"Keith G" wrote in message
...

To me, the order of tracks on an album is sacrosanct and I always listen
in strict sequence, even when it's a CD, unless I just want to play a
single track. Anyway, it seems there are two schools of thought now that
downloads are all the rage and tracks are stored en masse on MP3 players.
See the phrase "The £12,000 speakers were revealing little nuances of
sound that some of us had not heard before." in this interesting article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12209143


What goes around, comes around! :-)


Morning Keith

Interesting thread.

Albums which fall under the category of "concept" are
written to follow a sequence (Floyd, Moody Blues etc)
so it seems logical to play them back in the intended order.

This applies also to classical music and jazz suites, and as
you say the order of tracks is indeed sacrosanct.

Pop records are a different thing all together, when a dozen
or so individual titles are assembled on one CD.

It is usually the producer who comes up with the running
order, which is approved by the artist. As as recording engineer
or editor, I have on many occasions been able to add my
"two pennnyworth" regarding running order preferences.

The first two titles are usually the strongest, (especially if they have
been issued as singles, or been placed on air-play lists) In the case
of vinyl LPs it was traditional for the "lesser" titles to follow, with
band six being a better title than band five, to encourage you to
turn the LP over. B1 was always a strong title too (an earlier single
or perhaps the latest single B side)

A large percentage of recorded releases are compilations.
Artists and composers seem to need to "fill the CD to the
brim" where usually twelve titles suffice for one sitting.
Similarly in classical music, it seems that most people find
a symphonic work of three movments of about10 mins
each to be a sufficient dose.

I wonder how many people sit without talking or doing
something else, to listen to a complete CD of 60mins.
Probably not a large percentage? People these days seem
to have a shorter attention span and many more distractions.
People don't seem to be able to resist talking at classical
concerts, and many, even though their mobile phones are
switched to silent, seem to find it necessary to send and
receive text messages during the performance!

I have often wondered how the audience would react
if the orchestra did the same!

If the 4th trombone has 224 bars rest, wouldn't that
be a suitable time for him to send a text
message home enquiring if the kids are tucked up
safely in bed, and the Chablis decanted? :-)

Deciding the running order for an album is an interesting
challenge. I try to look a bit deeper, and image the entity
as opposed to a collection of individual tunes. A simple thing
like matching keys has an affect upon the overal all result.
In analogue recording there was not much one could do
with pitch, but it is a simple task to digitally pitch shift a
track (while not affecting the tempo) to make it a better
match with the previous title and the one following it.

As regards downloads. From what I have been told, few
people seem to download a whole album but pick their
favourite tracks into DIY compilations.

I enjoy talking with my neghbour's children about
music. They each have thousands and thousands of
songs on their iPods. When I ask them to play me
a favourite (the list seems to change daily:-) they rarely
play a song right through without saying "listen to
this next one - even better"

I use an .mp3 player when outside, chopping logs (or
shovelling snow:-(( and then I usually set it to shuffle
mode - I like the element of surprise:-)

Iain