ones and zeros

all digital music is created using ones and zeros. What is the appeal of vinyl? really?

aesthetic appeal

low frequency rumble, static, cracks and pops, distortion. what is not to like?

ps. I'm not being sarcastic.

I dont think the zeros and ones is where the appeal lies when it comes to music.

1. It smells nice

0. It feels nice

1. It's nice to mix with

0. It sounds warmer

no bitrate.

All music is analogue once it comes out of the speakers so those ones and zeros still need converting. By picking up CDs and MP3s you miss out on the great full sized artwork, anyone with the LP versions of Draft, Chiastic Slide and Untitled will know what I mean. Draft in particular is a stunning piece of artwork.

okay let's put the dicks on the table.

before this again turns into some sort of amateur-audiophile discussion of which medium is sonically superior , let's all accept that it's a purely philosophical thing (aesthetics being a part of philosophy), okay? Which means that there is no final answer to "which is better".

You choose how you perceive the world around you, so you can of course also choose to listen to a vinyl or a mp3 or decide to sort two different kinds of toilet paper by the 0's and 1's of the binary files and then wipe your ass to the rhythm of the bit code for the next couple of years, it is totally up to you.

Basically it all boils down to analog/digital indeed, the difference between the both being that analog totally consists of carving content into some sort of physical raw material and then listening (or looking at, or touching) the modulated structure of this material (with the goal of high SNR), and digital being the first medium which's essence is not modulating a physical material, but instead a matrix of data + encoding and decoding rules. In order to make this code perceivable you have to translate this abstract idea into the physical world for example by a DAC but make no mistake, this does not diminish the fact that digital content has totally different properties compared to analog content, i.e. being intangible, cloneable, re-encodable. Also when you don't have the decoding rule the data is absolutely worthless.

Imo listening to vinyl has its appeal by hearing crackles and pops and dust, it is very true to the medium. You get to see feel and hear the analogueness of it, the material, excellent.

mp3's are pretty lame (oh lullz the pun) on the other hand, as they are digital in such a primitive way it's almost an insult, imo. Consider the CD player as the first mainstream digital audio playback device. It's in fact a pretty non-creative simulation of the vinyl player with some very primitive extra functions added (skip track…). Now our mp3 players are not much more than pimped up simulated cd jukeboxes. When you compare that to what actually would be possible by using software (which is the stuff digital things are made of, and a single mp3 file is software just as iTunes is software in the end, just less complicated), it is in fact a very primitive way of enjoying digital music.

Don't even get me started on simulating physical knobs in a DAW

Imo, recorded music is so 20th century. Just as film is so 20th century. And truly is part of the analog world. Digital has to bring new forms of content and it's in its baby steps still. Video games, software, real time, networks. Code.

You realise 'warm' is a measurement of temperature, right?

A warm welcoming, a warm personality, warm colors, warm light, warm sound.

Warm sound refers to imperfect and moving lower frequencies. Cold mainly to clean and static higher frequencies, in case you didnt know.

  On 2/23/2010 at 4:43 PM, frits said:

moving lower frequencies .... static higher frequencies

I have absolutely no idea what that means

orite duh because waveforms move faster at higher frequencies and that means cold.

this thread is awful

can we find some better adjectives for this analog vs digital other than "omg vinyl is warm"?

awful.

  On 2/23/2010 at 4:43 PM, frits said:

A warm welcoming, a warm personality, warm colors, warm light, warm sound.

Warm sound refers to imperfect and moving lower frequencies. Cold mainly to clean and static higher frequencies, in case you didnt know.

Thanks for explaining what people mean by warm. I've been on an IDM forum for years and every time I read it I wonder just what it could possibly mean.

they don't talk like that on your little isolated island do they OBEL

learn2music jeez man

vinyl is bigger. the end.

ah, also taking it out, placing it on the table, putting needle on, turning sides etc... it's more of a "ritual", a kinda more conscious way to consume music. at least that's what making it preferable to me.

vinyl just looks and feels dope

+ indie points

  On 2/23/2010 at 5:22 PM, theSun said:

they don't talk like that on your little isolated island do they OBEL

 

learn2music jeez man

man y u trippin on me

Digital will only ever be a computers best guess of what music is. Unless samplerates reach infinity, digital music will never be what Autechre actually created, just a computers representation.

  On 2/23/2010 at 10:00 PM, Spittal said:

Digital will only ever be a computers best guess of what music is. Unless samplerates reach infinity, digital music will never be what Autechre actually created, just a computers representation.

I don't see an "incomplete without surface noise" sticker on Oversteps.

If an artist is composing, or even just recording digitally, couldn't it be argued that vinyl and CD are actually the interpretations?

  On 2/23/2010 at 10:19 PM, Superstix said:

If an artist is composing, or even just recording digitally, couldn't it be argued that vinyl and CD are actually the interpretations?

Yes!

Now...speaking about analog is funny! What analog???

Ae made Oversteps in digital form so listening it on CD is MORE accurate than is on vinyl.

Vinyl is usualy more ear-friendly but CD is definitely more accurate...NOT flawless but still MORE accurate than vinyl.

Vinyl has bigger (better) cover art but CD is /AgAiN/ more accurate...CD can better represent artist's ideas!

Vinyl is fan to listen, to touch, to watch at but CD offers /guess what/ more accurate representation of the music. Yes??? Yes!

If Oversteps has been made in all-analog form even than CD would be more accurate way of representation.

OR...?

Shall we talk about representation of a live music performance...perhaps about Ludwig's 9th symphony?

As i said before...I like vinyl very VERY much but not because how it sounds.

You guy are tards. You don't make music at CD quality, you make it well above and then dither it down when it's mastered. Vinyl can better handle the extended frequency range than a CD/mp3. Unless ae make music in 16/44.1 then the vinyl will be better.