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Digital and Analog Audio's Curious Coexistence (cnet.com)
Steve Guttenberg, writing for CNET: It's a funny thing, the ongoing turntable sales surge shows no signs of slowing down, but nearly all new music is recorded digitally. It seems like a contradiction, turntables and LPs are purely analog in nature, but nearly all new (not remastered LPs) made over the last 30+ years were recorded, mixed, and mastered from digital sources. Older, pre 1980 LPs were made in an all-analog world. Today's LPs are hybrids of a sort, the grooves are still analog, but the music was probably made in the digital domain.
Be that as it may, LPs, regardless of vintage, can sound great. While pre-1980s records may be richer in tone and warmth, there are lots of more recent albums that sound just as good or better. In other words vinyl's sound quality or lack thereof has mostly to do with the quality of the original recording, and the choices made by the recording, mixing, and mastering engineers.
Despite the overwhelming number of digital recordings, there is still a tiny percentage of all-analog recordings being made. To cite one mostly analog studio, the legendary Electrical Audio, which owner Steve Albini told me records and mixes around 70 percent of all of its sessions on tape.
Be that as it may, LPs, regardless of vintage, can sound great. While pre-1980s records may be richer in tone and warmth, there are lots of more recent albums that sound just as good or better. In other words vinyl's sound quality or lack thereof has mostly to do with the quality of the original recording, and the choices made by the recording, mixing, and mastering engineers.
Despite the overwhelming number of digital recordings, there is still a tiny percentage of all-analog recordings being made. To cite one mostly analog studio, the legendary Electrical Audio, which owner Steve Albini told me records and mixes around 70 percent of all of its sessions on tape.
It's a funny thing, the ongoing turntable sales surge shows no signs of slowing down, but nearly all new music is recorded digitally.
The only people who care about vinyl records are young people who never had to grow up with vinyl records so they lack an appreciation of what a pain in the ass they are or old farts with an overdeveloped sense of nostalgia or hipsters who want to show off. No the sound is NOT appreciably better especially after you have actually played the record more than a few times. Vinyl records are fragile, readily damaged, and generally sound like shit after any appreciable amount of use. Even if you are absurdly careful with a vinyl record it's still almost certain to get damaged at some point. Sharp needles and soft vinyl tend to be a bad combination. Whatever minor advantages they might possess are quickly lost with actual use. I don't really buy the arguments that vinyl somehow sounds better but even if it does the differences are so marginal as to be meaningless.
Be that as it may, LPs, regardless of vintage, can sound great. While pre-1980s records may be richer in tone and warmth, there are lots of more recent albums that sound just as good or better. In other words vinyl's sound quality or lack thereof has mostly to do with the quality of the original recording, and the choices made by the recording, mixing, and mastering engineers.
Sigh... "Richer in ton and warmth"? That sounds like typical audiophile bullshit to me unless you are talking about some corner cases. I'm old enough that I predate the CD. Vinyl records and cassette tapes were the only options in my childhood. No the sound was not better. Mostly worse if anything. It was just what we had at the time and we dumped vinyl records almost overnight for CDs because vinyl records SUCK to use in the real world. Any issues with digital music not sounding a particular way have NOTHING to do with analog vs digital and everything to do with engineering choices.