http://www.airwindows.com/analysis/VinylNoise.htmlOn 2006-08-28 15:44, braincell wrote:
I don't miss the pops and the lower dynamic range and the noise.
i've found it an interesting read
Vinyl?
Honestly, the tunes that I play are often given to me in 320k mp3 over aim by various dnb producers. I burn them to cdr and play them on cdj1000's (or 800's if the promotor is slipping) alongside vinyl.
To my ears the real differences in the sound usually come from the fact that the vinyl release is expensive enough that the label will usually have a proper mastering engineer handle it that is KNOWN for treating that genre on a regular basis to shape it into 'that sound'. Cd's & mp3's vary WIDELY in overall tonal balance and compression. For dance music the differences between pre master & post master can also be rather surprising. Most of the vinyl masters that i've compared to originals show that everything under 40hz and everything over 14-16khz has been completely removed, with the right 'shape' given to what is left. The limiting almost always kicks the pants off anything I can do in Logic or Wavelab regardless of what plugins I choose, and that doesn't mean that they might not use a plugin that I have access to.
We could go into the effect that an RIAA filter has on the low end 'oomph' and other esoterica, but when I play out the major differences in sound are (imo) due to the treatment that the final product has been given by a mastering engineer. Vinyl is almost always well treated, cd's sometimes are but sometimes aren't (it's easy to self-master a cd) and mp3's are usually 'dubs' straight from an artists and/or label and hence squashed & eq'd in the same rig that created the tune in the first place (not always the best idea) or by the label owner (who is often not a mastering level engineer either).
The main reason I avoid using laptops as a Dj is because setting up final scratch/serato or any comparable mp3 mixing rig is going to require running several cables into a mixing board which may or may not be accessible, and there are multiple points of failure even when the laptop runs stably. With vinyl & cd u can be up & running as soon as you step up to the decks.
When I do LIVE acts, I use the laptop with a small collection of gear. I can accomplish the same thing with a single small controller and a mouse but I've learned that the crowd interprets my added gear as me actually 'doing something' and enjoys the show much more. On a related note I've seen live 'electronic' acts perform on gear that wasn't even plugged in.
To my ears the real differences in the sound usually come from the fact that the vinyl release is expensive enough that the label will usually have a proper mastering engineer handle it that is KNOWN for treating that genre on a regular basis to shape it into 'that sound'. Cd's & mp3's vary WIDELY in overall tonal balance and compression. For dance music the differences between pre master & post master can also be rather surprising. Most of the vinyl masters that i've compared to originals show that everything under 40hz and everything over 14-16khz has been completely removed, with the right 'shape' given to what is left. The limiting almost always kicks the pants off anything I can do in Logic or Wavelab regardless of what plugins I choose, and that doesn't mean that they might not use a plugin that I have access to.
We could go into the effect that an RIAA filter has on the low end 'oomph' and other esoterica, but when I play out the major differences in sound are (imo) due to the treatment that the final product has been given by a mastering engineer. Vinyl is almost always well treated, cd's sometimes are but sometimes aren't (it's easy to self-master a cd) and mp3's are usually 'dubs' straight from an artists and/or label and hence squashed & eq'd in the same rig that created the tune in the first place (not always the best idea) or by the label owner (who is often not a mastering level engineer either).
The main reason I avoid using laptops as a Dj is because setting up final scratch/serato or any comparable mp3 mixing rig is going to require running several cables into a mixing board which may or may not be accessible, and there are multiple points of failure even when the laptop runs stably. With vinyl & cd u can be up & running as soon as you step up to the decks.
When I do LIVE acts, I use the laptop with a small collection of gear. I can accomplish the same thing with a single small controller and a mouse but I've learned that the crowd interprets my added gear as me actually 'doing something' and enjoys the show much more. On a related note I've seen live 'electronic' acts perform on gear that wasn't even plugged in.