what do you think of chesky recordings? my fave is ana caram's "rio after dark". it is as if david chesky knew i am playing planar ribbon and he made the recording just for me. to me, chesky cds have ultra high-resolution, plenty of air and details but they might just be a bit dry and lack of warmth.
in the intervening years, chesky has somewhat slowed down in producing audiophile records. actually, they were working overtime to deliver something big.
last month, chesky launched its high-res music store called HDtracks. according to david chesky, "we designed HDtracks to be a place where you can hang out online." seriously, no one hangs out in tower records, victoria music or rock corner anymore.
from recording experts, now the chesky brothers (norman and david) have to grasp computer jargons associated with the music technology. the chesky brothers acquired servers, hired staffs of programmers and developers, negotiated with independent record labels, and created tonnes of online information.
HDtracks is impressive and works for both PC and Mac. like iTunes, HDtracks offers AIFF with the metadata intact. there's no digital rights management (DRM) and downloads of CD-sourced material can be purchased as full-resolution FLAC or AIFF files.
many indie labels have agreed to partner chesky in this ambitious project. audiophile favorites reference recordings, dorian, ASV, MDG, and, yes, chesky records are all in. there isn't a genre that chesky hasn't taken care of. but major labels are notably absent.
"we've worked really hard to eliminate all the reasons people have given for not downloading music," david chesky said.
say what you like, david. i still miss the good old days of hanging out in the "real" record shops, like championship vinyl in the movie "high fidelity" starring john cusack and jack black. there is bound to be a jack black character in every record store, hurling sarcastic and snooty remarks to those music lovers who are not clued-in. so much fun.
nothing beats flipping thru racks and racks of LPs (even CDs to a lesser extent), taking them out from the jacket, admire the artwork, sniff on them and seeing them being spun on the turntable. also discussing music with the store owner or assistant is an enriching and interactive experience.
just how could one "hang out" in an online store?
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8 years ago
5 comments:
More and more publishers are offering HD quality downloads at 88.2khz or 96khz 24bit varieties. These are supposed to be very good although I have not experimented with them yet. This goes well with the new high end music servers such as the Linn Klimax DS or even PC-based home servers. Like it or not... the good old days of hanging out at record shops may be just good memories... and 30 years from now the next generations will think we are crazy to waste time in shops
I still love hanging out at music stores.
But most of the staff now lack the musical artistry content knowledge! Like the Jack Black character you mentioned, so no much fun now as before.
I used to hang out for hours, but now 30 mins is max. Most of the time now days I can't even find what I want to buy in music stores now! That is really sad!
We thought a rabid Hi-Fi enthusiast would prefer to hang out at music stores and buy the record rather than download it online.
Anonymous, we agree that most of the staffs at stores lacking of knowledges that they're supposed to have, it could be due to 'commercialism' whereby owners of the stores refuse to get in certain titles where for them those titles couldn't bring them any dime.
my music collection is largely bought from Ebay/amazon/BMG and I've started to look at high def downloads.. In Malaysia sadly the music stores are not that well organized and the selection is not comprehensive; buying online saves me a LOT of time.
DS
Online is the way to go...
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