Originally Posted by
NRG
I've archived a lot of vinyl to computer, mainly for playback in the car and on the squeezebox but I've always kept the original recording. If recorded using 32 bit floating point at say 96Khz even after manipulation to remove rumble, surface noise and clicks the resulting file retains the signature of the original turntable sound. Its quite uncanny...the file can then be converted to say Red book CD or 320Kbs MP3 with dither applied and the turntable signature is still present.
I agree, apart from the romance side of having a new LP cut it would be better to just retain it as a file or CD....and it would make sense only if the recording is rare, unobtainable on the same or alternative format.
Hi Neal,
I wanted to agree with what you wrote here - I have found myself that the essential balance and character of the original vinyl and the turntable survive the digitisation process quite clearly, even after some sympathetic processing to remove clicks etc. In direct comparison with a CD of the same material, the vinyl rip still sounds like an 'analogue' presentation and doesn't suddenly take on what many would describe as a 'digital' quality. Sure, there are always going to be some generational losses through ADC/DAC, but I have been suprised by how slight and innocuous they are in my own experiments.
I think the art of the mastering and cutting engineer in terms of EQ for treble or bass reduction, level adjustment or fixing errors in the master mix (out of phase sounds, excessive high treble) that allow a record to be 'playable' and listenable quite often sounds different to the unmastered master tape. There are often a lot of basic problems with the studio master that a good mastering engineer will HAVE to fix to for Vinyl to work, but these just get passed through onto the CD master as a flat transfer.
Given that a lot of these characteristics are retained when you archive vinyl, I can't see what cutting a new impression would add to the process other than more noise and distortion apart from preferring to handle LPs.
Regards,
Alex
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