This. Good point about the slide, there are a number of singers and other performers whose style is technically 'wrong' who would become totally forgettable if it were 'corrected'.
Also, a lot of the 'corrections' being talked about in the article are indeed those which make the music 'alive'. For instance, I can send you note-perfect and timing-perfect MIDI files of Bach, which are boring. They sound (as they are) like a machine -- nothing to do with the sound card reproduction of the instruments, which is also perfect, but because they have no emotion, no variation in tempo or volume. They are, as some people accuse all of Bach of being, mathematical exercises.
One of the other points in the article was compression. "Let's remove all of the 'errors' in the volume". Yes, let's remove all dynamics so that every drumbeat sounds identical, so that no one ever has to adjust the volume of their car radio. Oops, you just lost all of the intentional dynamics as well as the unintentional ones.
It's what we mean when we say a recording has been "over-produced" (well, one of the aspects).
(Why do 'live' albums sell? Because there are a lot of people who prefer the sound of a band which sound like a band rather than like a machine..)
I would also much rather have a Cosmic Trifle CD to which I can listen than one who comes out after I'm dead but is 'perfect'. I'm glad that I heard "The Filk of Human Kindness" and "Dancing Flames" 20 years ago rather than waiting until they were 'perfect' recordings (and yes, if either were available on CD, straight from the masters with no remixing or 'tidying', warts and all, I would happily buy them and stick them in the car and listen to them over and over; the same for a number of other recordings of that vintage).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-11-15 09:57 pm (UTC)Also, a lot of the 'corrections' being talked about in the article are indeed those which make the music 'alive'. For instance, I can send you note-perfect and timing-perfect MIDI files of Bach, which are boring. They sound (as they are) like a machine -- nothing to do with the sound card reproduction of the instruments, which is also perfect, but because they have no emotion, no variation in tempo or volume. They are, as some people accuse all of Bach of being, mathematical exercises.
One of the other points in the article was compression. "Let's remove all of the 'errors' in the volume". Yes, let's remove all dynamics so that every drumbeat sounds identical, so that no one ever has to adjust the volume of their car radio. Oops, you just lost all of the intentional dynamics as well as the unintentional ones.
It's what we mean when we say a recording has been "over-produced" (well, one of the aspects).
(Why do 'live' albums sell? Because there are a lot of people who prefer the sound of a band which sound like a band rather than like a machine..)
I would also much rather have a Cosmic Trifle CD to which I can listen than one who comes out after I'm dead but is 'perfect'. I'm glad that I heard "The Filk of Human Kindness" and "Dancing Flames" 20 years ago rather than waiting until they were 'perfect' recordings (and yes, if either were available on CD, straight from the masters with no remixing or 'tidying', warts and all, I would happily buy them and stick them in the car and listen to them over and over; the same for a number of other recordings of that vintage).