Records to spell doom for the CD?

[-Cp]

Unfortunately, what is written above is largely a moot point. There are few, if any, recordings being made today that aren't recorded and/or mastered and/or processed and/or etc. digitally before being put on vinyl or CD.

IOW, pretty much all of it has been compromised at one stage or another.

Actually - only recordings going to CD are mastered Digitally - they have to be in order to go to CD... .

Records are mastered analog....

You'd also be surprised to know that many recordings and mixes are still done using analog - the reason is that it sounds better...

[-Cp]

And I'll bet 1000 cyber bucks you can't get 10 people out of 1000 that could listen to a recording in a sound both, and be able to say...it's vinyl or CD.

And I bet 1000 cyber bucks you've never heard a clean record on a high-end audio system (High end means that technics rack system you bought at the local dept store doesn't count)... :P

[Pale Rider]

From Howstuffworks.com:

Is the sound on vinyl records better than on CDs or DVDs?


The answer lies in the difference between analog and digital recordings. A vinyl record is an analog recording, and CDs and DVDs are digital recordings. Take a look at the graph below. Original sound is analog by definition. A digital recording takes snapshots of the analog signal at a certain rate (for CDs it is 44,100 times per second) and measures each snapshot with a certain accuracy (for CDs it is 16-bit, which means the value must be one of 65,536 possible values).


Comparison of a raw analog audio signal to the CD audio and DVD audio output


This means that, by definition, a digital recording is not capturing the complete sound wave. It is approximating it with a series of steps. Some sounds that have very quick transitions, such as a drum beat or a trumpet's tone, will be distorted because they change too quickly for the sample rate.

In your home stereo the CD or DVD player takes this digital recording and converts it to an analog signal, which is fed to your amplifier. The amplifier then raises the voltage of the signal to a level powerful enough to drive your speaker.

A vinyl record has a groove carved into it that mirrors the original sound's waveform. This means that no information is lost. The output of a record player is analog. It can be fed directly to your amplifier with no conversion.

This means that the waveforms from a vinyl recording can be much more accurate, and that can be heard in the richness of the sound. But there is a downside, any specks of dust or damage to the disc can be heard as noise or static. During quiet spots in songs this noise may be heard over the music. Digital recordings don't degrade over time, and if the digital recording contains silence, then there will be no noise.

From the graph above you can see that CD quality audio does not do a very good job of replicating the original signal. The main ways to improve the quality of a digital recording are to increase the sampling rate and to increase the accuracy of the sampling.

Unfortunately, the above graph has no reference as to what the sine waves represent. My guess is they represent such a minuscule change in frequency, that the human ear couldn't hear it anyway. I doubt they're completely accurate in representation either. If a whole song was displayed, you'd find that the sampling rate of most store bought CD's would be almost perfect. So perfect in fact, that there is no way the human ear could distinguish analog from digital, other than the popping and hissing you hear when playing vinyl. No thanks.

And there's no way vinyl will ever out sell CD's. I have over 200 CD's I've downloaded and burnt. They fit nicely in a carrying case made for them that I can take with me in the car, truck, garage, and back in the house. And I'm going to replace that with 200 old vinyl LP's? Yeah right.

[-Cp]

Unfortunately, the above graph has no reference as to what the sine waves represent. My guess is they represent such a minuscule change in frequency, that the human ear couldn't hear it anyway. If a whole song was displayed, you'd find that the sampling rate of most store bought CD's would be almost perfect. So perfect in fact, that there is no way the human ear could distinguish analog from digital, other than the popping and hissing you hear when playing vinyl. No thanks.

And there's no way vinyl will ever out sell CD's. I have over 200 CD's I've downloaded and burnt. They fit nicely in a carrying case made for them that I can take with me in the car, truck, garage, and back in the house. And I'm going to replace that with 200 old vinyl LP's? Yeah right.

And unfortunately, you don't know how to read graphs - if you LOOK - it shows the original soundwave being a 10k wave.... the digital variants fall and rise drastically from the original sound wave.

You're response is based on a lot of assumptions and quite frankly, ignorance...

