MP3 VS Vinyl

[benyamean]

Man...

I grabbed a cd deck last week and have been playing mp3's as well as vinyl at home. What a difference in sound, never really realised how big of a difference. I am a fan of vinyl personally. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it sounds a lot nicer for the most part.

[miss.myra]

I'm totally not qualified to even post in this thread because I don't make a hobby out of playing other people's music, but I love a lot of older jazz, soul and other stuff and you just can't reproduce the sound you get from that kind of music on well loved vinyl. besides, legally purchased high quality mp3s vs a mint condition copy of james brown live at the apollo? no competition.

[oddmud]

CDs play out a much sharper sound. You almost have to turn the HIGH's down on the mixer to be able to mix with vinyl.

[ebbomega]

Serato, whut?

[benyamean]

Originally Posted by influenza

CDs play out a much sharper sound. You almost have to turn the HIGH's down on the mixer to be able to mix with vinyl.

Yeah, I have noticed a lot of different level ranges with mp3's as appossed to vinyl. Even though I found vinyl to vary quite a bit depending where it was pressed, mp3's seem to really differ a lot. It's hard to explain. Vinyl seems to be much warmer if that is a fitting adjective.

Ps... I like the comment about playing other peoples music as a hobby Myra lol.

[ebbomega]

Check the bitrates on your mp3s, that's probably the main source of discrepancy.

I wouldn't recommend using anything below 256 on a big system. Really you should limit at 320.

[benyamean]

Yeah man, what's weird is they're all at 320 I believe (I get mine from Beatport, Juno, and occasionally off a Miami electro site), but there seems to be a lot of difference. I guess it comes down to how the track was mixed and mastered really.

[GSG9]

stoked to be gettin serato

[kir mokum]

Originally Posted by benyamean

Yeah, I have noticed a lot of different level ranges with mp3's as appossed to vinyl. Even though I found vinyl to vary quite a bit depending where it was pressed, mp3's seem to really differ a lot. It's hard to explain. Vinyl seems to be much warmer if that is a fitting adjective.

it probably has a lot to do with:

1. vinyl releases are all mastered by a real mastering engineer. digital files can easily get away with not having their stuff properly mastered.
2. vinyl has a much smaller dynamic range so there will be a lot more compression. it will sound louder but wont meter louder.

[shift]

Originally Posted by kir mokum

digital files can easily get away with not having their stuff properly mastered.

Not really. A poorly mastered digital release sounds just as bad at the club (or anywhere else for that matter) as a poorly mastered record...

[Wood]

^yeah but i think what he's getting at is, if somebody puts an unmastered tune online, it's likely going to get dl'd and played out by DJs who either can't tell or don't care that it isn't mastered, whereas a tune *has to* go through some type of mastering process in order to make it on to vinyl.

[kir mokum]

Originally Posted by shift

Not really. A poorly mastered digital release sounds just as bad at the club (or anywhere else for that matter) as a poorly mastered record...

wood right. and in addition to that i also disagree with your assertion
that a poorly mastered digital file will sound just as bad as a poorly master vinyl release. mastering for vinyl is a completely different animal. the joe blows who are able to release stuff digitally can get away with not mastering their track properly or not at all. it will probably sound quiet with a lot of peaking or have pumping going on but you'll still recognize the track. if you were to do the same thing for a vinyl release you wouldn't even recognize the tune. it would probably be really quiet, the peaks would distort, it would skip all over the place, and pretty much everything above 1 KHz would cease to exist all due to the riaa filter. big difference.

so digital files can be released regardless of how good they were mastered. vinyl ALWAYS goes the a real mastering engineer. vinyl can still be mastered poorly but whoever mastered it poorly knows 100 times more about mastering than most of the people masting their own digital releases.

Originally Posted by sound on sound magazine

Despite what you may have heard, mastering for vinyl is the easiest type of mastering you can do, as it involves only two steps:
Find a mastering engineer who has mastered a ton of recordings for release on vinyl.
Present your final mixes to that person and say "Here, you do it."

[benyamean]

^Lol @ the sound on sound quote. Thanks for all the info guys! I had a feeling a lot of it had to do with what y'all said about the mastering. I was unaware of the dynamics of vinyl tho.

[kir mokum]

just in case someone wanted to check out the full article.

Audio Mastering In Your Computer

[inside]

This plugin is pure magic for mastering.

iZotope Ozone - 64-bit analog modeled mastering effects for Pro Tools, VST, MAS, Audio Unit, and DirectX audio applications

[Phrenetic]

I love ozone

[kir mokum]

how sweet would it be if it had a "master for vinyl" button.

[Phrenetic]

limiter + 20% bass reduction = vinyl

lol

[shift]

Obviously there are more physical limitations going to vinyl, which in turn makes mastering more important. The point I was trying to make is that to the end listener a shitty sounding track is a shitty sounding track, and that proper mastering shouldn't be written off just because a song is going to be released digitally. In retrospect I probably could have worded that a little better in my first post.

[GSG9]

dannys byrds seminars goes over tons about limiting and mastering, in case anyone is interested.

[kir mokum]

Originally Posted by shift

Obviously there are more physical limitations going to vinyl, which in turn makes mastering more important. The point I was trying to make is that to the end listener a shitty sounding track is a shitty sounding track, and that proper mastering shouldn't be written off just because a song is going to be released digitally. In retrospect I probably could have worded that a little better in my first post.

i totally agree. i was just trying to explain the variation in perceptible volume on digital releases.

[ppcock]

Lots of folks grab their mp3's at 192 which is ass quality.

But it's a lot harder finding stuff that's 320. vinyl sounds better and will always have a place in my heart but for convinience, CD/mp3/storage devices are the way to go.