Analogue cars, and music, in a digital era

Kinja'd!!! "Speedmonkey" (Speedmonkey)
08/27/2013 at 10:14 • Filed to: Old cars, analogue cars

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I know more about rock music than I do about cars, but cars are more fun to write about. I spent my first ever two weeks wages (£4.50 a week as a paperboy, 6am start every single day) on a Muddy Waters album.

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That was 1984 and Duran Duran and Wham! were riding high in the charts. I couldn't give a fig about such electronic pop. I was far more interested in noisy rock and blues - and still am. My choice in cars is similarly luddite. My 2004 Audi S4 is for sale due to lack of use whilst I drive everywhere in my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The Porsche has steering so natural and communicative it's as though your fingertips are touching the road itself. The Audi's couldn't be more different. It feels as though they've started with a remote steering system and tried to engineer feel in.

This is the case with many modern cars. You turn the wheel left and the car goes left - just as it does in a computer game. What's often missing is the connection between road and soul.

Music can do the same thing. When Noel Redding plays the chromatic scale on his bass towards the end of Hey Joe it connects directly with my soul and sends a shiver down my spine.

Hey Joe was recorded in 1966 by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The instruments were a guitar, a bass and some drums. The sound desk that recorded the song was electric but not electronic. The music was recorded onto tape.

My Porsche 924S has electric components, but nothing in the way of electronica (aside from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ). The windows are electric but the switches that operate them are vast and basic, and the wiring rudimentary.

We now drive cars that are controlled by electronics, and listen to music composed, played and recorded largely on electronic equipment. As a result I believe we have lost something in the way of a connection between the product and the consumer.

Modern car's accelerator, brakes, gearbox and steering usually has a bunch of computers that monitor external conditions and driver inputs and deliver what they think to be the correct result. The driver might think he or she is driving the car but in reality the onboard supercomputers listen to what the driver has to say, and then do what they thinks best.

This is conducted on such an infinitesimal level that it is generally not noticed, unless the driver has a super-keen sense of driving reality. As I do - and probably you too if you are reading this.

Cars will never go back to the analogue devices some of us know and love. If you want analogue feel you must buy an old car.

Until 1980's The Game, Queen used to include the message, "No synths!" in the sleeve notes. After the introduction of synthesisers, which they came to embrace wholeheartedly, Queen's music lost a little of its soul. It takes slightly less effort to create new and unusual sounds without resorting to computers.

The same goes for The Rolling Stones who produced some of the best music anyone has ever recorded from 1968 to 1974. In 1976 they released Black and Blue, which attempted to emulate disco, and featured a synth for the first time - and it was dismal. They haven't recorded a decent album since.

Even Iron Maiden weren't immune to the curse of electronica. In 1986 they recorded Somewhere in Time which used "guitar synthesisers." Their standard of music then dropped off as synths infested the riffs.

But, in 2000 Maiden returned to form with the majestic Brave New World, which featured three full time guitar players - and a small smattering of synth - and haven't looked back since.

I can't think of a car company who have suffered such a drop in form and then such a revival, other than !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . After a majestic 60s and 70s they failed to release any decent new models through the 80s. Then, under Ford's stewardship they released the lamentable S-Type and X-Type, and the half decent XK.

It wasn't until 2008's !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that Jaguar shot back into form. Thereafter followed the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and F-Type. And whilst modern Jaguars might be riddled with electronics their steering is still oily smooth - just like it was in the classic Jags of yore.

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Mercedes-Benz demonstrates superbly the move from analogue to digital via their E-Class cars. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was well-engineered, simplistic perfection. The W210 was an electronic mess that often went wrong. Today a W124 will be a more reliable car than a newer W210. And it feels better to drive.

Modern cars are often brilliant but, as any fule kno, older ones usually provide a more analogue and immersive experience. Modern cars don't communicate as much with the driver (or any driver who cares), they do what they think is best.

And modern music continues to pass me by. Fatboy Slim (as new as I'm prepared to live with) might make some decent tunes but he fails to connect with my soul.

So I'll sail off into the sunset in an old Porsche, Mini or Jag with Highway to Hell on the stereo, having the time of my life. That's a much more appealing proposition than 'driving' a Tesla, tuned into Radio 1.

Feel free to tell me I'm an old fart who's completely wrong.

Article by Matt Hubbard


DISCUSSION (9)


Kinja'd!!! duurtlang > Speedmonkey
08/27/2013 at 10:30

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Damn kids, get off my lawn!

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I certainly do agree with you though, especially when it comes to cars. The few newish cars I have driven were all more boring than equivalent older ones. More comfortable and more boring.


