Audio Compression: Metaphor for An Age

Headphones & Audio wavesThe Marlowsphere Blog (#75)

At the August 5 Aspen Composers Conference, held at the Aspen Institute*, Aspen, Colorado, Dr. James David, Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Theory at Colorado State University, delivered a talk dealing with the ramifications of audio compression—such as in MP3s—on composers, especially film and television scores, and playback on radio, both broadcast and online. The title of his talk was “Dynamic Range Compression, Multi-Track Recording, Spectralism, and Postmodern Orchestration: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ‘Wall of Sound.’”

Professor James DavidHis presentation focused on how techniques in the recording of popular music affected two important genres of contemporary music: American postmodernism and European spectralism or spectral music. He stated:

“Modern orchestral music has increasingly emphasized a visceral quality that is achieved by utilizing and manipulating the entire frequency spectrum of human hearing in a deliberate manner.” In his talk, “dynamic range compression and multi-track recording” was examined and discussed as to their role in popular music and “how living composers have adapted the techniques into acoustic environments.”

Two case studies were presented in some detail: the early “heavy metal” band Led Zeppelin’s influence on American postmodernist Christopher Rouse and the role of the German electronic music by Kraftwerk in the Finnish spectral composer of Magnus Lindberg.

Among the examples he presented, Professor David pointed out that many composers have used metallic instruments as part of their orchestration technique because these instruments provide the kind of survivable high frequencies usually lost when the high end and low end of audio reproduction are compressed in the mastering process.

Compression’s Impact

These effects of compression are not just an aural production step. The technological concept of compression is also symbolic of our age. Technologically, the range of audio fidelity has been altered because Audio Filelityof compression. This has resulted in a loss of aural quality that has ramifications in terms of the quality expectations of many a listener, especially young listeners. To put it bluntly, young audiences who have never experienced the audio fidelity of a vinyl recording, let alone the audio quality of listening to a live performance, are getting in their ears musical values that are narrow in presentation. In effect, not only are the high and lows of the broad range of musical performance lost in the compression process, also lost are the subtle aural elements usually present in the pre-compression technological era. It is metaphorical. Along with the technological loss of aural fidelity by the time the sound gets to the consumer, the consumer has also lost the full breadth of the original performance sound. This is not merely an elitist musicological whine. It means that musical sounds are being restricted and, frankly, listening audiences don’t know there is a difference!

In parallel with Sir Isaac Newton’s “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” the aural loss from compression (both actual and metaphorical) has apparently resulted in a resurgent interest in vinyl recordings.

Further, the compression era we live in, combined and in tandem with the Internet, has resulted in the rapid escalation of audio file sharing on a global basis. But this, too, has a major downside, e.g., the sale of CDs in all genres has declined, consumers for the most part don’t buy albums any more, they buy single tracks, and composers and musicians can’t rely on CD sales anymore for significant income—online sales amount to pennies, not dollars. This, in turn, has forced musicians to perform live more often, and to greatly diversify their activities. In effect, compression, together with the inexorable growth of electronic networks and web sites, has forced musicians of many stripes to expand their repertoire of skills. Problem is, there’s only 24 hours in the day—musicians’ time has become compressed in terms of probable and practical activities, to the detriment of both their professional and pecuniary health.

Our Compressed Lives

Beyond this, the compression concept can be applied in other areas of life. For example, there used to be a time when in the corporate world long-range planning usually meant 20-25 years. That “time” Our Compressed Livesconcept was then reduced to 10-15 years, then 5-10 years. These days, it seems, long-range planning feels like “next week.” I exaggerate, of course, but it has been a fact of financial life on Wall Street that the perception of success with respect to the value and price of any given stock is quarter to quarter! In effect, the investing public’s perception (and those of portfolio managers) of a good investment is very short-term.

Students, too, in my experience—I have been a professor at Baruch College in New York City for over a quarter of a century, not including part time experience at three other colleges—have  time compressed expectations. It’s not their fault. Undergraduate students (at least in the United States) have all grown up with the Internet. Google and other websites of its ilk provide (seemingly) instant access to not just information, but answers. The Internet provides a perception that answers to life’s challenges can be solved in a “compressed” time frame. It is a distorted perception, of course. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are answers to academic and life problems.

Film, television, and radio add to the compression universe. Film, of course, as a visual storytelling medium, has a central characteristic of being able to compress timelines. It is an effective aspect of film. The same is true of television and radio programming and commercials. The 30-second commercial presents a problem and then the solution in terms of a product or service in a matter of, well, 30-seconds. Informercials have the same effect (if done well) in a longer format, similar to a 30-minute soap opera or sitcom. The central message seems to be: “Just buy our product and service and your problem (or problems) will be solved in short, as in compressed, order.” This, too, is a misconception.

Journalism, especially electronic journalism, suffers from the same “compressed” illness. As one of my earlier blogs (Blog #59 Mis-Reporting)  commented on, too many news programs are more interested in getting the story out first than getting it right, to the detriment of the news consuming public and to the detriment of the reputation of the news gathering and reporting organizations.

Where is Compression Leading Us?

On the one hand, electronic media—of which compressed audio is a subset—have created a smaller world with major positive effects. One can trace the evolution of electronic media in the 20th and 21st centuries and the parallel growth of democracies, especially in the second half of the 20th century. On the other hand, electronic media has sped up the pace of information generation and information exchange to such a degree that the slope of technological change and concomitant cultural impacts points almost straight up. This angle of accelerating change has compressed many aspects of life requiring people to adopt new ways of dealing with rapid change, especially new information. Internationally, rapid information change has caused some cultures to react violently, such as the various militants in the Middle East and Southeast Asia who see their traditional way of life falling prey to “western values” propagated by western electronic gadgets, like television, radio, the Internet, and all manner of portable devices.

Powerful Laptop ComputerDomestically, people are working hard to keep up with compressed learning time frames, while also dealing with the natural flow of things, e.g., it still takes, more or less, nine months to gestate a child, but in that same time frame, parents might lose their jobs because of technological change, have their dwelling foreclosed, or fall ill. The two time frames are not compatible.

The question, then, is this: will the constant speedup of information flow hit a wall, or will information continue to be compressed in terms of time allowing only the fittest, i.e., those who can keep up, to survive the information heap onslaught?

Please write to me at meiienterprises@aol.com if you have any comments on this or any other of my blogs.

*Incidentally, I was also a speaker at this conference. My topic: “Morphing Hebraic Melodies into Various Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and Brazilian Styles.”

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
September 2, 2013

© Eugene Marlow 2013

 

 

 

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