What is Hip? Why We Are.

[thebes]

 

Now Chris, judging from your comment I suspect you are not in tune with the resurgence of vinyls, the only medium (digital, cd's or wax) that is actually growing in sales.

 

Watch the first 8 minutes of this 14-minute video on dynamic range meter differences between digital and vinyl versions, and then let's start that conversation.

 

First I don't know why he's playing around with such cheezy looking software.  Looks like it came out of a cereal box.  Also if you listen to his comments all the way through, the primary point he seems to be making is that this software is no good for distinguishing between the DR of vinyls and digital. He a,so admits that he got the vinyls recording from the band, recorded while playing it through what he assumes was a so-so table and needle.

 

Again, I have already admitted that digital can make a more accurate sound, and can sound quite good...on a car radio.  However, my technical buddies  here on the Forum have talked at length over the years about even and odd harmonics etc. in regard to tubes, and I think there is something similar in the different types of distortion we get from vinyls and the heebie jeebie stuff I get from cd's.

 

I also have to wonder, compression issues aside,  just how good can the digital recoding process be, given the spread of  mini recording studio software, and  the extremely wide variety of digital recording equipment.  Now the same can also be considered true of the vinyls era.  Just think of all the cheezy sounds coming out of those wonderful 50's and 60's pop and doowop groups which sound like they were recoding inside a tin can.

 

Finally, don't forget that in the end we are analogs, not zeros and ones, and eventually everything we hear from a sound system has been converted over to analogue. God help us if we ever end up with a digital speaker.

[Taz]

Yes Tower of Power's 1973 hit, "What is Hip" has come full circle and now it is our time again.

 

That's correct.  Got dragged off to the mall last weekend. Cruisin along past some ultra trendy corporate version of hipsterism called Urban Outfitters. No camping gear, just cheezy crap household goods for the home of the ubber trendy cave dwellers.

 

Not even five feet inside the main entrance is probably fifty linear feet of, can you believe this, records!

In flip style racks!

 

Yes indeed. Wax, lps or vinyls as they are now known.

 

Not a bad selection. Stuff like the Clash, a mixed mixture of classic rock, and some fairly good indy music tunes.  Even a audiophile  pressing or two. Maybe as much as 100 or 200 titles.

 

By far the oldest person there, I sauntered over, gently nudging the slacker puppies out of my way, and proceeded to show them how to flip through a stack.

 

You could tell I'd made an impression, the background buzz got quiet for a moment, and when I finished up, they quickly turned away, to wrapped up in their "cool" to approach a seasoned vet of the wax wars.

 

Who knows, maybe I'll stop back there some day.  Take a coupe of them under my wing.  Eventually I'll ask them if they ever heard tell of something called horns.

When I went to pick up the last set of speakers,  The young man said "Funny, You don't look like you'ld like music.

[Chris A]

I also have to wonder, compression issues aside, just how good can the digital recoding process be, given the spread of mini recording studio software, and the extremely wide variety of digital recording equipment.

If you've bought a record made within the last 20 years (new) or so, it is about 99.9% likely that the tracks were all digitally recorded and mastered. 

 

Now the same can also be considered true of the vinyls era. Just think of all the cheezy sounds coming out of those wonderful 50's and 60's pop and doowop groups which sound like they were recoding inside a tin can.

The "wall of sound" never sounded very good to me, and I didn't cry when what's his name went to prison.  Part of my low opinion of record producers stems from how far back the abuse started, and apparently never stopped (although, in the late 70s and early '80s, the abuse seemed to calm a bit--to just using aural exciters on vocal tracks). 

 

Finally, don't forget that in the end we are analogs, not zeros and ones, and eventually everything we hear from a sound system has been converted over to analogue. God help us if we ever end up with a digital speaker.

You need therapy, thebes.  Some of us fly, but I'm pretty sure that the wings aren't attached to the backs of those that do.  Maybe yours do, however.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Chris A

[HPower]

[HPower]

[HPower]

[HPower]

These guys are Hip, literally:

 

[Mighty Favog]

But if Frank Zappa was considered "hip" would it be that he was just pandering to an audience he wanted to make fun of?