Re: [microsound] Quality Control

[Mark Khemma <mkhemma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

i enjoy the idea of virtual distribution. free sound. i mean FREE
SOUND!!! :) how could you get an better than that. as for increase in
"crap" sounds, well, if you don't like it, then cntrl-del and enter. its
as simple as that. don't get me wrong, i love getting real hard material
music because its the artists "cream of the crop" and they put work into
the packaging so it makes it a nice cohesive piece of work. download
virtual release when you can't spend the money and get the real ones whens
i feel like being a consumer :)

but now i just realized that i wasn't aswering the question at hand. i
think we can look at the virtural distribution as a testing ground, at
least
for some people. let other people judge and give feed back about ones work
before they hardpress it to something else. i realize that this requires
that people actually wanting to give feed back and the individual artist
wanting it in the first place, but i say the feedback doesn't have to be
so direct. just the shear number of hits your website may be enough of an
indicator to the artist.
one other thing, quality creation of a piece is
always determined by the artist and if he/she wishes to put high or low
quality sound up on the net, thats his/her decision. but lets re-establish
again that aesthtics are based on personal biases and quite honestly
i've been finding nice things up on the net. in addition, i'd like to
say that music on the bandwith is just another layer of documentation for
a growing populated world who inherantly need to express themselves in one
way or another.

theres always a gem in the bandwidth hazy sea, and
there always a pile of doodoo that you can find at best buy.

On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Tony Sakr wrote:

> It seems the 'virtual' vs. 'real' (audio) distribution question is rearing
> it's head again: Napster is in the news on what seems a near-daily basis;
> Fraunhofer's near-ubiquitous .mp3 format is facing a strong challenge by Ogg
> Vorbis' open-source, but more importantly patent and license-free, .ogg
> format; and '100% digital labels' are springing up at an alarming rate...
>
> In the light of this, I wonder if the list has an opinion on 'virtual' vs.
> 'real' releases. It's an interesting discussion which has potentially
> massive implications for the way in which media/data/information are
> currently distributed and, perhaps more importantly, may be distributed in
> the future.
>
> Has anyone else, for example, been startled by the sheer number of "New
> works added by .tiln...!". At times there seem to be upwards of
> one/two/three/more a day!? The words 'quality' and 'control' spring to mind.
> Don't get me wrong, I think .tiln is (or was) a fantastic place and I
> applaud the concept, but, of late, it seems to be suffering from a severe
> case of lack of editorial rigor.
>
> Perhaps the heart of the problem lies in the sheer ease with which - pardon
> the pun - virtually anyone can now become involved in 'publishing'.
> Establishing a 'virtual' label to unleash an infinite number of 'virtual'
> releases is as simple as hiring some server space and learning some .html.
>
> If a '<100% digital/non-digital' label releases a CD (or even a CDR) it
> involves a significant investment in time, but more importantly, a
> significant investment in money. It is the money, in this instance, that is
> one of the keys to the equation. Money (or lack of) forces you to look at
> things (or listen to them) and question them closely. It almost instills a
> sense of 'by default' editorial policy.
>
> Perhaps this is why we don't see 'real' labels churning out endless
> quantites of ill-thought out filler which, more often than not, tend to be
> the results of a string of presets and borrowed Max/Msp patches. Keyword:
> Edit.
>
> The question we might ask is this: Is digital audio truly the free-for-all
> panacea it claims to be or is it simply an unfortunate curse contributing
> yet more data to our already overloaded ears?
>
> Sakr
>
>
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