This has been a stimulating and provocative thread for me because several posts have prompted me to identify the key variables that determine my satisfaction with recordings. By way of background, though I did work for a couple of years on a "mixing team" for a small producer of high quality choral recordings, most of my experience has been as a double reed player and choral singer.
As of today, here are my variables of determination:
1. Recording quality. This to me means overall production values. Recording technique, mixing decisions, quality of equipment etc. This for me is a dissatisfier rather than a satisfier in the sense that good production (which is what I think some of you mean when you speak of an "audiophile" recording) does not really turn me on to a recording but poor production really turns me off.
2. "Goosebump factor". This is an undefinable something that has to do with listening context, my own history, and the particular characteristics of the performer. It is the emotional impact of the performance on me; definitely a satisfier rather than a dissatisfier. I listened to Willie Nelson sing Bridge Over Troubled Waters at the Olympics closing ceremony through the built-in speakers of a neighbor's 27 inch Magnavox. Production values and sound quality were shit but WOW did it give me g'bumps. An evocative performance of the Hindemith 2nd organ sonata can have the same effect. So can a well-conducted rendering of the last four minutes of Gotterdammerung, or a well played verson of Piano Man, or Alison Kraus and the Cox Family.
3. Technical performance quality. This is the variable that I hear mentioned least often on audiogon and similar fora. I sometimes listen to a recording just to see if the performer can play/sing it right. For example, Nicholas Harnencourt's style of conducting and interpretation tend to rank quite low on my goosebumps scale but I sometimes listen to his recordings just because he is so technically demanding. No wrong notes, no sloppy entrances, no crappy intonation, no out-of-tune passages. On the other hand, if the g'bump factor is really high, performance quality can be overlooked, else no one would ever be able to tolerate Janis Joplin. This is highly individual, of course. I can listen to Johnny Cash for an hour and his rotten pitch and absolutely terrible vocal production won't bother me at all but five minutes of Charlotte Church and I'm going nuts because the girl just can't sing. Sometimes either will satisfy me. I enjoy hearing Dale Clevenger hammer out the Strauss 1st horn concerto because he makes it alive and exciting. I equally enjoy my old mono recording of Dennis Brain playing the same work. Brain's interpretation is much less evocative but I really enjoy the pure precision of his playing.
Anyway, I'm not sure what all this drivel means but thanks for helping me try to clarify it in my own mind. If anyone has a clue what I'm be talking about, please write and explain it to me.
Will
As of today, here are my variables of determination:
1. Recording quality. This to me means overall production values. Recording technique, mixing decisions, quality of equipment etc. This for me is a dissatisfier rather than a satisfier in the sense that good production (which is what I think some of you mean when you speak of an "audiophile" recording) does not really turn me on to a recording but poor production really turns me off.
2. "Goosebump factor". This is an undefinable something that has to do with listening context, my own history, and the particular characteristics of the performer. It is the emotional impact of the performance on me; definitely a satisfier rather than a dissatisfier. I listened to Willie Nelson sing Bridge Over Troubled Waters at the Olympics closing ceremony through the built-in speakers of a neighbor's 27 inch Magnavox. Production values and sound quality were shit but WOW did it give me g'bumps. An evocative performance of the Hindemith 2nd organ sonata can have the same effect. So can a well-conducted rendering of the last four minutes of Gotterdammerung, or a well played verson of Piano Man, or Alison Kraus and the Cox Family.
3. Technical performance quality. This is the variable that I hear mentioned least often on audiogon and similar fora. I sometimes listen to a recording just to see if the performer can play/sing it right. For example, Nicholas Harnencourt's style of conducting and interpretation tend to rank quite low on my goosebumps scale but I sometimes listen to his recordings just because he is so technically demanding. No wrong notes, no sloppy entrances, no crappy intonation, no out-of-tune passages. On the other hand, if the g'bump factor is really high, performance quality can be overlooked, else no one would ever be able to tolerate Janis Joplin. This is highly individual, of course. I can listen to Johnny Cash for an hour and his rotten pitch and absolutely terrible vocal production won't bother me at all but five minutes of Charlotte Church and I'm going nuts because the girl just can't sing. Sometimes either will satisfy me. I enjoy hearing Dale Clevenger hammer out the Strauss 1st horn concerto because he makes it alive and exciting. I equally enjoy my old mono recording of Dennis Brain playing the same work. Brain's interpretation is much less evocative but I really enjoy the pure precision of his playing.
Anyway, I'm not sure what all this drivel means but thanks for helping me try to clarify it in my own mind. If anyone has a clue what I'm be talking about, please write and explain it to me.
Will