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That innermost looping groove is called a locked groove.
While it is difficult to track the first record to employ this technique, one of the earliest and most well known examples is The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from 1967. It consisted of multi-layered collage of randomised chatter that would repeat endlessly:
Two variations [of ...
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I feel I have to put an opinion on this - & opinion it is, because there are too many factors influencing vinyl quality.
Factors.
Attention to detail in the cut.
Will affect every pressing of any weight.
Attention to detail at the plant.
Do they run each stamper 100 times before cleaning & 1000 before replacing, or do they run 10,000 before ...
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They should be stored side-by-side, as vertically as possible, and in an area that doesn't get really hot to prevent warping.
If you stack them on top of each other there is extra pressure on them and over time they warp. Even if they are side-by-side, but are slightly diagonal they are still more likely to warp. Likewise even when kept properly if the ...
15
Vinyl sound is influenced by how music is carved into it (mastering), the playback mechanism (turntable, stylus, cartridge, electronics, etc), and the characteristics of the medium itself (vinyl).
The meaning of "vinyl sound" is often approached subjectively. Different people have different ideas of what a sound has to have and/or lack to be considered "...
15
It's not because of fidelity
I'll start by discarding one reason: fidelity. Fidelity is the ability of a system to reproduce a signal with the least amount of change. High fidelity means little to no change is being induced, low fidelity means too many change is being induced. Perfect fidelity means the signal is being reproduced perfectly, without change ...
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Jack White has a habbit of including hidden tracks and other features. Here's for instance his latest album Lazaretto:
The 11-track album on White's label Third Man Records, includes
different mixes and sequencing to the digital version, and will play
at 33.3rpm as normal. However two secret tracks hidden in the centre
label will play at 45 and ...
13
If you're asking about the difference between "180gr vinyl and a [regular weight] coloured vinyl", then 180g usually has better sound quality when compared with the regular 120-140g vinyls.
If you're comparing black and coloured vinyls, there is a small noticeable difference in sound quality.
Let's look at the production of coloured vinyl
[in order to ...
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Belt Drive
Pros
The belt acts as a shock-absorber, preventing vibration transmitted from the motor reaching the platter
Isolating the motor from the platter results in less noise transmission to the tone-arm
It is generally considered that belt drive turntables produce better sound quality dues to less interference from the motor
Cons
Belt drives have ...
10
C+C Music Factory's Gonna Make You Sweat album on cassette had a hidden track. The cassette said that "Bang That Beat" was the final track on the tape, but if you let the cassette continue playing for about 20-30 seconds past the end of that song, then you heard the "Shade" song start playing.
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Monty Python's Matching Tie & Handkerchief may qualify, as entire sides were 'hidden' by two methods.
Both sides of the album had the same label, claiming it was 'Side 2'
One side had dual concentric grooves, so which tracks you heard was dependent on which of the two grooves you hit when dropping the needle.
It was referred to at the time as a 3-sided ...
10
After a little research (A sides in parentheses):
“Rock Around the Clock” (“Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in
Town)”)– Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954.
“Tequila” (“Train to Nowhere") – The Champs
"Unchained Melody” ( “Hung on You.”) – The Righteous Brothers 1965.
"Ruby Tuesday”* (“Let’s Spend the Night Together”) – The Rolling
Stones
“I Will Survive” (“...
answered Feb 16 '17 at 14:44
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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9
The cassette release of Pulse by Pink Floyd contains a 22-minute hidden track titled Soundscape (Cassette 2, Side 4) that starts a few minutes after the last listed track Run Like Hell.
"Wish You Were Here" 6:35
"Comfortably Numb" 9:29
"Run Like Hell" 8:36
"Soundscape (Ambient piece played before all concerts)" 22:00
In case of vinyl, the ...
9
According to The Record Collectors Guild:
In 1930, RCA Victor launched the first commercially-available vinyl
long-playing record, marketed as "Program Transcription" discs. These
revolutionary discs were designed for playback at 33⅓ rpm and pressed
on a 12" diameter flexible plastic disc. In Roland Gelatt's book The
Fabulous Phonograph, the ...
8
As with many issues around vinyl, there are differing opinions out there:
Let us explain: 150 grams is considered a "heavy" weight because it's heavier than a standard 120 gram weight record. All records degrade the more you play them, but a heavier record is more durable and will generally sound better for a longer time. Although some might disagree, we ...
