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dintymoore
Guest
That's not an improvement, that's a convenience. An improvement would be if the sound was better than it was 50 years ago. It isn't, the sound is worse, not better.
Here's what I meant: where's the improvement that I can hear? You can't, because digital has not caught up to where analog was. It will, but so far it's de-evolution. It's cheaper, you can do it in your bedroom, you can copy tracks and make them play backwards, but "improvement in audio"? Not to my ears.
He couldn't... he's only 26
Don't know where you got that! I have a picture of me playing piano in 1957 and I was playing gigs in 1968.
Here's my take:
1. start: song, arrangement, singer, musicians, musical instruments, room, mics
2. middle: mic pre, A/D conversion, computer, effects, eq, mixer
3. end: speakers, room
The advances in the last 50 (I'd rather say 40 'cause there was big improvement from 1960 to 1970) are almost all in the "middle". That's minor compared to the "start" and "end". The start and end are almost exactly the same as 1970. That's why I say there's been almost no major improvements in audio in the last 40 years (I changed it to 40, sorry). I'm talking about stuff you can hear. I could do what I do in 1970 and it would probably sound better than today. That's not an improvement. I'm talking about stuff you can hear, not cheaper or the fact that you can do it in your bedroom. There's nothing that sounds better that Dark Side of the Moon that I've heard.
People need to realize that digital is where cars were in 1920 - it sucks and the treble is making everyone sick!
Do I like all this computer stuff? Of course, it's incredible!
Is it an improvement in audio? Not so far. It's in a temporary stage on it's way to getting it right. Eventually it will surpass analog, because it will end up being analog. Nature has a digital basis. Analog and digital, in the end, will be the same.
The basis of what I'm saying is that there's been near no change in transducers (mics and speakers) and the rest doesn't matter near as much as the transducers. What's improved is very minor.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
He couldn't........he's only 26
I think he meant GuitardedMark !
I'm not really a mind reader !
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Can Yoko Ono play bass ? 
philbagg
Just Killing Time
philbagg
Just Killing Time
How about upsampled audio? The ability to convert a 44.1kHz file to 96kHz, as if it were always 96kHz.
Or even mp3 compression, to convert a 128kbps mp3 file to 320kbps and actually improve quality.
That'd be pretty cool
Or even mp3 compression, to convert a 128kbps mp3 file to 320kbps and actually improve quality.
That'd be pretty cool
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dintymoore
Guest
How about a different way of making sound other than a speaker. Speakers are nearly the same as they were in the 1930's. They've gotten better (no surprise) but they are basically the same magnet with a diaphragm design. Same with mics.
That was my point before, that all the improvements have been in secondary things while the main things have changed very little in 50 years.
This is the opposite of the what the musical instrument manufacturers want you to think - that there's been lots of change and you should buy the latest offerings.
That was my point before, that all the improvements have been in secondary things while the main things have changed very little in 50 years.
This is the opposite of the what the musical instrument manufacturers want you to think - that there's been lots of change and you should buy the latest offerings.
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moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Hey dinty we should more than likely change the way our brain interprets sound! That will revolutionize everything.
100 years from now someone will be reading these archived posts and be sparked to do just about everything listed here with the technology on hand in the future.
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dintymoore
Guest
... 100 years from now someone will be reading these archived posts and be sparked to do just about everything listed here with the technology on hand in the future.
It reminds me of all the predictions made in Popular Mechanics magazine in the 1960's.
Pretty much none of their predictions ever happened.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Yup ....the flying car got squashed by the government and moved the UFO phenomenon into the world of crazy people.
That's just one example.
mshilarious
Banned
The latest thing in mics in MEMS, but they are still kinda primitive. Also, there is work being done with piezo film sheets as speakers.
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dintymoore
Guest
It's funny. I remember going to this incredible movie theater in 1968 when I was 11 in Manhatttan to see "2001: A Space Odyssey". The people sitting in front of us were smoking a joint and my Mom had a big smile about that, I barely knew what it was.
Back then we thought by 2010 that we'd be living on the Moon and would have been to Mars several times. If you told someone that we'd go to the Moon for the last time in the early 70's and then not again for 40 years or more people would have been shocked.
The amount of "futuristic" stuff in 2010 is very small compared to what everybody expected. We didn't foresee that the government would be taken over by radicals posing as conservatives.
Back then we thought by 2010 that we'd be living on the Moon and would have been to Mars several times. If you told someone that we'd go to the Moon for the last time in the early 70's and then not again for 40 years or more people would have been shocked.
The amount of "futuristic" stuff in 2010 is very small compared to what everybody expected. We didn't foresee that the government would be taken over by radicals posing as conservatives.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I started school in 1968. It came as a shock to me. I didn't forsee that !
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dintymoore
Guest
Just checked out MEMS. Microphone on a chip... wonder where that will be in 50 years.
When I was a kid my Dad had the living room turned into his own Heathkit experiment and one of the things he had, I believe from the infamous Lafayette catalog, was a pair of square styrofoam speakers. They were about 12" x 18" and looked pretty much like the lid off of one of those cheap coolers. Made out of the same breakable stuff as styrofoam cups. They had a thin wire imbedded all around the perimeter. They sounded really good for plectrum stuff like acoustic guitar music. He'd use them with his regular Heathkit speakers. I've never seen them since.
Ray Kurzweil is a smart cookie. He talks about future miniaturization and we don't think about that much as far as music but it probably will impact us in ways we don't even expect.
I remember in the 70's in school they told us that someday every home would have a computer and we didn't know what the heck they were talking about.
Rothko
New member
I don't know, what about the internet? I actually think the internet might be the most revolutionary thing to happen to human civilisation since the industrial revolution. Its the kind of thing Arthur C. Clarke would have written about fifty years ago and people would have gone "damn man, thats pretty out there, guy's got a swell imagination..." It makes up for the lack of hovercars and telekinesis machines in my opinion.
Also, I'm new here. Howdy.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Howdy right back at cha Rothko and welcome.
Rothko
New member
Thanks man
Just to add my two cents, I totally agree about digital being a convenience rather than an improvement, but it cant be a bad thing that more people are able to record. Some of these people might turn out to be total geniuses, right?
Also, to quote Steve Albini "I don't really think the recording is that important to a great record. Great records would be great under almost any circumstances. Mediocre records that might otherwise have been unlistenable, well, yeah, I guess it matters then. An excellent recording can make a crappy record into one that is merely unremarkable. What kind of accomplishment is that? "
Just to add my two cents, I totally agree about digital being a convenience rather than an improvement, but it cant be a bad thing that more people are able to record. Some of these people might turn out to be total geniuses, right?
Also, to quote Steve Albini "I don't really think the recording is that important to a great record. Great records would be great under almost any circumstances. Mediocre records that might otherwise have been unlistenable, well, yeah, I guess it matters then. An excellent recording can make a crappy record into one that is merely unremarkable. What kind of accomplishment is that? "
Dark Imagery
New member
Hmm, 20 years from now...
The Guitar Hero guitar will have 6 strings and 24 frets...
The Guitar Hero guitar will have 6 strings and 24 frets...
S
stevieb
Just another guy, really.
Ah, true, but it already does end up being analog. No matter WHAT it is, anywhere along the signal stream, when it comes out of the speakers... it's analog.