No longer ANY excuse
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Friends,

    The world has changed. We no longer have any excuse not to listen to the best and greatest music every second of our lives.

    It used to be that one had to go into a college library, check out headphones, search for hours, ask the librarian to play the record, and then listen to great music. In recent days, we could order Compact Disks online, and they would come in the mail. BUT EVEN THOSE DAYS ARE GONE!!!

    Amazon has integrated the most amazing thing (they did not come up with the idea, but they have adopted it).

    You can preview and purchase wonderful music now INSTANTLY, with no hassle!!!!

    AND YOU GET IT FOR PENNIES!!!!

    You can purchase, for example, 23-minute tracks by Glenn Gould for $0.99 !!! Instantly!

    Instructions for those who require them

    There are, of course, millions of selections from which to choose. A search for "Horowitz" yields over 1,200 files.

    As an example, why not type in "Lassus" — I instantly discovered a group called "Collegium Regale & Stephen Cleobury" and purchased their entire album: BEAUTIFUL & GORGEOUS performances of Jeremiah's Lamentations and a Requiem by Lassus.

    I am floored by this. It is so wonderful.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Naxos has had for some time a service where you can listen to their entire catalog for free in FM-quality playback. It's an annual fee, but many colleges offer it to their students.
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    I'm interested in this. I'm a musician who makes recordings and I've read "The Long Tail," etc. While I think the CD will survive for certain purpose for some time - gifting, souvenirs, playing in the non-mp3 capable automobile stereos or your Bose at home, we are all aware that things are on the move. I can't expect that someone will buy an entire album if they just want one track and that's why I authorize digital release. Also it's the belief that wide distribution brings awareness and awareness creates a base of supporters (okay, fans).

    And I would deeply hope that all us "really good music" types would go out and buy those 99 cent tracks. The classical music world is in a panic about this. Let them know that it can work for them.

    PS I love the Naxos catalog. I drive through there with my fingers like someone in a car dealership.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,867
    Yes, I have had the Naxos online subscription for a year. The entire library for $19.99 at my disposal. It has been a great tool.

    On another note, I have been enamoured with the likes of Norah Jones who freely shares her music with all, even the videos right from her website. This is the way of the future for music recordings. What is important is connecting with others, not holding ourselves at bay for money. We (the Church) should lead the way with generosity and charity. What God has given to us we should freely give.

    Fr. Weber has also been doing this for years in sending me all his Masses that he composes for the liturgical season. I laud him too!
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    I encourage all to pay for these wonderful (eminently fairly-priced) recordings, available now SO EASILY through Amazon.

    While connecting with others is important, "the laborer is worthy of his hire."

    Usually, money given to these recording projects barely (if ever) pay back the production causes. We owe it to them!
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Yes, this is great stuff, but I agree that CDs will hang around. Even the highest quality MP3s are kind of low fidelity. The whole point of the CD was to bring higher quality sound to the listener. The point of the MP3 is to bring smaller file sizes. Definitely a trade off.
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    I know you'll think I'm an old fossil, but I still prefer the fidelity of my LPs to CDs. You'll have to drag me into the MP3 generation.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    The only thing that still bugs me about LPs (even audiophile) is the necessity of compression in order to keep the needle from bouncing out of the groove. CDs have their mid-range issues too, but I wonder how much of that was orginally noise in LPs that we all just got used to!

    Mike
  • francis
    Posts: 10,867
    If you save your mp3 files at 192kbps, you will have a very high quality sample rate that will minimize the 'bother' factor of digital. I do agree, though, Randolph, on the warmth of LP's due to the 'continuous tone' audio wave as opposed to the chopped sampling of anything digital.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Trying to stay intelligent and civil.

    "If you save your mp3 files at 192kbps, you will have a very high quality sample rate that will minimize the 'bother' factor of digital. I do agree, though, Randolph, on the warmth of LP's due to the 'continuous tone' audio wave as opposed to the chopped sampling of anything digital."

    The "warmth" of LP's comes from the inability of the medium and process to accurately reproduce the true sound of the music...

    Referring to "chopped" brings up the early B&W movies where you could see the flickering of the frames because the pictures....the little chopped pieces were not strung closely enough together to be interpreted by the brain as a continuous flowing event.

    People forget so fast the scratches, pops, rumble noise and continual deterioration of LPs. The only perfect LP's are ones that have never, ever been played. And they are also deteriorating as they sit there on the shelf.

    LP's play not by accurately reading out sounds, but by amplifying the sounds created by a needle being drug through a canyon of vinyl, bouncing from side to side and up and down and the resulting analog currents produced being amplified and played through speakers....

    If LP's are inherently superior I see a huge market for someone to improve on CD's by cutting them in Vinyl for sales to audiophiles.

    DIRECT FROM CD!

    Mihi ignosce. Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.

    noel @ sjnmusic.com apologizing in advance if this is over the....grooves.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Well I understand why some people love vinyl played through a great system. One cannot, however, get around the physical need for compression of the recorded sound. A needle would bounce right out of the groove if a record were recorded with the same frequency range as a CD. What we need is a new -- higher -- sampling standard, but alas, the trend seems to be going to lower fidelity "portable" files. A whole generation barely knows what a good recording sounds like anymore.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Just a reminder that AMAZON has continued to expand this amazing resource.

    For example, just for ONE example: the complete recordings of Rachmaninoff are available for cheap and instant download.

    INCREDIBLE FOLKS!!!! Incredible what is available now!!

    We used to have to scour the earth for these recordings! Now they are all there: INSTANTLY available.

    There are millions of examples, but here is just one:

    You will faint if you download Horowitz's special version of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (number 11, disc 1) --- you simply will not believe what he does with this piece. Download it for 99 cents, listen to the whole thing, and you will faint. Live recording, too!

    That is one example out of a MILLION.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    "We no longer have any excuse not to listen to the best and greatest music every second of our lives."

    Every second? Well, wouldn't that just drive me insane! Technology or no, I plan to leave time for sleeping... and conversing... and perhaps praying...
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    :-)
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Let's not forget that the music that is NOT the greatest of all time can be aurally beneficial. How can we appreciate Beethoven without the listening to the music of his contemporaries. Much of it is quite good and very listenable. Then you can put on the Eroica Symphony and continue to be astounded by Beethoven's vision. You can't just have meat for dinner!
  • marymezzomarymezzo
    Posts: 236
    Although I am fanatically devoted to chant and polyphony, that's *not* what I want on my iPod when I'm working out.

    M
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Mary, that's right. When running or weight lifting, it's Brahms!
  • francis
    Posts: 10,867
    Bach or Yes.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Friends, go here:

    Download track no. 11, Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2

    Listen to the whole track, after you download it.

    . . . And be amazed!
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Jeffrey, c'mon, put the Mahler on the IPOD. You WILL increase your reps and not die.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Oh I will gladly listen to Mahler 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    What, not the 8th?

    I know we've had this conversation before . . . some superstitious nonsense about dying after hearing the 2nd. . . but, the 8th?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    No, the core problem is one that there is no sense in denying. Once you know well all of Mahler's 9, your days on this earth are numbered to a precious few, if you are lucky. So I'm saving three since I hope to have many years on this earth. Thus is my logic unassailable.
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    I must bow to your unassailable logic. :^}
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Mahler 9 is a dense one, but the 2nd is probably his best work and that glorious final movement with the offstage brass is absolute heaven. The 8th has its moments too. Beware the 9th, but listen to the rest! Even Das Lied von der Erde.
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