Kinja'd!!! William Byrd > Speedmonkey
08/27/2013 at 10:32

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I'm 36 (almost 37, eesh) and prefer modern cars. The oldest car I've owned was from the late 80s and I didn't own it all that long. I like the extra level of comfort, convenience and speed. Sure some older models are quick, but progress and evolution of the automobile has meant that you can keep getting faster while you keep getting more comfy and better economy. I've owned a 1993, 2003, 2010 and 2011 Mustang and they just keep getting better. I prefer the latest Ferrari to the classics. I would have a new 911 over an older one. Not sure I've ever really thought through the "why" but I don't think I key in on the classics or older models like a lot of Jalops.

Good write-up!


Kinja'd!!! McMike > Speedmonkey
08/27/2013 at 10:38

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"When I was your age, scratching records was a bad thing."


Kinja'd!!! Speedmonkey > duurtlang
08/27/2013 at 10:44

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Top film! Gran Turismo


Kinja'd!!! Speedmonkey > William Byrd
08/27/2013 at 10:45

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Thanks!


Kinja'd!!! TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Speedmonkey
08/27/2013 at 10:46

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It's one of my life goals to own an E-Type. I'd like to do a resto-mod E-Type, upgrade the brakes, suspension so that it's more fun to hoon. Some people would probably balk at that idea, but I like having my cake and eating it.


Kinja'd!!! davedave1111 > Speedmonkey
08/27/2013 at 10:50

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1) The so-called electric guitar is just a guitar-like way to drive a synth. Anything with an amplified electric guitar uses synthesisers.

2) In any case, you can't seriously claim that synthesisers have no place in proper rock:

Unless you're a complete philistine, of course :)

3) Queen's 'no synth' tag wasn't some pretentious nonsense about synths being bad. It was just that most people had thought the big multi-layered guitar solos were synths, and they wanted to correct that. I'm sorry, but I can't agree that the period after The Game was notably less productive for Queen. Amongst others, you're dismissing stuff like I Want to Break Free, Radio Ga Ga, Hammer to Fall, A Kind of Magic, Another One Bites the Dust, Under Pressure, and so-on.

4) Just because something is done digitally doesn't mean it can't be done so it feels right. That many digital interfaces for cars are not what we want is not because they can't be built that way, any more than the prevalence of auto boxes in US cars is because the manufacturers can't build manuals. They build what people want to buy. Fortunately, one of the benefits of an increasingly wealthy world is that it's becoming more and more viable to create a niche car for enthusiasts.


Kinja'd!!! Bakkster, touring car driver > Speedmonkey
08/27/2013 at 10:59

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That's part of why I love the Foo Fighters latest album, Wasting Light. It was recorded entirely to analog tape, no digital until after it was fully mastered. Not only is it a fantastic album, it got critical praise as well, winning 4 Grammy's.

"To me, the biggest advantage of going analog is the restrictions that it implies, which gets you to perform in a way that you’re actually being a human being," Grohl said. "We thought about heart and performance. And I would rather people not tune their vocals, I would rather people not grid their drums."

Likewise, the latest Daft Punk album is the first I've truly liked beyond a single or two. Why? Because they're using real bass, drums, and guitar. There's just something great about the imperfections that humans add to a performance. And it's in no way different with cars.

The early 90s F1 cars were blazingly fast with their TC and active suspensions, but they lost the most important human element. We don't watch racing to see robots, we want to see humans, and humans have faults. Without that, there is nothing to relate to.

This isn't to say that it's impossible to make human music (or cars) with electronics. It's just much more difficult, because it lures us away from imperfection at little cost. It's easier to autotune or quantize than to practice more, but sometime that imperfection contains the entire character of a song. Sometimes the tendancy for oversteer in certain conditions are the characteristics that make cars special as well, but the temptation to tune that out with TC and ESM are similarly strong.


Kinja'd!!! RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > William Byrd
08/27/2013 at 11:04

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What you need, my friend, is a car from well beyond the 80s. I'm talking a 60s car. By the 80s, the muting and duller aspects of modernity had already afflicted most cars, but with few of the benefits of a higher level of tech. By contrast, a car which is old enough has a rawness and immediacy - even a land yacht - that is impossible to duplicate. I grew up in 80s cars, but the 60's car in the family and the 70's car held something that those cars just didn't come close to.

Nor is it all about "faster" or more economy. If it's comfort you want, the experience of a comfortable old car is different - think sitting on a wonderful sofa with a roar in your ears rather than a perfectly supportive but restrictive seat and the world muted out.

Convenience? What other than tunes really counts as a meaningful convenience, electric windows/locks/mirrors? All are available in cars of quite advanced age. If you say "Bluetooth connectivity, heated mirrors, GPS, and automatic headlights/wipers", I will slap you.

Drive an old car, and I don't mean anything with over 20% plastic interior. Live with it long enough to start hearing its "soul", if you will. It's not all about "progress and evolution".