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by Larry Richman
September 6, 2006 6:44 PM
Many have touched upon another aspect of vinyl records vs cds, and that is the sound quality. I didn't even get into that, but I surely can. For 18 years I was a radio DJ and record producer, and spent many long hours in recording studios recording and mixing music both analog and digital. I think I know something about it.
To put it simply, sound is a wave. Vinyl records capture that wave exactly as it is was first created. It is an exact copy. Digital recordings, on the other hand, do not do this. They only copy small bits of the wave as it travels, almost like one of those "fill in the dots" drawings. When the "sampling" of that wave is then reproduced, the brain hears only the bits and fills in the blanks.
This makes a big difference in sound quality. Because waves are not perfect. They bounce. Parts of the wave are reflected onto other parts. Some of the earlier parts of a wave "carry over" onto others. You don't get that with digital recordings.
Another major difference between analog and digital recording is that tape recording is "dirty." For example, bass sounds "bleed" onto other parts of the tape. As the reel winds around, "pieces" of the magnetic recording "wipe off" onto other pieces. What does this do? Well, it does the same thing that happens when an orchestra plays in a concert hall. Sounds bounce off the ceiling, walls, chairs, people. That gives a "fullness" to the sound, or "warmth," The music is fuzzy, not pure. And that's really the way we hear sound. We hear echoes. We hear reverberation. Digital recording virtually eliminates that warmth and fuzziness. Now, you can put some of that back digitally, but it's not the same as hearing it naturally.
The bottom line is this: a vinyl recording is an exact reproduction of the sound and always will be, The sound does not degrade over time, as long as you keep the needle and record in good shape. CDs, however, do degrade over time, something that the industry doesn't want people to know.
And as far as the argument that it dosn't matter because the ear can't tell the difference? Try listening to the same song live, then recorded onto a vinyl record, then recorded on a CD. Most people who really appreciate music will be able to tell the difference.
A recent study was done that tested people after listening to CDs for hours vs the same songs on vinyl for hours. The ones who listened to the CDs were more tired. They could not perform simple tasks as well. What it is now believed is that the act of the brain having to fill in the blanks, as it were, causes it to tire out over time more quickly. People who listened to the analog recordings were more relaxed and had lower heart rates and blood pressure than the ones who listened to CDs. Just something else to think about.
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