1993. The digital age. If you want spirit, you'd better get rich, because you're going to have to pay for it. CD's have replaced records by 95%. You've finally paid off your $2,000 state-of-the-art stereo only to discover it's now outdated and on sale at K-Mart for $299. Well, at least you have your CD's, a costly yet priceless collection of musical recordings which produce perfect music and never wear out. Certainly, it is safe to say that these digitally mastered recordings are timeless and cannot be improved upon, right???

CD's and digital recording instruments of any kind kill music. As long as we listen to digital music of any kind, we no longer have music. What we do have is an incredible simulation, but, I repeat, it's not music—sort of like a fake diamond, only much more disastrous.

Long ago there was a time when the only way to experience music was to play an instrument or to be in the immediate presence of a musical performance. In those days, if you were cold, you'd start a fire, if you were hungry, you cooked some food, and, if your nose was too big, it stayed that way!

As recording techniques and players were invented and improved upon, people slowly got used to the idea of substituting a recorded performance for a live one. Surely, there were many skeptics at first, but, eventually, most agreed on the value of sound recording.

The stereo or turntable became the musical instrument, "a contrivance or apparatus for producing musical sounds." The sound recording became the musician.

Musical vibrations were recorded onto master tapes in the form of tiny metal particles. From this our records and tapes were made.

A record player, utilizing a diamond needle, receives impressions from the grooves in a record. This causes the needle to vibrate, much like a guitar string or violin string does. This vibration produces direct electrical impulses which eventually come out of your speakers as music.

The tape player, utilizing a magnetic head, reads the alignment of metal particles on the tape. This magnetic pull is what then creates electrical currents, which eventually become sound.

With these two forms of playback there is no separation from the initial musical vibrations. The original vibrations have maintained a continuous wave. Each impulse is the direct result of its predecessor. Although we're getting music which is second, third, even tenth generation, we are still getting music.

The nature of music is vibration. These vibrations create sound waves that then effect us emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and physically. Each of these sound waves produces a myriad of overtones which also effect us on very subtle levels. Whether you're listening to Punk Rock or Mozart, these sound waves and overtones give the music its life. For music to remain musical through the recording process, these sound waves must be continuous, flowing and organic. Analog recording and playback machines (records, tapes) retain these musical qualities. Digital does not.

As I said before, your stereo is a musical instrument. With digital recording and playback machines (CD players, DAT machines), this instrument is now a computer. But, that's not all. The musician is also now a computer. The CD or digital tape does not play the computer as a record or tape plays the instrument of your stereo. Rather, this computer reads a series of instructions from the CD and then re-performs the music. What you hear is not the original performance, but, instead, a computer simulation.

The problem is, computers can't be made to convey an emotional, spiritual, or physical experience. It is simply not their nature. What we get is purely an intellectual process. once the music enters this digital recording instrument/computer, we lose all emotional, spiritual, and physical connection to the original performance.

In order for a computer to reproduce a musical sound wave, it first must categorize the wave in the form of a grid. This computer grid recreates the sound wave as a staircase. No matter how intricate this grid, no matter how detailed the computer program, it will never be able to accurately reproduce this musical sound wave. The stairs might get smaller, but they are still stairs, not a wave.

This simple fact explains the often heard complaint that CD's are edgy and abrasive. That they don't breathe or flow. That they aren't warm.

What this grid leaves us with is a computer-produced simulation of a sound wave, a computer produced simulation of a musical performance. All the warmth is gone, because we've lost the connection to the original source. The music and overtones have all been adjusted into their most dominant factors. The end result is a complicated display of computer technology which has little to do with the original music.

To further illustrate this point, look at your television screen. If you look closely enough, you will see that the screen is made up of thousands of tiny points of light called pixels. Each light changes color to make up a seemingly complete picture. Each light can only be one color or shade at a time. The resultant picture is not one connected whole, but, instead, made up of thousands of these tiny lights.

This is how digital recreates music. It reads the music as thousands, even millions, of tiny lights or sound sources.

To the computer, the music never was and never will be a connected, whole body of sound. This is why computers can't make accurate musical sounds. It can't receive the initial musical vibrations, physically and completely, as a record or tape can. To the computer, the music is not a physical experience but an idea, a creation of logic and the mind, and, consequently, it can only relate it as such.

Being fooled by these computer simulations has been easy. Especially when we're listening to music that we used to listen to in analog. It's easy for us to "fill in the blanks" and pretend that it's all there. But some things are missing. Other things are changed.

