Analog Music

[ladyapple27]

I read a newspaper article that said that the new premium vinyl is becoming trendy  among young music collectors. There was a discussion about the difference in sound quality between analog and digital. I agree that the analog has a warmer sound with more depth. I frequently hear old favorites of mine in digital form for the first time and am disappointed. Older singles were engineered to sound good on the record players of their era and something is lost in the transition to digital. Among others, Sun and Bluebird recordings really should be experienced on vinyl.

I love the easy storage and transportabilty of digital, but I'll always have some vinyl and not just because I'm a dinosaur. 

Comments

[brak55.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing this trend for awhile and like it, but find it a little strange. It's like the younger generation has this huge gap. At one end, you have the people who want high quality and they are realizing that the vinyl can provide it. At the other end is the other 95%+ who don't seem to care what the quality is as they are satisfied with digital downloads at low bit rates which obliterate the highs and lows or, even worse, streaming which can really kill quality if not at a high enough bandwidth.

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

Poor quality downloads also deaden the emotional effect of great performances. There is a misconception that the most expressive singers just go wild and let it all out, but it's really the singers with a combination of empathy and vocal control who create a mood. Poor quality reproductions leave out the masterful touches like a sigh or a vocal quaver in just the right place.

Think of the little quiver in Ben E. King's voice as he sings a line from the classic "Stand by Me." "I won't cry, I won't cry, no, I won't shed a tear.." The meaning changes without the contrast between the brave words and the delivery.

Of course, as we have discussed before, some people don't understand the meaning of the lyrics, let alone the emotional context.

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

I used to know a guy who worked at a local radio station back in the seventies. He once told us that the radio stations would speed the songs up by about 10% so that they could stick in an extra commercial every ten songs or so.
He said that the surprising thing was that it made many of the songs sound better even though most people couldn't actually tell that the songs were slightly speeded up.
I've listened to many of my old favorites since the speedup practice was stopped and I think he's right.
I don't know if you've ever heard of this or not, but thought I'd mention it.
:)

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

I have never heard that. I had a job at the local radio station a lo-o-ong time ago. Recognizing my vocal limitations, the station manager put me in charge of Casey Kasem's American Top 40. The show was on record albums delivered each week. Instead of breaks between the songs, there were breaks to insert local commercials. During the ads, I had to cue the next portion of the program. Very low-tech.

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

It would be neat to go back and listen to those. I wonder whatever became of those record albums after you were done with them? They must be collector's items by now, I'd think.
:)

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

I never asked what they did with them after the broadcast, although I've often wondered in the years since.

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

I've often wanted to try and find copies of the old American Bandstand TV shows and rewatch them or try and find copies of the American Top Forty lists.
No particular reason but I do think there's lots of songs that once there few weeks were done disappeared and have seldom been played since.
:}

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

My neighbor has copies of Hit Parader and Rhythm and Blues from the 50s and 60s-a treasure trove!

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

Now that is a treasure trove!
My Hubby loves the old time country music and he finally found an older man who's posted lots of country music from the 30's and 40's. Much of it is stuff Hubby never knew existed.
:)

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

Hubby would've loved my dad; Grandpa thaught him those old country songs, and he could sing them very well.

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

I would have enjoyed meeting your dad too.
I enjoy talking to older folks. They know so much and the stories they can tell!
My grandpa used to dig sassafras roots and make herb tea with them. It was really good too.
:)

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

My mother has named my most recent rescue cat Sassafras. Why, I don't know. She's a blue-eyed, winter white seal point with mittens.

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

She sounds like she's absolutely beautiful!
I hope you and Sassy have a long and happy life together.
:)

[wherrymotor.livejournal.com]

Alas. Katrina got our vinyl, so we can't compare and may have forgotten. In principle, about any effect ought to be achievable in digital, including a crafty distortion. Trick is, as rhodielady points out, to use enough bandwidth, and to be able to teach (or write) the software to do what you want. There's no magic in fidelity, or lack of it, but there sure is digital technique.

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

I keep hoping for improvements in digital. Not only do you have to have bandwidth and good software, you have to have someone who appreciates the subtle touches in the music.

[wherrymotor.livejournal.com]

Somebody is almost certainly working on a "vinyl" sound out of digital. That part is, to my engineering mind, approachable, esp. if vinyl is still around to study.
What may be more obscure is replicating the mixing technique of the time when recording anew, for groups who never recorded on vinyl.
I know enough about signal processing to assert the former, but not enough about studio recording to be confident of the latter. Maybe it's not a problem at all.

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

I don't have enough engineering expertise to really say.

I think that the big issue for most of my music collection is transferring music recorded with old techniques to a modern format without loss of details or special effects like deliberate distortion.

[wherrymotor.livejournal.com]

Again, and in principle, you ought to be able to digitize waht you have, warts and all, so to speak. You'd want to use a prodigious bit rate and listen to a digitized sample. You'd need a circuit that stayed linear in the same way that your favorite listening environment does, so that nothing reaches the recording as an electronic signal that would not normally reach your ear as an acoustic one - and, of course, that you could hear. The task is exacting and nuanced, but, if signal processing is about where I suspect ti ought to be, then feasible.

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

It's a pity how many people have lead ears these days and it's mostly because they've never really heard truly good music in a setting where they can experience the nuances of it.
:(