The plural of di word vinyl is divinyles! Dude, what else don't you know?

 

Last edited: Aug 28, 2025 at 10:46 PM

and to make things even worse....
The Loudness War Has Secretly Invaded Vinyl And Destroyed What Made It Special

 

Melone. I just hope you have enough character and aren't too proud to learn something new...


When a digitally produced song is pressed onto vinyl, the result often has a warmer sound compared to the direct digital playback.
This is because vinyl, as an analog medium, introduces subtle harmonic distortion and gentle compression, smoothing out sharp edges and adding depth and richness to the music.

Many listeners describe this warmth as being similar to the effect of tape saturation, where the analog process brings out more character and makes the sound feel less sterile and more inviting.

Vinyl does this by delivering the audio as a continuous, physical signal, rather than the perfectly precise ones and zeros of digital formats.

Some of the tiny details might get softened in the process, which can make the overall impression both more natural and immersive.

So yes, pressing a digital track onto vinyl can noticeably enhance the listening experience by making it warmer and fuller—especially if you appreciate that classic analog vibe.

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 6:17 AM

Hello @Somnambulist, in the last third of life, we probably have different priorities regarding what's important and what we still want to do. For me and others, this is called shedding excess baggage so that we have room for other things in life. I think you get rid of material things that burden you or hinder your progress.

After you explained it to me, I would split up the record collection. I would put your parents' original records somewhere separate and maybe label them. It's also an investment, so it's a security measure.

 

yet
vinyl,tape and cd will be dead ,they are allready .
when the very few dj's which play vinyl are gone or change medium for diffferent reasons there will be only a tiny percentage left on the audiophile sector which will not be a growing ground for new records .
end of story .upcoming financial/economic aspects for the massses not even consideret .

 

im sure he digitalize all , is using them all frequantly ,they building museum after his dead and its not a senseless wasting of short lifetime chasing endorphines thru collecting addiction .
yes yes im so bitter .modern life and arriving in reality after understanding whats really up on this planet to keep it short and to keep followeing board guidelines ,made me that way .

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 11:08 AM

As a 65 years old ex-vinyl collector, I'm a bit tired to ear the same old scratches from such outdated material's supporters, but I will do an effort...

I will not enter into the endless debate about analog vs digital and on what exactly gives to "many listeners" the subjective impression of a "less sterile and more inviting" sound. If they prefer the flaws and overall inferiority of analog over digital, that's perfectly fine for me... but I guess it may feels a bit vexatory for the Studer and Otari engineering army which fought to dead trying to eliminate as much as possible all those flaws you revered. That's not the point here.

The point is that the "warmth" of a 1975 vinyl CAN NOT be reproduced by pressing onto vinyl a digital file produced with your laptop. Simply because the whole analog chain used to produce the 1975 record is replaced by... instruments plugins, FX plugins and DAW.

Pressing such digital file onto vinyl will give you about the same result as inserting a tape simulation plugin on your DAW master output, or, if you're a purist, recording this digital file with a professional high-end tape machine. If you set the input gain below the red zone (as recommended by all tape manufacturers), the magic will happen: you will clearly ear... nothing special, except a very very tiny drop in high frequencies and a very very tiny gain in bass frequencies, both curves that can be perfectly reproduced by any digital EQ. Compression, distortion, saturation and other "subtle" artifacts (which can also be reproduced - but less perfecty - by digital plugins) will appears only if you push your needles into the "red zone" (or if you use a crappy tape or a poorly calibrated tape machine). But even in this case, the overall sound will stay miles away from the (imperfect) sound produced through a 100% analog processing chain.

If I follow your arguments, since human ears are too perfect to enjoy perfect recordings, it's better to record a Stradivarius with a RadioShack cassette tape recorder than an Apogee Symphony MKII.

By covering my $20000 monitors with two or three blankets (100% pure cashmere wool, of course...), I get near the same result. The only missing things are the scratches.

EDIT:

I'd like to conclude with this rather disturbing question that I always enjoy asking to "audiophile" equipment salespeople:

Since the "little imperfections" inherent in vinyl are the reason why the listening pleasure provided by a turntable is far superior to that provided by a CD player, why are turntable manufacturers trying to sell us 200-pound monsters that cost the price of a car, when a simple SL1200 MKII will reveal even more of these "little imperfections"?

