Hello,Ive tryed a few plugins over my time, but i was wondering your advice on vinyl mastering & dynamics
plugins & why its sounds so good on some vinyl, was it because of the studio hardware or can it be good using software??

 

First and foremost, it's always down to a trained, highly skilled and talented sound engineer, with years of professional experience. The eternal, never-ending argument about whether vinyl sounds better than digital. Digital files are far superior to vinyl.

Jim Anderson, Grammy award-winning recording engineer and professor at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music:

“I think some people interpret the lack of top end [on vinyl] and interpret an analog type of distortion as warmth. “It’s a misinterpretation of it. But if they like it, they like it. That’s fine.”

Spoiler: Digital Music Files Compared to Vinyl

Digital Music Files Compared to Vinyl

From the (pre-)amplifier of the playback chain, the signal path between records and digital playback is the same. The record is a round, disc-shaped sound carrier made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in which the sound information is stored in a spiral groove, the flanks of which (in the case of stereo records) depict the sound vibration of the signal (flank writing according to A. Blumlein).

In this respect, not only the elements for sound recording and production of the record influence the sound result, but also the elements of scanning and playback.

Scanning and playback:

The following are relevant for scanning the record information:
- the drive,
- the pickup and tonearm and
- the phono preamplifier

The end result is that the record is a medium that, as the end product of a long chain of production and playback steps with sometimes different technical parameters, does not significantly exceed the following parameters on average:

- Frequency range: 20 - 20,000 Hz (+/- 3 dB)
- Dynamic range: 50 - 60 dB (20 Hz - 20 kHz)
- Wow and flutter: 0.06%
- Distortion: 0.2% (at 1 kHz)
- Crosstalk attenuation: 35 dB (20 Hz - 20 kHz)

The magnitude of this data is more important than the exact values for individual devices. The data is also not always directly comparable. And of course there is a wide range of quality in every device category - both in terms of recording and playback. This is not about the limits of what is technically feasible, but about the data in a representative cross-section of the upper quality segment with which audiophile listeners have or could have experience.

Playback of the digital master:
The digital-analog converter is primarily relevant to the sound when playing back the digital master. The sound properties of the playback software or operating system, which many users like to discuss, are not among the elements that influence the sound - assuming the system settings are correct. The influences of power supply and cable quality, which are also passionately discussed, are undisputed, but are fundamentally not taken into account here (not even on the analog side).

The end result is that the digital master in 96kHz/24Bit format is a medium that, as the end product of a chain of production and playback steps with sometimes different technical parameters, does not significantly exceed the following parameters when listening:

- Frequency range: 5 – 45,000Hz (+0/-3dB)
- Dynamic range: 120 dB (5Hz-45kHz)
- Wow and flutter: 0.0%
- Distortion: 0.003% (at 1kHz)
- Crosstalk attenuation: 100dB (20Hz-20kHz)

Digital music reproduction (with at least 96kHz/24Bit) is therefore far superior to analogue in all the usual technical parameters. In general, it can be said that the far greater limitation of signal fidelity lies on the playback side. The recording side is and has always been of a much higher quality than even the best high-end playback systems have ever been able to reproduce.

Of course, one could argue that the technical parameters cited here for describing the sound quality (frequency range, dynamic range, distortion, etc.) are not sufficient to fully describe the sound quality of a recording and playback system. There is some truth in this argument. There are many examples of systems with the same measurement results but very different sounds. However, the proponents of this argument would then have to make suggestions as to which parameters are not recorded using the usual measurement methods and how they could be recorded.

On the other hand, the preference for record playback may be based to a large extent on a kind of "misunderstanding". Interestingly, it is precisely the technically necessary limitations in record production that are perceived by the human ear as "better" or at least "more pleasant". Although the audiophile tries to get as close as possible to the ideal of the original, in reality, with the preference for record playback he is moving away from the original sound and towards a subjective sound ideal that is perceived as particularly "pleasant" in terms of auditory psychology in the environment of his own listening room. The reasons for this are varied:

- System-related noise in analog technology has a moderate spatial effect and is pleasant

- Harmonic distortions in record playback (even multiples of the respective frequencies), in which artificial overtones are generated (e.g. more brilliance in the high frequencies), sound "livelier" and more lively. Even-numbered partials (especially the first octave) are very popular because they can make sounds appear warmer, but also clearer and more contoured - a main reason why certain tube devices are still popular today.

