Sounding like the artist intended?

Posted by: solwisesteve on 08 January 2019

In the world of hifi I often hear people talking about how xyz music sounds when played with such-n-such kit but are we missing the point here? I mean shouldn't the aim be to reproduce the music to sound exactly as the artist intended? I think this is particularly relevant when playing vinyl where I hear comments like people like the warmth of the vinyl sound where the "warmth" of the sound really means a bass sound that is less accurate to the source. So the aim, IMO, should be to reproduce the music as close and as accurate as intended by the artist i.e. as it sounded in the mixing booth or studio (or stage if live). To that end surely the only hope of achieving this nirvana is using a digital source where the recording is taken as close as possible from the digital mixing?

So talk of this system or equipment sounding better than another should really come down to which sounds the closest to the original. Not which has the best bass extension, or sweeter treble, or better sound stage but which is the closest to the source. If the source has rubbish bass then the reproduction should sound the same even if it sounds rubbish!

If you get what I'm saying :-)

Posted on: 09 January 2019 by Innocent Bystander
yeti42 posted:

I listen to and enjoy more a wider range of music than I used to but it's a long time since I was able to stay engaged by Dark side of the Moon for the whole album, the 4th album I bought, 

Gets played.from time to time, still does it for me!

Posted on: 09 January 2019 by SongStream

With all the variables to be considered, what is the best thing a speaker or electronics designer could do to preserve artistic intent?  I mean, not the actual sound from the mixing desk and studio monitors used, because that would be impossible, but the musical message.  What approach would best achieve the emotional response desired, regardless of the recording / mix quality?  

Posted on: 09 January 2019 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Emotion is an interesting one.. the AES published an interesting paper on this a little while back.. in summary from memory this paper demonstrated the emotional response cues were largely cultural and nurtured, but not entirely. There were certain sounds and musical phrases when prominent in a mix or solo were perceived to trigger emotional responses and feels... what I seem to remember was that this correlation of musical phrase/ sound to emotional response for the most part was not dependent on the fidelity of the reproduced sound.

Another trick and technique related to the above is to create a rhythm, groove or phrase that is not entirely what is expected.. this in turn creates a tension and interest... in mixing one can draw attention to this to create a tension and interest in the track, or an infectious groove. Of course this technique has been famously used in sound tracks of certain horror films..such as Carpenter’s Halloween.

Posted on: 09 January 2019 by blythe
joerand posted:
blythe posted:

I only know that a few friends who make their own music and often master it, have all commented that my system sounds "bloody marvellous".
That's good enough for me!

Yeah, well would you expect them to come to your home, listen to your music, then tell you your system sounds like shit? I'm not sure you can ever expect objective feedback in that situation. I'm more concerned with my own ears' feedback, but good to hear your friends think it's "marvellous".

You clearly don't know my friends. If they thought it was shit, they'd say so.