NEW VINYL FROM OLD CD'S?

[LVMAN777 322]

A lot of people that buy vinyl today don’t realise that they’re listening to CD masters on vinyl and that’s because the record companies have figured out that people want vinyl, And they're only making CD masters in digital, so all the new products that come out on vinyl are actually CDs on vinyl, which is really nothing but a fashion statement.

Neil Young

[BarryG 2,846]

Sounds like Neil !

 

BarryG

[trav0810 586]

This is true. There aren't too many studios out there that are producing analog masters.

[RodH 4,820]

This is the same guy that tried to convince us his PONO digital was so superior. Remember how that worked out. Digital masters lack tape hiss and magnetic oversaturation distortion.......

[LVMAN777 322]

FOR $30 I WANT AN ANALOG MASTER /NOT A CD MASTER

[soulofsound 40]

Whats next a DAC for your turntable? LOL!!!

[LVMAN777 322]

If the audio is already digitized and then pressed into an LP  you might as well just buy the CD...cheaper too.

[RodH 4,820]

OK, I'll bite. Just what is a CD master? 

 

Digital studio masters are not CDs, and for that matter what are you doing with your DEQ2496?

[Balok 1,398]

Article from Sound and Vision .  Neil Young's thoughts on DVD-audio

 

Read the first post of this link

 

http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?7826-NEIL-YOUNG-An-interview-with-thoughts-on-DVD-A-(S-amp-V-2001) 

 

Wish i knew how to copy and paste on this forum.

 

 

 

 

[AndrewJohn 8,150]

Well, while the MoFi and the Superdisc's do sound great - they seem over priced.  I kind of assume that some/many of these are what are referring to as CD-mastered.

 

Been diggin' a few dbx records lately, played (decoded) through my dbx-224x.  

 

Unbelievably dead quiet, and excellent sounding recordings..., and I'm pretty sure they are analog-mastered..., what few of them I can find. 

[BrianD 488]

If my memory isnt failing me, much of the recording industry was using digital masters before CDs ever were on the market. But I think it was 24 bit, and it may have been sampled faster.

 

So I think that vinyl was made from digital masters for a long time...

[LVMAN777 322]

THE WHOLE POINT IS IF YOU BUY "LP'S" BECAUSE THEY ARE ANALOG AUDIO AND SUPERIOR TO DIGITAL....THEN IF THE LP WAS MADE FROM A LOW BIT RATE DIGITAL MASTER TAPE YOU ARE SPENDING AN EXTRA $20 "FOR NOTHING"    

[LVMAN777 322]

 

Does vinyl really sound better? An engineer explains

 

 "... vinyl has both strengths and weaknesses compared to digital files, just as movie buffs have argued over the pros and cons of 35mm film against 4K digital. To break down what vinyl can really do, I spoke with Adam Gonsalves of Portland's Telegraph Mastering. Gonsalves has worked with artists ranging from Sufjan Stevens to Steve Aoki and proudly owns a '60s Scully lathe, the ruby-tipped device that cuts lacquer discs for plating and vinyl reproduction.

 

Before weighing vinyl's, ahem, good and bad sides, it helps to know how records are made. In brief, an engineer such as Gonsalves receives mixed recordings from the studio (or even a band's laptop) to master and cut to a lacquer, which is mailed off to be impressed upon the sets of metal stampers which will press hundreds or thousands of PVC pellets into vinyl LPs. Not every mastering engineering cuts lacquers — lathes haven't been made in decades and are in short supply, which keeps owners like Gonsalves busy — and Gonsalves is often sent digital files to work from rather than the all-analog tape one might expect.

 

 The good

"Vinyl is the only consumer playback format we have that's fully analog and fully lossless," Gonsalves said. "You just need a decent turntable with a decent needle on it and you're going to enjoy a full-fidelity listening experience. It's a little bit more idiot-proof and a little bit less technical."

The analog format allows for artists to transport their music from magnetic tape to LP to your speakers or headphones without the complications of digital conversion. This, ideally, is the closest one can get to what the artist intended — if the artist recorded on tape and sent the reels over to an engineer like Gonsalves to cut a lacquer master from. But whether its origins are digital or analog (more on this later), a vinyl disc should have more musical information than an MP3 file — so it should be an improvement on streaming sites such as YouTube or SoundCloud, especially on a good system....

 The bad

"All-analog" doesn't always happen: Many modern vinyl records are produced from digital masters, either recordings made natively in software such as Pro Tools or converted from tape before being sent along for mass production. When I visited Gonsalves, he was working on My Brightest Diamond's new album — from his computer. But analog-to-digital conversion (and vice versa) has come along quite a bit since the birth of the CD, and Gonsalves says he asks for high-definition, 24-bit files to master from if digital’s the option.

Still, as artists and labels hop on the vinyl trend, some new vinyl releases may be mastered from CD-quality audio, not the high-resolution formats audiophiles and folks like Neil Young adore. Is a CD-quality album going to sound more accurate on vinyl than a CD? Nope. But it will sound more vinyl-y, if that's your preference.

"There's basically nothing you can do to make an hour-long album on one record sound good," Gonsalves said. Vinyl's capable of a lot, but only if the grooves are wide enough for the needle to track them properly. A longer album means skinnier grooves, a quieter sound and more noise. Likewise, the ear-rattling sounds of dubstep weren't really meant for your turntable. "If you had taken Skrillex into Motown Studios, they would've said, ‘It's uncuttable!’" Gonsalves said, thanks to the strain the high-energy music would put on the needle’s journey.

Vinyl can struggle with highs and lows: High-pitched frequencies (drum cymbals, hi-hats) and sibilance (think “s” sounds) can cause the ugly crackle of distortion, while deep bass panned between the left and right channels can knock around the needle. “It should basically be in mono," Gonsalves said. Otherwise, "that's a hard path for a needle to trace."

The beginning of an album side sounds better than the end: As the album's circumference shrinks toward the middle, the needle speed changes and it can’t follow every millimeter of the groove. If the song that closes side A or B is a complicated one — say, one with a busy harmonica solo — it may well sound less than hi-fi. That's why those double-LPs are worth the extra flipping.

Surface noise: "The warm sound of the vinyl, that's a form of noise that you get from dealing with the lacquer material and having it go through this manufacturing process," Gonsalves said. The vinyl format can generate other issues: crackles and pops, records that skip and the whine of a needle against the LP, all problems that the CD advertised itself on solving decades ago. But for many, these sounds are just part of the vinyl experience, adding to the charm of a format that takes some extra effort — and often rewards it.

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/music/index.ssf/2014/11/does_vinyl_really_sound_better.html

[Skip 82]

Mobil Fidelity Sound Labs (MOFI) still cuts vinyl for the original tape studio master recordings. I believe Telarc does too. The MOFI recordings are excellent, as good as you can get on vinyl. They also do CD's recorded from the original master tapes.