I think they were really trying not to change the order. I came up with a better arrangement of this album a while ago. Wondering how well that would press to vinyl…
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This much I was aware of, yeah. I remember learning about the mechanics of vinyl in audio engineering school - I can’t remember which Beatles album it is, but they made side B start from the center rather than the edge, so that there would be continuity of tone between finishing up side A and starting side B.
I would’ve hoped that they would’ve done this, pushed it to a 3rd record, and added more bonus content. OR even just a CD with the original two bonus tracks and a few others… My DSS LP is 2 CD discs and 1 DVD disc on top of the vinyl sides, making it well worth owning in addition to my regular CD copy of the record.
Well I pre-ordered my copy. Also, what is a vinyl record if not a plate by another name?
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It’s a bummer we’ll never get an Arche or The Insulated World vinyl release. The band is so sporadic with their vinyl releases it makes you wonder what the rationale is.
There’s been vinyl releases for Uroboros, Dum Spiro Spero, and now Phalaris. The only other albums released on vinyl have been, what, Gauze and Vulgar? But even those were extremely limited runs, right?
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Technically…
Kai and Myaku have even more limited pressings, but they do exist. And you can’t forget The World Of Mercy which they only decided to sell in Europe for some reason??? I think that’s about it.
I was sticking with the albums, not so much singles.
As a fan I would love for the band to offer their album discography on vinyl, but that seems like a pipe dream.
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Kai isn’t an album?
… truthfully, I forget it exists, too.
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For me, it’s a remix album and not part of the main releases.
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Cancelled my pre-order at CDJapan and switched to NeoTokyo… hopefully this isn’t going to bite me in the butt later :s
Assuming Phalaris is a digital recording, how is the LP analog?
every LP is analog
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Even music that doesn’t use analog instruments can be put on an analog medium such as vinyl or cassette, just as music using nothing but acoustic instruments can be put on a fully digital medium (like when I listen to Nickel Creek on Tidal)
Hell, even digital music on a digital playback system eventually becomes an analog signal when travelling through the cables to the speakers/headphones (or, if you’re using wireless headphones, turns into a voltage in the headphones themselves to then go to the headphone’s speakers)
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Not really.
It’s totally possible to have a compressed digital mp3 file on your PC and get it pressed on vinyl. That will result in (audibly!!) shitty quality and is usually not the way to go. Bootlegs often do this of course because those people don’t own the digital/analog masters. You can also get the digital masters pressed on vinyl. That’s how most vinyl is pressed nowadays.
A bit off topic, but in the end, it appears that quality wise believing that using the analog masters is somewhat like believing in homeopathy considering MoFi has been doing this for more than 10 years and nobody ever noticed:
MoFi had long been known in record collector circles for its release series, “Original Master Recording” and “Ultradisc One Step,” which comprised albums that MoFi said were made from either original master recordings or analog tapes. But in July, Mike Esposito, a record store owner in Phoenix, shared a video on YouTube claiming that he’d learned MoFi was actually using digital files to make its records. Though there was some initial pushback, engineers at MoFi eventually confirmed Esposito’s allegations.
yeah.
audibly shitty quality. pressed to an analog format.
Not every LP is inherently mastered for analog. But records are an analog format.
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it’s mastered by Bernie Grundman who converts digital source files into analog tapes if no analog source is provided, and they likely hired him for that if they were already planning an LP release before releasing the CD version.
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I would guess the reason he does that is for the saturation provided by it. A large part of what mastering is in the modern age is achieving loudness (obviously it’s not the ONLY thing happening, but it’s a big part of it today). In addition to imparting tonal qualities on the audio fed into it, most analog gear, and especially tape, will be able to do saturation/soft clipping, which can transparently shave off peaks in the audio, thus allowing the mastering engineer to get the whole thing louder without causing hard clipping/audible distortion. Many mastering engineers even if they aren’t using tape, will use a few different pieces of analog outboard gear many of which are doing a little bit of that saturation - tape just has a very specific sound I assume Bernie is a fan of.
This happens in mixing too, and it’s a big part of why so many digital tools for audio engineering now are emulations of analog equipment, trying to model the non-linear harmonic distortion. Many engineers even use these tools in conjunction with actual analog gear!
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This very well could be the case. I worked with an old punk producer about 7 years ago and he swore by this practice. I remember very little of technical why; but he swore it made the recordings sound better, and on a personal level, made the recordings worth preserving.
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Sooo does anyone know if NeoTokyo includes pre-order bonuses?
I pre-ordered Liquefacio (EDIT: originally wrote Infinitum, it was early) from them and didn’t get any bonuses (not even the DVD or flag), but that’s the only time I’ve ever used them
wow, how did that happen?
I mean, there’s a very stark difference between the usual keychains or whatever and an actual missing DVD, right…
I asked them about it, and while I didn’t get a direct reply, I just got an email confirming my pre-order, and it said in the FAQ:
Generally, we receive all pre-order extras officially announced for the respective release with the album. For a detailed list of what is included, please refer to the product images on the respective item page. The posters (if available) will be folded and enclosed with your order.
So yeah, we’ll see. Not that it matters much, it’s just the usual stuff anyway:
