. The producer has given interviews
 stat
> that the room noise is a great part of the recording process. He even mikes it
> on its own channel, having mikes placed in corners, close to the ceilings and
> in the middle of the room. Digital is great, but sometimes there is such a
> state of too much of a good thing.

        Before I start, Mario, let me just mention that your lines that
were longer than 80 characters got truncated before I received your post.
Please try to stay under 80.  It also helps improve legibility when you
get quoted by reducing the probability of lines wrapping.  Thanks.

        Start:  At least in pop (and probably many non-classical)
recordings (CD, LP, Cassette, whatever) the goal usually is NOT to
capture a live performance.  And some of the items you listed as hiss either
aren't hiss ("interplay of the instriments, ... the breath of the
people.") or are hiss of an annoying nature (amps, room noise).  Either
way, these particular items have nothing to do with the storage medium,
be it analog or digital.  Please don't confuse storage medium with
recording technique, production values, or the excitement of attending a
live show.

        Speaking of storage medium, I prefer digital to analog because
its quality (fidelity) is not dependent on the medium.  The tape hiss
and LP crackles, pops, and hiss, and the compression and restricted
bandwidth of both compared to CDs are not things I miss and do nothing
to enhance my listening pleasure.
("Records and cassettes had their own built in ambiant noise, CDs do not.")
Sorry, I don't think so.  That's noise which I can do without, thank you
very much!  But if you're talking about ambience (sound reflections in a
room, i.e. reverb), you'll find that (naturally and/or synthetically) on
most recordings.  Once again, that has nothing to do with the storage
medium.

        It boils down to this.  I'm not sure if I understand what it is
you've observed because you and I seem to assign different meanings to
various words and phemonena.  But I have no doubt that certain aspects
of your concert experience were far more satisfying than any recording
could ever be.

Bill Fox

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