Outside of that you're still a cool conservative who may want to stick with politics and not audio discussions.. :P

[Pale Rider]

And unfortunately, you don't know how to read graphs - if you LOOK - it shows the original soundwave being a 10k wave.... the digital variants fall and rise drastically from the original sound wave.

You're response is based on a lot of assumptions and quite frankly, ignorance...

Outside of that you're still a cool conservative who may want to stick with politics and not audio discussions.. :P

Well fucking SORRY for getting into your discussion -Cp. I sure the fuck don't want to spread anymore of my IGNORANCE in here, so I'll just shut the fuck up.

Christ man... just fucking kill me...

[Jon]

Actually - only recordings going to CD are mastered Digitally - they have to be in order to go to CD... .

Records are mastered analog....

You'd also be surprised to know that many recordings and mixes are still done using analog - the reason is that it sounds better...

You're wrong. Recordings that go to CD and Vinyl can be, and many times are, mastered digitally.

I well aware that *some* recordings are still mastered using analog processes. However, there are exceedingly few studios that manage to keep the entire signal chain in the analog realm throughout the entire process.

Any part of the signal chain in the process that converts from analog to digital and back will introduce the "problems" you've alluded to in your previous posts.

[-Cp]

Well fucking SORRY for getting into your discussion -Cp. I sure the fuck don't want to spread anymore of my IGNORANCE in here, so I'll just shut the fuck up.

Christ man... just fucking kill me...

Wow......

Someone fall off their "meds" again? :P

[Pale Rider]

Wow......

Someone fall off their "meds" again? :P

First you insult my intelligence then you call me ignorant, and now you're all surprized at my response? C'mon -Cp, don't play games with me man. Hell... you're in my friends list.

Go back and reread what I said, and then look at this. You'll see that I was spot on. I have a degree in this, and I know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm a huge audiofile, and I know this shit front to back. It would appear YOU are the one that doesn't quite understand how this all works.

[Mr. P]

And I bet 1000 cyber bucks you've never heard a clean record on a high-end audio system (High end means that technics rack system you bought at the local dept store doesn't count)... :P

I'll take that bet and raise ya 1000. Does a professional studio hearing the original recording work for you as far as 'high-end' audio? Been there done that, and I'm here to tell you that 'YOU' can't tell the difference between that and a CD.

I'll check the mail for my check.

[glockmail]

I recall back in the glory days of vinyl- the late 1960's, that the "true audiophiles" would glorify the reel to reel tape. That would be analog/ magnetic, which was always the source of the analog/ mechanical recording.

[PostmodernProphet]

as everyone knows the future of all recorded music is limited....the true audiophile will settle for nothing less than having a professional sound studio in his basement, where all music is played live....

[Guernicaa]

not a likely event....I was downloading some Jethro Tull on bittorrent and mentioned to my daughter I had gotten an entire album downloaded in twenty minutes....she said "what's an album?".....over 50% of the population has never touched vinyl.....

Thats sort of weird, I don't believe the word "album" has disappeared from modern vocabulary at all. Everyone uses the word "album", they just mean "the entire CD".
Maybe you imagined this incident?

[jackass]

Thats sort of weird, I don't believe the word "album" has disappeared from modern vocabulary at all. Everyone uses the word "album", they just mean "the entire CD".
Maybe you imagined this incident?

I never hear of it refered to as an album anymore. Most people call it a cd. I dont know why you would thin khe imagined the incident.

[-Cp]

I'll take that bet and raise ya 1000. Does a professional studio hearing the original recording work for you as far as 'high-end' audio? Been there done that, and I'm here to tell you that 'YOU' can't tell the difference between that and a CD.

I'll check the mail for my check.

Nope.. a recording studio doesn't apply as a "high-end" audio system for playback... For recording, sure, but playback is an entirely different animal and I'm sorry, but the studio monitor's don't even come close in comparing to the likes of today's high-end home audio speakers.

And I CAN hear the difference - please don't tell me what I can and can't hear..

I have a background in the audio business and have mixed live audio for years.

[-Cp]

I recall back in the glory days of vinyl- the late 1960's, that the "true audiophiles" would glorify the reel to reel tape. That would be analog/ magnetic, which was always the source of the analog/ mechanical recording.

Yup.. those old reel to reel machines had incredible sound quality...