Wednesday, April 9, 2014

'CD vs Vinyl' or 'Digital vs Analog' or 'Fictional vs Physical' or whatever lah



What is the problem about music medium?

Its sometime confusing when we talk about analog and digital, its two difference world. That why i choose 'music medium' than 'music format' coz format is like .mp3 .flac .etc.. in digital world. Yes we in digital world right now, reading pc kokak's blog.

Vinyl can 'store' more than others. I believe vinyl can store 98% of the master tape (please correct me if I'm wrong). That mean if the master recording is mp3, the vinyl will sound 'same' to the quality of the mp3. It depend to the master tape/file. So if the vinyl mastered from master tape it should sound closer (than others medium) to the master tape. But you know, 'handling' the vinyl is hard.

The medium is not important because its 'transparency'.

Sometime you listen to mp3, cd, vinyl of even the master tape is the same. because it transparent, human hearing can only hear specific range. That why the dog coming to the speaker to hear the 'outter human range' frequency produce by the speaker, they can hear wider range than us. The transparency mean enough to hear. Our hear cannot proses the lower or the over sound frequency. That mean mp3 is just enough range for music sound that's our human ear can proses. Faham?


The problem is loudness war.

Most Cd mastering in this modern digital world today is corrupting the music. I don't know if the producer want it be sound like that. Loudness war is 'bunyi pecah' or like speaker broken or the 'negative distortion'. Yes distortion have negative and positive. I mean the guitar distortion is positive, mean the distortion we want to hear and headbanging. But the negative distortion from loudness war is like wanna 'patahkan cd tu sambil mencarut'. You rockametalhead really know how to spot the negative or positive dissto666orrtionnn right?

Its about Dynamic!

loudness war mean corrupt, because no dynamic. That's why Earache release Full Dynamic Range series for the classic album, they want the releasing near to the master tape in term of dynamic and quality.



What you prefer to collect?

But of course it must be nearest to the quality of the master tape right? That why if the master tape is gone, and you still want to release that rare kult album you 'needle-drop' or mastered it from the lp. Faham? Its depend on your budget and the nostalgia factor to collect something right? But today buying music medium is like 'main saham' so called investment, even cassette tape now 'saham naik'. Siapa kaya boleh la main saham. I don't like like that. Like lps sellers at Amcorp Mall are crazy as Soros.

What about cd?

Cd is nice medium, it mean to be 'accurate', because its digital, its only 0 or 1, No wear out problem like vinyl. Early year when cd came out its like Flat transfer from master tape to digital signal, with nice balance of dynamic. I love cd like that's. But this day almost all cd mastered with Loudness War, the loudness or the volume is not in your hand anymore, it belong to mastering engineer now. Old days when you tweak the EQ or ON the LOUDNESS button the music is still great at your own flavor. But now digital music has to be listen with default setting only, when you tweak it sound abnormal and pecah. When you listen to slow volume it feel not 'KICK'. Today cd packing is shit with shit loudness war with shit price.


What the better music medium?

I really cannot say lah, but for me I love vinyl. But remember any medium has his pro and contra, nobody or things are perfect right? You really cannot mix the analog with digital medium, but I list it maybe like this;
1. master tape or high resolution digital file
2. high resolution cd/blueray audio?
3. Vinyl record
4. regular cd
5. flac or 320kbps mp3
6. cassette tape

What to buy?

Hahaha why you want to waste your money buying music? You can listen it for free on youtube or download it, some band give free legal download, that's I like. The record label and the band is already kaya raya. But we still buying the cd/tape/vinyl why? I tell you why, because we all are crazy with music, we all crazy in this materialistic world, we all love to collect material, we all has choose its this way, its our decision. Do you realize? We are the FREAKS.



14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. adus memang fail la BI aku ni? aku karang sendiri ni bro, jgn tak caye hahaha

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  2. suka baca tulisan kau ni, walaupun masing2 ada pendapat sendiri.
    tapi aku baca dua kali. I try to appreaciate your passion on this topic.

    contoh aku la, aku sekarang purely lossly,
    aku cuma dengar lagu masa dalam bas, dalam mrt, dalam lrt, jalan kaki kat mana2, so apa aku perlukan ialah satu headphone yang pada aku baik, aku rip mp3 320kbps.
    Aku rip dari cd2 aku beli bukan dari source lain, jadi macam ko cakap tu betul la, source untuk aku penting.
    Cd dan Lp tu aku beli semua ialah untuk aku pegang hardcopy dia, cover, liriks, etc

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. thanks bro, nasib baik bro faham hehe..

      memang source la yg terbaek antara semua medium kan.. tapi yang paling syok live depan mata, betul tak? baru gegar jantung hehe

      aku pun selalu jugak buat keje rip2 ni.. tapi rip tape/vinyl memang susah sikit la, tapi syok la rasa macam mastering engineer..hahaha

      puas hati boleh digitalkan sendiri lagu dari vinyl source ni... penuh dah ipod aku tu hehe

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  4. Masa turntable aku belum jahanam,rajin juga aku rip dari lp n kaset ke mp3..betul bro,sound yg ori pada aku dari LP lah,kalo era digital ni kebanyakkan lagu aku cepat bosan dengar,salah satu nya album band Creed..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. betul la bro...

      boleh check loudness war kat sini..
      http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Creed&album=

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  5. dari apa pemahaman aku... ada duit semua boleh beli... tak ada duit... donlod la jawapnya

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. betul semua 'benda' duit boleh beli, kecuali 'bukan benda' ;)

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  6. sebut pasal loudness war, macam mana la agaknya dengar Black Gives Way (AIC) melalui vinyl, saya ada cd aja.. review PC Kokak dulu kata bunyi cd dia sangat fucked up.. huhu

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  7. for me the source is one thing...whether lp,cd, cassette or mp3...but what medium to the play the source also make a difference...imagine play your vinyl on hi-fi set with speaker that sound like empty tin....ketang...ketang..ketang...like Lars Ulrich....isnt that shit....hahaha....

    BTW...Like what Faizal Skudal said....the most important thing is money... no money no talk...play mp3 file on high end hifi system also sound good.

    For me the real reason I buy cd is not the sound, but the nostalgic value to hold…to feel…to smell the cd…the inlay…read all the lyrics…the thanks list…the picture etc.etc…

    That's why new generation don’t buy cd/lp anymore….the don’t know…and don’t understand that feeling....

    just my 2 cents…

    how me speaking london?...ok or not…heheh…

    ReplyDelete