So as I recently surfaced from under the Luddite rock where I live, I just discovered the existence of a new to me but not so new Hi-Res digital format, MAQ. Not sure what to think about it. It is said to compare with SACD. It is proprietary which means special equipment / decoders and more $$$. Seems like it is geared more for streaming but there are also some CD's coming out in this new format. I will admit that I bought The Beatles White Album Japanese CD SHM box set just to see what SHM is about. But it still sits unopened, the 50th Vinyl is killer enough for now.
I dunno. I'm pretty much done chasing my tail in the pursuit of the better sound. I've settled on 16 bit / 48 khz for ripping my vinyl. The only things on my immediate horizon is getting my tone arm rewired and maybe an ultra sonic cleaner. Sigh ...
Anyway here are some links to explore in case this format is new to you.
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days. Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing. Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff. I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years. I'll put it up to desert island status for me. This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album. Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again. No clipping. All the settings are built around Living For The City. The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus. That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.
So here it is. One of those that truly are worthy. I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones. Don't let this one slip away.
You in particular have contributed to me getting to my final approach with my remastering techniques via your youtube and other posts regarding aspects of audio engineering. They helped to gel my understanding of the various tools I have to work with and especially how not to use them more than anything else. I'm now 12 years into this and what I do now is light years from what I did in the beginning working with CD's and mp3's. Vinyl seems to be the source for the highest dynamic ranges to be found in recordings, even today. Keeping levels lower and things from clipping was the most important realization in preserving the dynamic range that vinyl has to offer. I have more to work with and the effects and tools work better and ironically get louder without blowing out the fidelity and permanently killing it off with clipping.
Granted, not everything needs remastering, but in the case of this particular album, I knew what I wanted to do before I got started after listening to it raw and flat on the computer studio speakers, headphones and finally the big rig in the living room and what I thought was lacking. And I actually achieved what I wanted to do. That does not always happen. The big rig as I call it matters most because it is plain old stereo with an old fashioned unpowered inline subwoofer in front of the mains. These days with powered subs and separate volume controls for them, figuring out the bass lower end is a big guess. The inline unpowered sub let's me hear what the bottom really sounds like and how loud it really is with all things being equal and therefore how to better adjust EQ's.
Usually I only remaster individual songs and leave the albums alone and just deal with the pops and ticks, but this one hit me as a whole. FWIW, the bulk of those 30 hours were spent with the pencil tool editing out the pops, ticks and some scratches and even fixing some recording glitches in the wav form manually, thereby avoiding altering the sound with programs that can do some of the click removal. It's tedious, time consuming and boring as hell but worth it imo. I wish I had some google glasses to make a video of that process in real time with live sound. But I don't.
Finally just to restate why I do this and remind myself why I do this ... Years ago when there was so much music that was out of print and the only source for this music was vinyl, I learned of this guy in Hong Kong in the 90's who was ripping albums and making digital copies of his rips available. They were so well done that he actually made some good money as there was an audiophile market that wanted his needle drops. Now everything is being re released so most of the OOP music is once again available, albeit with not so good results more often than not. That's why I started. (for the sound, not for the money part) I wanted to try and preserve great mastering efforts of people who have since left this planet but left behind masterpieces of work, on vinyl. Not all vinyl is equal, so when a great copy of a great pressing comes along it's just a simple joy to discover and hear. It's been said that analogue is less fatiguing to listen to than a digital file. I'll say that a good digital rip of a great vinyl mastering effort is also not fatiguing because the analogue mastering was accurately captured in a high enough resolution. Digital mastering from a master tape for a digital release is different than mastering for vinyl. Feel free to reply with any thoughts on this conclusion or anything else as you are indeed interested in this stuff having following your posts over the years. And anyone else as well.
Meanwhile, I'll leave this up through the weekend and get back to work on my music project for my wife's friend in Puerto Rico. She leaves 2 weeks from yesterday for PR and I also have a mixtape to get out at the same time. And I'm agonizing over adding an ultra sonic cleaning system to that part of the process. I love my wife who let's me do this.
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days. Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing. Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff. I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years. I'll put it up to desert island status for me. This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album. Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again. No clipping. All the settings are built around Living For The City. The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus. That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.
So here it is. One of those that truly are worthy. I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones. Don't let this one slip away.
