the change, put very basically, became more widespread when field recording
began to move away from the straight documentation of habitats & species. I
think also it's worth noting that for a great many field recordists involved in
all aspects of the practice the listening without headphones on is an essential
reason to be in the location & therefore levels might be set or adjustments
made but after that the headphones are off anyway.
on the other point, I was referring to the concept behind the product in
question, which seemed to me to have not much to do with listening & more to do
with the production values of an industry that is concerned with largely
compressed & produced music. I listen to music on headphones - all kinds of
music, but it does & has always bothered me when any creative activity is
pushed towards rules & assumptions. Reading the blurb about this product it
came across as being part of the reasons why sound has become more & more
restricted & our ears lazy. As I said though, this is all personal anyway.
--- In Peter Shute <> wrote:
>
> Jez wrote:
>
> > ... Aside from that, in actuality the history of
> > field recording has only relatively recently been about the use of
> > headphones at all times. Location sound, yes - but field recording was
> > very often done without the use of headphones other than to set basic
> > levels.
>
> Why the change?
>
> > on the basic subject of this thread, whilst its a personal thing
> > anyway, I for one can't see the advantage of such an emphasis &
> > reliance on headphone listening in this context. It seems to be a
> > product of the mainstream music consumption industry rather than any
> > effort to improve listening.
>
> Are you referring to listening while recording here, or listening to
> recordings? If the latter, I guess "mainstream music consumption" requires
> headphones because people want music wherever they go. This fits well with
> the need of the nature recording listener to be able to hear a wide dynamic
> range, for which headphones are a much more easily achievable solution.
>
> Peter Shute
>
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