Young Audiophiles?

I often read pieces from "audiophiles" lamenting the lack of young people interested in the hobby. I recently experienced first hand why so few fellow Gen Y-ers wouldn’t know good sound if it bit them in the underwear.



I visited a friend who has converted his basement into a pretty serious studio. Great mics, acoustical tiles, the works. He records into his laptop using ProTools (no tape!), and wanted me to hear some tracks. The drum sound was nice and tight, a bit restrained, but otherwise very pleasing. Not unlike the drums on Bonnie Raitt’s first album. The guitar sounded quite "bold" and unencumbered, for lack of a better term.




Now, the kicker.




He says, "oops, I only have the 2 overhead mic tracks selected," and he proceeded to activate about 16 more mic channels in the recording. YUCK! Unfocused slabs of drums started coming through the speakers, trying to melt my face. It made Metallica's "Black Album" sound polite.




Then, he proceeded to demonstrate the 50+ effects he could use to digitally muck-up the guitar (adding plenty of the HF hash associated with bad digital).




Only after all of this processing did he have a sound with which he was happy. I recorded a band last year, very simply, on a reel to reel deck with some basic mics. The sound was by no means "audiophilic," but it was far more pleasing than the onslaught I experienced in this "real" studio. Every time I see/hear a beat-up Chevy Cavalier blasting crappy Nickelback songs, it reminds me that most people only THINK they recognize good sound. And there's not much we can do about this. If they don't value good sound, or their hearing, why would they buy and listen to a decent audio system? An iPod with those ear-shredding mouse-turd headphones suits them just fine.