Digital music

[avyaktam]

At the end of the eighties I was following workshops of the Australian psychiatrist John Diamond. He has written quite some books on what he called life energy also known as Ki, Ka, Prana etc. and related subject. I’m sure some of you have heard of him. Amongst others he had developed a system that he called Behavioral Kinesiology, where he related the meridian system to states of mind and emotion, and by working on the meridians and acupuncture points in combination with affirmations and other attributes was helping to free this life energy.

One of his greatest interest was music. He was training musicians to create high energy music and would write essays how certain composers would work on certain meridians or how the beat of certain types of music would block certain meridians. Very interesting stuff.

He had developed a very simple kinesiology test to measure the therapeutic value of certain pieces of music. The person that is tested listens to the music and at a certain moment holds his breath and then you measure the time till a person tests weak. The results differ a bit per person, but in general < 7 seconds stress; 10-12 seconds neutral and when you go over 30 seconds it becomes highly therapeutic. Some of his favorite composers were Furtwangler and Toscannini and indeed if you tested it you would go over 40 seconds. This was in the age of analog music (tape recorders and vinyl).

It was also the age that digital recording and cd’s where introduced. And that is where the bad news comes in. When he tested people listening to digitally processed music they would invariable test weak. Which made him conclude that all digital music was stressful and that the therapeutic value of music was lost for the generations to come.

I realize will I write this that some young readers may never even have heard analog music. I kept my vinyl and tube amp and are still listening to it.
I bet most of you never have considered this aspect. According to this finding you could conclude that any kind of relaxation CD etc is a contradiction in itself.

they are gonna me

[Humble Janitor]

Oh I have a very decent vinyl collection and I'm always looking to add more. In fact, I make it a point to play vinyl during my radio show. The sound is much better and as long as the record is free of dust and dirt, it should play without any hisses, pops or skips.

[Swanny]

Sorry but I don't believe this, we listen to the notes that come out of the speakers and travel through the air to our ears. I know digital music is different and MP3s are a lesser quality but the notes that we hear are still there.
I have been to parties with thousands of people dancing to digital music and they were having a great time.

[Machinamentum]

Now this is my kind of thread.

Digital is only good for it's capability and functionality, not sound quality.

To the untrained ear, most people can't tell.

Simply put, analogue will allways sound better because the sound is being physically created. Digital is only a bunch of 1's and 0's recreating sound.

Good classic analogue keyboards like Moog Synthesizers will have a better sound than a computer emulated synthesizer, period. With analogue, voltage is actually being manipulated. Strum a good guitar, no emulated guitar will ever sound as good. Vinyl physically creates the sound, then it's amplified.

What's the difference?

Soul.

[Czymra]

Originally Posted by Machinamentum

Now this is my kind of thread.

Digital is only good for it's capability and functionality, not sound quality.

To the untrained ear, most people can't tell.

Simply put, analogue will allways sound better because the sound is being physically created. Digital is only a bunch of 1's and 0's recreating sound.

Good classic analogue keyboards like Moog Synthesizers will have a better sound than a computer emulated synthesizer, period. With analogue, voltage is actually being manipulated. Strum a good guitar, no emulated guitar will ever sound as good. Vinyl physically creates the sound, then it's amplified.

What's the difference?

Soul.

I agree. In addition, digital cuts out all the over and undertones that give an instrument character. The question is though if 320kbps digital music is at least better.

Nothing goes beyond live acoustic music.

[Machinamentum]

320 kbps mp3 is still a 4x compression, cutting out high-end frequencies. It's funny that people think that 128 kbps is cd quality.

[Thunderbird]

Now this is a great thread.
I LOVE digital music.
infact i MAKE digital music pretty much exclusively and lots of people enjoy it and tell me so.

you can listen to my live music recorded digitally
here:
xavierhawk.net


Its a live ceremony that i did at a local surprise show i did in my home town.

All my live shows are freestyled inspired ceremonies that cymatically effect the world around us in order to manifest a balanced peaceful world.

if you like it i give free music out every month to people on my email list.

cheers!
-X

[Humble Janitor]

Originally Posted by Swanny

Sorry but I don't believe this, we listen to the notes that come out of the speakers and travel through the air to our ears. I know digital music is different and MP3s are a lesser quality but the notes that we hear are still there.
I have been to parties with thousands of people dancing to digital music and they were having a great time.

Were they also by any chance on mind-altering or mood-altering substances?

[Swanny]

They may well have done but good music is still good whether or not some of it is missing

[Ravens and Doves]

Dear Camelot Friends,

I won't be posting for a while. Time to hit the road.
I had cancer and a tough divorce that left this 52 year old back at my mother's house tore up and all.

Now my mean-spirited brother lost his job in the post production studio and is also moving in with his even more cruel wife. Tonight she said that every thing I believe in (kundalini/ETs/an afterlife) is "****" and a fantasy.

I know I've experienced what I've experienced - and there are many witnesses.

I'm still sick and trying to finish a book that I feel can people. I have no money and have live off my mother. My kingdom for a job.

I won't go into the details of my situation, but I'm just reaching out for "hang in there" or something. If I had the thousands my brother and is wife have, I'd get my own place, but there here thinking they are saving the day from a UFO lunatic (and living rent free, too, even though they can afford to live anywhere).

Anybody in LA need a room mate?

Love you all and stay true to what your heart feels as true. My private e mail is ravensdawn@earthlink.net.

Paul

www.ravensanddoves.com

www.northhollywoodarts.com

www.home.earthlink.net/~paul_perner

[Lorien]

Excellent thread/discussion. No matter how high the quality of a digital sound file, even encoded in FLAC or other "lossless" formats, digital audio is simple incapable of reproducing the pure clarity of vinyl or more importantly live audio. Being a DJ going against the mainstream industry, I refuse to make a move to a digital format because vinyl has a warmth and depth to the sound that no digitally produced music has.

[Czymra]

Originally Posted by Lorien

Excellent thread/discussion. No matter how high the quality of a digital sound file, even encoded in FLAC or other "lossless" formats, digital audio is simple incapable of reproducing the pure clarity of vinyl or more importantly live audio. Being a DJ going against the mainstream industry, I refuse to make a move to a digital format because vinyl has a warmth and depth to the sound that no digitally produced music has.

I applaud these efforts but how practical is that to the common man these days? I'm happy to carry a small device that serves me with a few tunes every so often as for what they evoke however aware I am that the digital stuff will never reach the real stuff. A bloke fooling around on a guitar beside me tingles my skin already in a way that digital music never will, but I guess one has to learn to appreciate each for what it is.

Also, the actual problem lies deeper within the technology parting people from each other. It's fantastic I can reach out to you guys like this because you are way beyond my physical reach but the whole rise of technology has done little more than caged people in front of TVs and computers bereaving them from the warmth of an actual person around. In fact, I hear more people speak about the unbearable sensation of being close to another person.
I hope that there will be a time when people actually know their neighbours again.

[Czymra]

Originally Posted by Thunderbird

Now this is a great thread.
I LOVE digital music.
infact i MAKE digital music pretty much exclusively and lots of people enjoy it and tell me so.

you can listen to my live music recorded digitally
here:
xavierhawk.net


Its a live ceremony that i did at a local surprise show i did in my home town.

All my live shows are freestyled inspired ceremonies that cymatically effect the world around us in order to manifest a balanced peaceful world.

if you like it i give free music out every month to people on my email list.

cheers!
-X

I quite liked that actually! Nice mixture/fusion.