I have been recently thinking of sound quality on places like Facebook, YouTube, etc.. I know that they do use aggressive compression quality due to the need to reduce file capacity for faster loading. I have always had a reluctance to put my music on Facebook. And YouTube too to be honest. But the platforms allow people to listen to the songs, despite the qualities found.
Before our fibre Broadband acquisition, it was a nightmare uploading to any platform with our old internet speed of 1 or 2 Megabits per second (Mbps). It used to take about half an hour at times. And I have experienced longer with a video attached. So all songs sent from this household were always of lower file quality.
This has led me to really think about platforms that can be used for higher quality sound. As said, YouTube has a similar view on sound quality too. Uploading and changing music dynamics. So it seems the only way to listen to original intended sound is to put music recorded onto a dedicated music driven platform. I do have Bandcamp to start off with. Also, it would be good to make some CD copies of my songs here at home. Post them out to people who are interested. Mind you, it would be good to get results I feel happy with. And in reality, it feels like I’m getting near to being happy with the sound. Well, what I hear through my headphones and monitor speakers when songs are being played through the Mac M2 home studio system. Both my headphones and speakers will not tolerate high volume. Volume levels that can damage hearing.
Below is a comparison study. The same higher quality song files have been uploaded to both YouTube (once uploaded YouTube compressed to suit their platform) and here on WordPress (as it was intentionally uploaded and no loss of quality). You can certainly tell the difference.
All things considering, it has been quite a journey technologically wise. Over the last year and a half. As a technophobe I am still miles away from knowing how to get certain sound qualities to my songs. But here on WordPress they do not seem to compress sound to an unfortunate result if you upload at a higher quality.
Here below on the audio bar is the version of higher quality uploaded to WordPress directly for this blog.
Of course, I am no producer or engineer. So cannot get results that sound professional. And GarageBand is a fabulous free app to use. But does have its limitations. I will get the more professional Logic Pro next year, once I get to grips with a bit more understanding regarding recording my songs properly. And get to saving some money again.
It has been an interesting experience recording songs. Gone are the days of recording our songs onto tape recorders and, if lucky, producing a vinyl record or two. Or recoding on little cassettes to give to family and friends. My experience of how we got our music out back in the 1970s was quite fun really. This computer malarkey? Not so much fun. But has kept my mind alive in retirement nonetheless.
My previous blog from yesterday does have a whole bunch of songs in readiness for the video intentional project ‘On Cloud 9’ for YouTube uploads. And all uploaded here to WordPress on the higher quality file. So do sound different to other versions of my songs when sent on basic quality files.
So, the YouTube storyboard theme for the Gray Summers on Cloud 9 project is to use the songs chosen on the previous blog and play them acoustically on a guitar in the open air whilst sitting in the VeeDub Bus. A comparison study of sorts between a live open air capture and the songs’ finished results on the little home studio here at The Den. A VeeDub Bus, a chill concept, playing songs from my recordings here at home and playing live acoustically out in the Welsh countryside is a nice easy format to follow for the telling of and explanation of, on video, a song’s musical journey.
Getting out there in the VeeDub Bus? When is it ever going to happen? Well……once it’s stopped raining!
Yesterday’s blog, with a bunch of songs, below.
Gray Summers 