6 ms·

The problems I have with CD's that I don't with Vinyl: - CD's scratch and then skip easily - CD's come in horrible plastic covers that break if you look at th

The problems I have with CD's that I don't with Vinyl: - CD's scratch and then skip easily - CD's come in horrible plastic covers that break if you look at them wrong. - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. - The benefits vinyl provides (large artwork and liner notes/ lyrics, posters etc.) don't all apply to CD's and at that point there's not much/any benefit CD's have over digital.

danmaz74 9y ago
> - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Are you serious?
- k-mcgrady 9y ago
  Completely. Well, ok, not really :) I debated including it because it's not something I do very often. I do think it's true though. On a CD you hold the skip button and have to guess where you are (pretty sure none of my CD players showed a timecode when skipping but it's been a while). With vinyl you can see a physical representation of the length of the track and estimate much better (i.e. the solo is half way through so I put the needle in between these two lines and I should be close). NB: I'm thinking about actual CD players here, not your CD through iTunes or something where you can click to skip on a progress bar.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    The first CD player I used, which my parents bought in about 1988, showed the current time when you held down the "Fast Forward" button. I don't think I've ever owned one that didn't do this. Nowadays, a good professional CD player (or DJ equipment) will have something like an infinite-turn knob, which you can use to seek.
    - k-mcgrady 9y ago
      Hmmm maybe I'm just remembering wrong then. It's been a long time since I had a dedicated CD player.
      - edmccard 9y ago
        >maybe I'm just remembering wrong then. Nope; many CD players, like the first one I got in 1986, had only a two-digit led display for the track number -- there was no time display at all. EDIT: It was a Fisher Studio Standard that looked like this, so I guess it did show an "index number" while scanning through a track. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J08NITOv2FA/hqdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J08NITOv2FA/hqdefault.jpg
- to3m 9y ago
  > CD's scratch and then skip easily I imagine they are not!
Mediterraneo10 9y ago
> Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Why would you even play the CD? Just rip it once to your media center in a lossless format, and then put it back on the shelf and never touch it again unless you suffer a hard drive failure with no backup. On a media center, it is easy to skip to whatever part of the song you want. Plus, if you don't open the CD's jewel case again after that initial rip, then you won't have to worry about the jewel case breaking through mishandling.
- k-mcgrady 9y ago
  Well yeah but I thought the point of this conversation was comparing the physical media CD to vinyl instead of using a digital version on your computer. Vinyl can be ripped too and most new releases come with a free download.
- __david__ 9y ago
  Incidentally that’s how I deal with the few records I have. I rip them once to flax’s and then never touch them again. Then I can experience the noisy clicks and pops from the comfort of my phone. :-)
gorkonsine 9y ago
>- CD's scratch and then skip easily Only if you mishandle and abuse them. Doing that to vinyl records is going to make them sound lousy too. Both of them are fairly delicate. >- CD's come in horrible plastic covers that break if you look at them wrong. Those jewel boxes are easily replaced, because most of them are standard (the exceptions are weird ones, like the double-CD ones). The plastic boxes keep the booklets and artwork in pristine condition. On vinyl records, there's no plastic, only paper/cardboard, so the more you handle it, the more worn-down and beat-up it gets. There's no way to keep it mint-looking without simply never opening or handling it. With CDs, as long as you're careful handling them, they'll stay mint-looking indefinitely (as long as they aren't those stupid "recyclable" ones that are mostly cardboard without the jewel boxes). The only advantage LPs have is that there's physically more space for artwork/notes. But that's not a big problem; in the CDs, it's just shrunk down to 1/4 its LP size. Get some reading glasses if you have problems seeing that.
- maldusiecle 9y ago
  > But that's not a big problem; in the CDs, it's just shrunk down to 1/4 its LP size. Get some reading glasses if you have problems seeing that. By the same reasoning, I suppose I should throw out my tablet and replace it with an iPhone and a magnifying glass.
  - gorkonsine 9y ago
    That's a very strange comparison. How often do you look closely at the artwork for an album? If you're spending countless hours staring at a single album cover, you probably have some issues.
    - maldusiecle 9y ago
      I don't know if you've bought an LP before, but many of them have what's called "liner notes," which are long textual notes about the album's contents. If you shrink these down to 1/4 of their size, they are almost impossible to read. (I have several jazz CDs which reproduce the original LP covers at a smaller size, and they're terrible to try to read.) Even if it weren't for liner notes, though, there's a difference between large album art and small. Many LPs have elaborate, detailed artwork that loses a lot by being shrunk down.
kazinator 9y ago
> CD's scratch and then skip easily You can back up a CD's audio tracks digitally to PCM files, with no loss. You still have the music even if the CD is completely destroyed, and your backup survives. Vinyl records are also sensitive. They can skip even with slight vibration, because the arm which holds the needle is delicately balanced to exert only a small force to keep the needle in the groove. Vinyl records easily warp from heat. They still play, but the warps make it easier for skipping to occur. Fun personal fact: my grandma hard a way to make records flat again. She sandwiched them between cotton cloths, and gave them an ironing! > Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Skipping to a certain part of a song is very difficult with a vinyl record. The song consists of a strip of grooves that are only a couple of centimeters wide. The resolution for navigating is not very good. Even if you could pick a specific cycle of the groove, which you won't, your precision is still limited by the rotating latency. At 33 rpm (let's round off to 30 rpm), you have one revolution every two seconds. (Sure, you could stop the rotation, and fiddle with it for five minutes to get the exact spot in a four minute song.) With a CD-ROM drive and PC/laptop, you can script up some software to seek to a position with sub-second precision. A decent media player lets you mark off two points, A and B, with sub-second precision, and loop them. A bookmarking feature is plausible; there is no reason why a CD playing application wouldn't let you make bookmarks associated with CD's. Pop in a CD, and see a list of bookmarks; pick one and there you are at your favorite part of a favorite song. (If this doesn't exist, propose it ... say for VLC, or hack it yourself.)
noisem4ker 9y ago
>CD's scratch and then skip easily They can also be regenerated for cheap as long as the scratches don't reach the data layer and only affect the plastic protection layer. Vinyl discs, on the other hand...

