Vinyl records are subect to static pops, scratches, and other easily induced audio imperfections, in addition to limitations of frequency response and dynamics. Far from a perfect medium for reproduction, but never-the-less, until we had the "near perfection" of digital recording, most people were able to live with vinyl. The main disadvantage of records has been these scratches and pops, and the inability to use a portable player.
Tape as a medium, has always been superior to vinyl. It has been for decades the original mastering and recording medium in the studio. Either with or without noise reduction (Dolby, DBX), it gives a relatively problem free method for capturing sound and playing it back. At home, large reels are not particularly convenient, but cassette technology has come so far with today's tape and players, that it sounds quite excellent. Generally the problem with cassettes is the cheap tape and poor reproduction methods used by record labels in their manufacture. Added to this, most people throw their tapes around out of protective boxes, leave them in the sun on their dashboard. Naturally, cassettes will naturally begin to sound bad with careless treatment.
CD's seem to be an answer to the consumer. Very good sound
reproduction, practically
as good as studio master tape, and seemingly
harder to damage than records
or cassettes. What could be better? Well, in reality, plenty.
This is unfortunate for many reasons.
1) Absolutely anyone with $2000 can have a CD of their music
manufactured.
It is absolutely no indication of talent.
2) Many fine original musicians do not have an extra $2000 sitting
around, nor is it easy to borrow that kind of money for something
as flaky as original music.
3) Some musicians have so much music, including multiple variations
improvised on themes, that to put a representative amount on CD's
would be prohibitive and impossible in cost.
CD's are great if you are in the
business of manufacturing them and selling CD players. They are
good if you live in Beverly Hills and drive a BMW and don't
have to make a choice between a new CD and eating.
If you are a composer
with a small bank account, such as myself, forget putting
your new music on a CD, because it means going into debt even
further. Never mind having a big CD collection. So, what are the
alternatives,
and are they better or worse?
The more I examined the prospect of cassette duplication of my original music, the better it looked, for many reasons. I slowly began to see digital music, and consumer CD's in a new light: to a large degree technological sales hype, and the result of our nearsighted attempt to hold on to pleasurable listening experiences PERMANENTLY, an impossible endeavor.
I found that 95% of my listening is done on my car stereo, on my walkman, and indoors while doing other activities. In these environments, there is a fair amount of backround noise, such as cars, road noise, and the rest of the world. Only a very small fraction of my listening time is done with all distractions removed, as in a perfectly quiet room. What does this mean?......
THE QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ABSOLUTELY NOISELESS DIGITAL RECORDING AND A WELL MADE CASSETTE PLAYED ON A DECENT PLAYER IS NEGLIGIBLE IN MOST LISTENING SITUATIONS.
That's right folks. For anybody who has bothered to really check it out, a well made $1 cassette tape and a $15 CD both made from the same source material, FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES, work equally well and provide the same amount of enjoyment. What does that mean?
For a musician, this MEANS A LOT! To manufacture a minimum number of CD's (300 or so), with a plain black and white printed insert costs somewhere around $1600, plus the recording costs and studio time. YOW! Contrast this with cassettes you duplicate at home on a decent cassette dubbing deck, and liner notes you create at Kinko's Copies....$1.50.
I, as a composer, could make, in my home, at my leisure, as demand
dictates, one-thousand high quality cassettes before I ever see one
CD. Granted, it might be impractical to make a thousand cassettes
at one sitting, but I don't know too many musicians who actually
need that many on any given day.
Now, if you throw your cassettes around like a goofy
two year old, they
of course are going to get damaged. However, if you just treat
cassettes as carefully as you would any CD they will last a very long
time. How long? Many years. Certainly, until you get bored
with the music. Has anybody thought of this???
After I've heard the greatest piece of music ever recorded a hundred times, it doesn't sound so great any more. I need to continually hear NEW MUSIC. Static music is dead music. I suppose if you actually enjoy listening to the same thing year after year for the rest of your life, music in a permanent form makes sense. Otherwise, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! CD's seem to be yet another example in which our culture is obsessed with making permanent what is by it's nature a TRANSITORY pleasurable experience, music.
Of course, I think it is perfectly legitimate
to have permanent records, archives, or master copies of recorded
music.
But digital, or even
analog master recordings belong in studio vaults, radio stations,
and in the library. We
don't need 20 million permanent copies of JAGGED LITTLE PILL
floating around in everyones house, because I GUARANTEE you
19,999,000 of these will be collecting
dust in a year.
