MP3

[Dave]

Alright, Karnack. I can remember when the CD recorded format was
considered the root of all evil. If it's not analog, it's not shit.
So tell me, o mighty music guru, what is the current take on "lossy"
recording algorithms such as MP3? I bring this up because I am
suddenly finding myself constrained on music choices by my self imposed
boycott of the MP3 format, just as Karnack was on the quest for vinyl
recordings. As an officianado of roots/americana music in my midlife
years, I find it particularly distressing that most of the cutting edge
bands in this genre are posting their stuff as free downloads on their
websites. CDs are not even available. So, I'm curious. Have you gone
down that slipperly slope to lossy recording hell?

[ficus]

I basically ignore MP3s... as I told someone yesterday who was
astounded I turned down an Ipod. I just don't have any interest in
carrying music around with me... if I did, I'd get a portable CD
player.

I have a CD player in my car and satellite radio, which does me just
fine. I also have a great stereo at home, which takes care of the home
part. I am not coordinated enough to walk and listen to music at the
same time, so it's not a good idea for me.

If you ARE into it and want high fidelity, make sure your files are the
highest res possible and not lossy encoded. I can tell the difference
right away in non noisy environments.

The whole posting thing is a tough problem... Bill's site has a few of
my tunes on it, I wanted the full Monte in terms of bandwidth, but it
kills you in download time. I ended up making a compromise between what
I thought was OK sound and speed.

BTW, mastering of CD's has gotten a LOT better; I've heard some that
(on a good disc player, not on your computer) rival some of my best 180
g vinyl.

Then again, most recent albums are compressed all to hell in the first
place, making it almost unlistenable.

[Dave]

I have no real interest in carrying music around with me while on foot
either. The problem is more of storage, accessability, and
convenience. I would really rather have my car music on some sort of
black box electronic device than CDs, since I've found that discs in
the car get scratched no matter what. My other problem is trying to
get tunes from bleeding edge bands that only publish to the web. I
hard some real interesting Indian rock from 'DET, and when I went to
check it out, I was stuck with MP3. And if I can't hear a high
lonesome C note from some down and dirty bluegrass band, it kind of
misses the whole point.
I guess my only hope is that memory gets so big and so cheap that the
need for compression becomes obsolete.

[ficus]

It will, but bandwidth will always be limited, which is why lossy
compression happened in the first place.

This whole deal about having 1000 songs on your phone is really
mystifying to me. Then again, it makes perfect sense for me to own 10
guitars, so to each their own.