- Gentler clipping behavior of the record in overdriven recordings leads to a softer, more analogue sound,

- The lower crosstalk attenuation of the analogue sound recording leads to a less accurate, less precise stereo image, which can sound more pleasing (for this reason, for example, some microphone methods are preferred to others, more technically precise ones when recording)

- Dynamic compression makes listening at home much more pleasant. Otherwise, the listener would have to constantly turn the volume up for quiet passages and turn it down again for loud passages.

- The compression effects also give the music more pressure (not unlike mastering in the so-called 'loudness war').
In technical mastering (i.e. the preparation for cutting a record), the highs are often limited to a steep edge at 18 or 19 kHz for technical reasons. As a result, the music then “breathes” a little less, but it appears warmer and more pleasant “analog”.

- Non-linear frequency responses in the components of record playback often lead to (and are often deliberately used by the manufacturers of the corresponding equipment) a tuning of the sound that is pleasant for the listener but alien to the original sound.

This is also confirmed by Jim Anderson, Grammy award-winning recording engineer and professor at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music: “I think some people interpret the lack of top end [on vinyl] and interpret an analog type of distortion as warmth. “It’s a misinterpretation of it. But if they like it, they like it. That’s fine.”

The higher the quality of the components of the record playback system, the less these sound distortions will be. However, compared to digital playback, record playback requires an extremely large amount of effort in terms of the playback chain in order to keep the physical deficiencies of analog LP playback as small as possible.

Source: https://digital-audio-systems.com/digitale-musikdateien-im-vergleich-zu-vinyl-prox/?lang=en

 

Hey what's up. The best advice/info i can give you is this:
Any master you will do to a musical piece to be sent and cut on vinyl is NOT final. The cutting engineer will decide the final properties of that and this perhaps, is the most fundamental part in the vinyl cutting process. So if, from a producer's perspective, you want your track(s) to sound as you expect them to (given you are familiar with vinyl sound), you have to be in touch with the cutting engineer. In the pre-internet days this could pose a problem due to distances and language barriers etc etc. Now that instant communication is a no brainer, any producer that wants to have his music on vinyl should really be in close co-ordination with the cutting engineer, as they will re-master the final master to fit the standards of vinyl cutting, standards which are a handful and very individual to the particular medium if i may say so.
Beware that there is good sounding vinyl and there is best sounding vinyl. As a producer to get to the latter after following the fundamntal rule of being in contact with the cutting engineer, just do the best you can for the final sound. It doesn't matter what you will use. If you can have a top notch mix it is always the best, because then the master will be an easy peasy few tweaks. With these said keep in mind two things. Knowing that your music will be cut on vinyl thus re-mastered anyway, just don't overdo it with extremes on bass and highs. And on the other hand and also very important don't cripple your music either with narrowing frequency range and stereo field etc. If your final track(s) are beyond repair for the cutting process, the cutting engineer will tell you so and will give you advice on what to do to get a better "master" so they can provide you with the best sounding possible record.

