Help Advice / Required In Getting My Own Digital Recordings Of Vinyl Close To Downloads Purchased.

NEW MUSIC

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Hi

I am making digital copies of a large record collection at a very good sample rate on a reasonable system and programme, and I am quite happy with the end result, but I have these issues that I need advice with please.

All my own digital recordings are to 0 dB yet downloads I purchase are louder, the same applies if I make a digital copy of a track from CD but not quite as loud as the down loads.

The other thing is all my digital copies are recorded at flat response tone wise (this I am told is correct) but when played back with others I have done sound great but if I play one of mine then a download / or digital copy of a CD they sound like they have more base up against my ones. I have read that both the volume issue and base issue is down to what type of program is used when they are recorded and how it’s compressed at the time.

I have also read there is soft wear that can even things out so I don’t have to keep altering the volume on play back (plus there is also the extra base matter on downloads) but whatever I do, I do not want to compromise the quality by compressing it.

So does anyone know how to get the volumes and tone the same without any loss of quality.

Thanks for all your help in advance - Keith
 
Recent digital masters suffer from a lack of dynamic range, they're often done to sound "REALLY LOUD" all the way through a track. On first listen they grab you, but over time you'll see there's no nuance to them.

You should google "the loudness wars" to see more. It could well be that your vinyl rips are the better option and the downloads are just loud, but not necessarily better.

 
This is a short segment of an audio file which was edited together from two different CDs of the same music. (Why I did this is irrelevant).

Look particularly at the waveform at the LEFT of the image and compare it to that at the RIGHT - after the cursor (vertical black line). Thats the point of the edit.

1601713618690.png


Notice the relative "flatness" of the waveform at the RIGHT compared to the LEFT.

These two segments "sound" to be about the same level when played back. But the left has greater height in the picture.

It its unedited state, the second part maxed out at 0dB but needed to be reduced by about 6dB to "sound" the same as the first part. What was done when the second CD was mastered was that the level was raised, too "high" in fact such that the peak levels were clipped; that's why the waveform looks "flat". The top and bottom peaks are all chopped off at what was 0dB before I edited it.

This is quite common on commercial CDs. It does in fact degrade the sound - but it does sound "louder". I'd suggest you don't want to be doing this with your conversions.

The only real solution is to edit any commercial CD recordings to reduce their level to match your conversions.

I use Audacity for this purpose. It's a free pretty comprehensive audio editor.
 
Have a look at 'replay gain"
Here

Hi @Bryn1 @robotron @LV426



First of all thank you for all reading my post but more than that thanks for taking the time to respond with your advice / help on this matter, plus I hope you don’t mind but as your responses tend to overlap somewhat it make some sense to reply to you all in one go.



Between the three of you I think that I now have a far better understanding around the technical side of things and what’s happening with my digital copies of vinyl that I make myself of my own record collection up against new Hi-res tracks downloads that I purchase for newer tracks.

I now feel from what you have told me between the three of you I know better what to do also you can appreciate at present I have only made about 175 of my own digital copies out of a about 3000 and don’t want to get too far in and find out that I have done it wrong in some way and need to start again.



Some of the things you have told me I had no knowledge of what so ever and other aspects only a vague idea so the outcome for me as I see it is Carrie on making my copies as I do and do not even consider any form of compression or trying to change the volume in anyway as you all say uncompressed music has a far better dynamic range so should be better and as far as my downloads go I will just have to keep adjusting the amp on play back rather than compromise the quality of even a Hi-res download any more than it is to get the volume lower.



Once again thanks for all your help.

Keith
 
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@NEW MUSIC You are obviously having trouble tagging members. You have to use the @ symbol immediately followed by the member's name exactly as you see it in the avatar. If done correctly it will highlight in red once you click post reply. Do not use any full stops or commas behind the name.
 

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