"The Beatles In Mono Hit Harder!" Music's Shifting Soundscape.
Preparing for the unexpected in now expected.
Audio is in a transformative stage that will likely change how you listen to music. Whether you like it or not is a matter of preference. The venerable audio brand Marantz marks its 70th anniversary this year, a celebration that turned into some musical soul searching. On July 12th, I attended a soiree to celebrate the event at Spring Studios in New York City, a fitting location as Saul Marantz started his company in nearby Kew Gardens, Queens. Back in 1953, Saul debuted his innovative Audio Consolette, a mono, vacuum-tube preamplifier which offered the average music lover an unprecedented level of control with features like bass and treble equalization. Mono was still king in those days and would be a playback option on most home hifi systems until around 1967. The early recordings of rock bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and soloists like Bob Dylan were in mono, engineered with radio play in mind.
“The Beatles in mono hit harder like a punk band,” exclaimed David “David1” Macklovitch of the Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo (five albums and a Grammy nomination) in a presentation, playing “A Hard Day’s Night” in mono to make a convincing argument. There’s a lot to be said for the straight-ahead punch coming through a single speaker. Of course, the musical world eventually switched to the left/right stereo soundscape that matches up nicely with our ears. Macklovitch believes music is in the midst of another transition, noting that in his role as music producer, he is increasingly required to develop not only a stereo recording but one in the surround sound Dolby/Atmos, aka spatial audio, format.
Spatial audio already is familiar to movie goers as it’s the sound technology that makes the film feel immersive, like when the fighter jet in a Tom Cruise flick seems to be swirling around your head. Yes, I love it too. But whether you want that sensation for normal music listening is another question. Most music fans have long appreciated having the soundstage positioned in front of them as if you were at a concert. With spatial audio, sound engineers can put instruments anywhere in a virtual space. Spatial sound adherents are banking on the popularity of headphones which is probably the prime way most people now listen to music and that the swirling sound will tickle their ears. Companies like Apple now have spatial surround circuitry built into earbuds. Home audio companies are catching up with speakers compatible with spatial audio that can simulate the surround sound experience.
Macklovitch is pretty tolerant of all options whether they be mono, stereo, or spatial, identifying them as sonic flavors to be sampled on their own merits. I delved into a big selection of rock spatial audio demo tracks on Apple Music (apple.music.com) and emerged less so. I wasn’t enamored of instruments and background vocals moving around seemingly in need of GPS coordinates. In some instances, the experience felt a little creepy. Granted, my first inclination is to fill up a room with sound, neighbors be damned, and then reach for the headphones when the banging on the front door begins. But I encourage you to try the Apple demo tracks (it’s free). I’ll note that we have been down this sonic street before with things like quadraphonics in the 1970s. so spatial audio may not be around for the long term. And the cynic in me suspects spatial audio is a great way for studios to make more money on old songs. Still, my twitching ears think Macklovitch may be on to something but its unclear what that will sound like. Macklovitch is interested in how different sound frequencies corresponds with colors. Maybe an artificial intelligence will tune in—ChatGPT for your ears. Which will probably make old vinyl even more popular.
But hat’s off to Saul Marantz on the 70th anniversary of the brand. Saul is the kind of New Yorker featured in my new book MADE IN NEW YORK, 25 Innovators Who Shaped Our World. Music fans take note of the chapters on the development of the vinyl LP and the birth of hip-hop. MADE IN NEW YORK is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target and directly from the publisher, SUNYPress (www.sunypress.edu/Books/M/Made-In-NewYork).