Sound Obsession

As much as I love music, I am obsessed with sound as well. It's like a compulsive disorder. When I listen to music sound plays an important role to complete the experience. Although I wouldn't go as far as the fanatic that will still argue ten years from now that the analog sound from vinyl beats digital quality by a mile any day there are huge differences in today's recordings.

Sound can be affected on many levels. There are instruments with their specific sound, the mixture of instruments and sounds in a band, recording equipment, media and finally the broadcasting or amplification system. The end result, a combination of all of the above, can only be as good as the weakest individual link. You can have the highest quality recording on your disc of choice; if you listen to it through a pair of cardboard speakers it will sound abominable. You can have the latest high-end hifi surround sound system, if the studio used crappy microphones it will not sound good. I have to make two annotations here:
The most expensive equipment is not necessarily the best and some artists are aiming for a "crappy" sound that in itself holds a certain beauty or appeal.

Instruments play a vital role in the chain of sound. Today we have a wealth of instruments available for a wide range of prices. Although in general the price/quality balance seems to be intact, the broad range of available and affordable instruments raises the bar in quality from just a few years ago. Having said that, it is always important to look for instruments for a specific purpose or sound that one is trying to achieve. If I want to play metal I probably wouldn't use a Fender tweed blues combo. If I want to hear a full round jazz sound I probably shouldn't play an Ibanez JEM guitar. Of course this goes for any instrument, not only guitars and amps.

Another very important aspect of sound is the collaboration of instruments and players. Here is a tip for bands that often goes unnoticed and leads to a catastrophic live and studio sound: Play together and listen to each other. Tweak the sound as a band so that the individual instruments mix nicely. More often than not band members crank up their amps or monitors because they can't hear themselves or want to tone out the others. All it does is create a cacophony. Please, if you can't hear yourself, work it out together, adjust equalization to easier distinguish between instruments and vocals. My rule of thumb is that if a band sounds good on stage or in the rehearsal room it will sound good amplified or recorded. There is nothing worse for an engineer at a live show than to mix a band that sounds like a wall of noise on stage. The best part is that the audience usually blames the sound guy for the crappy sound.

When playing live the PA system and equipment plays an important role because it actually presents the end result to the listener. It is the recording piece, medium and broadcasting or amplification system in one. Although the artists and listeners have usually very little impact on the equipment and how it is used or operated it can make or break the band that I watch and listen to.

When it comes to recording there are many factors that play a role in creating that awesome sound. There are microphones, the recording medium, effects and countless other little things that take away from or add to the sound. Don't underestimate the cost/quality relationship in this area. I record all my music myself and it will always sound mediocre trying to come as close to what I envision as possible. But unless I have a professional studio with a professional engineer at my fingertips it will never excel above and beyond. Having said that, I believe that there is a bunch of horribly sounding music out there that has been released by major labels. Think about over-compressed, buttered up with effects or simply poorly mixed music.

I am not talking about the medium fro recorded music here because I don't want to spark the whole CD versus record discussion or analog versus digital for that matter. In my opinion, the differences in both are better scientifically measurable than actually physically noticeable with our ears.

When it comes to broadcasting or simply playing music on the home stereo or iPod good sound can be destroyed very easily. I understand that radio stations have the problem that a lot of music they play has different volume levels but please don't overdo the compression to even out the levels. There is nothing more annoying than having an acoustic guitar intro louder than the whole band coming in for the verse. That's like a huge anti-climax whereas the music was written to start out soft and then explode in your face. It's more like an implosion fading away. And believe me, the sound quality of instruments gets lost with compression and in some cases even the balance or mix goes to the dogs. There is a standard in the recording industry nowadays that implies that the higher the output levels the better. I wonder how far that will go and how much longer we can crank up those levels.