Does vinyl only make sense if they're pressed from analog tapes?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Remote Control Triangle, Jun 13, 2018.

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  1. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yes... analog for analog....
     
  2. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    The idea that a vinyl record may not have been recorded from analogue tapes had never occurred to me until recently wherein I had bought a ' Dion and the Belmonts ' reissue of their debut record album for 50cents at a thrift store ……..mint condition sleeve and record ……….is it an original cut from analogue tapes or a rip from a cd?
     
  3. George Blair

    George Blair Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Anyone listening to Tom Petty's Live Anthology on vinyl would be able to answer this question.
     
  4. Pinknik

    Pinknik Senior Member

    I don’t know. I couldn’t turn up any production info with a google search.
     
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  5. G E

    G E Senior Member

    When I listen to some digitally sourced music, I get a sensation that my head is packed with steel wool. Those old Genesis SACD remastered/remixes are A prime example / worst offender.

    Some of the digitally sourced LP masters make my head feel the same way.

    I listened to Wilson's Aqualung several times. I really wanted to like it. Rave reviews by most. But my ears, my system: Fail.

    Same with Morrison Hotel.

    But some digital productions sound wonderful. Crossroads 2010 blu ray is a wonderful sounding digital video disc. Same with Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scotts.

    In some ways having an ultimate sound system is problematic. Sure, the great productions are stunning. I am blown away by how good some of this stuff can sound.

    But some productions of music I deeply care for just don't work. Finding old analog recordings works much of the time. Some of those 1960's productions just weren't done that well. Early Beatles included.

    One just does the best one can.
     
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  6. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    You must be talking about the Capitol US issues which are well known to be bad because the original UK records to me and a for a lot of people sound excellent.
     
  7. G E

    G E Senior Member

    Referencing the recent Beatles in Mono box set.
     
  8. I did a search also but I came up with nothing. The case is that the La La Land Records 2 CD release from 2010, which I own, states on the booklet that both David Arnold and the recording engineer pushed for budget to get the soundtrack mixed on 24 bit. They don't mention what equipment they used. A pitty.
     
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  9. John Dyson

    John Dyson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fishers, Indiana
    Hate to bring this up -- but a lot of digitally distributed (and probably pressed) material that was sourced between approx 1965/66 through 1990+- is DolbyA encoded. The DolbyA leaks out to the consumer, and is sometimes detected as the 'digital' sound that cannot be EQed out. I have a collection all with material from between 1960s through 1990 (the limit of my real music interest -- I even like material from before then), and have found about 1/2 of my collection is DolbyA encoded. Some of it has been EQed by desperation and cheapness of the distributor, but still has the DolbyA HF compression imprint. To clean up the sound, the best thing to TRY is a DolbyA decoder, and there is some SW available for free. EQ cannot fix the material that is DA encoded.

    Not all material IS DA encoded, but if you think about it -- the producers of the recordings aren't stupid (but they are penny pinching), and they have no reason to use really bad EQ. They do have a reason to avoid doing the DolbyA decode, because it takes real-time digital-analog conversion, using the DolbyA unit, and then re-A/D conversion. That costs money, and the cheap companies have bean-counters that don't like spending money if they don't have to.

    This exact scenario has been talkd about from a recording engineer and the request being made not to do the DA decode because of the cost. The suggestion was to 'just do EQ.'

    Most DolybA & EQed material can still be decoded to the point where it is significantly improved (some of the EQ can be reversed.)

    Oh well -- this has been a 30+yr question as to why some digital releases sound bad... I finally figured it out about 1yr ago, but haven't talked about it much until recently.

    John
     
    G E likes this.
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