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  1. Color me shocked, selective responses omitting all sorts of salient points, and one in fact supporting my point even as it tries to negate it. Gosh but I love music collector geekery. The DB meter isn't at all a thermometer. There are ranges within the range, unlike heat. You've missed the point entirely. Low has its own range, high has its own. A fool's errand to mix it all in on a tiny scale of round numbers where one can't even discern the difference between a couple points. Different recordings mixed mastered to do different things. You'd fail routinely determining the range on a blind test, and even more so distinguishing between a point or two. People know so little about music and yet want to oversimplify it, and criticizing it as a means of having power over something that possesses them and which they don't play, or really understand why it does what it does. The whole trip is so reductionist and nerdy. Yes a handy tool for identifying the very worst of the worst, although the ear is even better. One could also purchase an electron microscope to determine black from white.
  2. People talk about dynamic range ceaselessly and don't even really understand it. As if they were all made the same. You could have a high dynamic range reading with crappy sounding bass, for one reason because the highs and mids are tweaking the range higher. There's range of bass, range of highs, but no quantity meter for that, let alone quality meter for anything. Just dump entire recordings in the blender and have a rounded average magic number of "range". Oohh, what fun. Dynamic range has nothing to do with source tape or any number of other factors in satisfying listening experience. What's your set up like? What's your room like? Dynamic range is taking a three dimensional experience and putting it into round numbers regarding one measurement. Differences of one or two are mostly meaningless, yet basement dwellers swoon like prom girls over them. The audiophile scene has always been anything but rock and roll, but computer audiophile and the obsession with dynamic range amongst the commentariat has found new lows within which to wallow. Recorded music is about listening, and the human ear and brain are colossally more sophisticated than a freebie doohickey that rounds off the entire quantitative range of an entire recording into integers. Experts in the production business say and have demonstrated as much, but as this means less criticism potential in the forums, perhaps that's better left unwritten.
  3. What I'm reading underscores my own experience: the player and the masterings sound outstanding. What erodes hope are cheap shot cliches such as "cult of personality" and folks chiming in with no experience apropos what they condemn.
  4. Thank you for your opinion. So you're saying, as Neil indicated, that Pablo Picasso, the last of the great masters who showed more versatility and range than almost any artist of all time--should have only ever painted that way based on the opinion of some regarding this one piece? Did you look at it through a "screen door" too or did you just want to forget that part to be a contrarian? I'm entirely unimpressed and unmoved by your lack of logic here.
  5. Most helpful rundown, thank you. Pity though, the tambourines have no place in this absolutely sublime masterwork, a psalm for our time--which of course and yet alas now sounds better than ever. They sound like cowbells amidst all the vision and sonic angelism.
  6. My impressions don't count, I've never had time for this guy's career but for a handful of pop tunes that are okay on a radio, and I tend to take a dim view against punks who mishandle their women verbally or otherwise, but I do give anything new a chance to exist on its own. This old lad's entire appeal now is nothing but a sentiment trip. Plain and simple. Beatleheads--like Zimbots and other boomer bobbysoxers--are overly obsessed and fascist in their support. Everyone knows that, so they bend over backwards to get worked up over anything at all with the "fab" imprimatur, however flabby it gets. This music is a blatant attempt to sell proven formula beatle snacks with some "modern" treatments. Heard nothing otherwise. Hence the pretension of the title "new" and the laughably ridiculous cover. "Really kids, I'm not your grandpa's Victrola boy... really grandpa, I've actually got a NEW idea after forty years of rehash!" A plea for relevance that is long lost but to the aforementioned boomer booster club. Obviously he can afford to hire players and knob twiddlers who can make it sound good, and better as it should in more highly defined resolution--and really there's no excuse for anyone not achieving that at this stage of technology. Of course the "macca" mafia throw in enough poppy hooks and wistful flourishes (red meat for the beatleheads) so it isn't altogether now boring. That, however, is not my standard of spending 45 or whatever sacred minutes of life. If a new artist came out with this, it would pass over like just another cloud floating by, with a few little raindrops pitter pattering clearly down a windowpane in need of stronger cleaning. Flameth away.
