the vinyl lovefest must end
If you missed it, I'm a music geek. (And, also, just a regular geek). I'm the first to confess this: I spend more time thinking about, reading about, talking about, and playing music than anything else in my little universe. This includes reading several geeky online music boards. Lately, on every single one of them, the subject of records - good ol' vinyl - has come up. And several dozen people espouse their love for vinyl, and talk about searching out all kinds of rarities, and how great vinyl is.
This is a wake up call: vinyl is not great. Here are 5 reasons why you should get over the vinyl lovin':
#1 - Sound quality - This is the biggest reason. People who tell you that music sounds better on vinyl are nuts - or they're just trying too hard to be cool. It just sounds like music on vinyl, with those annoying scratchy record player sounds. And, if it's an old recording, you get the bonus of lots of detracting background noise. The only people who have any reason whatsoever to enjoy this sound are baby boomers, and that's for nostalgia and only nostalgia.
#2 - The album cover artwork is pretty. But it wasn't "killed" by CDs. There were these things that were quite popular for several years called cassette tapes. These little beauties have covers approximately 2x4" in size - try placing any overly artistic images on that. CDs also contain album art. Whether you like it or not is subjective, but I've seen more bad vinyl album covers than good ones in my lifetime, too.
#3 - Several of these vinyl-lovers buy records, and then use modern day technology to transfer the files to their mp3 libraries, for listening on their computers and/or mp3 players of choice. If you're telling me vinyl is superior sound quality (which it's not) then you should be anti-mp3, because that's completely compressed sound quality. And if you're looking for digital files, you're going to not only get better sound quality from a CD, but also you will save space and money, and not look like a pretentious poser.
#4 - Cost. Vinyl is usually more expensive than digital these days, because it's a novelty and harder to find. And because the people who think they're getting something special are suckers.
#5 - You don't even need vinyl to scratch anymore, if you're into that. You can get digital files and equipment that make all the neat sounds without tearing the crap out of the record you just spent way too much on.
The ONLY reason I can see buying anything on vinyl is if you collect music and it was ONLY released on vinyl. And even then, you should be able to download it from somewhere - this is the internet.
This is a wake up call: vinyl is not great. Here are 5 reasons why you should get over the vinyl lovin':
#1 - Sound quality - This is the biggest reason. People who tell you that music sounds better on vinyl are nuts - or they're just trying too hard to be cool. It just sounds like music on vinyl, with those annoying scratchy record player sounds. And, if it's an old recording, you get the bonus of lots of detracting background noise. The only people who have any reason whatsoever to enjoy this sound are baby boomers, and that's for nostalgia and only nostalgia.
#2 - The album cover artwork is pretty. But it wasn't "killed" by CDs. There were these things that were quite popular for several years called cassette tapes. These little beauties have covers approximately 2x4" in size - try placing any overly artistic images on that. CDs also contain album art. Whether you like it or not is subjective, but I've seen more bad vinyl album covers than good ones in my lifetime, too.
#3 - Several of these vinyl-lovers buy records, and then use modern day technology to transfer the files to their mp3 libraries, for listening on their computers and/or mp3 players of choice. If you're telling me vinyl is superior sound quality (which it's not) then you should be anti-mp3, because that's completely compressed sound quality. And if you're looking for digital files, you're going to not only get better sound quality from a CD, but also you will save space and money, and not look like a pretentious poser.
#4 - Cost. Vinyl is usually more expensive than digital these days, because it's a novelty and harder to find. And because the people who think they're getting something special are suckers.
#5 - You don't even need vinyl to scratch anymore, if you're into that. You can get digital files and equipment that make all the neat sounds without tearing the crap out of the record you just spent way too much on.
The ONLY reason I can see buying anything on vinyl is if you collect music and it was ONLY released on vinyl. And even then, you should be able to download it from somewhere - this is the internet.
Labels: collectors, music, rant, vinyl
posted by Silver Turtle at
1:58 PM
2 Comments:
I have to disagree with you here, but only on issue #1. Vinyl does sound better, and always will sound better. BUT only if you have a clean record, with a good needle, and good record player, and a decent sound system. Otherwise it'll sound the same as an MP3.
Because vinyl is analog you don't lose any sound to compression as you would with MP3. However, if there were a way play your records through your car stereo, or through iPod headphones, the difference between vinyl and MP3 would be indistinguishable. On a good system, the difference would be significant. Vinyl will always sound better than CD, tape, or MP3 on a good system.
In summation, vinyl is always the best sound, but only if you've got a great system to listen on. Otherwise, MP3 = vinyl.
By
acw, at 10:02 AM
Obviously we disagree on the quality of vinyl, since I you *heart* it & I put it as my #1 reason that vinyl is not love.
I will concede 2 things:
1. Sound is at least somewhat subjective - so it's up to the listener at some level
2. The method used to record can (and does) have an impact on the sound. If I plug my bass into a DI box and record from that in an actual studio setting, it's an entirely different animal than when I play my bass through a crappy little amp and record it with an even crappier mic while picking up background noise from the computer, etc.
Of course... I'm still right. ;)
By
Silver Turtle, at 9:47 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home