Christopher Fahey writes:
quoted 5 lines I just thought of something. If the human ear is supposed to be so very> I just thought of something. If the human ear is supposed to be so very
> weak that CD audio far exceeds it's ability to detect, then how come so
> many folks can hear the difference between vinyl and CD? Usually they
> are probably liars, just like people who think they know something
> about wine.
the process of putting music on vinyl and putting music on CD is very
complicated. once the artist has recorded the track, you may think
"that's it, that's the way it sounds" but nothing could be further
from the truth. there is so much fiddling that goes on after the fact
that it's no wonder the vinyl & CD versions sound different.
it may well be that many people are just so conditioned by years of
listening to vinyl that they perceive the differences in sound quality
as being "better". when in reality, all it is is "less accurate." a
CD can be a perfect reproduction of the track as it left the artist's
mixing board. in my case, it probably would be since my mixer is
digital and i record onto digital tape via a digital link... if i then
copy the tape onto my hard disk (via a digital link) and burn a CD-R
of that, the CD will be EXACTLY the same bits that came out of my
mixer. i can then ship that CD-R to a CD plant which will
mass-produce it for your listening pleasure. and again, the bits you
hear at home are the same ones i cut in my studio. if you don't like
what you hear, it's because i fucked up as a producer and engineer.
if i give you a 12" of the same track, and you like it better, it's
because you like whatever the guy who cut the vinyl stamper did to it
in order to fit it on the record. usually this means tons of
compression and EQ in order to not overtax the poor needle. i've had
to send more than one release back to the mastering house because i
put so much bass in that no turntable without a rock strapped to the
tonearm could track it.
--
Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com SpotMedia Communications
...I was an infinitely hot and dense dot...