Bob Dylan says modern recordings "atrocious"

[Rhiannon]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

Bob Dylan says the quality of modern recordings is "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc.

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"I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Dylan, who released eight studio albums in the past two decades, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday.

Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway."

"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle.

"Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it."

[Ms. Walsh]

ITA! I'm not shelling out $12-18 to listen to music that probably isn't going to be good anyway. Also, since you can't return CDs after you open them, you're stuck w/ it, unless you decide to sell it and get maybe $2-$5, so you still lose money in the end! Most people buy CDs for 1 or 2 songs anyway, which is not worth it, especially when you can get it free on a download or having someone burn a copy on CD, or even buying it for 99 cents on iTunes. (Still, I think 99 cents is too much for only one song and that it should be between 50-75 cents, but that JMO).

Today's music overall is rather dismal. I refuse to listen to the radio anymore b/c, nine times out of ten, the songs that are by really talented people aren't going to be on mainstream radio. And that's better anyway since indie labels tend not to use the technological BS that changes the sound quality.

I know that the record label (Sony) that puts out Dylan's CDs uses SACD, meaning that they alter the original sound so that it can sound "clearer" and has a "better quality." I have Highway 61 Revisted on both CD and the original vinyl, and I cannot believe just how much better the vinyl version sounds. The music is still really good on CD, but there are a lot of subtle differences that makes the vinyl version better for music fans.

IMO, the SACD is what ruins the sound-quality of his songs. I don't know if you can buy the CDs w/o SACD anymore, but when I bought my Dylan CDs I was advised to not buy the SACD versions. It might be the case now that they all have Hybrid-SACD (the Hybrid version works on regular CD/DVD players) and it's no longer being labelled as so.

[SpiritualJunkie]

I guess that explains why I seem to like bands/artists better when I see them live. Because hearing the actual music without all that mixing and editing going on does sound better.