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neil young, audiophile


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If we were sitting in a bar face to face we'd have them ironed out in a matter of minutes.

A bar that would probably have one of Neil Young's worst albums cranked up loud on their PA system.

:rlol

Neil may be hoping that Trans will finally be appreciated at the 192 sampling rate.

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I saw his talk at SXSW last week. I don't know enough about audio technology to know if Pono is the real deal or a lot of hype. You can listen to his spiel yourself on this NPR stream.

His argument is that MP3s and even standard CDs compress the music way beyond what the musicians 'want' you to year. Pono technology has the ability to provide you with recordings that contain all the content (uncompressed) as heard in the studio, and the player can play it ALL back (assuming you have a great amp and speakers, of course).

IMG_0518.JPG

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I saw his talk at SXSW last week. I don't know enough about audio technology to know if Pono is the real deal or a lot of hype. You can listen to his spiel yourself on this NPR stream.

His argument is that MP3s and even standard CDs compress the music way beyond what the musicians 'want' you to year. Pono technology has the ability to provide you with recordings that contain all the content (uncompressed) as heard in the studio, and the player can play it ALL back (assuming you have a great amp and speakers, of course).

Um, yeah.

And Elton John's testimonial should clear everything up for you.

"It blew me away, it was like being in a recording studio," said Elton John. "Listening to Bob Dylan, you could hear him playing the harmonica right next to you. You could hear the drums and the backing vocals on 'Respect' by Aretha [Franklin]. I haven't heard a sound like that since vinyl."

So, essentially what you have here is a bunch of snake oil salesmen, who likely have an honest fondness for vinyl, who are telling everyone that even though vinyl introduces a higher level of distortion and has less dynamic range than CD, that this Pono horseshit is somehow lightyears beyond CD and sounds more like...um, vinyl.

OK... :crazy:

It's really just taking the mythology of vinyl being superior to CD and putting a digital spin on it. Which is quite ingenious, BTW. They've obviously studied the marketing of such nonsense as cable elevators, sonic pucks, $1,000 HDMI cables, etc. And now they've made this move which helps ensure that they aren't competing in the tired ol' digital market of MP3's/FLAC/iPods, but creating some "entirely new".

They'll get a niche of audiophools who will lap this garbage up and proudly proclaim how superior it really is due to their expert level ability to bullshit themselves into believing anything. They'll make a very modest profit, but that's about it. Hey, they're no dummies. They didn't crowd source this project because they thought it was going to corner the market. They knew damn well this was going to be a one shot deal, and that the jig would be up sooner rather than later.

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Can't think of any sensible explanation for putting out an otherwise unavailable recording ('Time Fades Away') in an LP only release as part of a set with 3 readily available recordings other than: a) a desire to produce something exclusive for those who like to own exclusive things; b) Neil's legendary bloody-mindedness.

I'll wait. It's probably not that great a record anyway!

The reason it hasn't come out to date is that it's Neil's least favorite record. I like it, though it's a mess. It's interesting as much as a psychodrama as for the music. Neil's doing too much drugs, he fires his friend Danny Whitten on the eve of a huge, high-profile tour, Danny then dies by his own hand, and Neil has to go out and face huge audiences expecting to hear Harvest. The record is an incredible document of those encounters.

As for the format in which it's being re-released, it's been noted since the '70's that those 4 records are "of a piece" - call it The Danny Crronicles (I know, I know, Bruce Berry too). It's the journey of a man going through hell, and emerging the other side.

As for why now, and in this format, it's for Record Store Day. it's good to support the survival of record stores.

Not exactly. He hasn't reissued it yet because of the way it was mastered. The recording and mastering were done straight to the CompuDisk (or what his producer David Briggs called the CompuFuck), so there is no way now for it to be remastered, remixed, anything. He has said that it would sound terrible on CD.

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Can't think of any sensible explanation for putting out an otherwise unavailable recording ('Time Fades Away') in an LP only release as part of a set with 3 readily available recordings other than: a) a desire to produce something exclusive for those who like to own exclusive things; b) Neil's legendary bloody-mindedness.

I'll wait. It's probably not that great a record anyway!

The reason it hasn't come out to date is that it's Neil's least favorite record. I like it, though it's a mess. It's interesting as much as a psychodrama as for the music. Neil's doing too much drugs, he fires his friend Danny Whitten on the eve of a huge, high-profile tour, Danny then dies by his own hand, and Neil has to go out and face huge audiences expecting to hear Harvest. The record is an incredible document of those encounters.

As for the format in which it's being re-released, it's been noted since the '70's that those 4 records are "of a piece" - call it The Danny Crronicles (I know, I know, Bruce Berry too). It's the journey of a man going through hell, and emerging the other side.

As for why now, and in this format, it's for Record Store Day. it's good to support the survival of record stores.

Not exactly. He hasn't reissued it yet because of the way it was mastered. The recording and mastering were done straight to the CompuDisk (or what his producer David Briggs called the CompuFuck), so there is no way now for it to be remastered, remixed, anything. He has said that it would sound terrible on CD.

