Is Recording quality the real culprit?


We spend Thousands on trying to improve the sound of what we listen to. But isn’t it really more of a problem that we can’t really overcome, eg. Recording quality? It’s so frustrating to have a really nice system and then to be at the mercy of some guy who just didn’t spend the time to do things better when things were being recorded.

Fortunately many artists make sure things are done well, but so many just don’t make it happen.

It can sound really good but just doesn’t have that Great quality we desire.

So why are we wasting our time spending so much money on audio equipment?

emergingsoul

Well don’t we all need just a little more cow bell…LoL! You want to hear a recording done right…. Check out:

St. James Infirmary by Baba Blues on Glimer of Gold

@immatthewj - that’s exactly where my mind went when @curiousjim mentioned single mic recordings. The Junkies also cut their third album as a single mic recording in a church (like Trinity Sessions) called Sharon. However the record execs didn’t like the product and it was only released by the band in 2022. Sharon has several songs that wound up on Caution Horses (Tuesday Morning, Cheap is How I Feel, Powderfinger) along with other songs. I’m a Junkies junkie so maybe I’m not a good judge but it’s not clear to me what the issue was with Sharon. I think I’ll play it next to see if I can find the problem(s) 😀

Matt

I still sing along in my car with a subwoofer under my seat. It's all beating a log with a stick. The real question is why we enjoy it so much. Too many equate audio as some sort of search. It can be but to some it is a sad intersection of insecurity and cash/debt.

There are so many good recordings nowadays but you have to pay the premium.

My biggest issue is with vinyl pressing quality. I can't even hear what they intended in the studio because most modern pressings are so poor. Sure there's a few high fidelity companies and people trying to push the envelope, but there's just so much horrid vinyl out there it makes the music unlistenable for the modern music fan.