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days. Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing. Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff. I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years. I'll put it up to desert island status for me. This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album. Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again. No clipping. All the settings are built around Living For The City. The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus. That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.
So here it is. One of those that truly are worthy. I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones. Don't let this one slip away.
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days. Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing. Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff. I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years. I'll put it up to desert island status for me. This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album. Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again. No clipping. All the settings are built around Living For The City. The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus. That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.
So here it is. One of those that truly are worthy. I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones. Don't let this one slip away.
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days. Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing. Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff. I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years. I'll put it up to desert island status for me. This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album. Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again. No clipping. All the settings are built around Living For The City. The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus. That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.
So here it is. One of those that truly are worthy. I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones. Don't let this one slip away.
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days. Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing. Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff. I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years. I'll put it up to desert island status for me. This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album. Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again. No clipping. All the settings are built around Living For The City. The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus. That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.
So here it is. One of those that truly are worthy. I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones. Don't let this one slip away.
Just parking one of my long winded dissertations that no one asked for ;) I did over in a discogs thread to save it.
A high school kid has a thread with a poll about exploring the possibility of making and marketing a new type of record changer, like back in the 60's. The poll is legit if anyone is interested. Clicky for the thread if interested.
. I'm real old (66 ;) and from the days when console stereos with turntables (changers) that did allow stacking of records were the norm. Sure they were convenient, but we didn't know then what we know now about vinyl. They did not protect your vinyl from damage, but vinyl was viewed in a different way. It was the primary audio source and easily replaceable if need be due to normal wear and tear. And we accepted all the flaws in the playback systems. Stacked records on a turntable would slip for example and playback would be funky not to mention that slipping would also cause scratching because of grit in between the two surfaces.
Now records are expensive and not so easily replaceable, if at all in some cases. Having lived through those days, there is no way in hell I would even think of using a changer style turntable today. And today's heavier, thicker vinyl is likely not even suited for that kind of turntable.
There used to be turntables that allowed for automatic flipping of the record and queuing of multiple records, however these systems weren't entirely successful in maintaining the safety of the record, among other issues. This has prevented them from showing up in the vinyl resurgence of the past decade. We're interested in seeing how receptive vinyl listeners today are to these systems.
Going briefly into the weeds, with things like VTA (vertical tracking angles) being so critical, just think how much different it would be when playing on a stack of 180 gram records 4 or 5 high. That would be the same height for a stack of 8 or 9 thinner vintage records. The listening experience would simply get worse with the addition of every record on the pile. In order to be viable, there would need to be a way to automatically raise the tonearm to a new height every time a record was added to the stack. This factor all by itself is the best reason to never go back to the idea of a changer. It's already a pain in the butt changing the VTA for a paper thin Dynaflex pressing to a 200 gram platter.
Finally, the questions regarding the "quality" of the sound on the vinyl. For me, it's the preparation of the sound that ends up on the vinyl or the mastering process. Vinyl is inherently imperfect, but when all things are optimal, it's hard to beat. But most important is the quality of the sound put on the vinyl. That sound is prepared differently than for a digital medium. And not everyone knows or knew what they were doing.
In conclusion, as someone who has lived through all these changes and the evolution of what we are discussing, way back when I wanted a way to skip through the songs on albums that I did not like. Just wasn't possible, until home tape recording was easy and of good quality. I made mixtapes, first on 8-tracks and later on cassettes. Now I do it digitally. I belong to a group that exchanges mixtapes on a rotating monthly basis. I'm the only one who still mostly uses vinyl as the source. Everyone else uses files or CD rips for their songs.
I am in the process of ripping my old and new vinyl. Having the rips allows me all the conveniences of a record changer without all the fuss. I simply load up the rips on a media player (foobar) and play away. I can listen to what I want, when I want, with very little effort. And since they are ripped, they don't get worn out or damaged from mishandling plus I can hear them anywhere. They will always sound the same. That and they will sound like the vinyl they come from due to the preparation and the programs and type of files used to record the music.
Vinyl is a huge pain in the ass. It is very expensive. It is bulky, heavy and fragile. The playback equipment is expensive. It is simply a high maintenance operation. But when all things are right, it's awesome. I don't give a rat's ass about the artwork anymore and the preparation and act of playing vinyl is a real pain in the ass, too. My rips will be sufficient to live with because for me it's what is on the vinyl anymore, not all the fuss (ritual) about the physicality of it. Now my time and fuss is spent on making and editing the files. That is a ritual all by itself.
