-
Welcome to ASR. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Vinyl down . . . Streaming up
- Thread starter dallasjustice
- Start date
- Status
Vinyl is a fad.. 
Who'd of thunked it
Who'd of thunked it
The mass consumer has spoken, once again in favor of convenience. Downloading music is not as convenient as streaming it. This trend will continue no matter what.
On Vinyl, I knew something was up when my son handed me back the turntable I had given him a couple of years ago.
On Vinyl, I knew something was up when my son handed me back the turntable I had given him a couple of years ago.
OP
dallasjustice
Major Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #4
I did the vinyl thing too. I wanted to do it "right." I bought a pretty nice vinyl rig and got some really good albums. I discovered that it could be good as long as the music did not contain much bass. IMO, vinyl simply can't reproduce accurate bass. After much toil, I think it's a feature of the media which prevents accurate bass reproduction. In a system where bass is otherwise fairly accurate, vinyl sounded like crap to me. I sold off all the record player gear and couldn't be happier it's out of my life.
Blumlein 88
Grand Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2016
- Messages
- 23,571
- Likes
- 44,684
Paraphrasing:
Growth in jobs lowers numbers of hipsters. Growth in convenient music streaming outstrips vinyl.
Growth in jobs lowers numbers of hipsters. Growth in convenient music streaming outstrips vinyl.
The mass consumer has spoken, once again in favor of convenience. Downloading music is not as convenient as streaming it. This trend will continue no matter what.
On Vinyl, I knew something was up when my son handed me back the turntable I had given him a couple of years ago.
It is only because his system wasn't resolving enough
I am glad you didn't say he does have good ears or never listens to live music as he is the musician in the family!It is only because his system wasn't resolving enough
Johnny Vinyl
Member
For every article like this that comes out there is an opposing one. These opinion pieces (ok, perhaps some factual data is included) are just that, and they're a dime a dozen.
NorthSky
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2016
- Messages
- 4,998
- Likes
- 1,047
Mono recordings are coming back...mostly on vinyl. ...Some older reissues...the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Stones, ...
| At various times artists have preferred to work in mono, either in recognition of the technical limitations of the equipment of the era or because of simple preference. This can be seen as analogous to filmmakers working in black and white—such as John Mellencamp's 2010 album, No Better Than This, recorded in mono just as the mid-20th century blues and folk records it emulated were. Some early recordings such as The Beatles first four albums - Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, and Beatles For Sale - were re-released in the CD era as monophonic in recognition of the fact that the source tapes for the earliest recordings were two track, with vocals on one track and instruments on the other (even though this was only true on the first two, while the later pair had been recorded on four-track). This was actually intended to provide flexibility in producing a final mono mix, not to provide a stereo recording, although because of demand this was done anyway, and the early material was available on vinyl in both mono and stereo formats. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was common in the pop world for stereophonic versions of mono tracks to be generated electronically using filtering techniques to attempt to pick out various instruments and vocals; but these were often considered unsatisfactory, owing to the artifacts of the conversion process.[citation needed]
Many of Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen's movies were recorded in mono because of their director's preferences.
Monaural LP records were eventually phased out and no longer manufactured after the early 1970s, with a few exceptions. For example, Decca UK had a few double issues until the end of 1970—the last one being Tom Jones's "I Who Have Nothing"; in Brazil records were released in both mono and stereo as late as 1972.[citation needed] During the 1960s it was common for albums to be released as both monaural LPs and stereo LPs, occasionally with slight differences between the two (again detailed information of The Beatles' recordings provides a good example of the differences). This was because many people owned mono record players that were incapable of playing stereo records, as well as the prevalence of AM radio. Because of the limited quantities pressed and alternative mixes of several tracks, the monaural versions of these albums are often valued more highly than their stereo LP counterparts in record-collecting circles today.[citation needed]
On 9 September 2009, The Beatles re-released a remastered box set of their mono output spanning the Please Please Me album to The Beatles (commonly referred to as the "The White Album"). The set, simply called The Beatles in Mono, also includes a two-disc summary of the mono singles, B-sides and EP tracks released throughout their career. Also included were five tracks originally mixed for an unissued mono Yellow Submarine EP. Bob Dylan followed suit on October 19, 2010 with The Original Mono Recordings, a box set featuring the mono releases from Bob Dylan (1962) to John Wesley Harding (1967). On 21 November 2011, The Kinks' mono recordings were issued as The Kinks in Mono box set, featuring the releases of the band's albums from Kinks (1964) to Arthur (1969), with three additional CDs of non-album tracks that appeared as singles or EP tracks. When the initial run of the box set sold out, no more were pressed, unlike the Beatles and Dylan sets. |
| At various times artists have preferred to work in mono, either in recognition of the technical limitations of the equipment of the era or because of simple preference. This can be seen as analogous to filmmakers working in black and white—such as John Mellencamp's 2010 album, No Better Than This, recorded in mono just as the mid-20th century blues and folk records it emulated were. Some early recordings such as The Beatles first four albums - Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, and Beatles For Sale - were re-released in the CD era as monophonic in recognition of the fact that the source tapes for the earliest recordings were two track, with vocals on one track and instruments on the other (even though this was only true on the first two, while the later pair had been recorded on four-track). This was actually intended to provide flexibility in producing a final mono mix, not to provide a stereo recording, although because of demand this was done anyway, and the early material was available on vinyl in both mono and stereo formats. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was common in the pop world for stereophonic versions of mono tracks to be generated electronically using filtering techniques to attempt to pick out various instruments and vocals; but these were often considered unsatisfactory, owing to the artifacts of the conversion process.[citation needed]
Many of Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen's movies were recorded in mono because of their director's preferences.
