Digital music freaks step in>>>>

[headygouda]

I think I'm not the only one around here who has gotten rid of most of their CDs and gone exclusively to archiving digital music on hard drives and DVDs as data.. but my one problem has been how to play back all this stuff on a stereo and have it sound good. I finally splurged and bought myself one of these puppys, the best toy I've gotten in a while:

The slimdevices Squeezebox 2.

This sucker is wireless and has an ethernet connection and decodes mp3/ogg/flacs from my computer and feeds a nice clean signal to my stereo... has a sweet screen that scrolls song titles This really is a digital music freaks' dream come true. All my music at my fingertips.

Whats more, I can start collecting all the .m3u files from the archive to stream as much GD as I want.. .this little box decodes that too.

To top it all off, the software that it interfaces with is completely open source. So its freaks programming for the freaks... loads of custom plugins and whatnot. I can even read canada.com news updates off the ticker of the squeezebox!

Can you tell I'm a geek who can't hold in his excitement? I'm sure there are others out there that would get off on this like me ;o)

Just thought I'd share my excitement!

[SmoothedShredder]

Yup... that's the one.

Where do you get it... and what time does it open?!

[bouche]

hey, that's wicked!

[can-o-phish]

Digital Music Sucks!!! It may be convenient but where's the warmth? Where's the love? Squeeze this, compress that...

What I'd love to see is a 2" Studer in everyone's living room and stacks and stacks of good old analog 30ips reels...

I threw Brothers In Arms a few weeks back as this was, I believe, the first album to be recorded DDD and even though the music is spectacular, it's just too "clean & crisp"...It used to cost and arm and a leg to record digitally as opposed to analog and now it's a total 180...most bands would kill to track to tape but just way to fuggin' expensive...

When I master my recordings, I'm always trying to add just a touch of analog distortion digitally...

24-Bite-My-Ass...

(Please take this with a grain of salt or whatever spice you choose as those who know me also know that this is the world I work in)

[bouche]

I'll never understand that. How is something TOO clean? Why do pro-audio people purchase noise suppressors, and uber-high fidelity microphones/headphones and knock digital recording for being too clean? I just don't understand it.

I remember seeing an interview with George Harrison and he had said he didn't like the perfect sound of the CD remasters of the Beatles recordings. He said that there is nothign like the pops of an LP. I started there, wondering why the heck people want dirty noise on recordings.

It's all so ambiguious.

[SmoothedShredder]

"Hey Everyone, gather round, an old man is talking."

"Back when I was a kid, we planted a lemon tree, which was the sweetest fruit at the time."

Paraphrased from the Simpsons.

[can-o-phish]

No no no...I don't care for "pops, scratches and fuzz" either...

Kinda hard to explain without going AES Deep...I'm talking electrical "warmth" here that is inherently added into the signal and is very distinctive such as Neve EQ's and Pre-amps blah blah blah...

Next time we hand out Bouche I'll have some stuff to play for you and maybe it'll clear up the ambiguity.

"Uber-high" - love that word! I actually do love digital music and how it can be manipulated incredibly. Having great mics and pre-amps adds that warmth back in.

Jebus I'm not getting any work done today...

[headygouda]

Why would you want warmth added to everything?! I want transparency and clarity, so it sounds the way it was meant to sound. If something was meant to sound warm, then it will sound warm... if its supposed to be flat and crisp, then thats the way it is. Who says you can't have warm digital music? Besides, playback is still mostly analog... you can add plenty of warmth there - just get a tube amp! I agree, the analog stage is very important, especially since playback is still in the analog realm, which is why audiophiles spend thousands of $$$ on D/A and A/D conversion.

I think one of the main advantages of the digital realm is the hi-fidelity in reproduction. You can make plenty of exact copies and in a thousand years, it will still sound the same as it ever was. Why don't you get back to me when we're dead and tell me how your analog tapes are sounding then, assuming they haven't disintegrated.

There's plenty of love from me...for digital music ;o) Who said anything about compression? 24bit is where the detail's at.

And damn, why step into a 'digital music freaks' thread when digital music sucks?!?

Oh, I forgot. Its jerk week on the board ;o)

...dave, don't you have a DAT?! I'm assuming you transfer everything to analog tape for playback then? Do they still make maxell XLII's?!?

[can-o-phish]

Heh Heh Heh, guess I had that one coming...

Yes, I record with DAT, but I also have and do master back to 1/4" tape and have also taken a spectrum analization of frequencies and have applied it to mastering software...again, my love for the digital domain and how it can be manipulated...

I guess I should have started my post with "I love digital music but miss the analog warmth"...my fault...

Also nice to have friendly banter and I fully appreciated the ;o)

Maxell XLII's...lol...I still have a collection of shows on those...and my love for digital is also having not to worry about 2nd, 3rd, 4th generations etc...no more hisssssssss

Actually, part of our business that we're expanding is transfers of analog to digital to preserve and archive recordings...so when we're dead, we'll hang out and listen to the digitally preserved analog recordings...

Thanks for keeping me in line Gouda ;o)

[headygouda]

I love warm sounding hissss... add some warm pops to that too and I'm in analog heaven ;p)

As I said before, you can get plenty of analog warmth on the right playback system, since that is still in the analog realm. Get yourself a nice $10K tube amp and you'll be set!