The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 30, 2010 Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 I noticed this yesterday evening, while having a surf around the African music blogs. I was recently reading an article* about what appears to be one of the side-effects of the digital 'revolution' of the last twenty years: the enormous loss in dynamics. In digitising older lp's and cassettes I am used to seeing quite a wide dynamic range in the recording tool. When I first heard the digital conversions of the Syliphone records by Syllart, I was immediately struck by the enormous loss of dynamics compared to the vinyl versions. Here you can find an example of "Gön Bia Bia" by le Nimba de N'Zerekore. There are certainly more spectacular examples; personally I have difficulty surpressing my tears when I hear the seriously mauled Syllart versions of Sory Kandia Kouyaté's songs. But I think the versions of the Nimba song should give you an idea of how compression can (in my opinion: dramatically) change a song. Full article: http://wrldsrv.blogspot.com/2010/04/xeme-festival.html Sory Kandia Kouyaté (usually billed as Kouyaté Sory Kandia) had one of the great voices of the 20th Century, so this is serious stuff. I have all the Syllart reissues of this material; and also a couple of K7s - but they were almost certainly pirate tapes - bought in The Gambia - so you can't rely on them, (and anyway, they're in a box in the garage under an old TV and some other stuff). But I did a back to back listen to the only actual Syliphone LP I have (Camayenne Sofa's "Le percée") with the Syllart reissue and I quite like the reissue. I expect that makes me a pariah around here. Or perhaps this one was OK. I dunno. Anyway, for what it's worth, this is the view of an expert, which I am certainly not. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted May 30, 2010 Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 Stylophone reissues? Rolf Harris? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Wood Posted May 30, 2010 Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 I'm thankful that I am even able to hear this music at all. But I find the Sylart reissues to be very good in sound quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted May 30, 2010 Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 I've got quite a few of these re-issues. I think they sound pretty good, particularly when we are talking about something that usually was passed around on cassette. I guess they could have digitally recreated the tape hiss... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 Glad to see I'm not the only one beyond the pale, here MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeline Posted May 30, 2010 Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 While I'm very grateful to have digitized versions of these LPs, I do think worldservice is likely right about the sound quality - especially from vinyl to the MP3 versions. (Although the most painful "transfer" I've heard/owned was of Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, a Philips reissue. I bet this sounds terrific on vinyl, but the CD version literally hurt my ears!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2010 MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeline Posted May 31, 2010 Report Share Posted May 31, 2010 ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2010 Image seems t otake a while t oload. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeline Posted May 31, 2010 Report Share Posted May 31, 2010 i've seen the pic; I don't understand what you mean by it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted May 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2010 i've seen the pic; I don't understand what you mean by it.... but the CD version literally hurt my ears! Thought that might help. No good if you have to explain it, though. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeline Posted May 31, 2010 Report Share Posted May 31, 2010 (edited) D'oh! (Really; I didn't look at my own post.) Thanks. [blushes] Edited May 31, 2010 by seeline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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