Music downloads to increase music quality - whatever next?
I have just had an ear opening experience which has made me happier about the possibilities for music in the home than I have been in a long time. Before I explain all about this let me give you a bit of background.
I have been worrying lately about where the trend for music downloads and MP3 players is taking us in the longer term. I know there are more important things to worry about like third world debt, economic recession, famine, plague, and who will win master-chef, but for as long as I can remember I have loved music, so consequently I worry about quality.
Let’s face it the I-pod and its derivatives are great for listening to music on the go, shutting out the noise of fellow passengers on public transport, or for learning a foreign language in the odd spare moment. BUT THEY ARE NOT HIFI. Let me try and explain.
U cn prbly rd ths prtcly wth mob tels getg us usd to chopped words and abbreviations but I suspect that you would not find it particularly relaxing or enjoyable if your favorite newspaper decided to adopt this form of communication to save space; worse still imagine trying to read a whole book written like this. This is what MP3 compression is doing to the music, it chops bits out. I am not saying that it looses notes or turns a B flat into an A, but it certainly looses a lot of the ambiance and delicate musical clues that allow the emotion in a performance to be communicated. And this is not just classical music, this applies as much to rock, pop, jazz etc in fact any type of music where the performer is trying to communicate with the listener.
So to summarize, combine an MP3 download with the lo-fi speaker systems attached to most computer systems and the sound is enough to bring tears (of pain) to the eyes of any music lover.
But the mistake would be to look at the trend for downloaded music and assume this means the death of quality, or HiFi as it used to be known. And a big mistake this would be. Let’s think this through together: Downloaded music means.
1. Instant access to the music you want to listen to.
2. The availability of music from artists who do not have record deals.
3. The ability to listen to music that is not constrained by the quality limits of the CD format.
Yes, you spotted it, number three is the key to this somewhat rambling blog. Download quality does not have to be worse than CD it can be better!!!!! Hurrah, hooray, yippee etc etc etc.
CDs are recorded in 16 bit resolution at a sample rate of 44.1k/second Studios will usually record in a minimum standard of 24 bit resolution and a sample rate of 96k or 192k/second. This results in a sound quality sooooooo much better than CD, which unfortunately most people would have never got to hear, unless someone is playing music from a master tape at a hifi show for example.
But now we can in theory download music at these higher resolutions for playback at home as long as the record companies, artists et al publish them on the web for download. Suddenly downloads can are better than CD, better than hifi, they are true-fi, just as it came off the mixing desk. Which brings me neatly back to my ear opening experience today.
Those brilliant chaps at Linn products have obviously been giving the matter some thought and rather than try either to keep improving the sound of their CD players (which they do as a matter of course anyway) or accept that downloads will inevitably downgrade music quality, they came up with a product (well 2 actually, the Ackurate DS and the Klimax DS) that are designed to get the very best from downloaded material. What is really intriguing is that in doing this they have changed the way that I will listen to CD at home. I am going to record the CD on to a hard drive and not only do I get the benefits of convenience (I can find the album I want to listen to immediately) but I get better sound quality.
If you really want to change the way you listen to music for the better then have a look at the Linn web site ( http://www.linn.co.uk/ ) for details of these two products rather than me clutter up this blog any more. I've got music to rip and listening to do! Long live downloads!
Jeff
I have been worrying lately about where the trend for music downloads and MP3 players is taking us in the longer term. I know there are more important things to worry about like third world debt, economic recession, famine, plague, and who will win master-chef, but for as long as I can remember I have loved music, so consequently I worry about quality.
Let’s face it the I-pod and its derivatives are great for listening to music on the go, shutting out the noise of fellow passengers on public transport, or for learning a foreign language in the odd spare moment. BUT THEY ARE NOT HIFI. Let me try and explain.
U cn prbly rd ths prtcly wth mob tels getg us usd to chopped words and abbreviations but I suspect that you would not find it particularly relaxing or enjoyable if your favorite newspaper decided to adopt this form of communication to save space; worse still imagine trying to read a whole book written like this. This is what MP3 compression is doing to the music, it chops bits out. I am not saying that it looses notes or turns a B flat into an A, but it certainly looses a lot of the ambiance and delicate musical clues that allow the emotion in a performance to be communicated. And this is not just classical music, this applies as much to rock, pop, jazz etc in fact any type of music where the performer is trying to communicate with the listener.
So to summarize, combine an MP3 download with the lo-fi speaker systems attached to most computer systems and the sound is enough to bring tears (of pain) to the eyes of any music lover.
But the mistake would be to look at the trend for downloaded music and assume this means the death of quality, or HiFi as it used to be known. And a big mistake this would be. Let’s think this through together: Downloaded music means.
1. Instant access to the music you want to listen to.
2. The availability of music from artists who do not have record deals.
3. The ability to listen to music that is not constrained by the quality limits of the CD format.
Yes, you spotted it, number three is the key to this somewhat rambling blog. Download quality does not have to be worse than CD it can be better!!!!! Hurrah, hooray, yippee etc etc etc.
CDs are recorded in 16 bit resolution at a sample rate of 44.1k/second Studios will usually record in a minimum standard of 24 bit resolution and a sample rate of 96k or 192k/second. This results in a sound quality sooooooo much better than CD, which unfortunately most people would have never got to hear, unless someone is playing music from a master tape at a hifi show for example.
But now we can in theory download music at these higher resolutions for playback at home as long as the record companies, artists et al publish them on the web for download. Suddenly downloads can are better than CD, better than hifi, they are true-fi, just as it came off the mixing desk. Which brings me neatly back to my ear opening experience today.
Those brilliant chaps at Linn products have obviously been giving the matter some thought and rather than try either to keep improving the sound of their CD players (which they do as a matter of course anyway) or accept that downloads will inevitably downgrade music quality, they came up with a product (well 2 actually, the Ackurate DS and the Klimax DS) that are designed to get the very best from downloaded material. What is really intriguing is that in doing this they have changed the way that I will listen to CD at home. I am going to record the CD on to a hard drive and not only do I get the benefits of convenience (I can find the album I want to listen to immediately) but I get better sound quality.
If you really want to change the way you listen to music for the better then have a look at the Linn web site ( http://www.linn.co.uk/ ) for details of these two products rather than me clutter up this blog any more. I've got music to rip and listening to do! Long live downloads!
Jeff
posted by Castle Sound & Vision at
13:02
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