I know most musicians care about the sound of their instuments playing in unison rather than if the radio makes it sound good. Honestly, I think that if the band sounds great live and they can play just as well as they do when you hear the song on an mp3, then it's fine. And props to them if it sounds even better live!

*shrugs*

As a musician I know that when I'm recording, getting the sound, tonal qualities, and mix right is important enough to me to literally drive me insane I spend so much time thinking about it.

once you go FLAC you never go back

i worked with trevor jones a couple of years back and he absolutely hated mp3s. he would only allow demos to be sent out if they were 100% uncompressed. i'm half surprised he didn't make me send out vinyl.

Originally Posted by therookielot

I know metallica doesn't

that about sums up my feelings

Originally Posted by ACA

God damn AP. I had typed up a long response and it didn't post.

Long story short:

- 95% of my friends can't hear the difference between 128 and 256.
- the only ones who can were heavily involved in the illegal trafficking of advances/promos/etc early in this decade where you HAD to learn
- about a quarter of my friends are musicians and very few of them have any idea
- it's because an entire culture/generation was raised on (old)Napster and (old)Napster-styled P2P such as Kazaa, Limewire, etc where 128 is most common

I know "professional" DJs (ie, they book regularly at weddings, bars, etc) who have 100s of gigs of music that is no higher than 128. No one cares. No one notices. People use shitty iPod earphones (they are absolute garbage, it boggles my mind how people use them). People use FM devices to play their iPods through their radios. There is no dynamic in (most) music anymore.. everything is peaked out, fighting for your attention every second of every song. "Louder is better."

-ACA

What he said.

Originally Posted by decrescendo27

once you go FLAC you never go back

HAHAHAH. Gold.

Originally Posted by decrescendo27

once you go FLAC you never go back

True story.

Originally Posted by ACA

God damn AP. I had typed up a long response and it didn't post.

Long story short:

- 95% of my friends can't hear the difference between 128 and 256.
- the only ones who can were heavily involved in the illegal trafficking of advances/promos/etc early in this decade where you HAD to learn
- about a quarter of my friends are musicians and very few of them have any idea
- it's because an entire culture/generation was raised on (old)Napster and (old)Napster-styled P2P such as Kazaa, Limewire, etc where 128 is most common

I know "professional" DJs (ie, they book regularly at weddings, bars, etc) who have 100s of gigs of music that is no higher than 128. No one cares. No one notices. People use shitty iPod earphones (they are absolute garbage, it boggles my mind how people use them). People use FM devices to play their iPods through their radios. There is no dynamic in (most) music anymore.. everything is peaked out, fighting for your attention every second of every song. "Louder is better."

-ACA

that's a great post. I would like to do conduct such an experiment in regards to people hearing out music quality. Although there is the trade off between size and quality, FLAC is pretty nice after all.

Billy Drummond is a fantastic drummer and he makes some solid points. I can't imagine settling for the shitty downloads most people go for nowadays.

I like your news posts Mike Kraft.

Quality can be both good and bad. It's nice to hear every little sound in a record now and then but some records just benefit for low quality sound. To me, it gives it a soul.

Originally Posted by CorySpotts

Ha ha. I can tell you that for the most part the answer is no.

Besides, musicians who DO obsess about sound quality ARE audiophiles, so I guess the question is kind of flawed in the first place.

I was going to say the same thing that if they do care that much about the sound they are audiophiles.

But I understand what the question was trying to ask and I'd say there is absolutely no general answer. Some do some do not.

I also agree with the person who mentioned the apple earphones. I hate those things. The quality is subpar and I never understood how people in the commercials can move around without them falling out.
I enjoy the nuances within the music myself but am not obsessed (not an audiophile) to the point of pumping up my system in either my house or car. (mostly due to money) although my car stock stereo is pretty good and my house I have 5.1 surround on my entertainment receiver and my computer.

I am a musician and an audiophile. I win?

I really care about quality when I listen to music. I can't stand when people don't hear the difference between the quality of MP3s. I can usually tell the exact bitrate of any given MP3. My friends think I'm a freak. I tend to agree.

When I work with recording, mixing, and mastering... I only use my Audio-Technica ATH-M50s. I would never use earbuds. They ruin your hearing and don't produce quality sound.

Originally Posted by ACA

God damn AP. I had typed up a long response and it didn't post.

Long story short:

- 95% of my friends can't hear the difference between 128 and 256.
- the only ones who can were heavily involved in the illegal trafficking of advances/promos/etc early in this decade where you HAD to learn
- about a quarter of my friends are musicians and very few of them have any idea
- it's because an entire culture/generation was raised on (old)Napster and (old)Napster-styled P2P such as Kazaa, Limewire, etc where 128 is most common

I know "professional" DJs (ie, they book regularly at weddings, bars, etc) who have 100s of gigs of music that is no higher than 128. No one cares. No one notices. People use shitty iPod earphones (they are absolute garbage, it boggles my mind how people use them). People use FM devices to play their iPods through their radios. There is no dynamic in (most) music anymore.. everything is peaked out, fighting for your attention every second of every song. "Louder is better."

-ACA

Originally Posted by decrescendo27

once you go FLAC you never go back

I agree with these.