The vinyl resurgence is putting pressure on the relatively few remaining pressing plants. We try it on several turntables, and with a few different cartridges.”

I will cut the references and give you my personal evaluation. Hull reported, “I have added a new service. But that’s routinely what people do for vinyl.” You wouldn’t send your mixes to a mastering engineer and have them send it directly to the duplication plant-that would be insane. “Everyone’s in such a rush to get their record out I can’t believe people skip this. There is one way to reduce the impact of those variables: “Always get a reference disk,” said Lyman.

“It’s not a fixed thing it’s all very program-dependent,” said Hull. The length of an album side has an effect on the level and the noise floor, of course, but there are many other variables at play. Then, on the reproduction side, he said, “You’ve got different cartridges, different needles, different needle shapes, different players, different preamps, different speakers-there’s a lot of things that influence whether a record sounds good or not.” I think it’s just more musical.”īut as Golden commented, “It can sound better-it doesn’t always sound better.” There are many variables, he noted, including production choices, decisions made during the cut and whether the artist is trying to fit 25 minutes on a side or maximizing fidelity at 18 to 20 minutes in length. “I think people, even though they don’t physically know why it sounds better, are drawn to that. “I feel like when vinyl is done right, it’s a truer representation of analog music,” agreed Lyman. Wyner noted that vinyl’s RIAA curve results in “something that’s as close as possible to an accurate phase representation”-much more so than CD, MP3 or tape. And it can be bundled with the digital download,” observed Scott Hull, Masterdisk, New York. “It’s kind of universal that they’re selling vinyl at the merch table more aggressively than any other physical. The fans are asking for it that’s what justifies making the investment into vinyl.” Worldwide, last year’s vinyl sales totaled $171 million, a tiny fraction of the industry’s $16.4 billion global revenue stream.Įven with the convenience and portability of CDs and MP3s, and a younger generation that grew up without analog audio formats, said JJ Golden, Golden Mastering, Ventura, CA, “A lot of the bands that we all talk to sell a lot of as merchandise when they’re on tour. for 2013, Random Access Memories by Daft Punk, sold only 49,000 copies (but an impressive 19,000 in its first week). Yet the numbers are relatively insignificant, representing only two percent of all physical album sales in the U.S.

vinyl sales were up for the sixth consecutive year in 2013, increasing 33 percent over 2012’s figures. The resurgence in vinyl sales certainly shows no signs of slowing.

Vinyl is more than just a listening experience, it’s a piece of art.” “I always say that vinyl is the last viable physical format there’s no need for anything else. “I don’t think it’s going to be over for a while,” said Pete Lyman of Infrasonic in Los Angeles. “Are any of you brave enough to say whether this is going to go on for a while?” he asked the panel. LOS ANGELES, CA-Jonathan Wyner of M Works Mastering in Boston, moderating the “21st Century Vinyl” workshop at the recent AES Convention, noted that vinyl sales this year are on track to eclipse 2013’s sales figures. Speaking at the “21st Century Vinyl” Panel at AES were (l-r) Pete Lyman, JJ Golden, Scott Hull, Jonathan Wyner.

Vinylstudio vs audio workshop