Which genres typically have the highest fidelity and which the lowest?

Posted by: Consciousmess on 05 July 2018

I ask this as I intend on buying all the music from my formative years - indie music i.e Inspiral Carpets, Stone Roses, Charlatans, Happy Mondays etc. but this ‘genre’ appears to have used poor recording studios.

So what would be your take? What genres are higher fidelity- and perhaps why?

Posted on: 06 July 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk

In my experience, classical recordings tend to be optimised for fidelity, where as pop and rock are mastered to give a certain ‘feel’. Jazz recordings in my experience can go either way...

There is also the genre of Lofi... made popular with cheap music recorders, computer audio  and mixers and the resultant home recording and mastering... some of these pieces of music are great... with the lofi effect on the sound very much adds to the appeal.

Finally there are bootleg recordings which often are lofi, but the atmosphere they capture more than makes up for it..

 

Posted on: 06 July 2018 by Innocent Bystander

Some prog rock is done well, maybe related to its more classical leanings - but not all. 

Related questions might be to consider sound quality as a function of date (maybe decade), or as a function of label or record company.

Posted on: 06 July 2018 by Mike-B

I really can't equate your selection of artists with fidelity.    However as you seem to be a rock fan, there are some good recordings around but I fear anything from pre 1990's that has reasonably good fidelity is hard to find.   I have a lot of 1960/70 recordings,  some remastered/remixed, some originals;  rock of the prog variety,  west coast folk rock, british folk & rock, mainstream jazz, & pure classical classics,   all are absolute diamonds as notable recordings & memorable tunes/songs, but fidelity is mostly not good,  limited frequency extremes, compression & tape roar.    

Some old timer artists are keen to record new material in the best quality & using pioneering new methods,  I have to mention DSD as a notable new method for excellent fidelity.    The old dogs such as Mark Knopfler,  David Gilmour & (very separately) Roger Waters come to mind as do many others, & its from these that I get my best fidelity.  So for me it comes from modern recordings, but maybe the best music might include some poorer fidelity old stuff.