  7. Brothers & Sisters of the enriched bit, nosh thyself upon yon sample before ye feast. "Please Remember Victor Jara"
  8. Music consumers crack me up. The say women complain too much. Sheesh. Nice, positive, exciting news from a true industry leader and within moments, here we go again. Oh, the engineers haven't been able to engineer more than a few titles in a few weeks? Boo hoo. I'm sure that means their entire business model has now collapsed. So we've already listened to the first 100, are already bored to tears and worried about more more? By listen I mean day after day of repeated listening and inhabiting the recording like people did for decades until acquiring became more the point than listening thanks to digital? Oh, they reissued something. Excuse them for living. That's only been going on since the dawn of the age of mechanical reproduction. Buy it when you want to or don't, knowing that more's always coming, and usually it's better. Regardless, the version you have is more than adequate. I wouldn't sweat it. Wasn't that long ago when everybody was bitching out HDTracks for capital crimes on an hourly basis--and they were just the measly retailer. I've noticed most people have eased up a little there, often to the point of creaming, and they're still just in their sophomore year. Companies make announcements. So we take note and move on. They're already doing a superbulous job. We know from the best stuff already that gorgeous possibilities abound in the enjoyment of more and better recorded music. There is simply no reason to doubt that is going to evolve whatsoever. The country would rather buy expensive music day after day after day than elect competent leadership one day out of four years. That demand is something of a driver and these guys have a touch of a yen for making a living. This new sonic revolution is coming. There will be bumps, twists, missteps, and disappointments along the way, especially in the early days. I'm not aware of any industry or even a single company or a marriage or a human being that doesn't have them as well. Sure, only a fool jumps into early adoption with nascent technology. Nature of the beast. Why not let the guinea pigs do the dirty work for you? Nearly everything gets better and cheaper just a little bit down the road. Yet if it flops, you've taken the flyer. Meantime, how about accenting the positive and simply enjoying the cup of water that's almost to the brim with a century of innovative awe-inspiring musical genius--more often than not available with tremendous fidelity on hyperspace age systems? Not enough for you? You want THE real music trip? Absolutely golden rose four dimensional sound and a mindbodyspirit transcendent feeling like no other? Easy, pick up and instrument and play it! You'll be transported right out here. Won't care about having anything, consuming anything, posting about anything, doubting, ragging, the internets, none of this nonsense. The technology has been validated by the centuries, no download required, the proof right at your fingertips before you buy--or make. The difference is akin to the difference between watching a sex scene and making love with a cherished partner. Enjoy.
  9. Good points all, the labels have blundered miserably with hi-def, from the dreadful CD roll outs, through the wholly mishandled SACD/DVDA roll out (from a marketing perspective mostly) and now, to greatly varying degrees, with the hi-def and DSD roll out issues being discussed. I thought you were doubting that more and better formats weren't going to get more and bigger footprints. I think the next three or five years are going to be revolutionary in that regard. At any rate, back to the thread, my issue was just touched upon. I bought the Sound System box. Joe Strummer is my era's Woody Guthrie and while I never idolize musicians, Joe was something more, a true citizen patriot who just happened to get wrapped up in music guise. So I get the dreaded completist fever when he's in town. Does the 24.96 Sandinista! offer something over the Sound System redbook? Anyone done the dish on that? Muchas,
  10. I'm not going to get into a semantic trip over the word flood, but a few years ago everyone said hi-def was for geeks only and the mp3 had won. Vinyl was for antique grey hairs, and a tiny minority at that, just moments ago. Now the labels are dishing out discs all over the place and the rekkid aisle at Amoeba looks like a teenybopper sock hop. Microwave food, preservatives and canned crap was all the rage after WWII and into 80's and beyond. People laughed at "hippy" granola types who wanted organic. When Whole Foods debuted they termed it "Whole Paycheck" and kept shoveling down the spam and mystery meat. Seen Whole Foods market share lately, or just their parking lots? You'd be retired if you bought into the IPO my friend. No less than Digital's Ken Olsen said in 1977 that there was no reason for anyone ever to own a personal computer. Good call. Anyone who bought some IBM, MSFT, and APPL regardless might have something to say about listening to those know-it-all futurist poo-poohers and doom and gloomers. Easy to be shortsighted when all you're doing is looking at the present or past. I'm always aware that new and fantastic surprises await in almost anything technological and often even faster than you think, although sometimes they take time. Anyone predict the compact disc, internet, file sharing, ProTools, DAWs, non-linear editing, etc. etc.? No one I knew until there they we were and away we went. Nobel laureate Herb Simon taught me that man always overestimates his ability to predict future. Ever since this has been a most useful tool in my utility belt. Another teacher, Allen Ginsberg, had a maxim: Remember the future Words to grow old by.
  11. Always far and away my most favorite Clash recording, and beyond that a real deserted islander. Pretty much going to purchase it any hour now, but would love a quick warning if applicable. No need for DR, that's meaningless to me, or where she blows on a scale of 7 to 26, just any old Richter reading will do, or even just your opinion, so long as it's not at all humble.
  12. I far far prefer soul to technical "excellence." I'll take Phil, and almost anyone in the world over Whitney Houston and all those High C phonies, or all the infantile shouters out there that get credit for singing, just like I'd rather hear any street guitarist over Steve Vai and the long sorry lot of fretterbators. I think Phil sings lovely within his God given limitations. People say Garcia couldn't sing, yet girls couldn't resist when he played for them. Like the rest of us, Phil falls down sometimes, but it's the always getting back up that counts. So many just rest on the laurels and dial it in. Collins, Henley, Gabriel, Clapton.... all sorts of chart toppers that had genuine gifts but became product mongers. So soul matters, and integrity too. When Mickey, Bobby and those other creeps violated Garcia's last will and testament, it was Phil who lived the motif of the original cycle of lore from whence their name and power beget. That carries a load of weight with me. Just about everything in life is more important than music. The Dead are a folk band, a dance band. Not a GRAMMY trip or that laughably absurd Hall Of Fame game. Sure, I want to hear Tim Hardin over the Dead all kinds of times, but what we're really after is energy. Spirit is everything.
