Re: Why contemporary music sounds terrible

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 26 feb 2007, at 16.48, Krispen Hartung wrote:

> This is an interesting article posted on the jazz guitar discussion  
> group
> http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/xl/ 
> 2006/09/28cover.html


Thanks. THat was interesting. I think this passage is important:

> We listen to music in completely different ways than we did 20 or  
> 30 years ago. For most people, music is listened to on the go, in  
> cars, on headphones while running, on computers at work. Music has  
> to compete with the sound of your car's engine, has to punch  
> through the background noise of street traffic or a loud office.


Personally I like up-your-face sounding mixes when it is motivated by  
the music - after all it's more about making a statement or providing  
a tapestry then about bringing a listener for a journey. However,  
most music I enjoy listening to would sound terrible with such a  
treatment. I must be light years away from the average modern  
listener. I don't have a car, but if I had one I would like to drive  
it at night when the streets are empty so I could fully enjoy the car  
stereo. I think most people on the list rarely listens to music that  
is given that squash-it-all mastering. At least all the musical  
references given in posts indicates this.

Per

BTW - Kris, I have only listened to online excepts of your space  
mandolin album but it sounded very good and I generally like long  
songs with a lot of air on long CD's (or even better: long online  
playlists that never end). A listener can stop the music if he should  
feel tired or need to go to the room or whatever.... but if there are  
no Great Extended Music created you may never get the chance to hear  
it. Remember the Sleep In Concerts :-))