More of the Music of the Cowboy Junkies
More Digital Recordings with Audiophile Quality Sound
The RCA domestic pressings cut at Sterling are not worth the vinyl they’re pressed on.
Our notes read:
- Flat and dry vox.
- Shifted up [tonally]
- A bit scooped [or “sucked out” in the midrange, meaning the middle of the midrange is missing to some degree]
Don’t be like those analog types who point fingers at the fact that there was digital in the recording chain when their record doesn’t sound good.
It’s got nothing to do with digital. It has everything to do with Sterling doing a bad job mastering the domestic vinyl.
(And a large group of audiophiles, including some well-known reviewers, had no idea there was a digital step used in the process of making some records they raved about. Apparently it’s easier to hear when you know it’s there.)
We Don’t Defend the Indefensible
When good mastering houses like Kendun and Sterling and Artisan make bad sounding records, we offer no excuses for their shoddy work. The same would be true for the better-known cutting engineers who’ve done work for them, as well as other cutting operations. Individuals working for good companies sometimes do a bad job.
How is this news to anyone outside of the sycophantic thread posters, youtubers, and reviewers who write for the audiophile community?
Records are to be judged on their merits, not on the reputations of the companies or individuals making them.
We discussed the apparent distaste some audiophiles have for criticizing the demonstrably bad records made by formerly talented engineers here.
If someone can explain to me why we should like it when cutting engineers do bad work, please contact me at tom@better-records.com so that you can help me understand it better. I am at a loss.
Want to find your own top quality copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that have been winning our Hot Stamper shootouts for years. The better copies sound their best:
Further Reading
- New to the Blog? Start here
- Bad sounding digital recordings on vinyl
- Good sounding digital recordings on vinyl – really?
But if it passed through digital at any point, why not just leave it in the digital domain? What’s gained by pressing a record from a digital file?
ab_ba,
Pure digital does not exist as playback medium. We have CDs, we have digital streaming and digital downloads and who knows what else, but none of that is a pure digital signal that your stereo can play back without processing of some kind.
Therein lies the problem. Doug Sax spoke about this at length. His interviews can be found on the web. One of these days I hope to comment on them.
But all of this avoids the most important question of all!
Why do anything one way instead of another?
Now the answer becomes obvious: because it sounds better that way.
Logic is of very little value when it comes to thinking about audio. We should all try to avoid using it whenever possible.
I could never get my CD of Famous Blue Raincoat to sound remotely as good as my best early pressings.
It’s a digital recording, but what difference does that make to me as someone who wants to listen to the album?
Why would I play the CD if the record sounds better?
TP