A stupid time-travel related thought experiment I can't get out of my head

[xolotl]

So this is, like, Freshman-level intellectual faffery, but it's been spinning around in my head ever since a TDS listen a few weeks ago, so I'm attempting to exorcise it by posting it on here. I'd be surprised if this question hasn't been stated far more elegantly in the past, and probably answered with far more nuance and understanding than I've apparently got going on.

Anyway: Given an arbitrary point in "modern" music history (including the present day), how far back in time would one have to go before you'd be able to successfully convince a knowledgeable sound engineer/producer that the music brought back with you is from the future?

• Caveat/clarification 0: Assume that nothing else about yourself would draw attention to futureness, and that your attempts at "this is from the future" convincing is restricted entirely to the music.
• Caveat/clarification 1: Pretend you've got some magical bag-of-holding from which you can surreptitiously pull out any recording, at will
• Caveat/clarification 2: Assume that bag-of-holding also puts the recording on period-appropriate playback media
• Caveat/clarification 3: Assume that merely procuring future albums/songs from existing bands/musicians is not good enough; the listener will just assume it's a soundalike, or an as-yet-unreleased cut, or whatever

My gut feeling is that there's been some point in the 90s (or maybe early aughts?) which serves as some kind of absolute cutoff point. Like ubiquitous DAW setups would mean that even if you bring in something totally wild and previously-unheard, someone used to working with digital audio would just assume that some cleverclogs spent a few years in a basement and came out with that sound. But I also feel like I'm probably unqualified to say if that's the case or not, since I don't really spend any time on the production side. Like maybe there are some production flourishes from the past decade which an engineer from the aughts would look at and wonder how the hell it could've been done. Though I guess that seems unlikely to me?

And then on the other hand, of course, we've got shit like Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 which still sounds like it came from the future, even though it was 1994. So ehhh... Maybe even starting my guess in the 90s isn't giving enough credit to music production of the 80s and ealier...

Anyway, apologies again for the contrived post. Perhaps now I can drive to the grocery store without this damn thing popping back in my head.

[allegate]

A coworker and I were having a discussion the other day about how artists can get very expensive with their equipment so that it sounds like it was recorded on tape in a bar when they could just as easily buy some cheap tubes and amps and get the same sound.

So I guess my answer is that it's hard to say. There's some nuanced recordings out there from the 80s that sound pretty damn amazing still. Listen to Talk Talk or Dire Straits or Yes with some good cans and you'll wonder if you're not in the room with them.

That said, there are some audio tricks that I don't understand at all. I forget what I was listening to but it was on a soundbar with no other speakers hooked up - so no surround possibilities - and the track was putting instruments over and around me somehow. I actually thought the first couple times it happened (because it was drum hits) that it was my son or the cats messing around outside because the sounds were coming from the door area of the room.

[Erneuert]

You’re damn right about SAW Vol. 2!

[botley]