Vinyl Vs CD? Let the Battle Begin!

a reply to: SallieSunshine

Good answer.
Funny how you always knew your own albums unique sound. Go to someone else's house and play their copy of the same album and it sounded wrong without those little scratches.

Oh and Edumakated

Crates. That word rings loud!

originally posted by: Tarzan the apeman.
a reply to: Tulpa

8 tracks all the way. Johnny Horton sounded great on these.

Lol!!! U just aged yourself and have the young ones googling 8 track. Lol

I love it!!! U r awesome!

originally posted by: Tarzan the apeman.
a reply to: Tulpa

8 tracks all the way. Johnny Horton sounded great on these.

Holy #!

8 Track. My dad had an 8 Track player in his truck. It was next to his CB.

originally posted by: Edumakated
I tell you what I miss... album art. Just the act of buying music was so different. I remember we had a Tower Records that stayed open to about midnight or 1am. I recall going to that record store to browse hip hop and r&b releases. Flipping through the CDs and tapes. Checking out the album art. Limited release stuff. Digging in the crates so to speak...

I miss the album art too!!! Icoukd look at a Grateful Dead cover for hours... the symbolism was amazing!

a reply to: Yourmomsentme

Steady on there. Or I'll start winding up the gramaphone.

originally posted by: SallieSunshine
I no longer own any records or a record player but I do miss the staticky-scratchy sound when you would put the needle on the record and the chish-CHISH-chish-CHISH sound when the record ended. Also miss all the wonderful tones you could hear from a record that you can't hear from a cd. Also the sound of when a record gets old and you hear a slight scratchy-staticky sound all the way through and you would think "this is a well-loved record, played many times." Also, there was something wonderfully hypnotic about the rhythm of the record - you could hear it or sense it and there was something calming about it.

Cds sounds don't bore into your soul the way record sounds do. Cds are okay but not as good as records.

Sal


a reply to: Tulpa

Couldn't agree with you more!!! Your description of sound was dead on man

a reply to: Tulpa

LMAO!

Braker...braker 19.....what's your 20?

originally posted by: Yourmomsentme
a reply to: Tulpa

LMAO!

Braker...braker 19.....what's your 20?

10-4

Good buddy

My step dad was a trucker. lol they are usually disgustingly perverse. Lol

a reply to: MagesticEsoteric

Early Hip Hop used real breaks taken from scratchy old vinyl and that hypnotic sound was wonderful.
I could be wrong cos I don't play much HH these days but I'm sure they put fake scratchy sounds on to sound "authentic".
Got a couple of crates full of Tribe Called Quest, KRS1, DE LA Soul and a load of the original gangster rap. They're probably worth something but they just sit there.

a reply to: Tulpa

One might suggest that the noise of vinyl (rumble, static, dust, induced hum & etc) actually masked some of the audio and so our minds 'filled in' the gaps and we found the psychoacoustic representation more pleasing as it was a function of our own brains.

With the greater signal to noise of digital, our minds no longer had gaps to fill in and so we found it less pleasing.

An example of this is recordings of early 70's and 80's 8 bit synthesizers and drum machines. In real life and recorded digitally, the tones weren't that great but the vinyl versions were somehow smoother and fuller.

It is probably similar to the differences in the way valve amplifiers distort and the way transistor amplifiers distort. With valve amplifiers, as you approach the limits of the power rails, the system becomes unstable and begins to oscillate uncontrollably. These oscillations were usually at the peak of the waveform for a sine wave and so produced distortion which was predominantly harmonic (i.e: the same note but at a higher octave and therefore musically harmonic and reinforcing). Transistor amp distortion simply cut square across the top of the waveform when there was insufficient voltage on the power supply rails. It "clipped" the waveform which created predominantly 1/3 octave harmonics (which are musically dissonant).

Today, of course we have mainly .MP3 compressed files which are heavily distorted in psychoacoustically pleasant ways, to achieve the highest compressions. We are listening to the distortion far more than original content! But they also have signal to noise potentially exceeding CD levels.

So, each technology has advantages and disadvantages. Because of advances of technology, we can emulate vinyl in a digital recording as a plug-in filter. Few choose to use those plug-ins because of the limitations inherent in the vinyl sound.

