Vinyl Bad As A Copy:

Long & techie:

I’ve been in the industry since 1976. At that time, vinyl was the only way to distribute your recording. I’ve done over 60+ albums. So now the back story.

I would engineer a project with > 2 inch analog tape & Neve or SSL consoles, with some outboard gear. Spent time, setting up the best Mics/D.I's on all the instruments. Then EQ, Compress, etc, to taste! In the control room, we would of course be listening to the bands’ performance on the [Mains] big soffit monitors, the [Mini’s] Yamaha NS10s (thanks Bob) and a mono (setup) Auratone. Listen, adjust, listen, adjust, listen, adjust! I was creating a PAINTING between the two speakers, with all the tonal depth, we were looking for. Eventually everyone in the control room was totally happy with the sound/painting. Now we need to [document] the painting to the analog multi-track. Come in for a playback > Disappointment!

There is now a lump on the low end, with nothing below 50hz. Some of the transients are lost and the sparkle in the treble is reduced. Plus the joy of now having tape hiss on each track! This is now being all summed together on the stereo mix bus. (Sad). Of note: after about every 500 playbacks you would start noticing the top end playback going down. This is why us engineers would automatically add top end EQ before tape, and also not add too much in the low end, because the tape machine “head bump” would add some.

So near this time the very expensive multi-track Dolby-A (~15dB) noise reduction units, started to become the norm. Then we find that the drum transients have been effected - EVEN MORE! So the norm became, to turn off the Dolby-A, on the drum channels. A little bit of hiss on those tracks, at least retained more of the transients. During the mix, with noise gates on the toms, kick and snr. This made the hiss less noticeable.

So now we get to the [mixing stage]. We would painstakingly, spend about 8+ hours creating an amazingly well balanced painting. I’m not even going to get into “hands mixing” or “automated”.

Listening to the progression of the mix, with the various speaker arrangements in the room. Listen, adjust, listen, adjust, etc. Eventually everyone in the room was totally happy with the tonal & mix balance. Yes sometimes a quick cassette was made for car playback, to check on instrument balance’s. Bluetooth for the modern kids.

Then we now have to [document] the stereo mix somewhere! In my early days it was to a Studer A80, 15 or 30ips to 1/4 inch tape. Now on the playback, our carefully done mix, has tonally changed on playback! (Damn!) There is a bit of a tubby upper bass, the top end is soft. We also have even more tape hiss! So with two Dolby 361A on the stereo mix down machine, it would lower the noise floor, about 10 to 15 dB. Damn! The Dolby unit also caused some of the nice transits to get lost and there was some additional THD added. Damn!

A few years later, we moved to a Studer A820 30 ips 1/2 inch tape. With the noise floor lowered, we no longer had to use the Dolby-A units. The A820 now also had a much smoother & wider frequency response. However still some transient loss. At this point everyone in the room “Signed Off” on the stereo mix of the song!

VINYL - BAD PRESENTATION
The 2 track stereo mix tape, now goes to the mastering/pressing plant. Back in those days, mastering was done at the same time you went to vinyl. The cutting/lathe engineer, would have available > Levels/Comps/EQ’s/De-essers. Then in realtime, going straight to the cutting lathe. Yes in those days the cutting lathe engineer would have to write down all the moves, required for the approximate 20 minutes of audio on one side. One mistake and they would have to start all over again. NO AUTOMATION. Of note: on the Neumann lathe, everything below 150hz was made mono! This was to prevent the cutting lathe needle - jumping out the the groove. Also if you had a mix with the low tom, panned too far out left or right, again issues. Only solution - cut at - a lower volume. That’s why as mixing engineers, we would mix the three toms: left, right, center. With the floor tom in the middle. All consoles back in those days had a [phase meter] on the stereo bus. This was to make sure, you didn’t have too much phasing issues. Very important. These days, it means nothing.

So then after this was done, we would be very excited, to take the test pressing back to the studio. We had a top quality turntable / RIAA amp. This would be connected to the console. Playback > DISAPPOINTMENT. Real low end gone, the mix had become more mono, the top end a bit brittle. We would also playback our master tape. Vinyl sort of (?) the same, with many differences. In your first few vinyl pressings, you would blame the cutting engineer. However after many re-pressings, you realize, that changing from an [electrical signal] to a [mechanical signal], is not the same, by at least 25%. And that’s it! Oh and bonus you now have the scratchy - clicks, pops and noise of the playback stylus, tracking through the grooves. At least it hides most of the tape hiss, as the signal to noise ratio of vinyl, is about 50dB, at best.

So Vinyl - is a somewhat distance copy of the original?Painting? painstakingly created in the control room. (Why are you buying it?)

PART 2
The early CD era. So we’ve all heard about how many of those CD’s sounded thin on the bottom and too bright on the top end. So this is what happened! When the [2 Trk Master Tape] went to the cutting/vinyl plant, as described earlier. There was a [Y] cord cable, from the output of the mastering chain, to >#1 to the cutting lathe, >#2 to another analog tape machine! This was the backup analog Dolby master, containing all the “mastering moves” that were done, to make the vinyl sound as best as it could. So we now have a - second generation analog copy of the stereo mix, with a mono low end, compression & EQ - as required for vinyl. Well guess what! This is what was sent to the > CD burning plant! Huge sonic quality issues. Should I say more?

This is finally why in the last 10+ years, George Martin, Jimmy Page, etc. Have gone back to the [original] 2trk analog master tapes. Converted them clean, to 96khz-24 bit, digital. This needed to be done anyway. As the metal oxide/glue on the tape is starting to disintegrate.

In the modern mastering room they are able to - reclaim the original tonal blend (painting), that everyone “signed off” on, all those years ago!

Even some of the bands that didn’t have the big budget to work in the best recording studios & equipment. Have gone right back to their multi-track masters. Transferred these to 96-24. Then do a matched remix of the original stereo master. Genesis, one of my very favourite bands, have done an amazing reproduction of their original album mixes. With so many elements re-visioned and so clearly defined. The best tonal painting we can get. Thanks Steven Wilson and others.

Now we are of course still dealing with the loudness wars that started in the mid 90’s. However finally with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok. Having levels all set at -14 LUFS, -1dBTP. So you can still brick wall your mixes, however all the streamers will turn it down to -14LUFS. Please don’t go on about the “Spotify” level options. Minimal people even know how to set this up.

Ironically if you playback your old vinyl records. The RMS dynamic range, is around 12 db!

PART 3
In closing, We now have an amazing storage medium (96-24). That EXACTLY matches the tonal painting, that we created and “signed off” in the mixing room. With the CD (now gone), we now have high quality streaming like Apple Music, etc. Vinyl can’t even get close to that! This is like wearing rose tinted glasses. Might be nice for you, but it’s nowhere near reality.

Good day
Ron Obvious
Little Mountain Sound Studio, The Warehouse Studio, The Armoury Studio, etc.