Alternatively
titled….
The Future Of The Four Seasons Sound Part1
Are
Four Seasons fans geeky computer freaks who obsessively collect multiple copies
of their fave group in the hope of finding a different mix?. And how do they
listen to their favourite ‘Four Seasons’ tracks. Record player, CD player, I-pod or computer? (I’m
assuming most people have now abandoned 8 track and cassette!!) Well if you are
reading this you might just be a fan (maybe not a geeky one!) and looking back
over your life as a ‘Four Season’ fan…. what has been the music player that
you’ve listened to the most?
Some
would say it only matters what you choose today. And today whatever you choose,
it finally looks as though sound quality will make a recovery as ‘music lovers’
with the benefit of today’s technology will take control of their ‘masters’.
They are increasingly able to store and stream them in a variety of different
formats. It is a matter of personal choice. But it also appears most of us
don’t care much about the sound .
Listeners will find problems of age and gradual hearing loss: they will notice more problems in listening to compressed music (MP3, AAC) than younger people, because, what they are missing in the sound , can’t be replaced by something that has already been “thrown out”. This is because the encoder thought you have a “standard, normal ear”. Various tests have shown this phenomenon occurs, particularly for people with abnormal (but not necessarily deficient) hearing.”
So ignorance is a problem for us and thanks to this fascinating and educational book we can learn so much about what is important in sound recording....and how the 60s and 70s analogue recordings are the 'Holy Grail'.... George Schowerer (former Four Seasons Sound Engineer in 1967) has commented on how “studios gave recordings a special sound” and the 'presence' and ‘ambience’ that can be found in many 60s recordings…even in ‘mono’. Every location has a distinct and subtle sound created by its environment….an ambience whilst the presence is created by the position of the microphone in relation to the space boundaries. A microphone placed in two different locations of the same room will produce two different presences.
As Milner says the future seems to be compressed and like it or not the CD is
dying as a commercial product….and even as a storage medium it needs to be used
with care. Many commercial CD versions are not as good as the original vinyl or
compared to vinyl that is digitized and carefully re-mastered.
Those who want a tangible object to store their sound will perhaps collect the
above list of formats. But today as we enter the ‘Streaming Age’ anything will work. You can stream your vinyl to
the new streaming amps either hard-wired or wi-fi. The choice will be yours. So
don’t sell your vinyl!! Vinyl will survive and prosper as it often has a greater
dynamic range than the CD mastered version. And the CD won’t disappear, it just
will not be the primary storage/listening medium. But reading 'The Long-LP Good-bye'
and 'Appetite
for Self-destruction – The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry In the
Digital Age' you can see the collapse of the recording industry and of
the process of recording. At the moment it is a confusing time for music
collectors with the historic data-base of music from the last century available
in many formats
The 50s to the (early) 80s it seems could be
called...'The Analogue Age’ for pop
music and it remains the key period
for the music of the Four Seasons. But is it wrong to focus our listening on
recordings and music created during this time.? With the ‘loudness wars’ and some
terrible CD productions on the market today, it is no wonder that vinyl is
re-appearing in the shops and why collectors are focusing on it more than in
over 2 decades. Particularly, as you get a digital ‘download’ copy with the
re-issued vinyl today and with the high quality of today’s record decks and
sound processing software you can stream it to your player in either format.
Casey
Chameleon
Photo of Frankie Valli courtesy of George Schowerer