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Why Digital Music Looks Set to Replace Live Performances (unions)
Scientific American ^ | Aug 19, 2014 | David Pogue

Posted on 08/26/2014 9:41:04 AM PDT by a fool in paradise

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To: mbarker12474

“Do we really want to eliminate opera altogether?”
Hmmmmm,,,, I love the music, but can’t stand operatic voices!

“Which is better? A real drummer or a drum machine?”
How can you tell if the stage is level without a real drummer?


21 posted on 08/26/2014 10:18:30 AM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: a fool in paradise
Juke boxes got their start when James C. Petrillo led the Musicians' Union out on strike.

Those who don't understand history are condemned to repeat it...

22 posted on 08/26/2014 10:22:54 AM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: Ignorance on parade.)
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To: cuban leaf

I enjoyed some blues and jazz places some time ago. The down side is later life when the hearing gets less distinct.


23 posted on 08/26/2014 10:29:55 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Sans-Culotte

I prefer to watch Blu-rays or DVDs of better performances at home.


I have an extensive collection of concerts on DVD and blue ray. A musician friend condescendingly asked me why, as a bass player, I never go to concerts (he was going to a stones concert for which he paid a very respectable three figures per ticket). I said my limit is $25 per ticket. Once they went over that, I just stopped seeing major acts.

But I have every Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Who, Blacksmore’s Night, Berlin, Loreena McKennitt, George Straight and a miriad of other artists concerts and videos on Blue Ray and DVD.

And they all get me right on stage and sound a LOT better than the “colliseum” or many other live experiences.


24 posted on 08/26/2014 10:33:02 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Second Amendment First

The down side is later life when the hearing gets less distinct.


I’m 60 and have noticed significant hearing loss since moving to KY 3 years ago and actively gigging. Even with wearing ear protection, you don’t always wear it. and those drums get pretty loud.


25 posted on 08/26/2014 10:34:48 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: wally_bert

Digital media is for me.


It’s “fun” to argue vinyl vs digital on audiophile sites.

I have a huge vinyl collection and, though I really love the whole “experience” of playing them and have darned nice playback equipment, there is no way I’d say they sound better than digital. They are better than digital in the same way a horse is better than a car. But few people I know take a horse to work.


26 posted on 08/26/2014 10:37:41 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: okie01
Juke boxes got their start when James C. Petrillo led the Musicians' Union out on strike.

Thanks, I'll have to look into that history.

27 posted on 08/26/2014 10:38:26 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: a fool in paradise

Back in the day Electric Light Orchestra was sued over their use of recorded strings during a show at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

Like, did they really think they could bring the London Philharmonic on tour with them?


28 posted on 08/26/2014 10:41:01 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Cosi Fan Tutte was on one of the local PBS stations over the weekend. I had it on for a while as background, having missed the beginning, and therefore the English subtitles to follow the story.


29 posted on 08/26/2014 10:55:47 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: cuban leaf
And they all get me right on stage and sound a LOT better than the “colliseum” or many other live experiences.

One problem is that the video stream is mixed like it was done by a three year old with ADD. The maximum attention span of the editor is about three seconds.

30 posted on 08/26/2014 11:01:20 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (The IRS: either criminally irresponsible in backup procedures or criminally responsible of coverup.)
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To: a fool in paradise

One of my cousins is a very good piano player and plays other instruments. She worked at many studios and orchestra’s over the years. Played for 3 years in a Phantom of the Opera production. She says she got out of the business when the pay went way down. She once played at a big celebs wedding with some others and was there for many hours. She figures it worked out to $10/hr.


31 posted on 08/26/2014 11:04:59 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: a fool in paradise
Maybe eventually they will do what Pat Metheny did and have an Orchestrion.

I saw this show a few years ago, and it was incredible, if you didn't know any better, you would have swore there were five or six other musicians there.

32 posted on 08/26/2014 11:07:31 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: a fool in paradise

I’d rather have my high ticket price go to fund musicians who actually provide entertainment than those unionized stagehands who command outrageous salaries for little or no work.


33 posted on 08/26/2014 11:11:35 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Kerry, as Obama's plenipotentiary, is a paradox - the physical presence of a geopolitical absence")
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To: a fool in paradise
A digital recording of John Cage’s 4’33” is remarkably close the original performance!

LOL! Of course, no two Cage performances can ever be the same.

As for a sampled Wagnerian orchestra - yikes.

34 posted on 08/26/2014 11:19:46 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
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To: Da Coyote

Along the “audiophile perspective”, I’m a distributor of high-end audio from Europe. At one time I imported a line of amplifiers that included $350k monoblocks from Japan.

Even with those ultra-expensive designs, it still lacked the ultimate reality of the real thing. It did sound quite stunning though designs from my Italian design partner are far more affordable and sound more real than the Japanese products.

Bottom line, it’s gonna be a long, long time before true reality is reproduced in the home.


35 posted on 08/26/2014 11:30:35 AM PDT by newfreep ("Evil succeeds when good men do nothing" - Edmund Burke)
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To: a fool in paradise
It's likely Goldstein is correct that a full live orchestra would make his Ring cycle too expensive to produce. But if we let him proceed...
Overlooked in the comments is the notion that union goons "let" creators proceed with their creations.
36 posted on 08/26/2014 11:31:29 AM PDT by Sparklite
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To: newfreep

“Bottom line, it’s gonna be a long, long time before true reality is reproduced in the home..”

I went to a Nana Mouskouri concert decades ago and found what seems prevalent today. Her studio recordings were so replete with multitracking, that it was impossible to reproduce her really good stuff on stage. The “reality” of much of what one heard on her records and over the radio could ONLY be reproduced in the home on the stereo.


37 posted on 08/26/2014 11:37:46 AM PDT by Sparklite
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To: Sparklite

Reminds me of “auto-tuning” to tweek bad voices into good, on-key vocals...ala Brittany Spears.

IIRC, it was Cher who first used “auto-tuning”.


38 posted on 08/26/2014 11:44:35 AM PDT by newfreep ("Evil succeeds when good men do nothing" - Edmund Burke)
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To: Second Amendment First

I put on a play in Chicago some years ago. I had to deal with the unions and everything else. It was blackmail. I learned my lesson, never to underwrite a performance in a union town again, using the best people union and non union.

The way live theater gets around this is by using amateurs mainly students, studded with professionals. Directors are in charge of many companies. In the end you have watered down performances that are more expensive than ever.


39 posted on 08/26/2014 11:53:24 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: a fool in paradise

the theater guild unions, not only the musicians and other performers, and their work-rules and wage demands, will be the death of ....................the theater guild unions after they destroy “live” performances by their demands


40 posted on 08/26/2014 11:55:01 AM PDT by Wuli
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