So, since we have all of these media still, it makes sense to use the one that you like the best and that fits the piece, if you really are looking for the best experience possible.

originally posted by: Yourmomsentme
a reply to: Tulpa

LMAO!

Braker...braker 19.....what's your 20?

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the vernacular. 20?
When CBs were all the rage, some of my friends had them but I was down at Spin Inn buying 33s and 45s.

a reply to: Tulpa

No.

It was / is trucker talk.

They would say..."what's your 20...." The 20 is short for location.

So it is the same as asking... "what's your location...."

a reply to: chr0naut

I had to read that twice!
That's really interesting and explains a lot. When I was a kid I had a little battery radio that I had to play really quietly in bed so my folks didn't know I was up.
To this day I love that slightly distorted sound which got worse as the battery wore down.
It makes me sleepy.

Another thing I've noticed is your mind kind of "locks in" the first format you heard. In my case I heard the vinyl first then the CD. Its happened the other way round a couple of times and I tend to prefer the CD.
Brains are weird!

Cheers.

originally posted by: Tulpa

originally posted by: Yourmomsentme
a reply to: Tulpa

LMAO!

Braker...braker 19.....what's your 20?

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the vernacular. 20?
When CBs were all the rage, some of my friends had them but I was down at Spin Inn buying 33s and 45s.

List of CB slang From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

a reply to: chr0naut

Copy that Good Buddy.

Same for you YourMomSentMe

a reply to: Tulpa

You might enjoy this Crate Diggers with DJ Muggs

a reply to: zosimov

Cheers. Saved for later.
Done a lot of digging myself. After a while, the guys in some shops get to know what you like and you walk in the shop and they get a pile of twelves and plonk them on the counter.

Half the time they didn't put stuff through the cash til, just count up what your taking and come up with a nice round discount figure.
A handful of freebies was always nice, too. Makes me laugh when some people talk about white labels as if they're some kind of rarity.
Maybe with rock music but with techno/house etc that's all there are for some tracks.
Got tons.

I really miss searching for that one special track. When I used to go out and play live I had a certain sound and liked to build up to a nutty last hour and finding the perfect tune for the perfect moment was a challenge.
Buying online just doesn't give me that thrill.

a reply to: Tulpa

Digital is for those that forgot how to hear or have poor hearing, we don't all have the same range of frequency and for some of us we can hear the click's if we listen even on the best digital audio due to the fact that it is sampled at fixed level's and so if you look at a digital audio wave form it is a stepped wave form were as a true analogue is much, much closer to the original audio being recorded.

So Old record's and Records made from original analogue audio master stamp's are far better even than the best digital audio for quality, frequency range and of course they don't have that audible change from one sample level to another that even the best digital to analogue audio converter fails to mask.

Also best when heard through a Valve amp on good quality speakers.

As sampling rates increase digital is getting better but it is just not there yet, it feel's somehow soulless and those cut off frequency's that don't get sampled many of us DO hear and indeed perhaps more hear at a subconscious level when listening to real music.

a reply to: LABTECH767

I'm learning a lot here.

I do like both but I like the choice. I use technics SL1200 mark 2 turntables and I've got a pretty average technics tower stereo (just a home one).
I'm happy listening to CDs for daily use, mostly DJ mixes. Techno for the most part.
Got a box full of Frank Zappa which sounds good on CD. Motorhead are better on vinyl when I'm in one of those moods but got them all on CD too.

I've not played out for years but that was strictly techno and strictly vinyl. CDs with pitch control hadn't really taken off when I last played. I've been finding a lot of good live sets on YouTube and there's hardly a turntable in sight. I'm told that its easier to mix with them but never tried. You can't beat that "live" feel when you make a boo boo and end up struggling to chase a tune back on beat. Most crowds are quite forgiving if they like your tunes but I've done a few nights where the sounds been bad and you're listening to an echo from the opposite wall. You need good monitors. The delay is only small but it matters.

I collect all of the above. Vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes, cd's, and even reel-to-reel.
And I digitize them. Just in case.
I vote for vinyl. Each instrument cuts through the mix IMO. I actually prefer reel-to-reel but they harder to keep in good quality. They tend to degrade if not stored correctly.