To Vinyl Or Not to Vinyl? That Is the Question for Mark Saleski and Josh Hathaway
By Mark Saleski
You know, you go through life and, at certain points, you realize that some of the things you hold dear are cradled only because they remind you of what it feels to be young. As I got older and most of the listening public made the transition from vinyl records to CD’s and then to digital downloads, I began to think that my preference for the vinyl LP format was exactly that — a way to hold onto the past. That was a momentary lapse in judgment. I’m not usually swayed by popular opinion and really should have trusted my ears.
The truth of the matter is that my attachment to the LP combines a bit of nostalgia with a much greater amount of sonic pragmatism: though the listening community may have chosen the digital medium for its convenience, they have definitely left behind the better sound afforded by analog equipment.
With the recent resurgence in the vinyl medium, it seems only fitting that me and Mr. Hathaway should start a conversation about it. We’ve gone back and forth publicly and privately for quite some time now, lamenting what seemed like the sad fact that nobody really cared about good sound anymore. As usual it has taken the major labels a while to catch up on what the Indie’s have known for some time: that there are still people out there who will pay for a decent listening experience. When a Warner exec says something like “…it’s interesting that the consumer sees the value and is willing to pay for vinyl” I just have to leap out of the way to avoid the lightning bolt of absurdity.
For the non-believers out there, let me tell a little story. About eight years ago, I had this very same digital vs. vinyl conversation with my stepson (who at the time was in his late teens). He was certain that my new turntable, records, and assorted vinyl paraphernalia were just remnants of days gone by. I wanted to prove him wrong so I pulled out a random album for him to compare: AC/DC’s Back In Black. The CD had just been remastered so I used that copy and my original LP, purchased in 1980. We listened to two minutes of “Hell’s Bells,” first on CD. I then switched to the LP. It took about 15 seconds for the look of astonishment to come across Pete’s face. I didn’t say anything at all as he ranted about how much “more” music was coming out of the speakers. It’s really true. Current commercial digital recording technology does a pretty bad job of rendering things like the attack and decay of cymbals: that was exactly what Pete noticed.
I’ve been nudging Josh down this path for quite some time. He’s almost there. I can’t wait until his shiny new turntable is set up and he hears Norah Jones in her full glory. The sound of that jaw dropping will boom from Alabama all the way to New Hampshire.
JOSH HATHAWAY
It was my senior year in high school when my prayers were answered and I was gifted a CD player for Christmas. I loved them, worshipped them, cherished them. They sounded so good to my ears. They were addictive and magical. My generation knew where it was at. Fuck those silly tapes and records- but, wait-
Fucking Pearl Jam wanted to go back to the days of vinyl? Analog vs. Digital? What the fuck is all this about? I wasn’t sophisticated to economic terminology so I couldn’t say what I was thinking it: didn’t the marketplace already decide this one?
I still remember watching an episode of The Week In Rock on MTV in which some dweeb in a laboratory tried explaining to Dave Mustaine of Megadeath why vinyl sounded better than CD. Technically they weren’t in the same room together, but those were the two interview subjects I remember during this story. As you might expect, the lab dweeb sounded a lot smarter and more persuasive than the skeptical Mustaine. I was confused. CDs sound good. New is better. CDs are portable. They’re beautiful. How is this possible?
It turns out newer may not be better, just louder. There is a phenomenon in recorded music called The Loudness War. In addition to the romantic twaddle, there are legitimate scientific engineering reasons why a vinyl LP would sound better than a CD. Vinyl does a better job of allowing for a fuller dynamic rang. In layman’s terms that means the louder parts are loud, the quieter parts are quiet (Drew Crumbaugh does a nice job explaining loudness and compression using R.E.M. as an example). It gets more complicated than that, but that’s a piece of the scientific basis for the argument that vinyl is better than CD.
The music industry is more fucked up than Courtney Love at the Pamela Anderson roast. They’ve devalued their “product” on so many levels that 90% of America thinks music should be free (great business strategy, dicks). In vinyl, they have found something people seem willing to pay for and, perversely, it’s perfectly copy protected. I’ve read multiple stories - the one Mark linked to being only the latest - to suggest labels and retailers are ready to give vinyl a second go around.
So is vinyl making a comeback? Before we get carried away let’s all understand we’re not going all the way back to the future. Vinyl had its golden age. This is the digital age and it will have its moment. Even now, T-Bone Burnett may have found an answer to the dynamic range issue with his new CODE format, a format that provides high definition, compression-free audio on a standard DVD. A return to mainstream dominance is by no means likely, but for sophisticated listeners who still care about sound it never really went away in the first place.
Filed under: Tags: ...I'm Collecting Vinyl
Putting aside the placebo and nostalgia effects, most of the difference between vinyl and CD lies in the mastering, not the medium, which is something evidenced when listening to many releases by MFSL and DCC/Audio Fidelity, or just really, really good standard CDs. A great test of this would be the Mudcrutch vinyl, which comes with a CD pressed from exactly the same master that was used for the vinyl (and is vastly different and far superior to the standard CD you can buy in any store.) I’m waiting for someone to do just that. I bet the differences would be miniscule, and it would be very, very hard to rule out the sound of the equipment itself as being the cause of the difference rather than the medium.
What’s unfortunately happened with CD is that people saw how much headroom was available with the format so they cranked everything up to fill up that space, thereby destroying all sense of dynamics and the dramatic sense of space that made people love vinyl - but it made things big and bold sounding, and that’s what sold, just like with commercials. “Big and loud” gets people’s attention, and that’s why we are where we are with CDs today. CDs sound terrible because it’s been a game of one-upsmanship for the past 15 years or so between the labels and between each artist to make something that sticks out so it will sell more. The irony, of course, is that they aren’t selling more.
