You Should Listen to CDs

[highplainsdem]

13. Re CDs vs vinyl:

There are times I thought I could hear the difference, with the CD sounding more sterile. But vinyl LPs get damaged too quickly. (For that matter, I've seen younger relatives make quick work of CDs, too, unfortunately.)

I like the comparison producer Perry Margouleff made here:

https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/rock-roller-paul-rodgers-takes-turn-soul-man

PM: Anything recorded digitally is like watching a ballet under a strobe light. You are only seeing the ballerina when the lights are on. Whatever the sample rate, there is still information that you’re not getting, because the lights go on and off. With analog, it is continuous. You get all of the information. Humans are very sensitive to this, even though they don’t know it. It is like eating at a good restaurant, and then you want to go back and visit it again. When you listen to a good record in the vinyl world, something happens to you and it imprints on you and you can’t wait to hear it again. It becomes part of your repertoire, and you keep coming back to it.

Since you're a recording engineer, Eko, I was wondering what you thought of what Tony Visconti said here:

https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/tony-visconti-part-2/

What I like to do is record on analog multi-track tape, do all the right things like gently saturate the tape and as soon as a take is agreed upon as a master, it goes right into Pro Tools at a high sampling rate. I typically record at 96 kHz, 32-bit floating. That is so close to the sound of analog tape and it perfectly preserves the gently saturated sound you get from tape.