Is Quality Still Important?
Posted in Performance, Recording on May 19th, 2008
Music along with art have to be appreciated first hand. Second hand exposure does not affect the human psyche as great as physically being there to experience it first hand. There is something about live music and performance that is different than seeing or hearing from a recording. Without getting into the technicalities of audio recording, there is more sound being created in a live environment than any other medium. Although, it’s not the greatest example to use, but it’s the most accustomed to, the feeling of being at a rock concert is different than being in your car listening to the concert from a CD or digital music player. The concert makes you feel alive. It just does something to you as a person. The same goes for attending a classical performance in a performing arts concert hall.
Since we can’t all go to the concert venue every day, we rely on the great invention of Thomas Edison, the sound recording. Sound recordings allow us to experience music over and over again from wherever we are, the only difference is we don’t have that “Live” experience. Recordings are second generation from the original. One looses the physical experience of being there and having the sound envelop them. Yes, a recording done of a live concert has more of the interactive feel since it was based on the interaction of the audience with the performers, but the feeling is no longer there. Studio recordings are different as they are “manufactured” by the assistance of people and equipment in sterile environments.
Lately, with digital music players, there is something even more important lost and that is sound quality. If we were to listen to a live concert, then a recording, followed by a compressed digital version of the same recording, we would begin to notice differences. Sound is lost in the transfer from one to the other. The recording of the live concert was the greatest, the live recording is almost like being there as only a little was lost sound wise, but the third, if we really trained our ears to listen, would certainly teach us a lesson about compromising quality.
Even though records were replaced by CDs for the pureness, there was something about a record in terms of sound quality that outperformed digital. Records had the ability to reproduce a fuller reproduction of the original sound. Therefore, the listening experience was closer to the real thing and making a tape copy was a close second for similar reasons.
Regardless of media, there is one thing that has been lost in the compromise of sound quality and that is that there are less audiophiles (people who are fanatic about sound). Most of us have come to accept less than great, thus affecting our music appreciation of live music.
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