okzbow wrote:I have been thinking about it last evening... and I also think that with all the music in digital versions the connection with it is gone.
A few years ago he was playing vinyl, getting al the latest stuff, knew what the sleeves looked like, did some preparation for each set (you cant take 1000 records)... involvement with the music, night, etc…
http://www.endclub.com/endblog/music
Vinyl is Art!
26/11/2007
Posted by Mr C
It seems that we’re moving further and further into the digital domain as far as DJing is concerned, and as our peers and contemporaries do so there's an added pressure for all and sundry to follow suit. The whole world seems to be going digital and analog is slowly disappearing from our lives.
This is the case with film, both moving and still, being replaced by digital high definition which is simply not as rich, but much cheaper to produce. The same is happening with sound, with the warmth of recording to tape a distant memory, analog synths being replaced by soft synths, and vinyl being replaced by CDs and laptops.
As an ageing DJ who's been a professional in the art of spinning records for over 20 years, there is always the temptation to switch to digital from vinyl. My first thoughts about this were almost two years ago when suffering severe back problems. The bottom but one disc in my spine came completely out of place whilst sleeping on my sister’s sofa. Through DJing, carrying heavy records and bad posture when sitting, mostly from many long haul flights, I'd earned for my trouble a curvature in my spine. I went to the osteopath immediately who gave me some back adjustments, put my spine back into line, did some muscle manipulations and also gave me specific stretching exercises to straighten and strengthen my back. Of course being the undisciplined idiot that I am, as soon as this had rendered my back okay and pain free, I stopped doing the exercises only for the problem to come back and for the disc to come out again, indeed five times in the last year and a half.
This would be the perfect excuse for me to switch from lugging around heavy record boxes to carrying only a couple of CD cases or switching to Serato or Final Scratch, thus alleviating my back from the said pressure of carrying heavy records.
After much mental deliberation I simply couldn't do it! This is why.
I truly believe that the people that pay good money to come and hear me spin deserve the very best sound that I can possibly give them, and with vinyl being indisputably the best sound, I’ve chosen to stick with this format. Vinyl sounds better than both CDs and laptops for a few simple reasons.
The first is MP3s sound like sh!t. Even the high rate MP3s are only a quarter of the quality of CDs. The digital information is compressed, which in turn compresses the sound, which not only starts to make all kick drums and bass tones sound a little similar, but also the width of the high end becomes squashed making the music less dynamic. Also, the space between the sounds completely disappears as the compression pulls frequencies out of the sounds in the track that were not meant to be there (which is why the producer didn’t compress those sounds when he/she made the track in the first place). This brings me swiftly to my next point of contention.
Laptops. Not only has the sound of the tune been all-but ruined by converting it into an MP3 file, but there is also compression in the system within these digital computer DJ formats that compresses the sound even further. By removing the space between sounds, the individual sounds do become a lot less dynamic. “Use AIFF or WAV files” I hear you say. But even playing AIFF and WAV files on computers still doesn’t sound as good as if you burned the file directly to CD, because of this compression in the computer system.
So why not use CDs? The music was recorded digitally using digital software, it’s how it sounded in the studio. Correct, but there is still room for improvement, which is why when you cut to vinyl from a 24 bit WAV or from a DAT it always improves in sound. Just the process of cutting the record onto a slate or a copper plate adds a warmth and richness to the music that sounds better than the original digital recording. Any record label will tell you that they’re impressed with the improved ‘feel’ of the music after it’s been well cut for vinyl.
Next is for me the most important issue. The needle on a turntable picks up the sound of the room, which feeds back when the needle touches the playing surface of the vinyl - and when played on a big system gives the music another warmth again. The sound of the system, the sound of the monitors, and even the sound of the crowd come through the needle; it’s these sounds regenerating on themselves that give this extra warmth to you, the end user, who’s experiencing the sound on the dancefloor. The sound of the crowd comes back out of the speakers so the crowd subliminally hear themselves played back in real time. This is a spiritual thing, a body thing, a soul thing, which is lost in digital DJ sets.
Also, the actual playing of vinyl, the looking through the record box for that tune you love, pulling it out of a well designed sleeve and throwing it onto the turntables is also an interactive thing with the crowd which the dancing public love to see. The interaction is completely lost when watching a DJ play from a laptop, looking like he’s standing there doing his or her emails. Not a pretty sight. Does watching a DJ flipping the pages of his / her CD case and whipping one out turn you on? I didn’t think so.
Lastly, spare a thought for the artists and the record labels that make so much effort in creating the finished product, and a thought for the dedicated record stores that continue to struggle to make ends meet. Plus the distributors going under because DJs who really should be supporting these artists, labels et al are simply too lazy to carry vinyl! They should be ashamed of themselves!
So, I for one will be sticking with the vinyl, as I believe that the paying public deserves the very best sound that I can possibly give them.
