BOB DYLAN: Stuck Inside a High Fidelity Experiment
Bob Dylan has agreed to be a guinea pig for producer T-Bone Burnett as he’s re-recorded some of his classic songs for a new ultra-high fidelity medium Burnett will soon introduce, Iconic Originals.
A member of Dylan’s band on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975 and ’76, Burnett says, “An Ionic Original is the pinnacle of recorded sound. It is archival quality. It is future-proof. It is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting. It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This painting, however, has the additional quality of containing that music, which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it…
“When describing the quality that raises analog sound above digital sound, the word ‘warmth’ is often used. Analog sound has more depth, more harmonic complexity, more resonance, better imaging. Analog has more feel, more character, more touch. Digital sound is frozen. Analog sound is alive.”
Burnett’s company, NeoFidelity Inc., will release a series of “Ionic Originals,” starting with the Dylan release, or releases, on aluminum discs that resemble vinyl albums. Claiming that the discs “advance the art of recorded sound and mark the first breakthrough in analog sound reproduction in more than 70 years,” Burnett hasn’t said if it will play on a standard turntable or if a new one is in development.
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