I lied and clicked thru the survey to see what he was up to. It'll be a good learning experience to find out that there's no market for your great idea.
Just parking one of my long winded dissertations that no one asked for ;) I did over in a discogs thread to save it.
A high school kid has a thread with a poll about exploring the possibility of making and marketing a new type of record changer, like back in the 60's. The poll is legit if anyone is interested. Clicky for the thread if interested. . I'm real old (66 ;) and from the days when console stereos with turntables (changers) that did allow stacking of records were the norm. Sure they were convenient, but we didn't know then what we know now about vinyl. They did not protect your vinyl from damage, but vinyl was viewed in a different way. It was the primary audio source and easily replaceable if need be due to normal wear and tear. And we accepted all the flaws in the playback systems. Stacked records on a turntable would slip for example and playback would be funky not to mention that slipping would also cause scratching because of grit in between the two surfaces.
Now records are expensive and not so easily replaceable, if at all in some cases. Having lived through those days, there is no way in hell I would even think of using a changer style turntable today. And today's heavier, thicker vinyl is likely not even suited for that kind of turntable.
There used to be turntables that allowed for automatic flipping of the record and queuing of multiple records, however these systems weren't entirely successful in maintaining the safety of the record, among other issues. This has prevented them from showing up in the vinyl resurgence of the past decade. We're interested in seeing how receptive vinyl listeners today are to these systems.
Going briefly into the weeds, with things like VTA (vertical tracking angles) being so critical, just think how much different it would be when playing on a stack of 180 gram records 4 or 5 high. That would be the same height for a stack of 8 or 9 thinner vintage records. The listening experience would simply get worse with the addition of every record on the pile. In order to be viable, there would need to be a way to automatically raise the tonearm to a new height every time a record was added to the stack. This factor all by itself is the best reason to never go back to the idea of a changer. It's already a pain in the butt changing the VTA for a paper thin Dynaflex pressing to a 200 gram platter.
Finally, the questions regarding the "quality" of the sound on the vinyl. For me, it's the preparation of the sound that ends up on the vinyl or the mastering process. Vinyl is inherently imperfect, but when all things are optimal, it's hard to beat. But most important is the quality of the sound put on the vinyl. That sound is prepared differently than for a digital medium. And not everyone knows or knew what they were doing.
In conclusion, as someone who has lived through all these changes and the evolution of what we are discussing, way back when I wanted a way to skip through the songs on albums that I did not like. Just wasn't possible, until home tape recording was easy and of good quality. I made mixtapes, first on 8-tracks and later on cassettes. Now I do it digitally. I belong to a group that exchanges mixtapes on a rotating monthly basis. I'm the only one who still mostly uses vinyl as the source. Everyone else uses files or CD rips for their songs.
I am in the process of ripping my old and new vinyl. Having the rips allows me all the conveniences of a record changer without all the fuss. I simply load up the rips on a media player (foobar) and play away. I can listen to what I want, when I want, with very little effort. And since they are ripped, they don't get worn out or damaged from mishandling plus I can hear them anywhere. They will always sound the same. That and they will sound like the vinyl they come from due to the preparation and the programs and type of files used to record the music.
Vinyl is a huge pain in the ass. It is very expensive. It is bulky, heavy and fragile. The playback equipment is expensive. It is simply a high maintenance operation. But when all things are right, it's awesome. I don't give a rat's ass about the artwork anymore and the preparation and act of playing vinyl is a real pain in the ass, too. My rips will be sufficient to live with because for me it's what is on the vinyl anymore, not all the fuss (ritual) about the physicality of it. Now my time and fuss is spent on making and editing the files. That is a ritual all by itself.
Remember once upon a time we had a balance knob on our stereo receivers and just about anything else that played in stereo. Nowadays the knob is pretty much gone, along with the other two knobs, treble and bass. Iffen you had a Marantz you might have had a mid range knob. This is a pic of what my first ever receiver was. My first wife ended up with it. Sigh ...
anyway, back then you needed a balance adjustment if you played vinyl. Never knew why per se, only some records needed it and more often than not slightly to the right. Usually 1 o'clock with a knob. We rarely use the balance control anymore. It's still around but buried deep in the menu of your device since we have gone digital.
