Bob Dylan recently said that today’s recordings are not up to par with those of past decades. He said “You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them…. There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like … static.”
There are lots of things that make this comment worth consideration.
- How is that different than Bob’s voice (which I personally love, in spite of its timber)?
- Is it the recording and duplication process that is to blame, or is it the quality of the music being produced?
- Or is it just Bob’s 65-year-old ears?
In any case, I am not trading any of my CDs for my old 8-track of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (1967).
I think that Bob was talking about #2 – the recording and duplication process – combined with the format.
While I agree that nobody should trade their CD player for an 8Track it is true that Vinyl had a larger frequency range then CD’s do – and you are always going to lose something in the digitization.
Additionally mainstream music today is hyper processed and compressed.
If you are interested check out digression on this topic:
http://www.thisdamnblog.com/rjs-musical-challenge-and-what-dylan-said.php