[technical] -> _vinyl_vs_cd_mastering(Oblivion_with_bells)_

[negative1]

hey uw'ers,

i have been listening to the vinyl version of "oblivion with bells",
and have noticed some very slight differences in the mastering..
the following is some of the details i've observed after checking
some stats in soundforge 9.0..

i've tried listening to both versions at the same time,
and separately as a comparison, through headphones, and
regular speakers.....

*NOTE : for most practical purpose, you probably won't notice
the differences unless you are listening through headphones, or
through a stereo system without background noise...
----------------------------------------------------------------
1st test
track compared : crocodile (album track)
formats : vinyl , cd
spectrum analysis graph of frequencies vs dB
see :

http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/...hm_82f50f4.jpg

light red = cd
light blue = vinyl

as you can see, the response is pretty similar,
with the response being nearly equal..
the vinyl at the high end seems to capture a few more
peaks, and the cd looks a little more 'smoothed out'..
so some of the peaks might be missing..

i've noticed the waveforms peak pretty high for the
cd, and though they might be clipping, the overall 'loudness'
seems to be OK..

i've recorded the vinyl through my computer, and compared
the 'normalized', and 'straight' recording , and there
seems to be some variance in the quieter parts of the album...
----------------------------------------------------------------
2nd test
track compared : beautiful burnout (album track)
formats : vinyl , cd , mp3
spectrum analysis graph of frequencies vs dB


see :
http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/...hm_e1441a8.jpg
dark blue = cd
light blue = vinyl

for the mp3 file see: http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/...3m_2201dea.jpg

a closeup of the higher frequencies for mp3:
http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/...om_b7f6b00.jpg

in this case, the frequency response is also pretty
close for the vinyl and cd versions...the mp3 version
drops off pretty severely around 20kHz..

i did notice that once again, the vinyl version seems to
capture some of the high end frequencies better, and the
cd version again is more 'smoothed' out...

the big difference is the waveform patterns,

see this image : http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/...sm_caa593f.jpg

the top is the cd version, and the bottom is the 'un-normalized' version
taken from vinyl...as you can see, the cd mastering version has much
higher levels, and peaks that are near 'clipping'...although the volume
does not actually clip....

you do hear more detail during the quiet passages, and throughout
various sections of the song...compared to the vinyl version,
i noticed at the end, there were small differences in the tracks..

================================================== =======================
final conclusions :
-------------------
cd / mp3 / dvd
==============
It appears the louder sections of various tracks have been mastered
to peak at a much 'higher' level for these recordings.
although there is no clipping, the sound (volume) levels are close
to the peaks..

the quieter sections are clearer, and some more detail can be heard...
for the 'quieter' tracks, the mastering is not as severe, and there
is a much lower peak, and i didn't see any maxing out on the peaks
for these tracks..
-----
the mp3 release looks like it was taken from a CD mastering, as it
follows the same patterns as the cd versions.

however, for a 320k encoding, there is a lot of drop off at 20 kHz
and above, leaving some portions, and sections to sound less clear
than the cd version
-----
by the way, i check out some of the tracks from the bonus dvd,
and those are mastered at a 'high' level also, for example
the 'crocodile (video)' peaks similarly to the cd version.

vinyl
======
the vinyl version appears to be mastered at a 'lower' level for
all the tracks.

the louder sections do not approach clipping, and the sound values
are consistent throughout the album.

some detail is lost in the quiter passages, and some samples may
not be heard clearly.

================================================== =======================
I know this isn't a comprehensive test, and I will post some more
information about other tracks later.

This is just a quick pass, to see what type of results I could
get, when checking various formats/tracks.

If you have any specific questions, or about any specific tracks,
please let me know, and I'll get back to you when I can.*

later
-1
================================================== =======================
*NOTE : the statistics, and values that are shown here, are NOT standard
for all releases, i have derived them from the following:

For the mp3 versions, soundforge imports it natively, so it was NOT converted to an intermediate format or wav file.

1) US CD/DVD release
2) UK vinyl LP release
3) Digital album release (320k)