Why You Can Trust CNET Is Peter Frampton an audiophile?
Rock icon Peter Frampton invests a lot of time recording his music; he really wants you to hear how good it sounds.
Peter Frampton was the lead singer and guitarist for the Herd when he was just a lad of 16, and a couple of years later he co-founded Humble Pie. That band's "Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore" is one of the best live hard-rock albums ever. But most of you probably know him best for his solo work, and one of the top-selling concert albums of all time, "Frampton Comes Alive." A true classic.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Peter in New York City. He was in town to talk about his new album, "Thank You Mr. Churchill," and that's where we started, with the music. The album is autobiographical and covers a lot of ground.
But the man is really into sound, and sound quality. Most of the instruments and amplifiers used on the album date from the 1960s, because Frampton thinks they sound better than new ones. "Churchill" was recorded at his home studio in Cincinnati.
That said, he's not stuck in the past--the technology used to record "Churchill" is contemporary--and Frampton had a hand in engineering the album. He insisted on capturing the music in 24 bit/96 kHz high-resolution audio. With all that went into making "Churchill" sound so good, Frampton was genuinely concerned that some people might be listening to it in 128 or 256 kbps downloads. They'll be missing a lot.
That's why he sought out HDtracks, a music download site that sells CD- and better-than-CD-quality downloads (1,411.2 kbps and 4,608 kbps respectively). If you're into vinyl "Churchill" is available on LP.
Disclosure: These interviews were conducted as part of an HDtracks' promotion for "Thank You Mr. Churchill," and I was compensated for my appearance.