  13. About lays it all out there, thank you for this. Good mention of "Mountains Of The Moon" a simply exquisite track that reached an apex on the recording. Concert versions are lovely, alas the lads shelved it long before my time but I caught a good one in Frisco by The Other Ones, and it's really a primal early example of the Hunter--Garcia tandem and the curious blend of science fiction and folklore that you can see throughout their career, "Terrapin Station" and "Standing On The Moon" for other examples. Glad that the full platter of Terrapin Station is ref'd here too. At the time, heads went bonkers over the Keith Olsen treatment, and some of the band may have been a little freaked as well, but I can't count the times I've wanted nothing more of the band than to blast "Passenger" at 11 and just revel in those snarling alligator dueling guitar licks. Really gets the blood rushing right as the car hits open road. The gorgeous "Sunrise", tribute to holy man Rolling Thunder, has its apex in the studio too. I think the whole shot's a great listen beginning to end in the right circumstance, which is the case for any recording studio or live. Of course the full Terrapin suite was sadly not present in the live repertoire. So you need to hear it here, as you do the singular arrangement of China Cat Sunflower. Don't get me wrong, I've listened to the live stuff from the get-go and took in a tour or two, I've got plenty 5.1's, matrices, Betty boards, Owsley masters--nothing touches the Bear goods--but this whole idea that the studio recordings are for the "uninitiated" (say wha?? are we in the Golden Dawn now?) and that it's some sort of either/or trip is just whack. These guys are all-world class all-universe master musicians and they very often dove headfirst into the newest technological tools at their disposal, wherever they happened to perform their craft. I don't know about "self-respecting" in terms of "deadheads" as ref'd a ways back, it was more about respecting the community and the world than the self, but any aficionado that I ever rode with demonstrated his or her devotion by consuming it all, with a healthy guzzle from any nearby open containers and by God letting the good times roll. Boo Yah.
  14. Gosh, with so many people wigging over a $200 buck pricetag for the complete studio recorded works of one of the most accomplished popular music bands of the last century--less than I paid for a mid-range space heater--for 13 full length recordings meticulously prepared in high definition from original masters, I'd have to leave the internets if they'd included the dozen other live recordings and priced accordingly for the engineering, studio time and other stakeholders. Hey, why didn't they include the 36 Dick's Picks. Why wasn't I consulted? Why not every bonus disc from the Dave's Picks series? Who are these scammers? Where's the three Vault dealios? That's a Grateful Dead record, it's live, and it's better than Antwerp's Placebo. I think the whole thing sucks. Why not the 72 discs from the Europe 72 box--it sold out and I want want want want want it. This is the studio recordings project. I would have really like Brother Esau on In The Dark, the B-Side to Touch Of Grey that sounds better than most any live Brother Esau, although not all. Not on there. Fine. They stuck to their vision here rather than go down the slippery slide of throwing in every mix, every b-side, every bonus and incur the almighty wrath of the bread trippers. This is the studio recordings project. The Dead release product constantly, endlessly, and there is a lifetime of it all for free too. Sit tight and find something to do with your time, it's going to be just fine. I was delighted from the opening gyre of The Golden Road on disc one. The fiddle on Mississippi Half Step was more or less in the room with me--after all, no recordings are music, they are records of music. Anything less than an instrument in the room with you is akin to the refreshment of a breeze blowing on a teevee screen. You can well imagine being there, but it's 1's and 0's compared to a full spectrum universe of transformational vibration and energy. West LA Fadeaway was really jumping and darkly sparkling with energy. Of course everything on Aoxa and Anthem are just delicious. Bunch of these songs were never played live, or disappeared from the set in the late 60's never to be ear'ed from again until Phil & Friends resurrected the lot of them three decades later, although generally not on recordings. Some of these are truly jewels in the crown, among the best things Hunter, Garcia, Petersen and co. ever did but were alas too much work to sing and play at the same time for a junked out fader. Thank God for the studio recordings of these impeccable numbers, they are a joy to listen to in counterpoint to the ceaseless cavalcade of tapes and archival releases, and thanks to everyone involved in this first class project of presenting the material in what is very truly and clearly better than ever form. Technology is on the march on a Moore's law pace. You can either stick with what you've got--it's mostly all plenty fabulous--or make the personal value choice to upgrade, or not. More and better is coming, and coming. Ours are rough and tumble times for the avid consumerist. These are only recordings, however, it's no big deal at all. At any rate, in this case I'm getting a lot hotter from the set than I am from the space heater. What a bargain, and all for less than four here and then gone forever tanks of planeticidal petroleum. We'll see what the morrow brings. Good cheers to you.
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