emi chairman says the "cd" format is dead.

[tercerojista]

WORD! theres so many tunes out there i wanna buy, but because its all just vinyls, we aint got a chance.

There are quite a few dubstep tunes out there for purchasing online, though, so you do stand a chance at buying something. In fact, I think there are some tunes that are only available for download. It's not all doom and gloom

[wil blaze]

Bollocks. I mean, what? I thought sales of music are at an all time high right now, and the majority of people are always going to want a physical product

Unfortunately mate this couldn't be much further from the truth. Most people don't care about quality or a physical product, and sales are low due to illegal filesharing...

where have you been?

[wil blaze]

nah, what I reckon he's paving the way for, is the SACD or DVD-Audio format (diff to DVD-Video)- been in the pipeline and available for a few years, but hasn't kicked off just yet.

maybe but unlikely mate, these tecnologies are almost redundant already as they have been superceeded massively by blue ray technology which allow about 4 times as much data on a disk as a DVD.

Basically they won't get that big cos by the time they catch on properly they will be obsolete... personally i would predict that blue ray will take over, with (hopefully) really high wuality recordings available of new releases, longer albums possible without multiple disks, and also entire back catalogues of older artists available on a single disk or maybe two...

i might well be wrong but this is what i see happening

[wil blaze]

My 320 of Dutch Flowerz from the CD album is so much better than when I play the tune on vinyl.

No it's not man.. mp3s are compressed files, it doesn't work like that. If the vinyl sounds bad, it's probably to do with your turntable, stylus, speakers or something like that. As far as I know, the possible frequency range for vinyl is also far greater than digital formats.

Not true, vinyl has pretty much nothing above 16K, CD goes up to about 20 k and future formats will go to at least 40 K or higher if people can be bothered. I record digitally in the studio with a frequency response up to 40 k at the moment but then it has to be converted to go on a normal CD.

I agree though that there's probably something wrong with Digital's needles or decks as an mp3 is never gonna sound as good as vinyl.

peace

[tercerojista]

Bollocks. I mean, what? I thought sales of music are at an all time high right now, and the majority of people are always going to want a physical product

Unfortunately mate this couldn't be much further from the truth. Most people don't care about quality or a physical product, and sales are low due to illegal filesharing...

where have you been?

Too true. Look at the shit most of the population are playing their music through... Most people out there don't even know what music's supposed to sound like. And they seem to think they shouldn't need to pay for it either. To be honest, though, most mainstream stuff is so shit and of such obvious intent that it should be paid for by advertisers.

But, in Pangaea's defence, vinyl sales have experienced an upturn recently.

I'm not at all keen on CDs these days, because they're so pseudo-physical. It's like a CD doesn't really want to exist: its existence is clearly a means to an end, and insignificant in itself. CDs aren't valuable objects to me - the bits of data on them are, and the data is better stored on some sort of hard drive. But vinyl, though... That is as real and physical as you want it to be. Records are so beautiful that they're a joy to have even if you don't have the equipment to play them on. The whole experience is just sheer enjoyment, and won't be equalled by any digital format until we're living in virtual worlds...

(Of course, you'd have to be a nutter to buy a load of vinyl and never buy a turntable)

[wil blaze]

4 posts in a row on the same thread can't be good but nevermind!

just to clrify, i can definately tell the difference between a digital master and a vinyl master, and it's not down to the crackle or noise, it's other things like the fullness of the bass, the weight of the whole tune and the richness of the sound, also CDs have more top end that you can blatently hear.

peace

[metalboxproducts]

My 320 of Dutch Flowerz from the CD album is so much better than when I play the tune on vinyl.

No it's not man.. mp3s are compressed files, it doesn't work like that. If the vinyl sounds bad, it's probably to do with your turntable, stylus, speakers or something like that. As far as I know, the possible frequency range for vinyl is also far greater than digital formats.

Not true, vinyl has pretty much nothing above 16K, CD goes up to about 20 k and future formats will go to at least 40 K or higher if people can be bothered. I record digitally in the studio with a frequency response up to 40 k at the moment but then it has to be converted to go on a normal CD.

