For Producers
While developments since the introduction of stereo recording have moved towards high and higher fidelity, the web makes music all about higher availability.
Global distribution from the comfort of your own server: that utopia is here. But the price is a vast drop in quality. Computer loudspeakers, drastic compression, digital artifacts, delays before streaming - these have become the producer's concern, not the ultimate snare or viola.
At aAmplify we tell our composers what to expect before they record. Just as a lack of huge orchestral forces pushed Stravinsky into chamber music, the mono 24kbit stream enforces sparsity. Spacious, shimmering clusters work less well. Clear lines and phrasing will come across. That does not mean you write down for the web, it just means showing part of you that works best there.

We complain about web sound, but Osakans and Bogotans can hear it the minute you upload in Vienna. That has given us - the art music community - the first break since the words "record" and "company" were ever joined.

Sehn Fruon 


We still start at the high-end, tending though to a very mono master. We go for 24bit/96KHz, with a Neumann, Amek Neve 9098 and Tube Tech signal path, mixing and editing in Pro Tools TDM, sometimes in Logic Platinum, if there is bar rhythm. We compress classical instruments as in pop, with Waves L1 for saturated MP4s. Beware of high frequency excess, but some EQ at around 800 Hz will aid clarity on the PC's unspeakable speakers.