Vinyl records, as well as CD's, MP3's and others, are what we call 'low resolution delivery formats/targets'.
They are intended for the end consumer, offering a reasonable fidelity in a reasonable space/size.
In the audio business (at least as it has been professionally practiced) you capture at as high a resolution as possible (i.e. wider/ faster tape speeds, higher sample rates and bit depths), edit at high res, and then create a high resolution master (until the 80's usually 1/4" tape at 15ips, later 1/2" tape at 15 or 30 ips and even later DAT, as well as other digital formats).
The high res master is the basis for the end consumer deliverables - be it vinyl, CD-R, DVD, MP3, or whatever. Sample rates are converted down, bit depths dithered down, lossy compression schemes applied (DTS/ Dolby for 5.1 DVD, MP3/AAC for downloaded audio) with the aim of preserving as much of the quality on the master as possible.
As with most things, there is no free lunch, and knowing the tradeoffs involved help assure as good a result as possible. Some people manage to get great results, others not.
Cheers, Thor On 4. mars. 2009, at 14.30, Austin Franklin wrote:
Hi Rob,Well, I knew your claim was unfounded, but I was willing to listen to, and was interested in, what YOU had to say. Not what web sites have to say.There is an irony here that you want to hold your hands over your ears and not hear the reality of the situation. But, it is your prerogative to do so, and not listen to someone who is a professional electrical engineer, andwho has a very lengthy resume of directly related audio research anddevelopment history. I am very happy to discuss the topic on a technical level with you, or anyone else. I'm even willing to debunk any "Internet myths" or other myths on this subject you'd like to bring up. But simplydismissing me, well, that's your loss.The claims in the How Stuff Works website are somewhat silly and requiremajor suspension of disbelief: "A vinyl record has a groove carved into it that mirrors the original sound's waveform. This means that no information is lost."There is ALWAYS information lost. There are many distortions that occur with vinyl, and to ignore these distortions to make a point is disingenuousor, or at the very least, uninformed."From the graph above you can see that CD quality audio does not do a verygood job of replicating the original signal."The graph they show is not very useful. It does not take into account the oversampling. A fair comparison would be the analog output signal from theD/A compared to the analog signal from the vinyl. So, the "How Stuff Works" resource is at best very misleading and veryuneducated on the subject. I'll check the other one after I get the kidsoff to school. Regards, Austin-----Original Message----- From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Robert Lilley Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 8:13 AM To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Peter K. and The Survivability of Film Austin, See, I knew you were setting me up for a gainsay match - Is too! Is not!, ad nauseam.Why should I believe you? With the absence of research data, what yousaid is just another opinion. Rob On Mar 4, 2009, at 7:57 AM, Austin Franklin wrote:Hi Rob,Sorry, not getting into this one - My fingers and brain are too tiredto get into a gainsay so late in the day.That sure is a cop out.You have some choices - believe me, ignore me or do your own research and prove me wrong - just do a little surfing on the high fidelity websites.Well, lucky for us I spent over ten years working on this very subject ;-) After many years of research and development of digital audio equipment...I concluded that it depends on what you mean by "data". You can increase bit depth and sample rate ad-infinitum, but whether that increased amount of data gives you increased fidelity (accuracy of reproduction) is what the question is. And, the answer is no, vinyl does not have more "usable" data when compared to a standard CD.Machs Nix to me, in my heart and eardrums I know I am right.Well, what your eardrums hear is harmonic distortion. As humans, it's pleasing to our ears, so sometimes, we *think* something with a higherharmonic distortion sounds better than the same "thing" without it, even though the fidelity is less. So, given the right playback equipment, I don't disagree that vinyl *can* sound "better", but that does not mean it has more data. Regards, Austin --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
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