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- Me_Wise_Magic
- Rep: 70
Re: Hear Chinese Democracy On Vinyl!
Finally got around to listening to both Catcher and TWAT. I could hear a slight difference in both in terms of sound and hearing alot of background scape added into the production. Enjoyed the listens. Was going to listen to ITW; but it wouldn't work for some reason. Thanks for your hard work on doing this my friend! 
rock on! 
Re: Hear Chinese Democracy On Vinyl!
Overall, I applaud this effort!
A couple of (theoretical) points for those doubting the merits of such an approach:
The loss you get when converting from analog to digital is much less than you'd think, even with relatively cheap hardware. There's basically two things that can be affected: dynamic range (the number of different "steps" of volume you can reproduce) and frequency (highest pitch note you can reproduce).
For what it's worth, the human hearing in optimal conditions (young adults that have not been to too many concerts) can hear about 100db of dynamic range and frequencies up to 20khz. Especially your frequency range goes down quickly with age and wear-and-tear, dropping down to something like 18khz for most of us rock fans.
For dynamic range, a vinyl record can reproduce roughly 76db of dynamic range, a CD with 16 bit audio about 90db. So, a CD is better able to match the abilities of the human hearing than vinyl records. Or otherwise put, you should be able to perfectly reproduce the dynamic range of a vinyl recording on CD.
For frequencies, the rule is that you divide the digital frequencies by two. So, a CD with a sampling frequency of 44.1khz can reproduce frequencies up to 22khz, more than any human can hear. A vinyl record can give you roughly up to 20khz, so again below what CD can give you.
So, why does a vinyl record typically sound better than a CD? The difference is in how engineers tackle the mastering of each medium. For CD's, targeted at the masses it needs to be as loud as possible which means losing details due to compression (the volume wars). For vinyl, targeted at audiophiles the mastering is done in such a way that as much of the dynamic range is reserved while still sounding punchy. Effectively putting a mastered-for-vinyl version on CD would kill almost all perceptible differences between the two media. Digital gets an unduly bad rep because of this.
So, if you take a vinyl record and push it to a lossless format on PC you should have something that is virtually indistinguishable from the original. Most of the loss will probably happen in the cables, which is still difficult to discern for the average listener.
If you want to do a blind test, you can record a vinyl record on PC and output it straight back to the amplifier/speakers you typically use to play your records and do a blind A/B test. If you don't use REALLY low end equipment (e.g. laptop soundcard) I will bet you won't be able to discern it in a completely honest test.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Hear Chinese Democracy On Vinyl!
On a slightly OT but related note....
I recently picked up a ZZ top box set for $20 that has five of their classic albums on CD.
Previously I'd only owned a greatest hits CD from 1992.
What's curious is that I'd assume all of these CDs date from before the loudness war....as I think the box set is literally just the standard versions...but the mastering is far and away between them....it's really noticeable how different the drums and guitars are in the final presence of them.
Shows you how mixing and mastering can really change the impact...and this is shocking to me because I've been listening to the version i got in 1992 for 20 years....so I notice the changes.
Re: Hear Chinese Democracy On Vinyl!
That is crazy. I've actually been choosing remasters over origins lately, because of the volume, and because I thought it was better quality. I don't think there is anything wrong with the volume on the originals, you crank it and it's all good. But it makes listening to my iPod on shuffle annoying. I have to crank up an older song, and if I forget to turn it down before the next track, pain.
