In electronic music we've been pressing the same DAT to vinyl and CD since the 90s. Subsequently replaced by .wav. Tracks come out of the DAW pretty loud these days, it's characteristic of the genre.
Do you think the removal of technical limitations re: the number of tracks & voices has introduced "loudness" as well in terms of more distinct sounds competing for the same sonic space?
It's crazy watching some of the producer YT videos now and they open up these projects with 105 tracks, multi-layered/multi-voice drums, etc.
They did that back in the reel to reel tape days too...it was just destructive. Songs could have tons of layers, but they had to bounce tracks down to stay within track limits for the final mix.
Queen's music is a massive pile of overdubs, especially for vocals and guitar. The Beatles also, and they were heavily into looping (physically cutting audio tape and gluing it in a loop, then re-recording it). Vocal and guitar double-tracking has also been the norm since the 50s, at least.
80s pop was also generally full of synthesizer stacks, where MIDI from one keyboard was simultaneously triggering several synths to create layers.
Iain M Banks’ The Algebraist does a great job of covering that territory. If an organism had a lifespan of millions of years, they might perceive time and communication differently to say a house fly or us.
For those that love the idea of this kind of child-friendly media consumption but maybe don’t have the time, consider Yoto. You can make your own cards that can contain one track or playlists of mp3s that you drag and drop onto a web interface. The yoto then downloads and stores those files, playing them whenever that card is inserted. You can also use the ipad app to browse and play the same content.
Yeah Yoto is our family’s iPad alternative to avoid exposing the kids to too much screen time. On car trips or when they’re just being wild we break them out and the kids love trading story cards and then zoning out and listening. Highly recommended.
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