In Search of Lost Sound

I've been wading through the back end of my music catalog, dusting off CDs I haven't played in years and giving them a spin. It's funny to recall how excited I was to hear my first few CDs from the 80s. At the time, it was remarkable enough to listen to a technology that didn't have tape hiss or platter noise. Twenty years later, the sound quality of most of these discs is lamentable. In fact, there are cases where the record delivered better.

Split Enz is one such band. I happen to think "Hard Act To Follow" (from Waiata or Corroboree) could well be the best-sounding pop single from the whole scad of 80s New Wave acts. I love its frenetic build-up, the galloping coconuts in the background, the paced alteration of synthesizer sound-effects that trickle or tumble to set the mood. And the mood is ... well, it's either delighted or tormented, depending on the listener's point of view. Is the singer's object of affection a "hard act to follow" because she is no longer in the picture? Did she leave because she was fed up with his slightly creepy obsessiveness? Did he crowd her out? Is she still there? Is this his clumsy way of saying, "After you, there's nothing, baby!" Whatever the case, this is not a sweet Beatles-esque ballad -- it has a distinctly uncomfortable edge to it that is all its own.

And darn it if the CD isn't lacking the spacial ambience of the LP. I'm guessing the songs have been compressed to aid speed of CD production. I'm certainly not going to complain about the price of the disc, which even at the time of purchase sold for less than $10. But the final sound is a flat echo of what had once been so encompassing and moving -- further motivation, perhaps, to let the past be the past.

Wait a second: did someone say, "Remixed and remastered?"

I Killed High Fidelity. And So Did You.

This is an interesting piece on the death of high fidelity sound (link via ALD). Robert Levine covers a wide swath of ground and blames everything from the ubiquitous mp3 to grunge rockers in the 90s to the inescapable sound competition in common listening environments (the car, or the kitchen).

I'm somewhat conflicted on the whole issue. On the one hand, I very much enjoy a larger, more spacious sound (here I lament what compression does to the 80s New Wave band Split Enz). On the other hand, I find the whole DVD Dolby Digital Surround Sound ("5.1" on-the-verge of evolving to "7.1") phenomenon to be just a bit too much. I am not at all keen on turning what might otherwise be a perfectly functional family rec room into a personal planetarium because, frankly, that sort of sound envelope gets me feeling queasy after a while.

I propose the industry meets me halfway. I used to love listening to my records on an old pair of 70s-era headphones. I can recall a particular chimes track on a Rush album that began at the right ear, then seemed to travel over my scalp to land at my left ear. The new Donald Fagen DVDs are engineered for spatial effect, but I don't get that same sense using headphones. Is the difficulty with my headphones? Is this "loss" a function of age? Or are there headphones that can simulate some of the Surround Sound effect, but not enough to induce me to reach for the barf bag?

Fagen has a lot to say on this issue, of course. I find the "Classic Albums" documentary on Aja endlessly fascinating, particularly when Fagen and fellow Dan-man Walter Becker go through a particular cut track by track and explain how the sound layering works. Fagen's Morph The Cat won a Grammy for its 5.1 mix. Levine's article has some fun contrasting sound files, so here is how Fagen's most recent CD sound levels contrast with his earlier work. This is the title track from Morph:



And this is the title track from his 1982 album, The Nightfly:



While I do enjoy the 5.1 tweaking that the latter track has received in DVD format, I'm also disappointed I don't have a "louder" CD version to play in my car. Ah, well: caveat emptor. Such are the pratfalls inherent to a consumer culture.