Vinyl

[onlinebiker]

If you look.long enough - you can probably find some weird dude who thinks that 8 track tape is the best......

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

BRING BACK WAX CYLINDERS!!!!

Boru

[brewer]

Vinyl??? I like it when it squeaks.

[Rev. Rye]

Thank you for clearing that up, Gol Dernitt. If you made that clearer, you could have saved yourself a lot of this.

[Rev. Rye]

Then what exactly is it about the sound of vinyl that you love so much more than digital? If you think it's fidelity to the actual performance, well, analogue recording has a lot of limitations (dynamics and frequency ranges) that digital recording can obviate (even if many engineers don't bother.) Honestly, if anything, it's like... you know how sometimes actresses (especially in older films) had the camera go just a little bit blurry and it had the effect of making them look even more beautiful than they might have done in real life?  Like Carole Lombard did to hide a scar on her left cheek and Doris Day when it became clear she wasn't exactly looking the part of a virginal blonde anymore? It's a bit subtler auditory version of that.

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Also, I keep noticing that there's a strange disconnect about how many posts there are in this thread. I just got two notifications on replies I supposedly got in this thread since my last post, but mine is the last one visible. The "New Threads/Today's Threads" shows a total of 26 replies to the OP, but the last visible post is #21. What the actual fuck, tech guys?

Edit: And this briefly showed up as two posts, #21 and 28, side by side, before I refreshed the page and they were merged into #21. Something very strange is happening with this thread, and I don't mean Gol Dernitt's confusion about what constitutes high-fidelity sound.

I'd be open to an explanation  of fidelity.  Can't even post on this site without a workaround, not your fault, not mad, lemme have it.

Here's an article which explains exactly why vinyl sounds the way it does, why digital recordings actually capture recorded sound more accurately, and why vinyl seems to have its own charm in spite of it.

And here's some more points about the numbers that show that, yes, Digital formats sound closer to what a performance actually sounds like.

And now for something from Popular Science.

[Fake Messiah]

A lot of people roll their eyes at me when I say my record collection is small, focused, and full of 220 grams.

Vinyl definitely has a future since we can even see Kirk in JJ's Star Trek movies listening to Beastie Boys on vinyl in 23rd century.

[Gol Dernitt]

I'd be open to an explanation  of fidelity.  Can't even post on this site without a workaround, not your fault, not mad, lemme have it.

Here's an article which explains exactly why vinyl sounds the way it does, why digital recordings actually capture recorded sound more accurately, and why vinyl seems to have its own charm in spite of it.

And here's some more points about the numbers that show that, yes, Digital formats sound closer to what a performance actually sounds like.

And now for something from Popular Science.

These links are great, I thought I had made it clear in the OP that I enjoy purchasing/spinning records for reasons outside of fidelity and also outside of vinyl purism, but this is fair for certain arguments I might have to make against why I buy records the way I do.  I would like to follow up with Parquet Courts "Death Will Bring Change" off of Wide Awake, a record I own, doesn't seem to exist in a different medium. Nothing you're trying to seat me with, this is not a criticism of your point.

[Rev. Rye]

A lot of people roll their eyes at me when I say my record collection is small, focused, and full of 220 grams.

Vinyl definitely has a future since we can even see Kirk in JJ's Star Trek movies listening to Beastie Boys on vinyl in 23rd century.

Hell, by that logic, we should expect a mini-cassette revival soon:



(Bear in mind, despite Kubrick's predictions, the mini-cassette was never used as a commercial music form, and even the regular cassette didn't really take off for classical music)

[Gol Dernitt]

Vinyl definitely has a future since we can even see Kirk in JJ's Star Trek movies listening to Beastie Boys on vinyl in 23rd century.

Hell, by that logic, we should expect a mini-cassette revival soon:



(Bear in mind, despite Kubrick's predictions, the mini-cassette was never used as a commercial music form, and even the regular cassette didn't really take off for classical music)

Dude, I am fully for you going to see some kind of philharmonic version of whatever it is you want to hear.  Do it.  Please, don't subject me or anybody else to the purism of actually being there.

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I mean... what?

[Rev. Rye]

Just so we're clear, that was a screencap from A Clockwork Orange (my favourite film of all time.) And that little split-second shot always cracks me up, if only because of how poorly Kubrick's prediction for future technology held up (well, that and Karajan's 1963 performance is WAY superior to Fricsay.) I didn't mean to sound like a snob; vinyl is a flawed format fidelity-wise, but I can see that those flaws are actually part of vinyl's appeal.