Bob Dylan says modern music is worthless

[Cort Haus]

Chances are the studio has better speakers than Bob's home setup, which is why it sounds better in the studio.

Another possibility is that what he was listening to in the studio was mixed but pre-mastered, but what he hears on the CD was mastered, and he didn't like the mastering job.

It sounds like a whine though from Dylan, though. "Not as it was in my day etc".

Basically anyone who says this :

"I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really,"

is a ****.

[SlowwHand]

No wonder you people can't understand politics or religion, or anything controversial; when you miss the point entirely on a simple quoting of Bob Dylan.

Do you think rather than slamming all musicians of last 20 years, or saying that LP's were of better quality, that he might be voicing disappointment that cd recording quality hasn't improved more than it has in 20 years?

Bunch of crank yankers.

[Sava]

The technology now is better than it has ever been. I think the problem is that there aren't enough talented people using that technology properly. There aren't enough talented artists making music worth listening to.

As for stuff I like, there's been very little new stuff in the past few years that I've found myself listening to. Nobody has come out with anything good. And there haven't any good new artists that have come out that I can think of.

Most of the stuff I see in popular music is pure sh1t. But then again, I think that has been a consistent theme going back as long as I have been alive... and long before I was born.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Sava
The technology now is better than it has ever been. I think the problem is that there aren't enough talented people using that technology properly. There aren't enough talented artists making music worth listening to.

Don't blame the musicians, blame the cloth-eared industry that goes by fashions, accountants and above all, nepotism, rather than real quality.

I can't speak for your tastes, and the genres that you like, but its a well known fact within the industry that who you know counts for everything and what you can do counts for nothing.

A track off my band's album got to number two of the main US internet radio sideload chart (live 365) last year, only Avril Lavigne ahead of us, and it was top 10 for a month. What good did it do us? Almost nothing, as we've no industry backup to press the advantage, and it cost us a fortune to plug that one track.

I've seen a lot of live bands, and of the good ones only about one in twenty get any breaks from the industry. I've seen a fair few bands on their way up with industry/press backing, and only one in twenty of them is any good.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Do you think rather than slamming all musicians of last 20 years, or saying that LP's were of better quality, that he might be voicing disappointment that cd recording quality hasn't improved more than it has in 20 years?

See my post above, Sloww. What you hear in the studio is never the same as in the living room. Sikander is right - there are so many target system these days its harder to optimise the mix.

[Sava]

Well, I agree that is a huge part of the problem. People just aren't exposed to "good" music even if it exists because of the culture that surrounds the industry. It is all about the marketing, not necessarily the talent.

Can you blame me for having that impression? All the sources I am exposed to for music... I just am not hearing anything worth listening to. And from my point of view, it's been a steady downward trend the past few years.

Most of my tastes lie in the alternative rock, alternative metal, nu-metal type music... just to give you an idea of what I like.

But I'm not the type of person to seek out new music that I don't know anything about. I hate listening to live music. I don't like listening to music on the radio. I'm not a fan of "underground" stuff. I like listening to music that has the "polish" of a finished professional product. Most independent and underground artists don't have the resources to put out such music. It's not that they don't have the talent to make such music, it's that they aren't being given the opportunity to do so.

[Cort Haus]

Tell me what you think of the sound on this, Sava. It's alternative rock, and these days you don't need to spend £50,000 on an album (if you can find the right engineers) for it to sound OK. We did pay for a top mastering engineer, though, which counts for a lot. It cost about £2,000 to record and £500 to master. The second album will be better, though.

http://www.dinerhq.com/music.htm

(Best tracks IMO - Something Sounds Loose, Wolf, To the Coast, Medicine Man.)

[Sava]

I will give a listen a little later.

I run a lot and need music to listen to.

[Nostromo]

An example of the mastering problems you can encounter in CD's: clipping. And it seems its getting worse and worse. They're basically butchering the music to make it sound louder.

http://www.mindspring.com/~mrichter/dynamics/dynamics.htm

[RGBVideo]

21st century pop music

20th century rock music

19th century classical music

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by VJ
21st century pop music

20th century rock music

19th century classical music

QFT

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Tell me what you think of the sound on this, Sava. It's alternative rock, and these days you don't need to spend £50,000 on an album (if you can find the right engineers) for it to sound OK. We did pay for a top mastering engineer, though, which counts for a lot. It cost about £2,000 to record and £500 to master. The second album will be better, though.

http://www.dinerhq.com/music.htm

(Best tracks IMO - Something Sounds Loose, Wolf, To the Coast, Medicine Man.)

Your band sounds a lot like the bands I liked in the 80's like REM, Green on Red, Guadalcanal Diary etc... (three likes in one sentence )

Maybe you can get me backstage at Lowlands next year?

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


See my post above, Sloww. What you hear in the studio is never the same as in the living room. Sikander is right - there are so many target system these days its harder to optimise the mix.

Cort, I don't need to read your post to know that, although I did read it.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Tell me what you think of the sound on this, Sava. It's alternative rock, and these days you don't need to spend £50,000 on an album (if you can find the right engineers) for it to sound OK. We did pay for a top mastering engineer, though, which counts for a lot. It cost about £2,000 to record and £500 to master. The second album will be better, though.

http://www.dinerhq.com/music.htm

(Best tracks IMO - Something Sounds Loose, Wolf, To the Coast, Medicine Man.)

dude, that sounds really great. I'll have to pick that up (ie get it sent to me) in the near future.


actually, that is about spot on, my taste wise. I wish I had listened to it before. I wish I could do something to help you out with that, alas...

[Combat Ingrid]

Originally posted by nostromo
An example of the mastering problems you can encounter in CD's: clipping. And it seems its getting worse and worse. They're basically butchering the music to make it sound louder.

http://www.mindspring.com/~mrichter/...s/dynamics.htm

Shouldn't you get the best sound if you stay close but just below "max", like in the good old days when you were recording from vinyl to tape?
Old CDs with low recording volume does sound a bit "flat" to me, regardless how much you turn up the volume.
I guess it's this clipping that makes some of the newer (louder) CDs sound totally crappy when you make mp3s of them. Particularly the bass tends to sound spammy and distorted



Cort Haus: Not my kind of music, but I like the live sound on the production