So just reissue it at as cheap a price as is economical* in its flawed form, maybe just as a 'crappy mp3', and let the buyer make the decision. It's 40 odd minutes of entertainment that some people are curious about, not holy writ.

* I can't imagine it wouldn't quickly recoup its costs.

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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Can't think of any sensible explanation for putting out an otherwise unavailable recording ('Time Fades Away') in an LP only release as part of a set with 3 readily available recordings other than: a) a desire to produce something exclusive for those who like to own exclusive things; b) Neil's legendary bloody-mindedness.

I'll wait. It's probably not that great a record anyway!

The reason it hasn't come out to date is that it's Neil's least favorite record. I like it, though it's a mess. It's interesting as much as a psychodrama as for the music. Neil's doing too much drugs, he fires his friend Danny Whitten on the eve of a huge, high-profile tour, Danny then dies by his own hand, and Neil has to go out and face huge audiences expecting to hear Harvest. The record is an incredible document of those encounters.

As for the format in which it's being re-released, it's been noted since the '70's that those 4 records are "of a piece" - call it The Danny Crronicles (I know, I know, Bruce Berry too). It's the journey of a man going through hell, and emerging the other side.

As for why now, and in this format, it's for Record Store Day. it's good to support the survival of record stores.

Not exactly. He hasn't reissued it yet because of the way it was mastered. The recording and mastering were done straight to the CompuDisk (or what his producer David Briggs called the CompuFuck), so there is no way now for it to be remastered, remixed, anything. He has said that it would sound terrible on CD.

Hmmm. The album has tracks from (IIRC) 5 or 6 different concerts. Also, it's not like Tonight's The Night is high fidelity.

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  • 2 months later...

I see the 1974 CSN&Y live set is now slated for July:

csny-1974-box.jpg

Can't quite work out if the discs are normal CDs or Blu-ray. Maybe its the DVD disc that is Blu-ray though with Young involved I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it on some obscure format (had expected it to be on that My Little Pony gadget he's touting). Anyway, Amazon implies the 3 audio discs are slated for mp3 (has someone tied Young up?) so it might be possible to hear it without changing your hi-fi system.

Track list here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CSNY-1974-Stills-Young-Crosby/dp/B00KJDTUU4/ref=mb_oe_o

Should be a nice wallow for those of us of a certain vintage. Hope some of those are long!

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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I saw CSNY on that Tour at the Atlantic City Race Track with 100,000 close friends and neighbors. They were good, but the opening act was the awesome Leon Patillo/Tom Coster version of Santana, who blew CSNY off the stage..

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  • 3 months later...

More nonsense from Neil.

'Time Fades Away' finally gets out...

neil-young1.jpg

Box set includes the classic albums:

Time Fades Away

On The Beach

Tonight's The Night

Zuma

But...

4x180 Gram LP Box/Limited Edition(3500 copies) £229.99
Limited Edition(3500 copies)
4x180 Gram High QualityAudiophile Virgin Vinyl LP
Bernie Grundman Remaster
Pressed at Pallas, Germany
Housed in Telescoping box

http://www.spincds.com/blog/2014/09/18/neil-young-official-release-series-discs-5-8-4x180-gram-lp-box/

So not only do you have to buy 3 recordings you already but it's only on vinyl and in a limited edition designed for fetishists and the lad who must have everything.

But hey, you get what's important. Housed in a telescopic box.

Just put it out as a CD and download, Neil. Then do all the daft stuff - 45 rpm vinyl, 78, Pingo, Special Connoisseur Edition etc etc etc.

Sigh!

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Here's an update from a couple of days ago regarding Young's Pono project. The big news is that Universal, Sony and Warner have all signed on.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/neil-young-readies-pono-store-says-partnerships-with-lincoln-tesla-in-works/ar-BB9f4Eg

Yet another format so people will purchase the same music over again.

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Here's an update from a couple of days ago regarding Young's Pono project. The big news is that Universal, Sony and Warner have all signed on.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/neil-young-readies-pono-store-says-partnerships-with-lincoln-tesla-in-works/ar-BB9f4Eg

Yet another format so people will purchase the same music over again.

Right!!!

Makes you wonder what mythological "true original master" of Kind Of Blue will magically be discovered in a vault that no one knew existed until…well, just recently!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I dunno; the writer failed to sway me. Even if what he writes is correct, his sneering tone makes me think his mind has preconceived notions.

Take this for example: "The CD-quality standard—which Young and HRA proponents say isn't sufficient—wasn't adopted randomly. It's not a number plucked out of thin air. It's based on sampling theory and the actual limits of human hearing. To the human ear, audio sampled above 44.1 kHz/16-bit is inaudibly different."

But I remember reading that within a few years of the CD's introduction, people thought 16-bit was inadequate. That's why even vinyl remasterings in the '90's touted 20- and 24-bit mastering.

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