I don't often weigh in on discussions, especially if they get technical,
but I do have an opinion on this issue. I think it is all to easy, in
this day and age of high fidelity musical perfection, to lose sight of
the fact that music doesn't have to be, and isn't meant to be, perfect.
It is meant to be personal, with all the interesting imperfection that
entails. People can get awfully snobby about it, but for me it all
comes down to playing your instrument (even if it is from a kit!) and
having fun. Viva lo fi! Suze
Arle Lommel wrote:
Hi all,
We have pretty good evidence that tastes have changed even in recent
years without going back to before 1900. You can find recordings of
Hungarian hurdy-gurdy players from the 60s, those who belonged to the
last generation of "traditional" players, and the sound is not what is
currently aspired to. It sounds very whiny to modern ears. Here I am
thinking in particular of one player who was widely considered the
master behind the revival. None of his students have kept the very raw
sound of his playing, yet it agrees with other recordings from the
period. So some of what we now consider unpleasant was considered
ideal at the time. I love Hungarian HG, but I have no real desire to
sound like the old players overall. I do admire different elements of
the playing, but I'm afraid the expectations really are different.
If anyone is curious about these archival recordings, I could make
some small snippets (within fair use) and post them for you to hear. I
warn you that they won't be pleasant...
By the way Colin, old vinyl, when well cared for and before it has
worn out, actually is a truer sound than a CD, which effectively runs
a very high-pass filter due to the sampling rate. Vinyl actually can
preserve high harmonics that are completely lost in a CD. The trick is
to find a record that isn't worn out or scratched and that was pressed
with the best quality.
-Arle
On Feb 5, 2008, at 10:44 AM, Colin wrote:
I think we must also acknowledge that, whilst we thought 78s were
fantastic and 33 1/3 and 45s marvellous in the days of vinyl, the CD
has brought a new understanding of what sound can be.
We accepted the old records (with all the scratchy sounds etc because
it was the best available.
The same can be said of special effects in films (anyone watched the
original Flash Gordon films?). I thought they were state of the art
back in the 50's when I saw them (although I do have them all on DVD
now).
Regardless of how instruments sounded at the time, there wasn't the
choice. You either liked what you heard or you didn't. We may say
NOW that the sound was (or may have been) harsh to our ears but I
doubt the comparison could have been made then.
On the other hand, they may have had some way of making them sound
perfect and we have lost the method.
Because we just don't know, it seems fair enough to make instruments
as best we can today without speculating what a similar instrument
may, or may not, have sounded like many years ago.
Colin Hill
--
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