'A visit from the goon squad' by Jennifer Egan

Vincent Brady · Dec 5, 2011

I'm reading the above book and I came across this passage which I thought I might share with you.

A record producer is reflecting on the music business and he thinks

"Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection; the problem was digitization, which sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mesh. Film, photography, music: dead. An aesthetic holocaust!"

Food for thought maybe.

CGW · Dec 5, 2011

It's a fun book. Odd how the past's "hi-fi" is today's "lo-fi." Vinyl, film, tape, VHS media are now coveted for being "authentic" as someone drunkenly explained this past week-end. Really starting to cringe, though, whenever I hear that word...

Plate Voltage · Dec 5, 2011

The word that currently makes me cringe on sight is "artisan." Now that that's off my chest, I don't think good vinyl records ever ceased to be high fidelity. Good tape - not cassette, not 8 track cartridges - can be very high fidelity. Both can convey the original recording with a great degree of authenticity. But VHS? No. Never. Not then, not now. VHS was never very good. It was an affordable, easy way to record video at home but it was never very good.

Now if something like lomography starts up with VCRs, I'll be able to pay off my student debt by selling $5 garage sale VHS machines for $250 each!

tomalophicon · Dec 5, 2011

Plate,
IMO my old VCRs kick my current 'digital' TV channels into a cocked hat.

CGW · Dec 5, 2011

Plate Voltage said:
The word that currently makes me cringe on sight is "artisan." Now that that's off my chest, I don't think good vinyl records ever ceased to be high fidelity. Good tape - not cassette, not 8 track cartridges - can be very high fidelity. Both can convey the original recording with a great degree of authenticity. But VHS? No. Never. Not then, not now. VHS was never very good. It was an affordable, easy way to record video at home but it was never very good.

Now if something like lomography starts up with VCRs, I'll be able to pay off my student debt by selling $5 garage sale VHS machines for $250 each!

I know that, you know that, but they don't. C'mon, there's interest in the old shakey-cam, schlocko-rama VHS low-budget horror stuff from the 80s, so much so that lots of it is being re-issued on--wait for it-VHS! I have a soft spot for old 60s and 70s Japanese stuff on VHS like Kinji Fukasaku's trashy yakuza and cop films. Seriously, though, the VHS look is becoming Sundancy--yikes!

"Artisanal" connected to anything edible has me scouting the nearest ERs if there's a chance of someone serving it to me.

Plate Voltage · Dec 5, 2011

Those must be some pretty awful digital channels to make VHS look good. The point I was trying to make is that if I record something on VHS and compare it against a recording made on just about anything between say, a colour Ampex quad machine or Sony BVH-2000 C format machine or HDCAM-SR machine, or captured digitally to something with 4:2:2 colourspace or better, the VHS looks like a smeared pastel drawing that moves.

ajmiller · Dec 6, 2011

Not sure Vincent - the old adage 'shit in, shit out' springs to mind.
Digital is only a tool - it's just made it easier for everyone to have a go at creating 'Film, photography, music' (and why not?).
By its ubiquitous nature it means we have to search harder to find the 'good' stuff - probably using Google!

tomalophicon · Dec 6, 2011

Plate Voltage said:
Those must be some pretty awful digital channels to make VHS look good. The point I was trying to make is that if I record something on VHS and compare it against a recording made on just about anything between say, a colour Ampex quad machine or Sony BVH-2000 C format machine or HDCAM-SR machine, or captured digitally to something with 4:2:2 colourspace or better, the VHS looks like a smeared pastel drawing that moves.

Fuck yeah, they're terrible.

guitstik · Dec 6, 2011

Hmmmm, back in my younger days I used to record club/garage bands with a 4 head VCR through a 16 channel mixing board and still to this very day the sound quality is better than digital.

hoffy · Dec 6, 2011

tomalophicon said:
Plate,
IMO my old VCRs kick my current 'digital' TV channels into a cocked hat.

Are you serious? The only time VCR was good was when the machine was brand new and so was the tape. It was pretty steep downward slope from there!

Steve Smith · Dec 6, 2011

Plate Voltage said:
Good tape - not cassette, not 8 track cartridges - can be very high fidelity.

Good tape is the master for most of the records ever made.

Plate Voltage

Or Anode Voltage as you would be known here!

Steve.

tomalophicon · Dec 6, 2011

hoffy said:
Are you serious? The only time VCR was good was when the machine was brand new and so was the tape. It was pretty steep downward slope from there!

Hoffy, it could be my receiver is a 20 dollar job, but still, it just seems mushy and pixelated.

MDR · Dec 6, 2011

Unknown to many but a VHS Tape has more image information than a DVD, DVD only looks sharper because it has a much higher contrast.
But I agree VHS was the worst possible choice as a Videoformat at least compared to other choices at the time.
Digital TV especially HD is nothing but a marketing gag not because it couldn't be better, but because the TV Station are compressing the life out of it best example BBC and Discovery Channel that don't allow documentaries filmed with 16mm simple because their compression algorithm can't deal with Filmgrain (cheapest compression worst quality).
Dominik

Edward_S · Dec 6, 2011

guitstik said:
Hmmmm, back in my younger days I used to record club/garage bands with a 4 head VCR through a 16 channel mixing board and still to this very day the sound quality is better than digital.

I have my VCR wired up so that I get the TV sound via the hi-fi system, and it's really not possible to tell the difference between the VCR and CDs. The VCR sound quality is surprisingly good. Unfortunately, the analogue signal is being switched off in the London area next year so I'll have to get used to short wide people with plastic faces (at least that's what all the digital TVs seem to look like).

Rick A · Dec 6, 2011

Tucked neatly in an undisclosed attic, lays a complete BETAMAX system, wishing someone, anyone, would bring it back out into the light of day so it may once again reveal its superiority to other mediums. Wait, I think it's over there next to the Quadraphonic HI-FI gear sweetie, now if some of these other POS items that we've kept past usefulness weren't blocking it, I could drag it out. Hmm... wonder if it still works---HONEY--DO WE HAVE ANY TAPES FOR THIS THING???

'A visit from the goon squad' by Jennifer Egan

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