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Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

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Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#31

Post by jakobegger »

eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

I hate everything about CDs. The flimsy jewel cases that break all the time, the tiny artwork, how easily CDs scratch, how choosing a song requires clicking stupid buttons, the delay after inserting CDs, the high pitched whine of the motor, the sound of the stepper motor as it moves the laser...

When I listen to music, I want to slow down and relax, and taking a record out of the sleeve is just so much nicer than fidgeting with CDs. I like that everything about playing records is analog. I like the crackle between songs when playing an old record, it's so much nicer than the random skipping when playing a scratched CD. When something breaks in my analog audio system, I can usually fix it myself with a soldering iron.

As for the sound, I think it's mostly because of a different style of mixing than the media itself.

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#32

Post by greglindahl »

trollied wrote: post #23
lrem wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manual transmission has clear advantage in responsiveness. Being used to manual, I've just driven an automatic for three days. Despite having 50% more power than my old car, it felt terribly slow because of the gear shift delays.

Depends on the car. Try a decent sports car with a performance gearbox. My previous car was an m140i. 0-60 for the automatic is actually stated as faster for the automatic gearbox, as the car is better at shifting than a human. I don’t think Ferrari even make manual gearboxes with clutches any more?

You should try a Tesla. One gear. Is that somehow not a performance gearbox?

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#33

Post by kortilla »

jakobegger wrote: post #31
eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

I hate everything about CDs. The flimsy jewel cases that break all the time, the tiny artwork, how easily CDs scratch, how choosing a song requires clicking stupid buttons, the delay after inserting CDs, the high pitched whine of the motor, the sound of the stepper motor as it moves the laser... When I listen to music, I want to slow down and relax, and taking a record out of the sleeve is just so much nicer than fid…

I mean it can’t possibly be about CD issues because that’s trivially solved by using a digital music player. I can see the argument about the giant album art making it more of a ritual, but all of the CD complaints sound like lame justifications IMO.

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#34

Post by hannob »

eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

Something that hasn't been mentioned so far: Some forms of DJ'ing kinda rely on vinyl. You can speed up or slow down the vinyl on the player by hand.

There are devices that try to simulate this experience, I think they've gotten better over time. I think vinyl DJ'ing has been in decline in the past decade, however it's definitely still one factor that's been keeping vinyl alive.

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#35

Post by ngcc_hk »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #20
eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

For some: the Technics SL-1210

For some belt drive.

The argument between the brits and the Asian would be forever. But for some it is any vinyl is better than not.

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#37

Post by Jerry2 »

Apparently, there were two companies in the US that produced the lacquer but then consolidation happened and Apollo bought out the competitor and shut it down. [1]

>Gil Tamazyan, the owner of Los Angeles record pressing plant Capsule Labs, said he's been concerned for the industry since Apollo purchased competitor Transco in 2007.

>"The worst case from (the fire) would be if Apollo doesn't plan to return and doesn't share the intellectual properties with another new willing company. We all agree there needs to be more than one supplier for these materials," Tamazyan said. "All my industry colleagues are worried this might take a long time to figure out and, in the process, major delays may arise in the vinyl production market."

So now only the Japanese company, MDC, remains as the sole producer of the lacquer. Lacquer is basically a formulation of nitrocellulose and is highly flammable.

If you've never seen a lacquer master being cut, give this vid a watch [2]. Not surprisingly, the audio engineer uses the Apollo lacquer master in the video.

[1] https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/2020/02/07/apollo-maste...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8bhzob0fQ

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#38

Post by _trampeltier »

eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

I never really had vinyls but tapes before CDs. Something was very different, even more with the shift to MP3. I stipped to listen the full album, started to skip the "bad" songs. So the experience is different. So I did play the "good" tracks much more and many times, which was cool. But at the same time, I felt they lost some of there magic. On tape you had to "earn" the good songs a bit more. Of course you could fast forward also on tape, but with the CD, MP3s some magic got lost for me.

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#39

Post by vr46 »

eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

Everything sounds great to me. A lot of my older records have cracks and pops and minor scratches and I’ve heard them so much during the opening and gaps between songs that I actually recognise the patterns and it becomes part of the anticipation. Albums that are continuous pieces of music despite the tracks (e.g. Lovesexy, Parade) sound terrible on digital because there’s always a gap between the tracks and that doesn’t happen on CD or record. Also, it’s a lot less friction to pull out a record and play it than finding the phone, opening Spotify, searching for the album, switching to play through the remote Spotify connect, adjusting the volume in two places.

Re: Manufacturing plant fire threatens worldwide vinyl record supply

#40

Post by bonestamp2 »

eganist wrote: post #2

I haven't found an objective explanation for why some populations prefer vinyl analog over any digital renditions of a sound. Can anyone share some insight? (I've listened to both, and the description of vinyl or even analog sound as being generally "warmer" never resonated with me.)

I do both. Digital music is way more convenient to initiate, continue, store and take with you -- so I use that the most. But, it's almost too convenient in some cases to the point where I often don't appreciate what is really happening and the music just becomes background noise. Although it's obviously possible, I rarely use digital music to sit and listen to an entire album anymore.

On the other hand, when I listen to a record, I sit down and I listen to the record. I mean, you kind of have to do that anyway because you only get a few songs before you have to flip it. I find it makes me more mindful of the music; I feel more in-the-moment; and it reminds me of my youth. That was a time when we couldn't just tell our phone to start playing an AI curated playlist while everyone talks over it anyway. I'm not convinced we would we have wanted to do that either...

People rarely talk about music anymore, compared to what it used to be like. We used to line up when a new album was coming out from a favorite artist. We'd take the tape or cd from our car, into our bedroom, over to our friend's houses, and blast it on our parent's floor speakers before they came home from work. We used to talk about that album for days, sometimes months as we got deeper into it after many replays. I can't remember the last time I had a good conversation about a new album... few seem to care anymore. A lot of people will blame the music, but there is still some great music being made today.

Maybe it's the medium.

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