Bono, Steve Jobs, etc.

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jan 10, 2010, at 11:14 AM, Monte Davis wrote:
> Most of us, most of the time, aren't listening intently enough, nor  
> are we
> listening in environments sonically clean enough, to hear what  
> TONEaudio is
> going on about.

And sorry if I'm getting perhaps a little too po-mo° but there is the  
consideration that typical distortions of lo-fi gear are already being  
factored into the mix of modern pop. Electronic processing and  
varieties of sonic distortion are now basic parts in the audio toolkit  
of rock/pop/pap musical subgenres. The dominant flavors of popular  
dance music production tend to squeeze out any contextual clues that  
might indicate that what's been recorded has any relation to so-called  
"Reality". Chamber orchestra in a stone cathedral? Get a pair of Klaus  
Heyne modified Neumann KM-84's set up on a stereo mike bar in an ORTF  
pattern, with the mikes up about seven feet, back about the same, give  
or take a few feet, set levels, press "record." Play it back on a good  
system and you can still hear the room.  Lady Ga-Ga? Fuhgedaboudit.  
It's the musical equivalent of a video game. Increasing bit depth  
won't do much if the masters already sound like 128 kbit/s.


° and if I can't do that here then where?