https://www.soundonsound.com/people/vlado-meller?amp
Schon interessant, zu welchen Schlüssen Vlado Meller, seit 1969 im Geschäft, Mastering Engineer, Grammy-Preisträger, unzählige Vinylcuts und anerkannter Fachmann auf dem Gebiet als Summe seiner Erfahrungen kommt:
There have been many reports over the last few years suggesting that vinyl is making a comeback, in part because of its supposedly superior sound. Vlado Meller has limitless experience of vinyl cutting, and still offers it as a service, but cautions against believing the hype. “There is a renewed interest in vinyl, but I truly believe it is more of a boutique niche than a lot of articles would have you believe. I’m being asked to create masters for vinyl more than I was seven or eight years ago, but it’s not a big part of our business. Today’s music delivery is all about downloads and streaming.
“There’s been a lot of talk lately about quality of sound coming from vinyl. For some, vinyl sounds warmer, but that’s because of physical limitations of that particular medium. The limited frequency response of vinyl records combined with the limited response of consumers’ playback systems all affects the final quality greatly. Consumers who were vinyl enthusiasts are likely to have become accustomed to that sound over decades of listening. There are just too many variables affecting the final sound on vinyl, whereas digital recordings do not have these kind of limitations. This is why so many people think vinyl sounds warmer than a CD — the frequencies which had to be rolled off on vinyl suddenly show up on the CD in full force. So compared to vinyl, the CD suddenly sounds ‘harsher’ and more brittle to a consumer who spent decades listening to vinyl records.
“Mastering vinyl is a very time-consuming process. It has a lot of physical limitations — it’s just a fact of physics and nature of that media. Let’s start with the length of the side. The longer the side, the more difficult it is for the cutting engineer to preserve the quality of the original recording. Every frequency represents a different shape in the groove itself. If there’s too much low end, the groove will swing too much, to a point that the turntable arm/cartridge/stylus will skip, or the worst-case scenario is that there will be momentarily no groove at all. If there’s too much high-frequency content, the groove will have extremely jagged edges. Again, the stylus cannot correctly play back and track the ‘V’-shaped edges of the groove. If there’s too much level, the programme cannot fit on a standard space on the vinyl side without sacrificing the overall level. That is where the mastering engineer has to decide what to alter on that particular programme to fit the complete side without any problems that a consumer could encounter when playing the vinyl.
“There are too many variables that could affect the playback sound of the final pressing. Diameter and width of each groove are other critical issues with vinyl. A record uses constant angular velocity, so the best sound on the vinyl is on the outside; as the groove diameter decreases toward the centre, the quality of the playback decreases accordingly. Then you take into consideration the eccentric force under which the playback arm is being pushed to one side of the groove, so the problems increase. The only way to correct that problem is to have a linear tracking turntable. But how many people have that? If one would cut the same song on the outside diameter and the same song on the inside diameter of the record and try to compare the two, the difference in quality will be obvious even to the average ear. Again, there’s a physical limitation of a smaller groove and tracking error on the inside small diameter. Sometimes the producers would make sure that the best tracks were always on the outside and less dynamic, quieter tracks would be on the inside. The sequence of the album had to be created accordingly with vinyl in mind.
“Last but not least, a major factor is the quality of the turntables the consumer will play the record on. Let’s assume a good audiophile-quality turntable will play the record fine, but what about somebody who will play the record back on a cheap mass-produced record player from the ’70s or ’80s, and now it skips or distorts? The cutting engineer’s responsibility is to make sure that the vinyl will play back without any problems on the cheapest turntable commercially available. In my cutting days, I had two turntables in my cutting room. One was a souped-up, top-of-the-line model with the best cartridge, counterweights and stylus available at that time. But my final test was done on the cheap Garrard all-plastic turntable, the same turntables manufacturing plants used for their final QC. If my cut skipped or caused any problems on that turntable, I had to change the overall level, EQ, and decide which frequencies to roll off just to get an acceptable playback. That is unfortunately the reality of vinyl. The physical limitations are too many and not only on the mastering side. Manufacturing has its own problems. Records go through too many plating phases and processes before we see the final pressed commercial version.”
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