While this may be technically true, there is much more to vinyl than what the highly esteemed Jim Anderson describes. To me it is not that vinyl is warmer, it's just that digital can be pretty much "lifeless", lacking the imperfection that can be thought as relevant to humans as the far-from-perfect living beings we are, each and every one of us. High end digital audio can sound so precise that it tends to be annoying sometimes lol.
So, Vinyl is a way of life. The feeling of playing it and listening to it, is second to none and is a larger than life, religious experience to those who enjoy it. And to them, vinyl transcends its technical limitations by sounding as humanized as possible.
So, whatever anyone may argue about the merits of digital, vinyl will never die because it still keeps gaining new fans, now having surpassed the sales of cd annually. So yeah, Jim Anderson says what he says at his 70something year old. But ask him what made him who he came to be. What were his humble beginnings as radio dj. It's easy to get lost in the search for perfection and never look back,"left to your own devices".
Now, I grew up in an era when there were 3 records in the stores that sold stereo equipment. The Dark Side Of The Moon, Oxygen, and a little later Man Machine. A little further on Sade's Diamond Life and MJ's Thriller joined the ranks of "records good and popular enough to sell a stereo". So what you had, is petty costing vinyl albums actually "selling" equipment worth 100 and in some occasions 1000 times more their worth. In the 70s and the 80s (and perhaps a good part of the 90s), having a good stereo system was actually a priority not a commodity for any respectable family home. Fast forward 50-40 years later to now and hi-fi is just a niche market. Just an indication that with all the high end digital audio, super audio cd, receivers with internet connectivity to streaming services etc, as subjective as this may sound, the industry has failed to prove that humans actually like digital better. Even more, the constantly declining sales of digital singles and albums in favor of free youtube and spotify streams, shows -at least to my humble opinion- that younger generations do not perceive listening to music as a sole satisfying experience as the old and some of the newer vinyl lovers do, but prefer it as a background underlying "carpet" to whatever else they 're doing on their phones or comps etc. Hence most music has been degraded to what we used to call "elevator music" back in the day, no matter if it's the poppiest Kate Perry or the deepest Pink Floyd or whatever. Attention span from a scale of 1 to 10 equals 1.
Guys like Jim Anderson don't listen to much music nowadays. It is inevitable that most studio guys' listening repertoire is limited to what they produce and/or mix because it takes up a significant portion of their lives. So it is good to take a break and be a "kid" again, listen to something new that may be exciting without the professional 's bias, because it might remind to guys like Anderson that music is about the feelings it invokes and not about perfection. In fact, it is the imperfection to the art that is admirable. Ergo, vinyl is still around.
Much love and thanks for listening.
All the best

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2024 at 6:09 PM

All records that you buy should be digitized first because sometimes the stylus makes scratches.

I used to throw a lot of parties - I even got burn holes and lots of scratches on my LPs from my guests who played the records.
I was lucky enough to have a big record shop where I worked (MIchelle) where you could get everything. Back then, people read in analogue form, i.e. in paper form, there were fanzines and great underground labels and you listened to radio shows like BBC Jon Peel Session or Grenzwellen by Eckie Stieg, which always introduced bands, and then you bought the records. If you didn't have any money, your friends would make cassette tapes.

Since the invention of the World Wide Web, CD ROMs, laser technology and MP3 and today Spotify and YouTube, the world of music has become even bigger. It is growing every day because people can make beats and songs at home on their PC or on the train and upload their creative songs directly to the internet using wireless technology.

The next big thing is AI ???
The human creative spirit is infinite but human life is finite.

 

Tokyo Dawns Labs have some stuff for this, I believe. I'm ignorant about the whole vinyl process, so I can't tell you if I think their vinyl dedicated programs are good or bad.

 

FabFilter

 

Quality Control.

 

When was this beat 16 we never got invited... you talking about spliff burns on the vinyl or have you just gooogled it..

 

The previous text was written by me. That was in the 90s, I was about 30 years old when we met regularly to drink. Back then there was beer and hand-rolled cigarettes. Once you reached a certain level of alcohol, the music got louder, the coordination of the muscles and nervous system got worse and the person responsible for the music was already a bit drunk and the embers would fall on the record.

All the scratches on the records were pretty annoying. At some point I downloaded all my records digitally from Spotify. That's the nice thing about MP3s, nothing gets damaged.

 

Get a good audio engineering handbook (modern recording techniques, the newest version - by runstein) and follow the guide lines therein for what you on the studio side need to do to prepare audio tracks for vinyl duplication.

It used to be, and I have done quite a few of them, the master you hand in to the vinyl house consisted of two 1/4" or 1/2" reels of tape (one for disc side-one the other for disc side-two, or more if you're doing an album with more than one disc) with paper leadered heads, tails and track "tween's". You have track sheets included with any special playback and/or processing instructions (like noise reduction type, tape bias, etc)...

Nowdays it consists of handing over a SSD, hard drive, or USB stick. You'll find that on the studio side of the coin for vinyl production the studio side do's and dont's that must be adhered to are universal even from the old days. For the most part once your job on the studio side has been completed, you hand your stuff to the person running the cutting lathe and the rest is pretty much up to them. The task of cutting good vinyl masters is very specialized and you should exercise due diligence and research when selecting a vinyl mastering house to do your master disc. Because the telling tale of a great sounding vinyl master comes down to who, how, and on what that master disc was cut. This is why there are few good vinyl mastering houses to choose from. They get their rep's from how well their masters disc's hold up in duplication.

My software of choice for completing the studio master prep tasks == Steinberg WAVELAB. period.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2024 at 11:16 PM