Roots Archives Forum

Greetings,


Were cassette`s recorded in analog?These questions are aimed at the bredrin who own vinyl and CD, and possibly owns the same album on both formats.Is there a big difference in sound quality when comparing the two? I`ve heard that vinyl(analog sound) possessed a "richer,fuller and warmer sound" to that of the CD(digital sound)? in fact people had said that"CD sounded flat". Has the difference been that much that you will not buy or listen to reggae CD`s?.

As a kid growing up in the 90`s i only heard reggae music played either on a cassette or CD! And being too young to remember vinyl sound quality when it was played at home.

With reggae being a very instrumental/vocal genre where allot of passion,culture and soul is the foundation for the majority of roots reggae recordings! Does the digital sound have a significant dull effect on roots and dub?

When a CD(digital sound) is played on a large hi-fi set of about 2310watts and played loud can the difference between Analog and Digital still be noticed?


bles,

I have recently discovered that CDs sound brilliant if properly mastered and played on a very expensive CD player.

Low end CD players just don't do the format justice and are the real reason the format didn't live up to its hype. We were promised amazing clarity which didn't show up on many CDs, or translated into 'brutal clarity' when played on a cheapo CD player (cheapo here means less than £500 !! ).

But I still love vinyl - despite all its faults!

Cassettes were analogue, but DAT was of course digital.

Cassettes and records are analogue. CD's, minidisk and mp3's are digital.
I would say that vinyl sounds more natural i.e. better timing and dynamics and more rhythmical. CD in comparison tends to sound flat, even on expensive players with tube output and 24bit/192kHz upsampling dacs. There are some great sounding CD players out there, but for the same money vinyl playback (i.e. turntable) will sound better.
Sadly, not all re-releases are available on vinyl.

Yes,cassettes were recorded in analogue.But, as in any kind of format,unless you had a very good cassette deck you wouldn`t necessarily reap the benefits of a good recording !

The " richer,fuller and warmer analogue sound " of vinyl IS apparent on cassette tapes.The only thing to get in the way is hiss.Again ,a good quality cassette deck can deal with this,either by messing about with the eq. or by sensible use of the Dolby system. ( BTW,I have a Nakamichi cassette deck which is rather good )What you have to realise is that most reggae recordings were done on an analogue tape machine anyway.

If anything,CD doesn`t sound dull.Usually it sounds too shrill and ear piercing.This is down to the mastering being done on inferior equipment.It might sound good in the mastering studio enviroment,with massive speakers etc. but get it blasting out at home with totally different speakers and .....

And yes,the difference is very noticeable when CD`s are played LOUD. Judicious use of gates and filters will help calm this down ! But you can`t beat an analogue sound system ! ( I have a friend who goes to Fabric ( a club in London ) to specifically hear his drum and bass on a valve system that is clean and pure,that gets better as the night progresses as the equipment warms up )

Digital sound comes in 'blocks' - rather like pixelated digital images. The bigger the blocks, the worse the sound. I think that sampling rates dictates the size of the 'blocks', doesn't it?

Sound itself can't stay digital, it has to be translated from analogue to digital to make the original recording. Then it needs to be translated back to analogue again via the speakers. It's in this translation that some of the warmth seems to get lost in CDs.

Analogue sound is 'real' sound. In that it is waveforms from start to finish. No need to translate analogue to digital and back. But the better record decks make a much better job of finding the sound hidden in the grooves and pushing them out to the listener.

@ Anorak Trev! what do you mean by "shrill and ear piercing"?

Is there anyway i could get my CD albums to sound slightly like that of analogue vinyl?


bles,

The best CD recordings are when they dont go through computers.

peace

What sound systems and components would i need to achieve the highest quality of sound from a CD(digital sound) eg. Loud Speakers,Amplifiers,equalizers and watts capacity... and at what cost for a high end sound system that will produce the highest sound quality for digital audio?

Hi there Dubs_West,

The description I gave is judged by having a vinyl copy AND a CD of the same tune.The top end just doesn`t quite sound as relaxing and tuneful on some CD`s as off the turntable.Sure,the bass is as deep ,but at times the treble can seem to be a little too harsh.How long can you listen to your CD`s loud for ? Does it become uncomfortable after a while,so you have to get up and turn it down ? With vinyl,I can listen for hours !With my current CD player also for hours ! ( But I prefer the sound of vinyl,it`s not an age thing,or anti-digital thing,it genuinely sounds right )

There is a way to calm it down ,and that is by experimenting with your connecting cables.If you use bog - standard cables you will, possibly, not be getting what is on the CD at its best fidelity. So try and get your mates to bring a couple of different interconnects around and swap them over to see if you can hear a difference.Find one that suits YOUR ears,not the latest whizz-bang thing that costs an absolute fortune.

( Disclaimer here: Switch everything off before you do it,with 2Kw on tap there could be a BIG bang if you short something out !!!! )

The upshot of this is that it should be comfortable to listen to when it`s right.And you WILL know when it`s right,`cos you`ll be listening to it for hours (tu)

Trevor

BTW,I only have 150 rms CLEAN watts.It`s in a domestic enviroment.If I had 2Kw on tap I would be deaf in a day

BTW,I only have 150 rms CLEAN watts.It`s in a domestic enviroment.If I had 2Kw on tap I would be deaf in a day

yes lol it can get very loud but with basic equalizer set i can`t tune it accurately and clearly but do alter the high and mid range.

Digital to Analogue converters! can they convert already recorded digital audio to Analogue through a sound system?

Does anyone on here know about 24bit 96khz sampling?