It's like the difference between a vase made by hand and fired in a kiln, versus one glued together by a computer with millions of tiny clay and glass particles. It might look like the same thing, but it's not. It didn't go thru the same alchemical process of being molded and glued by the artist, sealed and fused by the fire, cooled correctly, etc.

Computerized/digital music, like the vase, is riddled with holes. It is of a completely different nature and creative source and because of this can never satisfy us emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Instead of soothing warm bath we have a tub full of millions of tiny ice cubes.

Now, surely, some will say, "But I do have emotional responses to CD music." Yes, you do. The difference is that you, an emotional being, are responding to the computer's performance of the music, rather than the musician's performance of the music. The only connection you have to the original performance is through your intellect. That's the only way the computer experiences, and that's the only way the computer relates.

Don't take anyone's word for it. Do a comparison and experience the difference for yourself. Take a record or analog tape of your favorite recording and compare it to a CD version. Make sure the tape or record is not from digital masters (this is usually stated on the packaging). When listening, feel the difference.

With digital, can you hear and feel the computer singing and playing the various instruments? Can you feel the millions of tiny "sound cubes," 'forming' "sound staircases?"

With analog, can you feel the breath and life present in the room? Can you feel the sound waves splashing air currents over and through your body and around the room?

How do you feel after extended listening of each?

For this experiment, I suggest listening to the music in a contained, and, if possible, uncarpeted room. This will allow the overtones to freely bounce around the room, giving your entire body the full experience of the music.

Forget about scratches in a record. In fact, it's recommended that you take your oldest, scratchiest record and see if it doesn't have more life than a CD version.

Many people feel that these computerized/digital sounds are actually antagonistic to us physically and emotionally, that the abrasive qualities of these "sound staircases" actually wear us down instead of replenishing us.

This makes sense when you consider that all day long we hear sounds in analog. Everything from car horns to birds chirping comes to our ears in analog sound waves. When suddenly our bodies are bombarded with digital sounds through a CD, our minds may be fooled, but our bodies hear these sounds as the unnatural forms that they truly are.

Perhaps we've let computers intrude into our lives a bit too far. Maybe we can stop this before we have push-button guitars or digitally mastered paintings. Maybe it's more than just a coincidence that the A.I.D.S. epidemic entered our culture at roughly the same time as CD's, and it seems to be growing at about the same rate.

We can't accuse CD's of causing A.I.D.S. But maybe the lack of real music in our lives, music that feeds and replenishes not only the mind, but the spirit, body, and soul, has made it harder for us to heal ourselves, to fund cures for our diseases, to regenerate and change our physical forms.

Maybe this lack of real music has also made us more violent and frustrated, causing much of the recent increase in gun ownership, killings, etc.

In this digital age, escaping these computer sounds is not as easy as one might think. For example, most films today record all dialog and sound effects digitally. Some films boast of having digital scores. 99% of radio airplay is now from the CD format. Many television shows use digital sound effects and dialog recording exclusively. This de-humanization of modern art and man has got to have an effect, the results of which only time will tell.

One writer suggests that if computers are reproducing music, even composing it, why not the next logical step of having computers be the ones to also listen to it.

This is not to say that computers and modern technology are bad or wrong (their advantages are numerous and need not be stated here). It is to say that there are some things computers can't, and shouldn't, do.

Our bodies are warmed by fire, cooled by air, nourished by water and food. If we substitute air for food or water for fire, we cause imbalances in our bodies and our lives.

I'm afraid CD's are a big mistake—fake diamonds that cost us more than the real thing.

In this age of the artificial heart, science has taken away one of our most sacred arts. Here are some suggestions as to how you can take it back:

1. Stop buying CD's.
2. Stop buying records and tapes that come from digital masters.
3. Buy only records and tapes that come from analog master tapes.
4. Let your local record stares know how you feel.
5. Write letters to record companies.
6. For musicians: Eliminate digital recording, digital effects, digital keyboards, and digital instruments of any kind.
7. If you are a popular recording artist and must put out CD's, you can insure the preservation of your music by recording only in analog. Then, when CD's are gone, you won't be left with digital masters—complete misrepresentations of your original music.
   Also, insist that analog cassette tapes are made available to the public and make sure these tapes don't come from digital masters.
   Finally, if you're really bold, put a disclaimer on your CD's explaining that what the listener hears is not a complete or accurate representation of the original music.
8. If you 're a filmmaker, avoid digital sound effects, scores, and dialog recordings to allow the feeling and emotion of these sounds back into your films.
9. Start playing a musical instrument.