On the first truly springlike day here in the midwaste I happened to sort through a pile of 12" vinyl LP records, and realized how deeply I enjoyed that short-lived form of analog record.
Looking through a plastic stack of CDs is a much colder and indifferent experience.
Can't help but notice that some new packagings of CDs use fake printing to give the discs a phony grooved look. That proves my point.
Let's get nitty and head toward gritty. Humans, and by that I mean "us," are analog animals. Some would say, "We are not animals! We are the image of God!" Alright, so we are analog gods.
That's why I am coming out for ANALOG ON THE INTERNET!
Yes, no kidding. Stop the drab lifeless digital streams and send ANALOG STREAMS on the web.
It's about time we woke up and got a good night's sleep.
The ALPB is not only the way, it's the ONLY way.
Just remember, even thought the Oompah Hour may reach you in a digital format, every song, every week, contained in the Oompah Hour is played from a genuine phonograph record! including 33, 45 and 78's! And every now and then some sort of "treat" from my archive of commercials, interviews, and other oddities from reel to reel tapes! Next week's show (#51) will contain at least two 78's and one or two vintage radio promos from reel to reel tape! Stay tuned!
Carl -- it's kind of like the difference between clicking and closing your way through a CD full of photos, or flipping through a stack of black and white images from 50 years ago in a shoebox, or projecting the family slides on a big sparkling screen. I had a pretty good rant about this very topic on the OH a few weeks ago. I believe it was the show that actually ran over an hour!
Tim in Bovey
Ah, the golden days of LP records. The thrill of excitedly extracting that brand new record from its sleeve, being ever so careful not to fingerprint those pristine grooves. The quiet, low rumble when the needle sets down on the lead-in grooves. The anticipation as the needle rides toward the recorded grooves. The intensity of concentration while listening for the gentle hiss and pops on that brand new never before played disk. The disappointment when the hiss and pops were heard and the grumbling about that should not happen on a brand new record. Then finally the raspy mechanical sound of the needle talk barking softly at you. And the 45s that had needle talk almost as loud as the sound from the speakers.
Then when all the fun was over, you found that someone had removed that pristine stack of vinyls and threw them on the coffee table as an invitation to bubbly headed guests to deposit drinks and a taco.
For an authentic sounding CD, the rumble, hiss and pops could be introduced digitally with discretion. Authentic needle talk would be a bit more of a challenge, but with careful sampling and digital manipulation, I bet they could come very close. CDs aren't quite big enough for a drink and a taco. They are more suitable for use as a single drink coaster.
CD's make great survellience mirrors also. At work, one guy glues them to the ceiling above his cubicle so he can spy on the others.
Ever put one in the microwave oven? Wonderful light show!
Frizbee anyone?
Don't forget, you can buy a $6 quartz clock kit and a CD makes a great clock face.
CD's are around 30 years old now. I suppose it's time to put them to bed.
I realize this topic is well over a year old, but I tought I'd post this URL: http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/06/125000-record-player-comes-with_06.html?m=1
... Uses the Mars Rover motor. I remember seeing pictures of it with as many as 4 digitally-controlled linear-tracking tone arms. Perfect analog sound.
But there are other things to consider: 1) No one's ears are that good 2) High quality vinyl records have returned with limited production runs of iconic albums such as Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" http://www.tower.com/dark-side-moon-pink-floyd-vinyl/wapi/106260636 ... Notice the price! 3) What happens with vinyl recordings is that the masters (or remastered as the case may be), have groove cuts much more spread out at the outer edge of the disk than nearer the center because, although the rpm remains the same, the blade is cutting much faster... Thus the fidelity is better in the outer tracks than the inner ones. This has much less effect on CDs because they're digital and the spin rate easily accommodates 16 [email protected] kHz.
Still, I find analog recordings are, on average, warmer and more natural sounding than digital, even at higher rates. They're just unbelievably pricey.
I also must say that digital recordings retained at or near the highest possible rates, such as professional Glyph Studio Hard Drives, when played back, are as warm as analog to my ears, and without the groove-gouging depth fidelity issues from outer to inner vinyl tracks.
-- Ken N
Aren't CDs technically analog but with digitally encoded audio? I seem to recall CDs working much the same way as records except they use a laser instead of a stylus.
After all, sound is analog in nature, how it gets on the CD is all digital at some point.
It may be analog up to the final digital conversion or the very first step, a microphone, could convert the analog source to digital.
What's on the CD is digital, a series of binary bits. The optical pickup sends the bits to a digital-to-analog converter to reconstruct the analog waveform. By todays standards the sample and bit rate of a CD audio is very subpar. Fortunately for me, I can't hear the difference anymore.
The higher the sample and bit rate, the less filtering has to be done to reconstruct the analog waveform. As such you get a final output which is closer to the original analog waveform. However I suppose it will never be exact as who knows if between this bit and that the original recorded signal went up or down.
>> Aren't CDs technically analog but with digitally encoded audio? I seem to recall CDs working much the same way as records except they use a laser instead of a stylus. <<
You're thinking of LaserDiscs, or possibly CEDs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserDisc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc
... However I suppose it will never be exact as who knows if between this bit and that the original recorded signal went up or down. ...
Just to note that as a digital audio medium, compact disks (CDs) are capable of much lower noise levels, wider/flatter frequency response, and much lower distortion of various forms than analog media such as mono/stereo vinyl records, r-r tape, and audio cassettes.
Of course they do introduce overshoot, undershoot, ring, aliasing and other problems do to filtering the DAC output to fill in the time gap between bits.
I love 'em though for the absence of media induced noise such as rumble, hiss and hum. However they still have their own coloration and limitation which some find unacceptable.
Depends on the content as well.
I play mostly vintage jazz from the 20s & 30s. The best way to play this music is from the original 78s (unless you have the acetate masters, many of which have been lost). Unfortunately, most of the 78s you find these days are in pretty poor shape (unless you're willing to pay a mint), and sometimes the only way to get the music is via CD (which more than likely is taken from a 78 - if you're lucky, in good shape). There's just something inherently wrong in ripping a digital copy of a song from a digital CD that was taken from a so-so quality analog source.