The OP wasn't comparing vinyl to CD, he was comparing vinyl to
whatever compressed format iTunes served up (presumably AAC or MP3)
These are both use "lossy" compression, a very accurate term for
a process that most definitely loses sound quality.
If CD were to be compared to vinyl, then the discrepancy would be
much less noticeable. Vinyl still does have the better dynamic
range and will sound better when played on good equipment, though
double-blind testing shows that only a small fraction of people
can reliably distinguish the two.
Of course, higher-quality digital formats (such as the largely
ignored DVD-audio) win hands down in any contest vs either CDs or
Vinyl.
If you want your music as a file, I'd recommend the FLAC format
(Free Lossless Audio Codec). You can use this to compress both
CD rips and recordings that you make directly. Some material is
also possible to source online in FLAC format, this is especially
popular amongst classical music fans, for whom copyright
infringement is not an issue.
However, I'm still not certain of the legal position on using
bittorrent to download a FLAC version of something that you've
already payed for in another format.
After all that, if you then intend to play it back over the cheap
white headphones that come free with your iPod, I wouldn't bother
going through all the effort!
On 22 April 2010 14:30, Casper Bang <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Wow, is that really worth the trouble? I can appreciate the
desire to
up the sampling from normal CD (say 24bit/320KHz rather than
16bit/
44KHz) or avoid compression (PCM rather than
Fraunhofer/LAME), but I'd
imagine you'd need some pretty hard core analog equipment to
keep the
noise level down (record warps and low-freq rumble) - or is
that part
of the charm? :)
On Apr 22, 1:42 pm, Christian Catchpole
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
> Yeah you'll probably need a phono pre-amp. I put my
turntable into a
> mixer and got gain out of it but the EQ wasn't balanced, so
I assume
> the phono pre-amp will "know what to do". Perhaps even
just an old
> turntable amp with tape line out.
>
> I just used normal wave recording software. You adjust the
gain so
> its within range but not clipping.. But not too low that
you get extra
> noise. Then you can trim and normalize the signal (it
finds the max
> point and adjusts the volume so the max fits within the
bits). This
> is not compression it's just a gain adjustment so its not
quieter than
> it needs to be.
>
> There probably are software filters but I find they do more
harm than
> good.. but those are just the ones i tried years ago. if
your extra
> keen you get take the clicks out by hand.
>
> I also found that my turntable was slightly the wrong
speed, so I
> compared a song length with the same from a CD and worked
out the
> ratio to adjust.
>
> I also found I could convert old 78s this way on my
turntable by
> recording it at 45 then speeding it up.
>
> On Apr 22, 4:45 pm, RogerV <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On account there are folks on this forum that know a
thing or two
> > about the art of recording audio to a digital format, I
thought would
> > try posing a question. But first the setup:
>
> > My teen-aged son and I were watching recent episode of
Fringe where
> > Peter repairs an old turn table for his alternate reality
father,
> > Walter. My son commented how he was at a friends house
and that they
> > pulled out an old LP player and he listened to vinyl
analog recordings
> > for the first time. This prompted me to go to the garage
and fetch my
> > British-made Regga turn table and LP album collection.
They had
> > probably been entombed for 20 years.
>
> > The Regga is an audiophile turn table, tone arm, and
stylus cartridge
> > - it was about a $500 combination in early 1980s dollars.
It's very
> > simple mechanically. The motor is off in a corner and
conveys motive
> > power to the spindle via belt. The platter is 1 inch
thick solid
> > glass. Instead of an electronic feed-back loop to
regulate the
> > rotational speed, it instead relies on the fly wheel
effect of a
> > massive platter. The bottom line is the design and
construction keeps
> > the stylus very well insulated from extraneous vibration.
>
> > My son was, well, blown away from the sonic experience of
listening to
> > vinyl LPs played on this system. It was though he were
listening to
> > music for the first time. The detail, spatial location,
subtle
> > texture, dynamic range between quite to vibrant strains
were all more
> > alive than iTunes music. A good way to tell is listen to
the 1978
> > recording of the Pat Matheny Group album vs the iTunes
version of this
> > music. You'll be tempted to just delete the iTunes
version - it's just
> > flat and stale sounding in comparison to the analog vinyl.
>
> > So all this has lead me the matter of what to do with my
album
> > collection. I'm thinking that the main problem with
modern MP3
> > download music is that the dynamic range has been overly
compressed.
> > Surely I could make digital recordings from the phono
output of my
> > turntable that would retain the character of musical
experience?
>
> > Do I need to use a phono preamp before feeding a signal
into the audio
> > input on my computer?
>
> > Should I invest any any particular analog-to-digital
audio hardware
> > device?
>
> > What software would be good to use? I'll be recording
entire sides of
> > an LP at a time and then wanting to go back and split it
into separate
> > files per each song.
>
> > Is there any software filter that specializes in reducing
pops and
> > clicks from analog media?
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to
the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
<mailto:javaposse%[email protected]>.
> > For more options, visit this group
athttp://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en
<http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en>.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the
Google Groups "The Java Posse" group.
> To post to this group, send email to
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
<mailto:javaposse%[email protected]>.
> For more options, visit this group
athttp://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en
<http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en>.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the
Google Groups "The Java Posse" group.
To post to this group, send email to
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
<mailto:javaposse%[email protected]>.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
--
Kevin Wright
mail/google talk: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
wave: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
skype: kev.lee.wright
twitter: @thecoda
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the
Google Groups "The Java Posse" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
