The Classic Vinyl Record

I read an article this morning at the Idolator.com. It was basically saying that digitally recorded music already has some loss of information, so why should it sound better on vinyl than CD. This is an example of bad logic.

If you’ve picked up an arts section lately, you’ve probably seen a story with one (or both) of the following theses: “Vinyl is making a comeback.” “If you want great sound, you buy vinyl.” The hype is even starting to annoy some label folk, as it calls into question why non-audiophiles would bother buying tangible music at all. Sure, analog grooves of a vinyl record hold more information than any digital sample rate. But if an album was recorded digitally—a situation that’s becoming more and more common—are you getting more information by buying it on vinyl?

Time’s January article on the vinyl upswing offered that “LPs generally exhibit a warmer, more nuanced sound than CDs and digital downloads. MP3 files tend to produce tinnier notes, especially if compressed into a lower-resolution format that pares down the sonic information.” But what if that “sonic information” wasn’t there in the first place? Isn’t everyone using ProTools now? It would seem that this call for great sound and the rise of digital recording would be at odds.

Is vinyl mastering so superior to the “noise reduction” CDs are legendary for that even digital music sounds better on LP? Or is the hype just, well, hype? Do people just think they’re getting better sound on new records because they assume they’re getting a pure analog experience? Does the appeal of the gatefold overcome the fact that once a sound is digitized, there’s no turning backl? The vinyl I buy tends to be used and $1.99, so I can’t speak from authority about the sound quality of new vinyl. But maybe you can.

Why do I say this is bad logic? First of all, yes, records are analog, they have all the information that is put on them. CD’s are didgital, they take ’snapshots’ of information. Recording digitally takes ’snapshots’ of the instruments. Do you see the pattern here? If something is recorded digitally, then put on CD, then you have music that ’snapshots’ of ’snapshots’.

To see what this is like, try to take a bunch of pictures in a row with your camera to show action. Then take those pictures and flip through them really fast, and take pictures of that.

That’s a CD.

Now, the second reason that this article is just plain wrong, is that not everybody uses Protools. A lot of people do, it’s a lot cheaper than investing in an analog studio, and it’s a whole lot easier than using 8, 16 or 24 track tape. However, a lot of artists still want that tape sound. A lot of engineers still like to record using tape. More artists are seeing the benefits of using tape, and usually those are the artists who are now releasing on vinyl.

So most of these records are being mastered from analog tape recordings. Not digital.