The Telegraph has an interesting article and video about the resurgence of vinyl records. I know a few people with really high end record players who swear the vinyl sounds way better than CD. And it does. CD technology hasn’t changed since the 80s. We are still pressing out 44.1Khz 16bit music for the majority of the stuff pressed. On iTunes, I think they upped the bit rate to 256 AAC, but the music is generally mixed down to 44.1 and 16 bits still. There are exceptions here and there. Most computer speakers and the headphones that come with an iPod/iPhone won’t do that stuff justice anyhow.
Five years ago, vinyl records were facing extinction but the past few years have seen a remarkable change in fortunes. In 2011 alone, sales have risen a further 40 per cent, to a quarter of a million units. Radiohead’s The King of Limbs, the year’s biggest seller on vinyl, shifted 20,000 copies. That was enough to persuade the band’s label, XL Recordings – also home to the mega-selling Adele – to announce the launch of a new vinyl webstore in the United States this month.
This author has some very old school ideas of how we need to listen to music. Basically, ban any electronic devices in a concert. Sure, ok, I can see muting them…..no one wants some a**holes ring tone interrupting Beethoven…..but banning them outright?
I think a better idea would be to engage the audience, maybe have an APP or something that is following the music. So you could see the score, or maybe what a particular instrument is playing RIGHT NOW or maybe have an interactive guide that has analysis of the piece as it is being played that can be highly detailed or simple enough for a rock drummer to understand.
Running away from technology is guaranteed to kill any type of music. They need to embrace it, and look for new ways to engage the audience when they are there, and to draw in new people into classical, or any type of music (except for maybe Country……and Dubstep……and some Rap…….and…….no that’s it)
Create Digital Music has an interesting article about using your old Nintendo NES with Apple’s Logic Studio. Not sure exactly why you’d want it, other than maybe to get your geek on and add some Mario sounds to your next album.
If you want some more nutty things, check out Musicthing. They have things like making a mellotron out of 4 walkmen, and other strange things.
Jazz-Sax, all things Jazz and Sax