Sony plans to make vinyl records again
Frank Zappa on vinyl, BAM (Bay Area Music magazine) [1987]:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.afka.net&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;1987-01_BAM.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.afka.net&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;1987-01_BAM.htm</a><p>BAM: Working with a computerized synthesizer, do you find that vinyl is no longer the most desirable way to present your music? Will you be releasing CD-only recordings?<p>FZ: Well, vinyl never really was all that terrific a medium anyway. Some people cling to the belief that vinyl sounds better. I don&#x27;t know. Not to my ear. I like it on digital tape myself.<p>BAM: There&#x27;s supposed to be a warmth to vinyl.<p>FZ: Well, let&#x27;s analyze what the word warmth is. Does warmth mean a lack of top end, or an extra bunch of frequency bulge at 300 cycles. What the fuck is warmth? How do you quantify that in audio terms?<p>BAM: Critics don&#x27;t have to quantify in audio terms. We use words like warmth.<p>FZ: Yeah, well, you know, you can demonstrate pseudo-warmth in a technical way in the studio by using a broad-band equalizer and boosting things around 300 cycles, you know. It just gets pudgier. And you roll off the top end a little bit, and things start to sound, you know, warm! – if that&#x27;s the kind of sound that you like. I don&#x27;t particularly care for that sound.<p>--<p>Mix Magazine [1983]:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.afka.net&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;1983-06_Mix.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.afka.net&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;1983-06_Mix.htm</a><p>Mix: The complaint has been that the digital tape sounds great, but when you transfer it to an analog medium you get a whole different sound.<p>FZ: You do get different stuff, and the reason you do is that the dynamic range of the digital tape is 90 dB and the dynamic range of a record is about 45 to 50 dB. So you can&#x27;t let all the peaks go where they would normally go – you have to compress it. But if you&#x27;re going to plan for the future, I think ultimately records are going to be released on compact discs, little laser discs, and they&#x27;ve got 90 dB. There&#x27;s a way to do it. I&#x27;ll compensate to get it on a piece of vinyl and still have the right thing digitally.