I agree though that there's probably something wrong with Digital's needles or decks as an mp3 is never gonna sound as good as vinyl.

peace

Looks like some has been readind Sound on Sound.

[shonky]

Seeing as humans can't really hear anything much above 20kHz (most probably slightly less than that), it seems pretty pointless to have the higher frequencies if they're only going to get the alsations barking.

Can't really use the same argument that you can use for bass either (wow, you can really feel the treble). As 44.1kHz cd's will provide a top peak of 20,050Hz (slightly above most people's higher range of hearing), higher sampling rates are only really of use in slowing music down whilst keeping a good quality level.

The bit rate makes far more difference as that has more of a determining effect on sound quality.

[dusty]

Most peoples hi-fi setup or headphones arent going to replicate the low ranges properly anyway - thats usually where the bottleneck on sound quality lies.

[elgato]

for me, a lot of the technical chat misses the point

when i hear cds, they sound clinical, clean, precise. which can be good, depending on the music.

when i hear vinyl, the music has depth and warmth.

i almost always prefer depth and warmth, especially in a club or on a really good home system, where the difference is much clearer, and especially for bass heavy dance music

i also have a lot of secondary reasons for loving vinyl to do with the physicality and the ritual...

im never going to get the buzz i do from taking out a new vinyl and putting it on a deck from seeing an mp3 drop into my music folder and loading it into itunes

an external hard drive is not going to make me feel as comfortable in my room as racks of records

im never going to feel the same using cd decks as having a physical piece

a little jpg is not going to replace a 12" canvas

but its clearly a matter of taste, im old fashioned, but happy to be

having said that, ableton holds a great deal of potential, but it'll never replace records for me, its a different thing altogether

[deamonds]

for me, a lot of the technical chat misses the point

when i hear cds, they sound clinical, clean, precise. which can be good, depending on the music.

when i hear vinyl, the music has depth and warmth.

i almost always prefer depth and warmth, especially in a club or on a really good home system, where the difference is much clearer, and especially for bass heavy dance music

i also have a lot of secondary reasons for loving vinyl to do with the physicality and the ritual...

Agree with this totally, however CD's are such a useful tool, and i think we need to get to grips with the fact that they will never dissapear, due to the convineiancy of them

[metalboxproducts]

Seeing as humans can't really hear anything much above 20kHz (most probably slightly less than that), it seems pretty pointless to have the higher frequencies if they're only going to get the alsations barking.

Can't really use the same argument that you can use for bass either (wow, you can really feel the treble). As 44.1kHz cd's will provide a top peak of 20,050Hz (slightly above most people's higher range of hearing), higher sampling rates are only really of use in slowing music down whilst keeping a good quality level.

The bit rate makes far more difference as that has more of a determining effect on sound quality.

The frequences you speak of 20khz and above contain harmonics that have an influence on the frequences the human ear can detect. this also applies to lower frequences.

[kamaflage]

CDR's are very useful, I have all my music is on my computer and and backed up on an external hard drive.

Even if I buy a CD I rip it then burn to CDR for the car that way I keep the original and if it gets scratched (which it does!) I can burn another one.

Yep same here bruv!

[wil blaze]

My 320 of Dutch Flowerz from the CD album is so much better than when I play the tune on vinyl.

No it's not man.. mp3s are compressed files, it doesn't work like that. If the vinyl sounds bad, it's probably to do with your turntable, stylus, speakers or something like that. As far as I know, the possible frequency range for vinyl is also far greater than digital formats.

Not true, vinyl has pretty much nothing above 16K, CD goes up to about 20 k and future formats will go to at least 40 K or higher if people can be bothered. I record digitally in the studio with a frequency response up to 40 k at the moment but then it has to be converted to go on a normal CD.

I agree though that there's probably something wrong with Digital's needles or decks as an mp3 is never gonna sound as good as vinyl.

peace

Looks like some has been readind Sound on Sound.

wot makes u say that mate? i ain't picked up a copy of that for about a year!

[Jubz]