Why not use effects to get the sound of vinyl?

[Multicore]

iZotope and others have effects for producing the sound of vinyl playing on a turntable. They allow quite a lot of control introducing the distortions and coloration typical of vinyl production and playback. So why not use that with the convenience of digital source to get the sound of vinyl?

Because that's not the sound of my vinyl. If I have a romantic attachment to my vinyl, perhaps because it has been with me for so long and connects with my history then the specifics of that LP are unique and personal. All scratches are unique, the specific distribution of dust and contamination, the ware out, the finger prints, these all correspond to the specific history of that item and very likely to my specific history with it.

We don't need to rehash whether or not this makes sense. (I personally prefer to listen to digital unmolested.) But I get that some people are attached to their vinyl, for good or ill. And that provoked me to think along this line. Your vinyl is, because of its specific defects, uniquely yours.

 

[sergeauckland]

For me, a large part of playing vinyl is the amazement that anything so crude can sound as good as it does. It's winning the battle against adversity. I try to minimse the difference between 'perfect' digital and vinyl, and when it works, that's the satisfaction.

S.

 

[DVDdoug]

I've always suspected that Izotope vinyl is a bit tongue-in-cheek. As far as I know it's there only free plug-in. I wonder if it was introduced on April fools day...

It could be useful as a movie sound effect it you don't have the exact record to play.

 

[Multicore]

I've always suspected that Izotope vinyl is a bit tongue-in-cheek. As far as I know it's there only free plug-in. I wonder if it was introduced on April fools day...

That's possible. I hadn't thought of it.

It could be useful as a movie sound effect it you don't have the exact record to play.

I guess it can also work in music production for that effect where you hear the music in an effected version and then it transitions to clean.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

iZotope and others have effects for producing the sound of vinyl playing on a turntable. They allow quite a lot of control introducing the distortions and coloration typical of vinyl production and playback. So why not use that with the convenience of digital source to get the sound of vinyl?

Because that's not the sound of my vinyl. If I have a romantic attachment to my vinyl, perhaps because it has been with me for so long and connects with my history then the specifics of that LP are unique and personal. All scratches are unique, the specific distribution of dust and contamination, the ware out, the finger prints, these all correspond to the specific history of that item and very likely to my specific history with it.

We don't need to rehash whether or not this makes sense. (I personally prefer to listen to digital unmolested.) But I get that some people are attached to their vinyl, for good or ill. And that provoked me to think along this line. Your vinyl is, because of its specific defects, uniquely yours.

I have analog tape and vinyl and tube effects in my DAW. If people would listen blindly they wouldn’t notice the difference nor would they prefer vinyl or tube etc. over digital. The handful cases where the digital master is ffed up, don’t explain the hype of vinyl.

My guess is, that people who like it, need the look and the tactile experience.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Never tried it but DCart has a variety of effects including generating harmonics and a less transparent but very tweakable "tube sound" effect. There are are also a variety of high and low pass filters as well as a sophisticated compander. I have used it in an effort to make recordings sound like worn 78s with not much success. You can record a noise sample from "silent" portions of a record and apply the noise to an entire file.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Izotope is not the only one: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Fun/DigitalLP.html

 

[Mean & Green]

For me, a large part of playing vinyl is the amazement that anything so crude can sound as good as it does. It's winning the battle against adversity. I try to minimse the difference between 'perfect' digital and vinyl, and when it works, that's the satisfaction.

S.

That’s it! It’s the same for me, I find it amazing that such an old and crude technology can sound as good as it does.

My goal with vinyl has always been to have it sound as close to a digital source as possible and I have found that very satisfying.

 

[Purité Audio]

I am always amazed when listeners want their digital to sound like analogue.
Keith

 

[Timcognito]

In the mid '80s I bought '63 C-10 with the Apache package because it was $500, I was building my house and needed a truck. Despite having to double clutch on the downshifts I loved driving that truck and everyone said it was cool. Now I have a Volvo V60 Recharge that goes 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds, runs dead quiet on electricity for 45 miles, has all my music at my fingertips with B&W audio system and some people say its cool. I think it is and that's all that matters.Technology marches on and I have a small collection of wired telephones from 1900 to the1970s and a collection of LPs (6-700) that I never play. Collecting is fun.

