The main reason vinyl often sounds better is because it is better mastered, so this is concerning.

esikich 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's just not true and vinyl doesn't sound better by any measure.

It's true from time to time. Low's last digital releases are actually unlistenable due to heavy-handed compression, but the vinyl seems to have been spared.

I had to record the vinyl to get usable digital files.

▲

wk_end 16 hours ago | parent [-]

The loudness and compression on Low's last couple of albums is very much deliberate, so it's surprising that the vinyl doesn't have it. Though I heard similar claims about Sleater-Kinney's The Woods, which was also intensely compressed for artistic effect.

▲

Slow_Hand 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This. The loudness is an aesthetic choice.

The reason it was backed off for the vinyl master is most likely due to physical limitations of the medium. If the audio channels are too loud (wide) there is risk that the needle will jump out of the groove.

▲

esikich 11 hours ago | parent [-]

This is exactly why vinyl is inferior to tape and digital.

	▲	majkinetor 15 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You mean beside all the noise it has?

▲

CarVac 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There's compression and distortion for sure on the vinyl, but when you look at the waveform on the digital it's right up to the max. It completely changes the sound.

▲

nighthawk454 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It’s completely true, when the vinyl has a different mastering. It can be a completely different version. It’s not because it’s vinyl

▲

esikich 15 hours ago | parent [-]

Mastering doesn't change much. They're just going to roll off the low end a bit. A separate mix is an entirely different thing though.

	▲	nighthawk454 11 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It really does on some records, if you’re interested check out some comparisons on YouTube. Many times it’s subtle eq tweaks, granted, and that won’t much matter. But a lot of older rock and pop records for example go from being super dynamic and well produced to completely crushed with boosted bass and treble to ‘modernize’ the sound. You can see some examples of how dynamic range (they don’t track ‘mastering’ overall) varies across releases on this site: https://dr.loudness-war.info/
	▲	shmageggy 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Many releases get mastered separately for digital and for vinyl, and one or both of them often does “change much”. Usually the brickwall limiting (among other things) on the digital master.

▲

BoingBoomTschak 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd say "rarely" instead of "often" though it depends on the genre I guess. There are also a lot of genres that can never sound as good on vinyl simply due to the lack of dynamic range/silence; mostly classical and electronic.