Subj : Vinyl records
To   : Nigel Reed
From : Ogg
Date : Sat Sep 09 2023 09:01:00

Hello Nigel Reed!

** On Friday 08.09.23 - 20:53, Nigel Reed wrote to Utopian Galt:


 NR> I spent about $70 on used vinyl a few weeks ago. New vinyl
 NR> prices are stupid.

Isn't still a fact that there are only 2 lacquer/mastering  
plants in the world?  I seem to recall that there was a fire at  
one plant some time ago and that cut down the plants from then  
3 to 2.


A few other things I wasn't aware of and/or took for granted..

[1] A vinyl record cannot reproduce as broad a frequency range  
as a digital recording. Too much high end, low end or volume  
can cause distortion and make the needle skip.

[2] With less groove length per second of music (the closer the  
needle gets to the center), the resolution gets diminished.  
Sonically, this is equivalent to reducing the sampling rate of  
a digital recording from 96 kHz to 22.05 kHz - a huge  
difference in fidelity. That has ramifications for the artist  
and producer, who have to choose a song order carefully,  
knowing that the ones on the inner parts of the disc won't  
sound quite as clear and crisp.

[3] Vinyl records have considerably less dynamic range than  
digital recordings. If the mastering engineer tries to make the  
record too loud, it will just sound distorted. What's more,  
large dynamic swings can cause the needle to jump when the  
record is played on a consumer's turntable. In addition, the  
higher the amplitude, the wider the grooves need to be. Wider  
grooves mean less playing time per side, which also impacts the  
mastering engineer's level decisions.

[4] In the lacquer/master cutting stage, because the cutting is  
done in real time (that is, as the music is playing), one of  
the tasks of the cutting engineer is to manually create the  
spaces between songs. This is accomplished by scrolling the  
stylus very slightly toward the center of the record to create  
a gap.

[5] Regarding the stamper for actually creating the vinyl  
discs, one stamper is required for every thousand records.  
After that, the stamper starts to wear out, and the audio  
quality begins to degrade. Technicians can make additional  
copies of the stamper by electroplating and splitting the  
mother disc.


--- OpenXP 5.0.57
 * Origin: What do you call a musician with problems? A trebled man. (21:4/106.21)

.