From: bad@pismo.sw.stratus.com (Bruce Dumes)
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles
Subject: Re: unlurking, and switching from vinyl to cd
Date: 10 Nov 92 18:58:44 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: pismo.sw.stratus.com

In article <740044@hpwrce.mayfield.hp.com> dennis@hpwrce.mayfield.hp.com (Dennis Alstrand) writes:
>
>I definately can see your point, but found the cds interesting in this sense:
>It was like hearing Beatles' music again for the first time.  This was
>closer to what they sounded like when they were playing the music with the
>intention for us to hear it.  
>
>I know the Beatles didn't want me to always hear that repeater skip I had
>on my What Goes On 45, but I heard it for years and just started expecting
>it.  I think I've finally gotten over that.  I LOVE the cds of the Beatles.
>Kind of like some of the cleaning up and recrecording they've done on the
>old big band stuff.  It comes alive again, like it was supposed to sound!
>
>I don't think later generations will miss a lot by not hearing the pops
>and scratches; in fact, they'll gain more than we had when our records
>were brand new.
>
>

I was trying to keep my mouth shut, but I feel compelled to respond.. 

The following comments are, of course, all IMHO.

CDs are not "closer to what they sounded like when they were playing the
music."  They are not "like it was supposed to sound".  These have been
digitized which changes the sound, whether you like CDs or not.  Some
people like digital sound, some don't.  But analog is not the same as
digital, and it doesn't sound the same.

The CDs are impressive.  You can hear little things that you didn't hear
as well in the albums.  This is because digital sound is different.  However
interesting these new sounds might be, it does not necessarily make the
music better, and it is *not* what the Beatles intended.  They never heard
these digitized when they were recording them.

Added to this is the fact that George Martin remixed two of the albums
for CDs.  I have a real problem with this, personally.  This is *obviously*
not the sound that the Beatles intended for us to hear, unless you subscribe
to the theory that George Martin *was* the Beatles.

Vinyl doesn't *have* to have pops and scratches.  You have to take care
of them.  You have to take care of CDs, too, or they die fast.  And when
a CD dies, it is completely useless.  You can at least still listen to
a record with pops.

To me, digitized analog recordings remind me of the expression about
not seeing the forest for the trees.  Digitized sound makes it even easier
to see the trees, but you lose even more of the forest.  I can hear more
little details in the CDs, but the original vinyl is, to me, much more
musical.

This doesn't even start to address the fact that both Sony and Phillips
have gone on record as saying that the current CD technology has inherent
flaws, but their brand new CDs (at $25 a piece!) will fix all those problems.
Please pardon my bluntness, but screw them!  They are playing the music
buying public like a violin, and the people just keep on giving them their
money.  The record manufactures stopped vinyl because CDs are cheaper to
produce and they can sell them for more money.  

If anyone would like to discuss this more, please e-mail me.

Bruce


-- 
Bruce Dumes			| "Bruce is too obsessed with the Beatles"   |
Stratus Computer, Inc.		|   --comment on report card from Spring '64 |
bad@sw.stratus.com              
508-460-2816                    
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles