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Old 10-23-2014, 05:06 PM   #2401
BanjoChris
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 17
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I think both sides are right and are actually talking about different things. A good song is a good song and people will respond to it. Better gear sounds better.

I wouldn't go as far as to say "gear doesn't matter", though. If the recording is such total crap that it's distracting then people won't want to listen to it. Otherwise I think people can "fill in the blanks", so to speak, in their minds and not get hung up on the fidelity of the recording.

The problem with "mega hits", especially in the last 20 years is that, please don't be offended, the content sucks. There is not one Justin Bieber song that is worth even the plastic shrinkwrap around a Beatles album . .so all that's left for the Beebs is high production value (and his "image"). The proverbial (well) polished turd . .and people eat it up. Justin Beiber could not make a hit on sub-par gear - especially if people couldn't see him and they could just hear the songs.

On the other hand, I love old time fiddle and banjo tunes. Some of the absolute greatest players of all time can only be heard (in their prime at least) on albums that sound terrible. So bad you can barely even hear what they're playing. Just a mess of screeching fiddles and background hiss and feet stomping the floor and who knows what else.

For however great these players are/where, I can't listen to it. Very few people can. So there's a case of great musicians playing great songs and it sounds like a bag of cats in a washing machine. Too bad they didn't have an mBox or whatever, lol.
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