Compression is Old Hat
One of the things I think is so strange is that there was a time when all recorded music was on uncompressed 78 rpm phenolic discs. Then, there were Melchoir (sp?) compressors that were made with tubes. They were used because sound covered 120 dbs of dynamics, but phonograph records and magnetic tape could only do about 80 db.
Then we got the 44.1ksps 16bit linear thing on CDs, and the dynamic range was supposed to get better, except that in most cases it didn't because the electronics used to create rock and jazz and whatever were noisier than that.
Now we have "perceptual coding" Frauenhoffer MP3 that deliberately leaves out sounds that the perceptual coder doesn't think we are going to hear or that are "unimportant" to the sound. Which is like telling someone that they are going to try removing things from your dinner plate until you notice and then "perceptually encode" your dinner to only contain the food that is "important".
Let me tell you what technology has done for us. We can record our own music at a level of quantization and sampling rates that will blister the paint right off your walls.
The new sound cards from Creative / eMu will sample at 192ksps with 24 bit quantization all day. Thanks to 250GB hard drives, we could care less what the storage space is. We can record hours of music at 120dbs of dynamic range with a sampling rate that captures every nuance of the performance.
And it's cheap! A pair of factory matched Rode NT1A-MP microphones in the hard case with factory shock mounts is under $500 US. You can make your own really quiet OPA627 preamp for under $600, and the mike stands and booms are cheap. When you are done, the self noise of your home recording system is so low that you have over 100dbs of usable dynamics.
All that's left is for you to bring in your own local talent and burn up some disc drive space. When you are done, you can produce your own CDs, uncompressed, unequalized, uncontaminated. And at a cost to you that is less than you would pay for a top-quality power amp.
The big recording companies can try to push us around, but as the title at the top of the page says, we are the fanatics. If we want to step outside the box and do our own uncompressed recordings, we can.
We have the technology.
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