BOC CDs, was Re: BOC We gotta get out...

[albert bouchard]

> > Sometimes the muddier sound of vinyl (if said vinyl is in good shape
> > and on a decent system) is better to my ears, especially for
> > 'raunchy' rock n roll or old blues etc.

        45s sound better than LPs too. Higher signal level is why.

>         There are lots of people who think that, and many of them are
> in the analog master tapes camp (as opposed to the digital camp).
> This "sensation" of analog is mostly due to natural compression in the
> medium and a certain amount of pink noise (or is it white noise)?

        Analog tapes produce this compression effect but vinyl records do not.

>         The Brain Surgeon's recordings are, I believe, all digital
> but don't sound too sterile to me!  (This is because they know what

        Actually TBS CDs are rcorded digitally, mixed digitally with digital
signal processors and then mastered analog through high quality tube preamps,
tube equalizers and tube compressors and then back to digital (I prefer using
the 48k sample rate for recording and CDs are 44.1K).

> they are doing).  You can still get _warmth_ with digital _and_ the
> extra clarity the medium brings.  I've got a couple of all
> digital classical CDs which are pretty stunning, sound-wise.

        As an artist I much prefer digital. It is much more convienent,
sometimes sounds better, is less expensive, more reliable and flexible to work
with. Digital signal processors were used on many BOC albums, even BFY had an
early Lexicon reverb and Eventide processors on it.
        As a consumer I also perfer CDs to vinyl. I like being able to skip
tracks and CDs take up less space (with a record collection of over 5k
[records] it's an issue). I can't really say if the sound is worse. There's
good and bad sounding things but I think it has more to do with the content
than raw sound. I've yet to A/B the same recordings but maybe when I get WOTT
I'll try it.
Al