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 2:14 PM

i am a big fan of mini-CDs and mini-DVD and i was always hoping for mini-BD but nobody ever made those. it would be really great to have a mini-only audio BD player in your pocket or in your car.

as for vinyl, i like records, but CDs are indeed less of an enviromental sin.

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 6:32 PM

The only thing that works for me when I'm on the go is a portable MP3 player!

Vinyl production is resource-intensive: It requires petroleum-based PVC plastic, high-energy pressing at high temperatures, and heavy sleeves increase shipping weight. A single 12-inch LP can contain up to 180g of vinyl, and production in a hot press takes approximately 10–15 minutes per disc, contributing to CO2 emissions. Vinyl also degrades over time and is less easily recycled.

 

I did a lot of vinyl premastering during the 2000s and 2010s.
Last time I checked, vinyl was almost alive and well in the punk and alternative scenes, where people sell records at gigs. Underground metal seems to be selling some too. It seems to be a credibility thing, maybe with some musician autoerotic overtones. "Behold, we're making real records, we're a real band !".
Anyway, I've never heard a post 1995 vinyl sounding good. The level of competence of all people involved has drastically lowered, as has the quality control procedures. Back in the 80s, you may had a 23 minutes/side vinyl with a good sound (but a bad S/N ratio, specially when beginning to wear). On a recent vinyl, you're lucky if the last 2 minutes of a 18 minutes side are not audibly degraded.
And by the way, there's no 'warmth' on vinyl, the vinyl distortion and surface noise are closer to digital clipping artefacts than to tape compression.
And forget cassettes too.
Vinyl and cassettes were general public lossy media which specifications are a lot closer to bad mp3s than to CD.

This kind of thread seems to occur every 3 years since 2005.

 

too bad that lowpassfiltering and compression can not be used digitally.

they were available only in the seventies and then got lost forever.

as expected in this context, you do not even understand the very basics of the sampling theorem.

 

@Xupito "ass Taylor Swift. Fingers crossed"

I bet she likes that shit!

 

like DAW threads,AD/DA,Pulteq,foster,r2r,curves of this and that and so and so on...
the decline of producers,www,OS,usefull warez talk and incline of engineers talk 1-2 years ago here on the board is also washed out now.
lately jd downloader thread /what a disapointment...and other threads were op ask question ,gets feedback and then sort goes on ghostmode so often ,most disapointing are recreating 90/2000s sounds threads and total lack of arrangment threads building tension makin huge in your face drops and so and on ....and foster still thinking he pushes the forum with his 4-5 main accounts talkin to himself .

 

I don't know but I'm available to "jam" with her anytime
Wait a min, I was going to complain about this severe manipulation of my words and I end up following the joke? It sure is hard to be me...

 

Obineg,
I have summarized some solid theory about digital to analog conversion below for you, including sources you can check yourself.
Good luck with that, Obineg...


When pressing a digital track onto vinyl, the resulting sound often appears warmer and fuller due to several physical and technical characteristics inherent to the vinyl medium and the analog mastering and playback process.

Analog Physical Encoding vs. Digital Encoding
Digital audio is stored as discrete numerical samples—bits representing amplitudes at precise intervals (e.g., 44.1 kHz sampling rate, 16-24 bit depth). This creates a perfectly precise but inherently "sterile" representation without additional harmonic distortion or noise.

In contrast, vinyl records encode sound physically as grooves cut into a lacquer master. The groove modulates in depth and lateral position to represent audio waveform variations continuously, not discretely. This analog encoding produces natural non-linearities and physical saturation effects which cause the playback signal to carry additional even-order harmonics and subtle compression effects.

Harmonic Distortion and Saturation
The cutting lathe and vinyl playback stylus induce a small amount of harmonic distortion—mostly even-order harmonics—that enrich the sound. Mathematically, if the original analog waveform is x(t)x(t)x(t), playback produces:

y(t)=x(t)+a2x2(t)+a4x4(t)+ε(t),y(t) = x(t) + a_2 x^2(t) + a_4 x^4(t) + \varepsilon(t),y(t)=x(t)+a2x2(t)+a4x4(t)+ε(t),
where a2,a4a_2, a_4a2,a4 are small coefficients and ε(t)\varepsilon(t)ε(t) is noise. These distortion components act like audio saturation, smoothing sharp transients and adding harmonic content that the human ear interprets as warmth.