Vinyl is a niche and it’s going to remain that way. It’s a cool niche and everyone wants to talk about it, but it won’t move beyond that because of how much trouble is associated with it - finding good vinyl, keeping it pristine, the fact that you can’t play it anywhere other than your house, etc. It’s a fad, it will go back to being the smaller niche it was over the past 10 years again - sorry guys. They can include all the ironic mp3 downloads they want (seriously, this is hilarious - people are buying vinyl supposedly for sound quality but downloading mp3s made from the CD master that they will listen to 99% of the time) but ultimately the rituals that vinyl requires will do it in. What’s really unfortunate is that CD can provide the incredible sound quality people want - it’s just that the majority of examples people look to are piss-poor.
CODE is MVI is DVD-Audio and SACD. It’s all the same, just a new name, maybe with a new gimmick or two thrown in. Like MVI, DVD-Audio, and SACD, it will likely make little impact and disappear in a year or maybe two.
And that new Mellencamp sounds great - lots of tape on those dark acoustic tracks. Tape hiss is always a good thing on analog music - when it’s missing, you know lots and lots of noise reduction have been used, which means that along with the hiss there’s lots of music missing, too. This is a great sounding recording.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, Tom, it is always going to remain a niche. You’re also right that a large part of the problem lies with master engineers and the perceptions of “what the people want” in terms of loudness, volume, and compression.
I am curious about your thoughts on CODE as you’ve done a lot more research into some of these various formats. It sounds to me like Burnett has found a way to deliver uncompressed audio on an optical medium. I suppose that doesn’t guarantee immunity from the loudness wars, but I think it puts a tool in the hands of producers and sound engineers that could accomplish that.
I’ve got to give this DVD a closer listen. The WAV folder has the same material that’s available as would be for a DVD player, and it seemed to have more depth than the AAC (I opted to go with that since it should technically be a higher quality file than the included mp3s at the same bit rate - I cheated because I didn’t feel like flipping between DVD and CD on the computer.) Winamp will play these hi-rez files, in case you’re looking for something easy to listen to them with. But I’m not convinced I was not simply hearing something that I wanted to hear yet - the placebo effect, like I said above. After I transferred the AACs into Itunes, played a few, and then played the hi-rez WAVs, however, it was “holy shit,” literally jaw-dropping moment - I felt like I was listening into the room rather than having it presented to me. I want to say it was truly authentic, but I reserve a bit of skepticism that I wanted to be blown away and so made myself be blown away.
i don’t know if if buy that it’s the mastering that makes the difference. yeah, there is a difference…but there’s one thing that you can’t escape in the digital realm and it’s that last step: the digital to analog conversion.
i do agree that vinyl had its big day and will never come back completely. but what’s really great about this resurgence is that it might get people interested in good sound again.
it might.
in the meantime, i’m also happy with vinyl for one other reason that digital will never overcome: there’s a freaking mountain of music out there that never has (and probably never will) make the transfer.
mountains i say!
That’s unfortunately very true and very sad. And a waste - the internet should have made possible the availability of all this obscure music and yet . . .
As for the mastering, that why I’m urging one of you turntable freaks to go pick up Mudcrutch on vinyl - you’ll have both the vinyl and the CD made from the vinyl master (and Josh at least will have the standard, mashed, compressed CD to compare both to.) I have seen some comments that indicate they are extremely close sounding and, like I said above, it is next to impossible to rule out equipment coloring the sound without playing both CD and vinyl on a number of different players to get a feel for the natural sound of each.
I know some people have superhuman hearing and really can detect some incredibly small differences in things, but the majority of people are not going to be to hear the difference between well-mastered CDs and vinyl. Most people can’t hear the difference between crap they buy off of Itunes and CDs, and that’s a very obvious difference even in my truck, on the road with lots of road noise. I’m pretty certain the great sound most people are attributing to vinyl really is the excellent masters that were made for vinyl compared to what has been put on on CD (especially the recent trend in making remasters for CD that just max out all volume and apply really inappropriate EQ. There does seem to be a new trend among some of the deluxe editions, however, as many seem to be aiming more toward audiophiles - look at the recent deluxe of Counting Crows’ August and Everything After, which blows away the original disc, or the Allman Bros. Eat A Peach, or the Clapton deluxes of his self-titled album and 461 Ocean Blvd. All really great sounding - and they sound nothing like their non-deluxe counterparts, but reportedly sound much more like the original vinyl.)
I think when you get to the point where you’re focusing on the DAC, you’re getting into diminishing returns - you really have to be a focused, extremely fine-tuned listener. Most people are not going to pick up changes. I doubt most people even hear the difference Apple made between the past two generations of Ipods - and they’re pretty noticeable if you play them back to back. (The latest is by far the better sounding one. I was very surprised - I figured they would go for cheaper materials.)
It’s a bit of both, really. I think vinyl masters understand they have a different audience than the rank-and-file CD buyer and therefore master accordingly. That said, as pointed out in one of the articles I referenced above, the medium itself has limitations and demands that reduce the effects of the loudness wars. There are a lot of things that come into play.
As for Mudcrutch, I don’t think the difference was as profound between the two CDs. I don’t think the original was compressed all to hell - compressed, yes, but I don’t think it was just eaten alive with it. In addition, the way the music was recorded didn’t lend itself to a “hot” mix, if you will. There are some subtle differences, but the two CDs aren’t night and day.