[lunberg]

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor

After reading the entire article, I understand Uncle Bob as saying no one has recorded a record that sounds good. He is most defiantly speaking about his own releases as well. Read carefully, Bob didn't say no one had recorded a good or even great album the past 20 years......he just doesn't think any sound that good. The key word is sound...... as in production / the digital age.

It's fine to disagree, but please offer an album that will make your case.
[/font]

Beck's Sea Change sounds good to me. I don't really understand why Dylan hates modern age recordings.

[lunberg]

Speaking of recordings has anyone noticed that in recent SY releases the drums sound stiff ?

Comparing how the drums sounded on Sister and how they know sound on rather ripped, or murray street, it seems to me that the way they record produces a flat and muffled sound. Does this have anything to do with their studio or something?

[gmku]

I do find it fascinating that there is so much variation in the "sound" of a recording--from album to album, engineer to engineer, studio to studio.

[porkmarras]

If anything i think that digital recording has opened the doors to a whole set of new possibilities for musicians and producers alike.As i posted earlier,it's all about the talent and creativity.The actual technology has very little to do with anything.

[sonicl]

Just ahead of the release of his first album in five years, Modern Times, Bob Dylan has called the quality of modern recordings "atrocious." In an interview with Jonathan Lethem of Rolling Stone magazine, the folk icon complained they just don't make records like they used to.

"The records I used to listen to and still love, you can't make a record that sounds that way," said Dylan, 65.

He recalls former Beach Boy Brian Wilson's technique of laying down records with four tracks, an effect that cannot be recreated with today's studio sessions.

"You do the best you can, you fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really," he said.

Dylan acknowledges the days are gone when musicians could make songs to play on record players. But he says he still thinks the CD lacks something. "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like — static," he said. "Even these songs [on his new album] probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em." he said.

"I remember when that Napster guy came up across, it was like, 'Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.'"

[porkmarras]

Originally Posted by sonicl

Just ahead of the release of his first album in five years, Modern Times, Bob Dylan has called the quality of modern recordings "atrocious." In an interview with Jonathan Lethem of Rolling Stone magazine, the folk icon complained they just don't make records like they used to.

"The records I used to listen to and still love, you can't make a record that sounds that way," said Dylan, 65.

He recalls former Beach Boy Brian Wilson's technique of laying down records with four tracks, an effect that cannot be recreated with today's studio sessions.

"You do the best you can, you fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really," he said.

Dylan acknowledges the days are gone when musicians could make songs to play on record players. But he says he still thinks the CD lacks something. "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like — static," he said. "Even these songs [on his new album] probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em." he said.

"I remember when that Napster guy came up across, it was like, 'Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.'"

Another severe case of blaming the format but not the musician.If the music is that good,trust me,you wont fucking care about the format it's played in.Bob Dylan didnt make a good record in years therefore he should know better.

[alyasa]

The warmth and crispness of an early Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin record is hard to beat, even with modern technology. It's quite a well-known fact, that modern hip-hop and electronic music producers are trying hard to emulate the warm tone of John Bonham's drums on his Led Zeppelin recordings; unfortunately, none has succeded.

[sonicl]

I wonder whether the "warmth" of analogue recordings is actually a (fortunate) side effect of a shortcoming in the recording process, though, and that the digital process actually creates a more accurate, but less appealing, representation of the true sound in the studio?

[alyasa]

That could very well be the case, but then Mr Dylan would be right, and no music made in the past 20 years has been worth paying for...

[porkmarras]

Don't think so.

[alyasa]

I do think the actual process of recording in the studio nowadays has somewhat diminished the passion of playing music. This could very well be the reason for the 'coldness' of digital recording. Having to record each instrument seperately and having the vocals and everything else layered on after the fact, doesn't really lend itself to spontaneity or bursts of creative impulse...

[porkmarras]

But,sorry,what sort of experience are we talking from here?

[alyasa]

I understand that recording techniques today call for precision and accuracy in the actual process, therefore a band would, most of the time, be called on to record tracks seperately with a click track as a metronome... This is quite common from what I understand and though there are still bands who record live, this is mostly a privilege.