Filtering and Frequency Response (RIAA Curve)
Vinyl mastering uses an RIAA equalization curve which pre-emphasizes (boosts) high frequencies and de-emphasizes lows during cutting, then reverses it on playback to reduce noise and groove width. This frequency shaping further impacts the tonal character, contributing to a perception of warmth and smoothness.

Compression and Dynamic Range
Vinyl cutting and playback impose physical limitations on very loud or very low-frequency sounds, which often necessitate dynamic range compression during mastering. This soft compression reduces harsh peaks and increases the density of quieter sounds, producing a more cohesive and "pleasant" sound.

Comparison to Tape Saturation
Analog tape saturation is well known for introducing harmonic distortion and compression, producing a warm, musically pleasing effect. Vinyl's harmonic distortions and physical playback characteristics yield somewhat similar audio effects but with its own unique profile stemming from mechanical and material properties.

If a precise formalism or formulas are desired, the harmonic distortion equation above and knowledge of frequency pre-emphasis/de-emphasis curves (RIAA curve) can be introduced as a starting point.
This provides a sound scientific basis to counter any claims that vinyl warmth is purely subjective or baseless.



[1](https://thenoizfaktory.com/how-to-convert-vinyl-to-digital-a-comprehensive-guide/)
[3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_emulation)
[4](https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/comments/uq6vxn/the_science_behind_vinyl_records_and_digital/)
[5](https://www.audiomasterclass.com/blog/digital-audio-on-a-vinyl-record-the-best-of-both-worlds-2)
[6](https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2021/04/07/an-audio-professionals-take-on-vinyl/)
[7](https://www.magix.info/us/forum/so-how-do-they-do-it-digital-to-vinyl-vinyl-to-digital--531961/)
[8](https://gearspace.com/board/mastering-forum/461080-mastering-digital-recordings-vinyl.html)

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 4:53 PM

as i said, you dont even understand the basics. ;)

 

I wonder how much audio could fit on a mini-bluray CD. It should be at least as much as on a regular CD but possibly more. We have the tech, but nobody's interested.

There are some other aspects to buying records and being trendy: human vanity, short-term dopamine boost, and their crotches' affirmation.
Humans like provoking envy and showing off. Some have enough money they can spend on useless stuff, and others don't. Many that don't have enough money spend it anyway to show they have enough. even when they don't - the saddest case. Those who can afford useless stuff always love the opportunity to stick it in the latter's face. You know, the usual human behaviour.

Social media "helps" by exacerbating trends like that, or any other useless trends that facilitate spending money, especially those that rake in vast amounts of it. I've been "following" this social phenomenon my whole life, which is much more than 2 decades, unfortunately. Fascinating stuff. Fashion is perhaps the most guilty of doing exactly that - inventing new trends, to sell their expensive excrement, that you throw away when it's not trendy anymore. Have you noticed how every few years the fashion trends change in extreme way? Like, small glasses - big glasses, tight trousers - loose trousers, tight shirts - loose shirts... it's honestly funny how efficiently they exploit human vanity and make tons of money from it.

I don't like feeling like an idiot, no matter how much money I don't have.
So I've been avoiding all these trends for as long as I remember. Even as a teen.

Another autistic rant from me... oh my, I'm incurable.

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM

I used to have a lot of vinyl. I went to the record store every week and usually bought about 5-10 records. The good thing about that is I can remember the label, the artist, the remix, etc. Nowadays, with online music, you have so much that you forget half of it. I only remember some of the real hits, but vinyl was different, and of course, the weight. But my preference remains digital quality, weight-wise, and you don't need as much storage and money.

 

Cutting Vinyl At Abbey Road

Masters of mastering Miles Showell and Geoff Pesche fire up their vintage Neumann lathes at Abbey Road Studios and demonstrate the delicate process of cutting a lacquer disc. It’s a skilled business that requires man and machine to work together in perfect harmony — and the slightest mistake will make the resulting album unplayable.

How to Cut Vinyl (Lacquer Cutting Lathe) with Gearbox Records on MusicGurus