SY on Vinyl
 

I've come to the conclusion that a lot of SY fans seem to be obsessed with listening them on vinyl. How come? I've never bothered with vinyls but I'm very interested in them now.
I've just bought Evol of ebay on vinyl and can't wait to test it out.

I suppose for a real fan its nice to have to have a big sonic 12" to hang on the wall. Some vinyl comes with lyric sheets the CD copies did not, like Experimental Jet Set. Also, there's that whole vinyl vs. digital argument about which is the best medium for recorded music. We have some vinyl buffs here.

I have a small collection of about 20+ vinyl records. I don't obsess over collecting them but if I see a sonic release on vinyl I usually think of buying it.

Vinyl Exchange (near me) has the original Sister vinyl with the deleted picture on it, I was so tempted but it's expensive.
Does anyone know which is the best medium for recorded music?

It's a matter of opinion, really..

vinyl if you have really good equipment, otherwise cd.

cuz sonic youth fans are silly.

one is no better than the other, they have completely different qualities. but the older SY releases to me sound better on vinyl. Evol, Sister etc

The best medium for music is reel to reel. Vinyl is good as well. Analog means LOUD sound! And the best medium for recording music is, of course, tape. But again, it depends on what kind of music it is. If noise or anything like Dylan then it's analog, if electronic stuff... then, well, sometimes it's mixed down to half-track anyway. It's all about loudness vs. ...er...digital.

i don't even have a CD player at home. i have a turntable and an 8-track deck.

must respectfully disagree... i got my receiver, speakers, and turntable for under $200 total and they kick some ass. SYR 1 sounds beautiful. the sound of the bass drum alone makes it worth having the vinyl version. plus, hey, red wax!

Greg
http://www.myspace.com/gregmcgarveymusic

hahahahaha
I bet this is the dude that says his favourite song from any band is some obscure b-side from a 8" record, out of a press of like, 36.

all i can say is that mechanical consumption occurs when you play a vinyl (and so does with the tape) which is why lps tend to sound like shit after a pair of months if you're not overcautious when you play them. as for the loud thing, i really have to disagree. it's not a matter of digital vs. analog.

cds are the best thing if you ask me.
digital is cheap = cheap sounds good to me.

consumption happens to all media, tapes get stretched with use, the laser on cd players produces heat and damages the surface in the long run. also, if you don't store cds in their boxes/sleeves, they can scratch pretty easily.

mp3s are cheaper but they are also shittier.

i like everything, every format has advantages and disadvantages and you have to take care of them.

tape means loud my ass, loudness vs. digital, wtf? i don't even know where to start

they never even made 8 inch records
just 7" and 10" and 12"
right?

I have several 8 inch records.

Also a 5", and I know Alien Sex Fiend made an 11" as well.

That was the joke..

sorry i've possibly had a few too many..

Don't worry Stephen.

I had a lulz.

most LPs are cheaper than CDs anyway, at least in my area. I just picked up the Grinderman LP for $10.00 brand new. CDs go for $13.00 around here. I love records for lots of resons, both practical (to me they sound better) and personal (I started buying records in 1978 and to me that's just what music comes on).

you can't really be limited to how you listen to music though, because if you are interested in b-sides you can get different ones on different formats, and the rarest ones happen to be on 7" because it's niche.

I don't have the time to answer everyone, sorry.
I don't buy music. I record it myself.

piracy.

you must be one of those rare musicians on the board......... and don't buy music so you can be cool and not be influenced by any other band.....

Vinyls are the way to go. I don't own that many and only have a shitty $30 garage sale turntable and speaker bundle that has more than likely gathered dust and rat shit in some basement since the early 70s. Even then, vinyls are still the format for me.

well this day and age every cd coming out has to get mastered as loudly as possible. they're so fucking loud that there's a huge amount of clipping - loss of dynamic range.

Vinyl does not share this problem and it presents a truer representation of how the music is supposed to sound.

Look:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

Read:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle1878724.ece

none of the albums i have have clipping on them and if they do it is because it is a local band that has no money and records themselves without really knowing how to use the gear properly. do you know what digital clipping sounds like. there is a loss of dynamic range because of the brick wall limiting that most mastering suites put on recordings these. but one question is how is the music supposed to sound and why does vinyl give a truer representation? if anything digital recordings (minus processing) are a truer representation because digital does not roll off frequencies like analog repro gear does.

oh yeah? do you have Sonic Youth on cd?? all of the their cd's from "Washing Machine" onwards have clipping and reduced dynamic range.
I'll hazard a guess there's more than just SY too. virtually every cd released on a major from the mid 90's onwards has clipping.


Vinyl is a fairer representation because it's impossible to master a vinyl mix loud enough for it to clip; the needle would literally jump out of the groove if it was. Correct me if I'm wrong but I haven't heard any reports of that happening yet

there is no clipping on these albums, there is limiting, tell me exactly where they clip

have you looked at the wav files? there's clipping throughout the ENTIRE SONGS and the dynamic range is completely chopped. total brick walls on the most recent albums.


"Skip Tracer" cd wav screen grab:







"Reena" cd wav:

that is not clipping. those are post mastering imports into a cheap program. the wave form looks like that because limiting has been added in the mastering process. limiting allows the overall volume to be increased, however it does affect the dynamic range, but those wave forms do not represent clipping. if you use a real program that allows you to zoom in to properly see the data sample by sample you will find that none of the data goes beyond around -1 to -0.1dB. which is the average to what most mastering studios will master too these days. clipping does not sound good. the wave forms you show are not clipping they are just being limited.

gotya, sorry, I'm not wording it properly.

but yeah, my point is that cd's from the mid 90's onwards have the dynamic range reduced and it is a far less representation of the original sound than what vinyl is.

here is .03 of a second of three sonic youth tracks: Reena, Skiptracer and Eyeliner (a direct rip of the 7" with no extra processing.

I'm not sure if this is just exclusive to my cassette:o copy, but in the liner notes of Experimental Jet Set someone (probably Thurston) has written "cut to sex vinyl and cd freeze frame by...". That kind of sums this up for me, CDs just feel like copies, soul-less reproductions, whilst vinyls like sex, different everytime, but always good. My work here is done.

gud point

Does anyone still collect cassettes by the way, or I have I gone into completely obsolete territory? They're just so damned cheap these days, but I guess it is kinda weird me buying them especially seeing as I was born after CDs were released.

Yeah, thats right, I quoted myself.

Better sound. Simpel as that!

i think the hot water music/tomorrow split was on 11 inch. i never had an 8 inch record though.

I tend to think of the LP as the mainstream of formats, and everything else, from 8 tracks to CDs, has merely been a branch off that stream. It always comes back to the LP.

But it's all a matter of personal preference. LPs do require more care. You can leave your CDs scattered around the room out their cases because their indestructible, right? At least that's what they told us in the 80s.

Personally my ears can't tell the difference. It has a lot to do with the equipment you play it back on, of course. CDs played on shit equipment are going to sound like shit, as will LPs. For me, a lot of the appeal of LPs is the visual aesthetic, the packaging being larger and all that. And vinyl just smells so good!

I've just got it in my head that vinyl is the cooler format, so for me, the LP is the format of choice. I'll buy a CD if the release is something I'm craving and it's either unavailable on LP or very hard to find or expensive. But that's happening less and less, because almost everything is being simultaneously released on vinyl and CD these days, and almost everything has been reissued on LP, or will be.