Many years ago Morley Safer on 60 minutes was interviewing a famous (and quite pretty) female opera singer. In the midst of the interview she suddenly belted out a piece from an opera and Morley almost jumped out of his chair. She smiled and said, "It's a pretty unnatural way of singing." The average age of the Metropolitan Opera's audience is 65. What does that tell you? Andrea Bocelli, who I have several of his CD's, is panned by the critics, but audiences flock to his concerts. I'll add that he was invited to sing at Pavarotti's funeral.

People simply like natural singing. By far the most part of the music I listen to is of course 'optimized', but not to the point of echos and other gimmicks being added.

I have one of Renee Flemming's CDs. All of the songs would fall under fairly popular (though not pop). She was asked to sing two octaves lower. She has an incredible 'natural' voice. Quite sexy.

Aren''t you sorry you replied, but I do appreciate it.

Now, back to XM.