 

[Anton D]

I am always amazed when listeners want their digital to sound like analogue.
Keith

Check out this thing called a DAC!

 

[Beershaun]

You mean remove all the added compression that neuters the dynamic range of digital content?

Magic Vinyl vs Digital

What is the best edition of an album, vinyl, cassette, digital (CD, SACD, Streaming), in stereo, 5.1, Dolby Atmos or Sony 360 RA? Who has never asked this question?

magicvinyldigital.net

 

[Multicore]

Never tried it but DCart has a variety of effects including generating harmonics and a less transparent but very tweakable "tube sound" effect. There are are also a variety of high and low pass filters as well as a sophisticated compander. I have used it in an effort to make recordings sound like worn 78s with not much success. You can record a noise sample from "silent" portions of a record and apply the noise to an entire file.

Vinyl has its characteristic distortion types such as speed instability, eccentricity, dust, worn-out grooves, scratches with their own meter. So I think software that's specifically designed to model these effects makes sense if that's the sound your looking for.

 

[Multicore]

You mean remove all the added compression that neuters the dynamic range of digital content?

DR reduction for the loudness war isn't the topic here. It's an interesting topic but it is not this topic.

 

[bluefuzz]

Because that's not the sound of my vinyl.

The first record I bought at the tender age of seven in 1973 was Electric Warrior by T-Rex. I got it cheap from my older sister's friend because someone had dropped a soldering iron on it so Life's a Gas had a big SQWEELCCHH in the middle. You had to blow on the pickup in just the right way to get it to play over the crater. I still can't listen to even digital versions that album without leaping up off the chair to blow on the pickup. It just sounds wrong without that scratch ...

 

[Beershaun]

DR reduction for the loudness war isn't the topic here. It's an interesting topic but it is not this topic.

Understand. My point was one of the measurable reasons people like vinyl is the recording used has much higher dynamic range.

 

[Keith_W]

I think that vinyl aficionados love vinyl half for the sound, and half for the experience. We all know that we can perfectly recreate the sound of vinyl - digitize the output of a turntable, record it as a .WAV file, play it back, and it will be perfect 1:1 reproduction that they won't be able to tell apart in a blind test. But that is not the point, the point is the experience and ritual of vinyl.

 

[Vincent Kars]

I am always amazed when listeners want their digital to sound like analogue.
Keith

A utter lack of taste indeed

 

[bluefuzz]

I've had a 7" single of Augustus Pablo's Baby I love you so / King Tubby meets the rockers uptown for as long as I can remember. I haven't a clue where I got it from but it has the most beautiful distortion imaginable. The dub side track is barely audible through the static. Again, digital versions just sound wrong even though they are obviously much more 'hi-fi' ...

 

[egellings]

iZotope and others have effects for producing the sound of vinyl playing on a turntable. They allow quite a lot of control introducing the distortions and coloration typical of vinyl production and playback. So why not use that with the convenience of digital source to get the sound of vinyl?

Because that's not the sound of my vinyl. If I have a romantic attachment to my vinyl, perhaps because it has been with me for so long and connects with my history then the specifics of that LP are unique and personal. All scratches are unique, the specific distribution of dust and contamination, the ware out, the finger prints, these all correspond to the specific history of that item and very likely to my specific history with it.

We don't need to rehash whether or not this makes sense. (I personally prefer to listen to digital unmolested.) But I get that some people are attached to their vinyl, for good or ill. And that provoked me to think along this line. Your vinyl is, because of its specific defects, uniquely yours.

A big draw of vinyl is its fiddly nature, what with turntables, arms, cartridges, RIAA preamps and the like. Remove that, and for some, a lot of the attraction is gone, especially in settings where the vinyl reproduction equipment is so good that it approaches streaming or other digital sources, in that case, then why bother?