Quote:
Originally Posted by wmg21
I don't recall ever hearing this before? I down own a copy of the original, but is it a questionable pressing?  |
The original pressing is from '98, when vinyl was basically a dead format. Very few things were released on the analog format, and as such, very little effort was made into making these sound good. BTCS was record analog, meaning that the potential exists to have an all-analog release, or AAA (analog source/mix/mastering, on an analog format - vinyl). Instead, because vinyl was a dead format at the time (and based on some surrounding evidence like where the lacquers were cut, etc), it's a near certainty that they simply took the mastering made for the CD and applied it to the vinyl release. That generally results in less-than-ideal sound, because you're taking mastering work for a digital format and trying to apply it to an analog format.
Now, you can have a hi-res digital master that is cut with the intention of it being for vinyl, and things can sound great. But it's that format-specific mastering that matters, and that was almost certainly not done for BTCS in '98. So you're left with a format that by design has distortions (when people talk about vinyl being "warm" sounding, that's natural distortion caused by the analog technology/format), with a non-dedicated master. You're better off just buying the CD or listening to high quality digital streams/downloads at that point if your goal is to listen in the best audio quality available.
The hope would be that a remaster of BTCS would be vinyl-specific for a new vinyl release, and cut by a good engineer (Chris Bellman, Kevin Gray, Scott Hull are some of the good ones that have cut DMB vinyl in the past), and then pressed at a good pressing plant to avoid quality defects. The original was also pressed on some not-so-great vinyl compound and is very thin - I'd be wary of buying a sealed copy because after 23 years in shrink wrap, there's a higher chance of warping issues. A new remaster would likely be pressed on better vinyl compound and probably 150g-180g to help with longevity.