[sdiy] Nifty Slider/Fader alert

[harrybissell]

Richard Wentk wrote:  <snip>

> A basic test is that CD will reveal imperfections in master tapes from the
> 60s and 70s, while vinyl often disguises them. The latter may sound nicer,
> but it sure as hell isn't accurate reproduction. If you want nice, then
> obviously vinyl is the 'best'. But it's a very contingent and limited best
> and - as I said - it's not going to get any better, while digital still has
> quite a lot of quality headroom to explore.

hmmm.... not quite "my sentiments exactly" but certainly "my sentiments
essentially"

A lot of the CD releases suffer from mastering problems.  Some releases were
carefully
tweaked to fit the exact limits of vinyl... my favorite example is Pink Floyd
"Welecome to the
Machine".  On Vinyl it is warm and toasty... on CD it sounds squashed.   It 'was'
squashed
to fit on vinyl... and taking into account what the engineers clearly understood
the outcome would be it works very well !

If you re-master the original tracks... you can restore the dynamic range but it
will no longer
be the SAME release... especially since instead of having master level
engineers.... and the
original artists sitting at the mix desk... you will have one entry level engineer
making all the
decisions himself.

Many times it is not even known WHAT tracks from the master tape had the
particular parts
used....

To get CD accepted as a medium, it was necessary to rush-release everything in the
catalog on
CD.  Often this meant putting two channel vinyl masters direct to CD... other
times a quick
scratch-mix of the master tapes.   Other meduims DIED on the vine for want of
enough music...
reel-to-reel for example never achieved home status (little but classical
selections available)

Another really good example of the problems is the Grateful Dead "Anthem of the
Sun". Even
the vinyl release was touchy... an original mix was removed from the stores
because it was SO
bad.  The final vinyl had two separate live takes, crossfaded on side one.   They
had to match
the speed and position of two different performances... That took MANY tries to
get even close
to correct.   Side two was an abyssmal failure imho.

The CD re-release did not even TRY to do the crossfade. They used a stereo pan to
bring
one performance out from one ear...while fading the second in the other ear in a
sort of rotary
fashion.  It works OK... but it is NOT the original or even close.  Some of the
guitar tracks
are completely WRONG... not even the same melody.  Sad... they could not duplicate
the original.

Up side is... side two is very nicely done on the CD.  It is a vast improvement
over the vinyl
release (imho)

A lot of what people think is shitty digital sound, is actually crappy digital
mastering and "get
the product out the door for the least money" mentality.

Where I'm sorry I no longer have the titles from my collection on vinyl... I'm not
sorry to miss
the hiss, wow, pop, and skip of vinyl.

Long Live Digital !!!

H^) harry

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