I'm an old man and I don't trust any music I can't touch or see. midi? Surely you mean them rad phat bitchin awesome iPod .mp3s, right? Or have midis crawled out of their limited but clever music-box crudeness and become something technically sophisticated -- technically worthy of GG's '55 Goldbergs? If so, please help an old man stay In The Cool Loop, andsupply details, urls on youtube and Napster.
My life superglued to my spot on the Calendar straddles the revolution from analog to digital format music. (My turntable is still hooked up to my living room stereo, but is thick with dust, and none of my beloved vinyl has made the trip up from the basement in more than a decade.) Without subscribing to Audiophile, I've nonetheless tried to keep up with Tek Gossip, and the persistent buzz is that mp3s are inherently of lowerfidelity than CD format music.
This isn't a problem for most Youth Music -- my audio engineer pals back in the 70s were fond of saying: "Close enough for Rock n Roll!" Children's musical tastes are often indistinguishable from the desire to suffer permanent hearing loss, and in fact spokesmen for Tinnitus Prevention include Pete Townshend of The Who and Lars Ulrich of Metallica. (cf. http://www.hearnet.com/index.shtml )
But mp3s for classical music? Is this whippersnapper format truly up to the bandwidth and dynamic range challenges?
iPods win the prize for portability, transportability, convenience and storage density, but the buzz I hear is that mp3s will always be doomed to provide a crappier sound than CDs -- and thus can never rise to the GouldStandard of audio excellence.
Yes? No? Can a midi or an mp3 possibly do justice to Gould's piano recordings?
Please make me hip, so I can start to d/l Gould from my wi-fi laptop in the Nursing Home. (Over the Muzak, me and my peers are listening to Jimi Hendrix' "Crosstown Traffic" right now, and this weekend Grace Slick is bringing her Jefferson Airplane retro show to the Rec Hall!)
Toothless Bob, fresh from his ghastly 60th birthday party
News, Weather, Mozart, Sports, Extragalactic Travel, sausages, opera,
PIRATES!!! & Really Big Integers friom Planet Vleeptron:
http://VleeptronZ.blogspot.com
Remarkable Older Stuph: http://vleeptron.blogspot.com
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} [Original Message]
} To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
} Date: 3/7/2007 5:40:08 AM
} Subject: Re: [F_minor] Zenph 55 G'bergs released!
}
} Great news thanks!
} I've read the Zenph webpages but wasn't able to find any info if the hi-res midifiles will be marketized as well ... anyone knows anything about it?
} Thanks,
} Stefy
}
} ----- Original Message -----
} To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
} Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 5:43 AM
} Subject: [F_minor] Zenph 55 G'bergs released!
}
} I can't wait to hear what everyone has to say about this recording.
} What an interesting project!
}
} -Mary Jo,
} listowner, f_minor
SONY BMG MASTERWORKS
AND ZENPH(r) STUDIOS
RELEASE GLENN GOULD'S
BACH GOLDBERG VARIATIONS (1955)
SONY BMG Masterworks and Zenph Studios announce the release of a
breakthrough in the history of recorded music. Zenph's re-performance of pianist Glenn Gould's renowned 1955 rendition of the Bach Goldberg Variations lets listeners hear this celebrated work like never before and provides for a sonic rediscovery of an iconic recording.
The Goldberg Variations by Gould is one of the jewels of the Masterworks catalogue, continuously in print for over half a century.
Zenph's new technique lets the performance be heard for the first time in state-of-the-art sound on a new SONY BMG Masterworks hybrid multichannel SACD/CD disc, which includes versions tailored forsurround sound and headphone listening.
Zenph's innovative re-performance process takes audio recordings and turns them into nuanced live performances that precisely replicate the original recording but offer vastly improved sound quality. Listeners are now able to go back to the moment of creation and experience Gould's playing as if they were in the room when the originalrecording was made.
Re-performances replicate the original musician's touch, timing and sound – including glitches in the original performance. "We've preserved every single note, including the mistakes," said John Q.
Walker, president of Zenph Studios. "The improvements are all related to the sound quality. This is something that needs to be heard to befully appreciated."
Zenph captures the musical nuances of the original piano recording's every note, with details about the pedal actions, volume and articulations – all with millisecond timings. The digital data is transcribed into high-resolution MIDI files and played back on a state-of-the-art Yamaha Disklavier Pro™ concert grand piano. The process allows for the production of new recordings that transcend thelimitations of the original recording process.
SONY BMG assembled its top producers and engineers for the Gould project, including Steven Epstein, five-time Grammy(r) Award winner for "Producer of the Year," and Richard King, senior recording engineer for Sony Music Studios in New York and a three-time Grammy(r)winner.
Hailed worldwide, Zenph's work was named one of the Best Ideas of 2006 by The New York Times Magazine. "The re-creations are uncanny," wrote Paul D. Lehrman in Insider Audio magazine. "The timings and variations in the keystrokes are so subtle, it's easy to imagine the pianist is in the room, his fingers pushing the keys down."
Last year, at a live re-performance of the Goldberg Variations held at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, members of the Glenn Gould Foundation stood and applauded after the last note faded
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