danmaz74 9y ago

> - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Are you serious?

k-mcgrady 9y ago
Completely. Well, ok, not really :) I debated including it because it's not something I do very often. I do think it's true though. On a CD you hold the skip button and have to guess where you are (pretty sure none of my CD players showed a timecode when skipping but it's been a while). With vinyl you can see a physical representation of the length of the track and estimate much better (i.e. the solo is half way through so I put the needle in between these two lines and I should be close). NB: I'm thinking about actual CD players here, not your CD through iTunes or something where you can click to skip on a progress bar.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Symbiote 9y ago
  The first CD player I used, which my parents bought in about 1988, showed the current time when you held down the "Fast Forward" button. I don't think I've ever owned one that didn't do this. Nowadays, a good professional CD player (or DJ equipment) will have something like an infinite-turn knob, which you can use to seek.
  - k-mcgrady 9y ago
    Hmmm maybe I'm just remembering wrong then. It's been a long time since I had a dedicated CD player.
    - edmccard 9y ago
      >maybe I'm just remembering wrong then. Nope; many CD players, like the first one I got in 1986, had only a two-digit led display for the track number -- there was no time display at all. EDIT: It was a Fisher Studio Standard that looked like this, so I guess it did show an "index number" while scanning through a track. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J08NITOv2FA/hqdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J08NITOv2FA/hqdefault.jpg
to3m 9y ago
> CD's scratch and then skip easily I imagine they are not!