8
One of the first and most famous hidden tracks is on The Beatles' Abbey Road. "Her Majesty" begins 14 seconds after the last song listed on the album jacket ("The End") and runs 23 seconds long. It is often considered the first example of a hidden track in recording history. Released in 1969, this was long before CDs.
There have been lots of albums ...
answered Feb 26 '15 at 4:45
Ben Miller - Remember Monica
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8
Some explanations as provided by these forum posts:
Virgin vinyl is non recycled higher quality vinyl.
[...]
Pure vinyl which isn't recycled or adulterated with filler. Quieter as
a rule surface wise.
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Let's start by saying, even if you could, it doesn't make a great deal of sense to have a heavy stereo split in the bass frequencies.
Let's try to analyse why that would be...
First, your directional senses are very poor at low frequencies, so assuming you were sitting slap bang in the middle of your huge hi-fi speakers you'd still barely be able to tell ...
8
I suppose by "weird", you are refering to the sticker on the cover (as the Wall album is suppose to have nothing but a wall:
This album, very likely, comes from a box set from 1997 : '97 Vinyl Collection. All discs had the central round sticker.
Here is the Discogs link to this release, cat# 7243 8 59858 1 2.
You should check inside if yours number is the ...
7
Do any club DJs still spin vinyl? Yes.
Have most/all of them moved on to computer formats (such as WAV, FLAC, MP3)? Difficult to answer.
We are currently experiencing a vinyl revival during which sales of vinyl records are growing every year. For example, in November 2014, it was reported that over million vinyl records had been sold in the UK in the since ...
7
Record stamper Matrix codes can be used to identify the pressing plant, but the correlating lists may not be publicly available, or may have only been compiled by collectors, rather than the plants themselves.
The first part of the number will match the information on the record sleeve & will be the same for all copies.
Marks following that can vary - ...
7
Dust and dirt does affect sound quality and in extreme cases, can even make the needle jump out of the groove. Back in the 60's and 70's, when record albums were commonplace, you could easily find little kits marketed as "record cleaning systems".
Some were just a basic brush, but the better ones would often have a scheme where you put several drops of a ...
7
Ever try rolling a joint on a CD cover? ;o)
But seriously... There is a wonderful comparison over on the Audioholics site that breaks this down much further than I can. To me, however, I will just state that vinyl sounds... warmer. My ears respond much better to vinyl than to MP3 for sure, even at the best bitrates. And sometimes music doesn't feel ...
7
As these records were made before the age of computers & also really before even relatively simple modern vinyl cutting techniques were invented, they only really had two things they could play with...
Length.
Quite simply, it would be beneficial to them to be able to shorten each track as much as possible. Miss out a verse, shorten the number of ...
6
The simplest reason is that the outer, playable surface is not actually traditional vinyl, but a thin film, applied to the outer surface, as part of a 5-layer process in manufacturing…
film - paper - black vinyl - paper - film
The film is not as malleable as 'real' vinyl & doesn't press quite as well as traditional semi-molten black vinyl.
There is the ...
6
It's hard to tell from the photos, but there are two possibilities I can think of…
Random chance of frequencies
Sometimes frequencies in the recording do just seem to highlight better than others. If there is a particularly board-spectrum sound at that point, white noise or something high & 'fizzy' there's a chance that could do it.
Also, possibly very ...
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I found the answer. The art is featured on the inside cover of the Chicago X album.
I miss the days when albums came with great art. Here's a scan:
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Of course, the best way to listen to music is live but, due to convenience, music is recorded.
Vinyl (and tape cassettes) are an analogue format where there is no distinct difference when (for example) a note ascends the scales.
On the other hand, CD's and MP3's are digital formats that are 'sampled' at different bit rates. Therefore, for people with well ...
6
This might come across as a tad cynical ;)
Personally, I feel it's that people, given sufficient peer pressure, can easily be convinced to fool themselves. No need for marketing pressure.
Most people don't own a system of sufficient quality to actually be able to tell the difference, on a blind test. Few people could even tell the difference on a good system....
5
There are two issues here that are hard to separate: analog recording and vinyl as a medium. There are many basic misunderstandings of how digital sampling and psycho-acoustics work circulating in the world of audio, so it is nice not to have to deal with that issue.
As for vinyl itself, there are specific frequency response characteristics that the RIAA (...
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