But with vinyl there was more often than not a difference in the levels between the right and left channels. Shouldn't have been once we went away from fake stereo to true stereo, but it still happens even today. I always thought something was wrong with my turntable or something else and lived with it. When you see the two individual stereo tracks in a wav file, the difference stands out plain as day.
Rebalancing tracks on an album basis is something I only started doing recently. Before, everything was all individual songs one at a time on a stand alone basis. Since working on album sides as a whole, the volume leveling and rebalancing of the whole side has made a huge difference. It has opened up the music as a whole and now I can hear the actual soundstage as was intended in the final mastering process before the lacquers were cut, at least that is my conclusion. I'll post some screen prints of the before and after examples down the road.
At any rate ... here we go ... two iconic albums that came out pretty damn nice. All the work done manually, no slick programs and absolutely no clipping, balanced out at -4 dB peaks. Everything from here on in will be at least this good or I won't post them. Dave Mason ~ Alone Together and Cream ~ Disraeli Gears. Alone Together came out the best and side 2 sounds better than side 1. That is a whole nuther problem with vinyl and more on that later.
Remember once upon a time we had a balance knob on our stereo receivers and just about anything else that played in stereo. Nowadays the knob is pretty much gone, along with the other two knobs, treble and bass. Iffen you had a Marantz you might have had a mid range knob. This is a pic of what my first ever receiver was. My first wife ended up with it. Sigh ...
anyway, back then you needed a balance adjustment if you played vinyl. Never knew why per se, only some records needed it and more often than not slightly to the right. Usually 1 o'clock with a knob. We rarely use the balance control anymore. It's still around but buried deep in the menu of your device since we have gone digital.
But with vinyl there was more often than not a difference in the levels between the right and left channels. Shouldn't have been once we went away from fake stereo to true stereo, but it still happens even today. I always thought something was wrong with my turntable or something else and lived with it. When you see the two individual stereo tracks in a wav file, the difference stands out plain as day.
Rebalancing tracks on an album basis is something I only started doing recently. Before, everything was all individual songs one at a time on a stand alone basis. Since working on album sides as a whole, the volume leveling and rebalancing of the whole side has made a huge difference. It has opened up the music as a whole and now I can hear the actual soundstage as was intended in the final mastering process before the lacquers were cut, at least that is my conclusion. I'll post some screen prints of the before and after examples down the road.
At any rate ... here we go ... two iconic albums that came out pretty damn nice. All the work done manually, no slick programs and absolutely no clipping, balanced out at -4 dB peaks. Everything from here on in will be at least this good or I won't post them. Dave Mason ~ Alone Together and Cream ~ Disraeli Gears. Alone Together came out the best and side 2 sounds better than side 1. That is a whole nuther problem with vinyl and more on that later.
otherwise, still ripping away. Have a Christmas project putting together needle drops for one of Patty's friends. She was the one who put her up for most of the time she was out west taking care of her daughter. Her friend is a HS classmate, an architect doing her last gig down in Puerto Rico. She texts Patty a picture of sunrise at the beach every morning. A year and a half hitch for FEMA helping to rebuild the big stuff. She's traveling light so I'm putting together as much as I can stuff on a flash drive in the next couple of weeks to send her as a thank you to help her get through her last year there. With a little luck, at least Patty can get down there for a visit in February.
I'll put up some of the really good ones for consumption so to speak now and then. The process is finalized and as good as it is ever going to get. They'll be what I'll be listening to for the rest of my days. If it should happen to be something you got from me before, this will be the keeper, delete the other ones. No files were clipped in the making. They're just where they should be.
I finally got headphones for the first time since the 70's or 80's. BG mentioned them in a post about sound quality awhile ago. Figured him using them was as good of an endorsement I was ever gonna get for something like that. Holy sh*t. Blew out my ears before I realized what they were doing. Had no idea how loud they were playing, they sounded so good. Could feel the bass in my toes. An evening was all it took. Afterwards my hearing was like I had just left a 3 hour concert in the front row. Uh oh. What, its been nearly 3 months and they still ring. It's getting intermittent now, but it's there more than it's not. Gives me hope of sorts. Still can hear well, I just hear a little bit more now ... Did in one evening what I had tried to avoid most of my life by not using headphones. Oh well ... But they are awesome, I would recommend them as well. I just have them turned down very low and do clean up work with them. Still use speakers though for everything else. That's it for now. More to come. Look for that CLICKYthing.
y'all !
