Scrape scrape scrape

[hirez]

A couple of years ago, some splendid type was good enough to pick 'The nine symphonies' (Yer Beethoven, innit. von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Gramaphon - top quality gear. None of yer motorway services spinny rack two disc set of popular classics mauled by a squad of bored sessioneers) off my Amazon list

Comments

[quercus]

per Radio 4 today (and ignorant wibblings by some bloke out of a band), just rip it to MP3 and the evil compression will hammer it flat for you.

[quercus]

Oh, and von Karajan is too much like Joy Division. Does a workmanlike job annd all, but there's that faint overtone of Nazi hanging around in the background.

[steer]

Alas not -- in practice the dynamic range on much classical is such that even once ripped you will end up with a mix of "too quiet to hear" or "too loud to tolerate" on many pieces... unless you know of a ripper which can flatten the volume range actually within a track -- in which case please let me know.

The problem is much worsened by listening on headphones too. Many of my favourite pieces have their range such that I forget I'm listening to anything until there's an unpleasant blaring sound 10 minutes later.

[steer]

Mind you, for contemporary music I usually prefer the unpleasant blaring sound to begin with track one and only end when the album does.

[nmg]

I have the Karajan recordings of which you write. Give me the recording of Furtwängler opening the 1951 Bayreuth Festival with Beethoven's Ninth over them.

[hirez]

I imagine that Ma will have a copy, since she digs Beethoven.

[oryctolagus]

For absolute best results - go and hear some of it done. When there is no intervening kit between your ears and the orchestra it's extraordinary. I am permanently amazed at the difference in a single instrument (my singing teacher's harpsichord nearly scared me to death) - a live orchestra is pant-wettingly amazing. I have made a promise to myself to go to at least one classical concert this year.

[d_floorlandmine]

Big 70s-style cans, preferably on the end of curly-cord? Should of course be accompanied by scandiwegian leather sofa and a room empty but for your hi-fi stereo and a glass of something with ice cubes in it ...