[geeks] Stupid recording engineers

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Tue, Jul 23, 2002 at 04:28:10PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On July 23, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> > I was listening to a CD at a volume lower than usual.  I heard a sound
> > start, and was hearing the drums, but was wondering why I couldn't hear
> > the mandolin that starts the song off, and could only barely hear the
> > base guitar.  Then I realized that my headphones had accidently been
> > set to mono, and that the recording engineer obviously never bothered
> > to check whether the CD was mono safe.  Lazy (wo)man.
> 
>   Yes but how big a deal is that, *really?*  I haven't seen anyone
> listening to anything in mono in probably twenty years.

Many sound reproduction systems are mono for ease of running them.  If
I took this CD to church and played it there, it would sound awefull
despite having a rather nice sound system.  And this isn't just
limited to small local setups, but even some touring groups and
festivals do this (though I don't know why big touring groups would be
playing CDs unless they are the Backdoor boys, and if they can't
figure out to remaster the recording for performance, then they
deserve to sound bad, not that they ever sound good).

If I wanted to license this song to use on a DVD or video tape, it
would need to be remastered first because the majority of people are
still using either mono TVs or mono VCRs.  Thinking of local friends
who's home entertainment setup I've seen, I can think of only one
person who wouldn't have trouble.  One friend has (well, it is her
father's really) an HDTV set with a satalite feed, but still only has
a mono VCR and no DVD player (he just wanted really good sports).

But no, most people who bought it in CD form and are listening to it
at home are unlikely to have trouble, unless they accidently flipped
the mono switch on their 

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd