Dear Anthony I used to be a non-listener, but bought an iPod last year and am convert ever since. MP3 is lousy quality, but if we start listening carefully so is CD. We have analogue ears and the square bits grate in them. MP3 cannot handle, for my ears anyway, high instruments, extreme dynamics and very delicate instruments. Made for pop, then. Or for listeing in the train, no problem for me then. But if I want to listen with care to details, I use a good quality set of Sennheiser headphones (I have no speakers of any quality whatsoever) on my old Philips cd player or even the cd player that came with my PC. I find that to give enough detail for checking my own recordings, for example. Doesn't get much more critical, does it? But headphones put you into the details, for more musical listening I prefer speakers, to get some distance and enjoy the emotional aspects of the msic in stead of the technical details. Vocal polyphony on headphones can be nice, but symphonic music on headphones is definitively weird.
Unashamed plug: get my Terzi duet cd and listen to the recording quaility: so clear, unbelievable. SACD hybrid for those who have the toys, but even the normal CD is beyond anything I have ever heard in recording quality. The MP3s on the net do not do it justice in any way. If you cannot get it in the shop I can send it to you for 20 euro, p&p included. End of commercial. David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anthony Hind" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute Net" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 11:28 AM Subject: [LUTE] Slightly off the gut topic? > To all who do not find this too off topic > > Choice of strings and choice of recording equipment (microphones, > etc) are clearly IN topics; but I am not sure that CD play-back is > (even if the lute is central to my question); so if anyone answers > this, they may prefer to reply directly to my mail. > > Over the last two years, one evening a month, I have had the good > fortune of being able to hear Renaissance and Baroque instruments in > the context of a Parisian "salon" (lutes, guitars, harpsichords, and > even, ouds). Thus I am so aware of the discrepancy between the sound > of an instrument, in such a context, and what people usually hear > through their hifi systems in their own "salon". > > Recent communications mentioned listening to the quality of gut > strings through the computer, using MP3 streaming. I feel that it is > already very difficult to hear the sort of musical texture I expect > from gut strings with a CD, on an average CD player, let alone on > MP3. There just does not seem to be enough detail and micro-dynamics > to be able to clearly hear the very special response of gut strings, > or any other strings for that matter. Indeed, it is rare to be able > to hear the micro-dynamics of the slightly rasping attack or the > crucial timing of the slowly dying note on a CD (I suppose this is > what hifi experts call "inner detail"). Macro-dynamics (overall > range), which are not really relevant to the lute, may well be > acceptably captured. > > My use of the word "gut-nut " (in a previous gut message), developed > from my exasperation with this situation, which lead me to > communicate with a number of hifi specialists, including an American > hifi company called "Audionuts". I tried to convey to them what I was > hoping to hear from a CD player, without paying the ridiculously > exorbitant prices that so-called "audiophile" players cost. After a > very helpful discussion with them, the "Audionut " person told me > "You are most definitely a true audionut." > And of course I took that as a very positive term, in the vocabulary > of this audiophile. It follows that my use of "gut-nut " should be > understood in the same positive sense. > > However, as a "gut-nut", when listening to lute music, I certainly > give almost as much importance to the texture of the sounds as to the > notes and rhythm (but the timing of the slowly dying note is, in any > case, crucial to the rhythm in the wider sense). I am aware that many > musicians feel no compulsion what ever even to listen to records, > having no time for non-live music and sometimes preferring to shun > listening to other people's performances; others feel they are so > musically aware that they can reconstruct the performance from the > most miserable of sound systems. While even others, use MP3 and > computers through convenience, because it does allow you to analyze > very closely some aspects of a person's performance. > > So my question is for the few, who like myself, really do like to > listen to other performer's lute music and want to hear the lute as a > lute, and not as some sort of amplified electric-lute with no > delicacy. My own ancient CDP, a 16 x 2 Sony player, recently began to > die, and an attempted replacement, a highly reputed player that will > remain nameless, was quite unable to give me the sort of detail that > I was hoping for, and then took a nose dive after barely a week. > > I would therefore be very grateful for a few personal messages, from > lutists who could put me in the direction of a CD player that is not > outlandishly expensive, but that does seem to retrieve some of the > micro-details I have described here. > > Thinking a little more about this, as many lute players do take great > care in how they have their lute music recorded, they may well care, > that much of this precious information is just lost in the vagueness > of playback systems; so perhaps this is not quite so OUT of topic. > nevertheless, I fear that for many, the computer has become so > central to their lives, as indeed it is to mine, that MP3 may well be > changing our listening sensitivities. > Regards > Anthony > > P.S. I nevertheless thank those very generous players like Edward > Martin & Paul Berget, Jacob Heringman, Paul Beier, and others, who > give us access to their music through Magnatune. It would be churlish > to criticize the MP3 quality of this very generous gift (which is > much better than most other MP3 streaming); and I hope this does not > prevent people from buying the corresponding CDs, as I have done > myself (some of these are remarkably well recorded, see the > interviews of the recording engineers on the Magnatune site). > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