[porkmarras]

So you are basically saying that recording digitally doesn't leave space for experimentation?That is rather inaccurate,i'm afraid,and i would know as i record digitally a lot.

[alyasa]

I'm saying that within the traditional bounds of playing live with a rock band or any type of band music, especially where improvisation is a big part of the music, the recording studio can sometimes be a tad bit stifling. There are constraints and limits to the process as there are with anything, but I agree it is up to the indiviual and the artist to transcend this barrier and move forward with the music. Like how Sonic Youth reinvented rock music.

[porkmarras]

Bizzarely enough,noone has mentioned yet that different recording processes can be used at once.What would you make of that?Lunchtime now,i'll be back in a bit 'cause Thurston Moore said something really interesting a few years ago about the way SY record their records and i want to quote him.

[porkmarras]

Right,i can't remember exactly where i've read it but Thurston once said that when SY recorded an album,if a song felt like it required a stereo sound it would be given that type of sound whereas if a song felt like it needed some mono sound that's the way it'd be recorded.

[alyasa]

Yeah, that's the luxury of having your own studio and being creatively independent, as entailed in their contract with DGC...

[porkmarras]

Ok i'll answer to that kchris style,alyasa:
But i think that he said that before they signed for Geffen!!I'M NOT STRESSED OUT!I'M NOT STRESSED OUT!I'M NOT STRESSED OUT!!

[porkmarras]

I'm not stressed out
Analog sound vs. digital sound

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An analog recording is one where the original sound signal is modulated onto another physical signal carried on some media or substrate such as the groove of a gramophone disc or the magnetic field of a magnetic tape. A physical quantity in the medium (e.g., the intensity of the magnetic field) is directly related to the physical properties of the sound (e.g, the amplitude, phase and possibly direction of the sound wave.) The reproduction of the sound will in part reflect the nature of the substrate and any imperfections on its surface.
A digital recording is produced by first encoding the physical properties of the original sound as digital information which can then be decoded for reproduction. While it is subject to noise and imperfections in capturing the original sound, as long as the individual bits can be recovered, the nature of the physical medium is immaterial in recovery of the encoded information. A damaged digital medium, such as a scratched compact disc may also yield degraded reproduction of the original sound, due to the loss of some digital information in the damaged area (but not due directly to the physical damage of the disc).


Contents

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• <LI class=toclevel-1>1 Advantages of analog sound <LI class=toclevel-1>2 Disadvantages of analog sound <LI class=toclevel-1>3 Advantages of digital sound <LI class=toclevel-1>4 Disadvantages of digital sound <LI class=toclevel-1>5 Shape of the waveforms <LI class=toclevel-1>6 Quantization and very low signal levels <LI class=toclevel-1>7 Problems with early digital recording technology <LI class=toclevel-1>8 Was it ever entirely analog or digital? <LI class=toclevel-1>9 See also
• 10 External links

//
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Advantages of analog sound

• Analog recording is a linear representation of a linear waveform, and therefore more accurate
• Shape of the waveforms: analog sound appears "warmer", "smoother" more "three dimensional"
• Lower distortion for low signal levels
• Absence of quantization noise
• Absence of aliasing
• Not subject to jitter
• Euphonic characteristics

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Disadvantages of analog sound

• Linear access
• Subject to electrical and mechanical hiss and noise
• Subject to wow and flutter
• Tape is expensive to buy and maintain
• Regenerations are inferior quality

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Advantages of digital sound

• Non-linear access
• Lower noise floor
• Regenerations are exact clones
• Resistance to media deterioration
• Ability to apply redundancy like error-correcting codes, to prevent data loss
• Data channels allow digitally encoded information about the owner, track titles, and other information

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Disadvantages of digital sound

• Digital recording is data which represents measurements of voltage amplitude which have undergone quantisation
• Sound reconstructed from digital signals is claimed to be "harsher" and "unnatural" compared to analog signals
• Quantisation errors
• Aliasing noise
• Subject to jitter
• Some formats are subject to data compression causing frequency loss and distortion
• Due to regenerations being exact copies, piracy across the internet and via duplication is easily carried out and is of the same quality as the original media