One for the vinyl naysayers / CD fanboys.

[Classicrock]

Another anti vinyl comment by the ignorant on AOS has sparked this. (Macca take note).

Continued claims that vinyl has to have mono base abound presumably to convince some people CD is 'perfect sound forever'. Similar to denials that hi-res can sound better than Cd's 16/44.1. Anyway I came across an interesting post on SH forum by well known mastering engineer Barry Diament.

robertash, Feb 9, 2007 Report#3Like+ QuoteReply
bdiament
bdiament
Producer, Engineer, Soundkeeper
Location:New York
Dillydipper said: ↑
We discussed this here just in the last week; Barry Diament expressed that this was indeed one of the concessions made to make a master ready for cutting.

Now, I don't remember if he told us this was done by the producer preparing the master itself, or if it was solely the responsibility of the mastering engineer at the pressing facility, so I don't recall at what stage this tweak was added.
Hi Dillydipper and Robert,

This is done during vinyl mastering. It doesn't have to be done. It just often is. Much as compression doesn't have to be done. It just often is. Neither is done on the very best records (despite some folks' belief that one or both must be done).

I've known engineers that would mono the signal as high up as 150 Hz!

!

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

So though it is done I am not hearing things on some records when bass appears in one channel or the other.

[_D_S_J_R_]

Loud bass signals on vinyl take up loads of precious 'land' in the side. Extreme left/right bass signals will cause jumping with many pickups, so lots of returns by the great unwashed out there with less than good record players. Compression and de-essing added for the same reason. Some eq and marrowing of image was done in the final production master and it's these that caused problems with CD in the early days, the upper mids often over-projected without correction.

[Macca]

Correct - you can't stereo the bass toom low as you wouldn't have much playing time on your record and the needle won't track it. At what point the bass goes to mono will vary from record to record. Try a jazz quartet with the upright bass off to the left of the stage and see if the stereo image varies as deeper notes are played. Obviously you will need a very good system, I doubt this would be apparant on mine. Of course with CD there is nothing to listen for the bass is stereo all the way down.

Also be aware that what we call 'bass' is mostly mid range, and deep bass is just phat mid-range. A system that is flat down to 40Hz will have a physical presence on the bass, but very few systems, even expensive ones, can manage that.

I'm not a vinyl naysayer, I own more lps on vinyl than on cd by a fair margin, i have a proper record cleaning machine, I love my vinyl. Lighten up.

[Classicrock]

The point is you can cut vinyl without mono bass or compression, In fact I would expect this to be avoided with a premium pressing - I know people with cheap TTs will complain about groove jumping. Stereo bass should not be a problem at least with 45 rpm cuts that are spread over several sides or 12" singles. It's not an insurmountable restriction of the media given modern hi-fi playback standards.

[jammy395]

Cure Bass skip by simply puting counter weight as far forward as possible and taping a couple of pound coins to the head shell..........