Mediterraneo10 9y ago

> Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Why would you even play the CD? Just rip it once to your media center in a lossless format, and then put it back on the shelf and never touch it again unless you suffer a hard drive failure with no backup. On a media center, it is easy to skip to whatever part of the song you want. Plus, if you don't open the CD's jewel case again after that initial rip, then you won't have to worry about the jewel case breaking through mishandling.

k-mcgrady 9y ago
Well yeah but I thought the point of this conversation was comparing the physical media CD to vinyl instead of using a digital version on your computer. Vinyl can be ripped too and most new releases come with a free download.
__david__ 9y ago
Incidentally that’s how I deal with the few records I have. I rip them once to flax’s and then never touch them again. Then I can experience the noisy clicks and pops from the comfort of my phone. :-)

gorkonsine 9y ago

>- CD's scratch and then skip easily Only if you mishandle and abuse them. Doing that to vinyl records is going to make them sound lousy too. Both of them are fairly delicate. >- CD's come in horrible plastic covers that break if you look at them wrong. Those jewel boxes are easily replaced, because most of them are standard (the exceptions are weird ones, like the double-CD ones). The plastic boxes keep the booklets and artwork in pristine condition. On vinyl records, there's no plastic, only paper/cardboard, so the more you handle it, the more worn-down and beat-up it gets. There's no way to keep it mint-looking without simply never opening or handling it. With CDs, as long as you're careful handling them, they'll stay mint-looking indefinitely (as long as they aren't those stupid "recyclable" ones that are mostly cardboard without the jewel boxes). The only advantage LPs have is that there's physically more space for artwork/notes. But that's not a big problem; in the CDs, it's just shrunk down to 1/4 its LP size. Get some reading glasses if you have problems seeing that.

maldusiecle 9y ago
> But that's not a big problem; in the CDs, it's just shrunk down to 1/4 its LP size. Get some reading glasses if you have problems seeing that. By the same reasoning, I suppose I should throw out my tablet and replace it with an iPhone and a magnifying glass.
- gorkonsine 9y ago
  That's a very strange comparison. How often do you look closely at the artwork for an album? If you're spending countless hours staring at a single album cover, you probably have some issues.
  - maldusiecle 9y ago
    I don't know if you've bought an LP before, but many of them have what's called "liner notes," which are long textual notes about the album's contents. If you shrink these down to 1/4 of their size, they are almost impossible to read. (I have several jazz CDs which reproduce the original LP covers at a smaller size, and they're terrible to try to read.) Even if it weren't for liner notes, though, there's a difference between large album art and small. Many LPs have elaborate, detailed artwork that loses a lot by being shrunk down.

kazinator 9y ago

> CD's scratch and then skip easily You can back up a CD's audio tracks digitally to PCM files, with no loss. You still have the music even if the CD is completely destroyed, and your backup survives. Vinyl records are also sensitive. They can skip even with slight vibration, because the arm which holds the needle is delicately balanced to exert only a small force to keep the needle in the groove. Vinyl records easily warp from heat. They still play, but the warps make it easier for skipping to occur. Fun personal fact: my grandma hard a way to make records flat again. She sandwiched them between cotton cloths, and gave them an ironing! > Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Skipping to a certain part of a song is very difficult with a vinyl record. The song consists of a strip of grooves that are only a couple of centimeters wide. The resolution for navigating is not very good. Even if you could pick a specific cycle of the groove, which you won't, your precision is still limited by the rotating latency. At 33 rpm (let's round off to 30 rpm), you have one revolution every two seconds. (Sure, you could stop the rotation, and fiddle with it for five minutes to get the exact spot in a four minute song.) With a CD-ROM drive and PC/laptop, you can script up some software to seek to a position with sub-second precision. A decent media player lets you mark off two points, A and B, with sub-second precision, and loop them. A bookmarking feature is plausible; there is no reason why a CD playing application wouldn't let you make bookmarks associated with CD's. Pop in a CD, and see a list of bookmarks; pick one and there you are at your favorite part of a favorite song. (If this doesn't exist, propose it ... say for VLC, or hack it yourself.)

noisem4ker 9y ago

>CD's scratch and then skip easily They can also be regenerated for cheap as long as the scratches don't reach the data layer and only affect the plastic protection layer. Vinyl discs, on the other hand...