the be-all & end-all of my bitching about the mp3 format

i complain about this all the time, so i might as well express it properly once and then direct people here instead of whining publicly.

yeah, so.  don't get me wrong.  there is one good thing about mp3s: they travel.

now here's why they suck.  mp3 is what is known as 'lossy compression', which in a few words means you're losing information for the cause of smaller file size.  now unless the bitrate is really high, in which case the file becomes big, this makes mp3s sound like shit to my ear.  listen to cymbal sounds in particular for weird crappy-sounding oscillations; listen for little odd whining noises that seem atonal or out of place.  that's aliasing, the addition of improper harmonics resulting from sampling-rate issues.

that covers the technical aspect.  and of course, one could just chalk that up to my 'being an audio snob' or something.  go ahead and do that if it helps you sleep at night.  but here's the bigger reason i hate mp3s, and it has nothing to do with sound quality or technical shit.

mp3s fragment whole works of art.  okay, mp3s don't DO that, they aren't little evil gnomes.  but the availability of the format and its popularity has lead to a whole bunch of crap.  you get singles from records spewed everywhere with no regard to a song's proper setting.  hey, this is for the people who worry about music altering moods and making people do stuff.  you only have to worry about a SsSSsscaaRrRY song if it's on its own.  anyone with half a brain who writes a disturbing song will make a setting for it that will make it a) mean more and b) leave no psychic damage on its way out.  sometimes i think every record is like a trip to the underworld.  at a certain point, the pre-record listener self is ceremonially killed; then a mystical journey takes place; then a rebirth associated with a gain in experience and perspective.

but if you were to hear a record's 'death song' over and over again without being reborn, i'm pretty sure it's not healthy.  it's like sonic feng shui; that'd be like having vertical blinds in a room or a giant chandelier finial pointing at your brain while you sleep.

so use mp3s if you must.  they're good for getting exposure, and for discovering weird new stuff from the far reaches.  but after you know you want something, go buy a god-damn CD.

© 2009