Concerning the audible difference between a cassette and CD in even the quietest environments, it is very small indeed. One major problem is that many people have cassette players in terrible shape! They haven't cleaned or demagnitized the heads, EVER. Could you imagine never tuning up your car, never washing your dinner plates? Lazy Americans, they won't spend 2 minutes alone with a Q-Tip, a jar of alcohol and their tape player once a month! Hardly a surgical operation.
A really good cassette player can be had very cheaply if one takes the trouble of looking for one. Radio Shack, for example, currently sells a dynamite cassette walkman (actually manufactured by another major company you have heard of) with three band EQ, and dolby for $39, sometimes on sale for $29. A excellent sounding single home stereo cassette deck, with a frequency response better than most people's ears can be found everywhere for about $100.
The main difference between digital sound and analog sound is that a digital recording preserves and emphasises high frequency sounds to a greater degree. This means you artifically hear more of the cymbals and squeals and squeaks on a CD than you would on tape, or even than what is normally muffled by acoustics in a live situation. If you talk to most recording engineers, they find this high frequency accentuation quite ANNOYING.
Studios go out of their way to add warmth (decrease high end) by the use of expensive tube equipment and EQ to solve this digitally created problem. At home, you probably turn down the treble on your CD player/amplifier. So in essence, you get rid of what you are led to believe is the advantage of digital CD's, more high end! Tape more naturally reproduces sound as you might hear it being produced in a live situation. Many artists like Neil Young, The Greatful Dead, and others have been swearing about analog superiority for years. And they can afford anything.
Another difference is that digital recordings have lower distortion, flutter levels, and noise floor than tape. True. But again, these differences are so audibly undetectable, that in most situations, unless you are doing A to B comparisons and really really paying attention, it doesn't matter and doesn't get in the way of actual listening pleasure.
Finally, The listening environment has a major role to play in the practicality of cassette tape recordings. In the case of car or walkman listening, the cassette is clearly SUPERIOR than CD's for three reasons.
First, a cassette recording has a small degree of greater audio compression not present on a CD. This means the difference between the quietest sound and the loudest sound on the recording is not as great on the cassette as on the CD. In a car, especially, THIS IS GOOD. That means even when there is a lot of road noise, you can stil hear the quiet parts of the music in detail. On a CD in your car, you've got to be constantly adjusting the volume. This is also true in other listening environments when there is a bit of backround noise distraction. Only rarely do we listen in a perfect concert like atmosphere where extreme dynamic contrasts can be appreciated.
Second, CD'are not good for jogging or riding over bumps. They skip. Okay, some new CD players have electronic memory. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.
Third, I have yet to see a portable CD player with DECENT TONE CONTROLS. Some boom boxes have them, no "walkman" size CD players do. We are expected to live with what some manufacturing yahoo thinks is a good balance of bass and treble. As mentioned before, my $39 cassette walkman gives me total control of treble and bass tone for any recording and environment.
Last, we should not forget the environmental impact and recyclability of these two formats. Once you are tired of the music program on a cassette, you can recycle it and rerecord over it. It would be conceivable, granted proper care of the tape, and desire, to make a perfectly good new recording many times over on a cassette. Just like going to the gas station for new gas for your car, you could go to the record store with your old tape, pay them, and put a new album on your cassette from a master digital or analog recording. Of course, this makes WAY too much sense for anybody to actually do! Our materialistic economy is based on STUFF, not service, and I don't expect this type of intelligent activity to make itself present in my lifetime. This type of thing is impossible with CD's. When you're ready for new music, your CD is worthless, unless the CD store is willing to give you $4 for a popular/in demand enough (why are YOU getting rid of it then?) absolutely mint condition album. Otherwise, it is yet more plastic non-biodegradable trash to heap on our ever mounting 20th century mountain of garbage .
For musicians, cassette tape manufacture and distribution of original music has so many advantages over the expensive and uneccessary production of CD's it is laughable. The mass hypnosis of the general public by overwhelming advertising hype about CD's has made even creative musicians ignore and forget the facts and reality of this format. CD's are good for the corporations, but very bad for the artists, especially those without a hit. It means greater dependence on capital wealth, and less independence for the creative person. Ultimately, this also means the public loses out on what is also TRULY MUSICAL. It is as if Kodak had convinced everyone we don't need paint as a medium anymore.
It is my hope that musicians everywhere come to realize these facts,
and encourage the continued use of practical, well
made cassette tapes. It is necessary, and advantagous
to their artistic independence and survival.
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