Mastering For Vinyl Vs Digital

Explain differences in vinyl vs digital mastering production sep 6 2009.

Mastering for vinyl vs digital.

If the client s budget permits having a separate digital cutting master that bypasses the limiter has added benefits in the vinyl world where the loudness wars aren t as pervasive. Depending on the master some of or all of these issues can occur when using a digital master for the vinyl cutting process. Vinyl is a lossy format and it has serious level dependent frequency limitations that get progressively worse towards the center of the disc. 3 005 posts since may 18 2005.

Varying degrees of distortion. When mastering for vinyl they make sure certain frequencies of the overall album weren t too high or harsh. The sequencing difference is that delivery from mastering for digital is either individual wav files for download or a single ddpi file for cd replication whereas for vinyl the delivery is generally two wav files one for each side of the record. It will store and reproduce anything in it s bandwidth.

For example they can t make the vocals louder or the drums quieter. The transients in your music would benefit from the headroom of the format. If the client s budget permits having a separate digital cutting master that bypasses the limiter has added benefits in the vinyl world where the loudness wars aren t as pervasive. You can have sibilance at 0dbfs on digital that would either kill the recording head or distort like crazy on vinyl.

Pre digital the final mix was delivered on actual tape to which the mastering engineer applied final touches to make the recording pop and shine. Vinyl s volume is dependent on the length of its sides and depth of its grooves which means an album mastered specifically for the format may have more room to breathe than its strained digital. Don t worry about bass. The transients in your music would benefit from the headroom of the format.