Monaural LP records were eventually phased out and no longer manufactured after the early 1970s, with a few exceptions. For example, Decca UK had a few double issues until the end of 1970—the last one being Tom Jones's "I Who Have Nothing"; in Brazil records were released in both mono and stereo as late as 1972.[citation needed] During the 1960s it was common for albums to be released as both monaural LPs and stereo LPs, occasionally with slight differences between the two (again detailed information of The Beatles' recordings provides a good example of the differences). This was because many people owned mono record players that were incapable of playing stereo records, as well as the prevalence of AM radio. Because of the limited quantities pressed and alternative mixes of several tracks, the monaural versions of these albums are often valued more highly than their stereo LP counterparts in record-collecting circles today.[citation needed]
On 9 September 2009, The Beatles re-released a remastered box set of their mono output spanning the Please Please Me album to The Beatles (commonly referred to as the "The White Album"). The set, simply called The Beatles in Mono, also includes a two-disc summary of the mono singles, B-sides and EP tracks released throughout their career. Also included were five tracks originally mixed for an unissued mono Yellow Submarine EP. Bob Dylan followed suit on October 19, 2010 with The Original Mono Recordings, a box set featuring the mono releases from Bob Dylan (1962) to John Wesley Harding (1967). On 21 November 2011, The Kinks' mono recordings were issued as The Kinks in Mono box set, featuring the releases of the band's albums from Kinks (1964) to Arthur (1969), with three additional CDs of non-album tracks that appeared as singles or EP tracks. When the initial run of the box set sold out, no more were pressed, unlike the Beatles and Dylan sets. |
Last edited:
I set my system for mono, and played from one speaker.
Didn't care for it. Sounded a bit thin, beyond the cancellation effects of combining channels.
Swapped speakers.
Same. I didn't move a speaker to the center. That would just be too much trouble.
Played from two speakers. Better. I'm not annoyed by a mono source, if that is what it occasionally is.
Returned to stereo mode. Ahhh. Back to normalcy.
That's what I will stay with.
---
Sometimes I will reduce the stereo width (my Behringer DEQ2496 can do that) if there is something to which my ear objects.
I did that recently, re-watching It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which overcooks the hard left/right pan, for example, on two people standing next to each other right in the middle of the screen.
---
Note: Playing from a single speaker (instead of two) drops the sound level by 6dB for coherent sources (I would have guessed 3dB in the past, but I can be wrong about things like this), could be more for some sounds when the source is stereo and there are phase cancellations in the summation, so that should be accounted for in your critical testing.
Didn't care for it. Sounded a bit thin, beyond the cancellation effects of combining channels.
Swapped speakers.
Same. I didn't move a speaker to the center. That would just be too much trouble.
Played from two speakers. Better. I'm not annoyed by a mono source, if that is what it occasionally is.
Returned to stereo mode. Ahhh. Back to normalcy.
That's what I will stay with.
---
Sometimes I will reduce the stereo width (my Behringer DEQ2496 can do that) if there is something to which my ear objects.
I did that recently, re-watching It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which overcooks the hard left/right pan, for example, on two people standing next to each other right in the middle of the screen.
---
Note: Playing from a single speaker (instead of two) drops the sound level by 6dB for coherent sources (I would have guessed 3dB in the past, but I can be wrong about things like this), could be more for some sounds when the source is stereo and there are phase cancellations in the summation, so that should be accounted for in your critical testing.
Last edited:
I have and enjoy plenty of mono recording though can empathise with what Ray is saying... Can I emotionally connect with a mono recording? Yes, it is not a barrier preventing artistic connection, not for me anyhow.
Do I wish some of my favourite stereo recordings were mono? Certainly not.
Case closed ..
Though I know it's hard to take anything written in plain black regular font type seriously..
Do I wish some of my favourite stereo recordings were mono? Certainly not.
Case closed ..
Though I know it's hard to take anything written in plain black regular font type seriously..
NorthSky
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2016
- Messages
- 4,998
- Likes
- 1,047
Nowadays mono recordings are played equally through the left and right speakers (two of them).
I have a friend (cat) who has a mono system with only one speaker setup.
I have a friend (cat) who has a mono system with only one speaker setup.
OP
dallasjustice
Major Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #13
I've heard you have to sever your corpus callosum to truly appreciate mono recordings. Let me know what you think.
Mildly amusing..
OP
dallasjustice
Major Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #15
Hey, I was a Pych major in undergrad. I've got a lot of useless info floating around in my skull.
NorthSky
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2016
- Messages
- 4,998
- Likes
- 1,047
People (and animals) adapt to it. * Real life sounds are not in stereo.
Outside, multidimensional.
Inside, with four walls and a ceiling plus floor (six surfaces); when the kids scream we hear them all around plus their reverberations and reflections from all surfaces. ...Same as a live rock music concert event. Some stages are in the middle with speakers projecting @ 360° all around. And some speakers are added to the high ceilings @ the sides and even @ the rear...in some music concerts...Pink Floyd.
Last edited:
OP
dallasjustice
Major Contributor
- Thread Starter
- #17
True but they aren't in mono either.
Largest fibrous region of the brain... Or do I be full of chatty bollocksHey, I was a Pych major in undergrad. I've got a lot of useless info floating around in my skull.
Never convinced by bird song.. Time smearing ruins it for me...
Bob what's all this about you having kids screaming in confined spaces
My I recommend commandeering a few old mattresses Bob , voilà... No one can hear you scream
- Status
Similar threads
