Analogue is best: BBC article

[Mr Nad]

Interesting feature on the BBC News website... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19818425

While the move from analogue to digital recording has revolutionised music accessibility, Peter Mew from Abbey Road studios thinks it has come at a price.

"People are prepared to accept what we would consider lower quality - they don't seem to care as much that an MP3 is typically only 10% of the original sound," he said.

"It worries me that people accept that's how it should be - it isn't. The quality is not as good as it was in the 1990s. In some ways a cassette was better than an MP3 - it contained more data."

Artist Neil Young agrees and last week, in partnership with record label Atlantic Records, he launched a new high-resolution music-streaming service called Pono, which he claims will "save the sound of music" and offer an alternative to the compression of MP3.

"MP3s suck," Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Flea told Rolling Stones magazine. "It's just a shadow of the music."

[nat8808]

That's not exactly what it says. It only says that people are now prepared to accept poor MP3 quality, not that analogue is better than all digital - that's an extrapolation, reading between lines that aren't there.

I think this bit is more aplicable to me:


Musician John Maxwell-Hobbs, musician and former producer/director at The Kitchen studios in New York, believes the appeal of older equipment is that it is so much more tactile than a touch screen or a computer keyboard.

"To be able to grab hold of handles or knobs on a mixing desk you don't even have to look at them, you know where they are," he said.

"Rewinding a tape, you can physically see how much tape there is left... we are tactiley orientated."

Electronic drum kits still sell because of their physical appeal, he added.

"Every music shop has them, it's because it feels good to be bashing at something," he said.

A main reason I don't think I could embrace the usual type of file based system fully. I like to have a variety of interactions in life rather than do everything via a computer screen. One reason why vinyl is so nice.

Making music on a computer using a mouse and keyboard seems so alien to the music that it kind of kills any inspiration for me.

[Mr Nad]

OK - Analogue is preferred by some.

Hm... not quite as catchy. I had to hook you in somehow, so a half-truthful headline was necessary ;-)

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