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Vinyl succumbs to Loudness War: more than just collateral damage!

Jean.Francois

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May 31, 2022
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Hello,

The vinyl record is an analog medium. How can it be affected by the loudness war?
This translates into a reduction in the quality of the vinyl record, which is collateral damage from the loudness war.
We'll use Prince's Purple Rain as an example to describe this phenomenon. However, let's start by looking at what's happening to digital versions.
Loudness war is a phenomenon linked to the digital medium, which consists in music becoming louder on a digital support
Vinyl LoudnessWar Small.jpg


The waveforms below illustrate this phenomenon for the CD editions:
waveform - Prince - Purple Rain - Digital comparison -- small.jpg


How can vinyl be affected by loudness war?

In fact, you can't turn up the volume like you can with digital, because there are physical constraints specific to the analog medium. The problem is that we no longer try to make a vinyl-specific master from the original mix, but use the dynamic-compressed digital master as a basis for burning the vinyl record.

The waveforms below show the original vinyl record and the vinyl record made from the remastered version in 2015.
waveform - Prince - Purple Rain - Vinyl comparison -- small.jpg


We notice that the cutting level on the remastered vinyl record is 1 dB lower than that of the original version, and more importantly, we notice a flattening of the peaks with a dynamic range reduced by over 5 dB!


This is not an isolated example, but a growing phenomenon. This is also the case for the following albums: Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A., David Gilmour - Luck and Strange, Norah Jones - Visions...
But, as always, it’s important not to generalize, and there are still productions that give priority to quality, like the latest REQUESTS – Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio LIVE album, or Analogue production, MOFI for example…

You can listen to samples on the impact of the loudness war on the vinyl record, as well as all the details of the analysis here (link).

Enjoy listening,
Jean-François
 
Back in the day people would check the little codes on the back of CDs for - ideally - DDD to show the whole chain was digital. Recently pressed recent vinyl is often being produced from digital sources - maybe some people just appreciate all the bonus sound effects you get from legacy medium. For the discerning plastic sniffer, though, clearly there's a need for an AAA code so people know exactly what they're getting?
 
Hello,

The vinyl record is an analog medium. How can it be affected by the loudness war?
This translates into a reduction in the quality of the vinyl record, which is collateral damage from the loudness war.
We'll use Prince's Purple Rain as an example to describe this phenomenon. However, let's start by looking at what's happening to digital versions.
Loudness war is a phenomenon linked to the digital medium, which consists in music becoming louder on a digital support
View attachment 447169


The waveforms below illustrate this phenomenon for the CD editions:
View attachment 447173

How can vinyl be affected by loudness war?

In fact, you can't turn up the volume like you can with digital, because there are physical constraints specific to the analog medium. The problem is that we no longer try to make a vinyl-specific master from the original mix, but use the dynamic-compressed digital master as a basis for burning the vinyl record.

The waveforms below show the original vinyl record and the vinyl record made from the remastered version in 2015.
View attachment 447171

We notice that the cutting level on the remastered vinyl record is 1 dB lower than that of the original version, and more importantly, we notice a flattening of the peaks with a dynamic range reduced by over 5 dB!


This is not an isolated example, but a growing phenomenon. This is also the case for the following albums: Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A., David Gilmour - Luck and Strange, Norah Jones - Visions...
But, as always, it’s important not to generalize, and there are still productions that give priority to quality, like the latest REQUESTS – Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio LIVE album, or Analogue production, MOFI for example…

You can listen to samples on the impact of the loudness war on the vinyl record, as well as all the details of the analysis here (link).

Enjoy listening,
Jean-François
This right here is one of the reasons I stopped buying vinyl. A lot of the albums I have are pressed from the exact same compressed master as the CD, so the vinyl ends up sounding like a distorted cassette recording of the CD half the time! CDs are WAY cheaper these days (especially used!) than vinyl (including used) at least where I live. So if I'm getting the same master anyway, I might as well go with the cheapest medium with much less hassle. I still enjoy well mastered vinyl, but that's becoming few and far in-between especially with new releases (from what I've seen subjectively, of course).
 
The last record I bout was 10 years ago, and I haven't listened to it yet. Carlos Santana, the wife, bought it.

Everything I use now is from 1930-1990. 78, 45, 33. All RIAA-compliant. Mono and Stereo. I have a few that were cut (not pressed) for radio stations (saw tooth). I had to use rumble filters, they were so bassy as I recall.

No Ticks or Pops for the most part either. BTW 80% of all the phono preamps I use are tube-based, with the exception of a MH100 (McIntosh) and Herron that has a FET pre- or post-amplified section (I don't remember). You adjust the gain by the valves (tubes) you use. Quite slick how he did it, and wonderfully laid out by the designer and builder, Mr. Herron.

Loudness wars? Boy oh Boy, that is something to make a fuss about. When my hip is killing me, and my colitis is flaring up. LOL

Time to feed the chickens!

Regards
 
I want my flying car from the 1950s!
flying+carpet+car.jpg
My dream as a child was to drive a Land Rover Defender. Like in the TV series "Daktari" about a gamekeeper in the Serengeti, which I was devouring at the time. And these futurists present cars on magnetic tracks. With nuclear propulsion. I really panicked because my driver's license was still so far away …


1749032046167.jpeg
 
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