Feb 17
CD’s or Vinyl?
2004 at 12.05 am posted by Veerle Pieters
Most people don’t listen to vinyl records anymore. But maybe you didn’t know that they are still out there, mostly as 12” for DJ’s to mix at parties. I remember when the CD came out people said that vinyl will die a quick death, but now many years later it’s still alive. Probably the most famous vinyl player of all times is the Technics 1200. All well-known DJ’s prefer this turntable. I still think that vinyl sounds a lot better then CD’s, it has a richer/warmer sound in my opinion.
But all this is about to change since a well-known German DJ who has been in the top 5 of the world's best DJ's for many years in a row has made the switch. When Paul Van Dyk goes on the road, he leaves his collection of vinyl and CD's at home. The popular Berlin-based trance DJ has gone entirely digital: He carries 1,000 select songs with him on a 60-gig PowerBook G4 that runs a hardware-software tool called FinalScratch. He says he didn't like FinalScratch at first because it was designed mainly for mixing MP3s and other compressed audio files.
"I'm a sound freak," he admits - the quality wasn't high enough for him. So Van Dyk stores his tunes as uncompressed AIFF files instead, and for added refinement, he gives every track an extra smoothing for the dance floor. "Everything I play goes through the mastering setup of my studio," he explains, "so everything you hear sounds even better than the original record." Here's a peek inside his sound system.
Paul Van Dyk's All-Digital Setup
- 1. Van Dyk scratches songs using a FinalScratch dummy record that looks and spins like a regular 12-inch. "It's just like playing a real record," he says.
- 2. The dummy record is placed on a deck connected to the Scratch Amp, which tells the PowerBook what part of the song to play and how to play it.
- 3. The computer sends the music signal back to the Scratch Amp, which translates it from digital to analog and feeds it out to the club's sound system.
- 4. Using a CD player, Van Dyk can play a song into FinalScratch's memory buffer, then mix up to three iterations of that same song into each other.
FinalScratch is available on Mac and Windows and has just received an update to version 1.5. (source Wired)
9served
1
I still listen to vinyl records on a Stanton. It gives a warmer sounds, and the experience is unlike any other sounds medium.
2
Reinier: My thoughts exactly. Sometimes when I listen to eighties I’m amazed how much better it sounds then the same version on CD. The only real downside is that vinyl starts to lose its quality if you play them too often. The less up tempo numbers like for example “Dire Straits - Private Investigations” are the first to show these symptoms.
3
did anyone of you ever try to digitise those vinyls? I’m curious about those experiences? I have the SW but never started to do it ! looks like quite a hassle to me , but if your experiences say its’s worth it, I’ll start to nail ‘em ;-) this weekend
4
There is also another product called ms pinky which does something similar.
It’s pretty darn good. I think I like it better than final scratch.
5
Most world leading djs now only use Digital rather then 12inch….Detoirt house specialist Richie Hawtin has been pushing final scratch for years .. likewise MOS dj Mark Dynamix has been doing the same here in oz.
6
Simon: If you only look at the top 5 of the world’s best DJ’s most of them still play vinyl. Last year I was in Arnhem at Tiësto live and there it was all vinyl. Paul van Dyk is exception of the rule here. I read that Roger Sanchez is partly using digital equipment but mostly still vinyl.
It’s a fact that if you want to book those guys for a gig that most of them demand the presence of those Technics 1200 turntables and Freefloat (to make their decks skip-free at any circumstances) Freefloat is a very cool tool btw. Simple and effective. Just look at the big names who are using this product, so vinyl is still pretty much alive.
7
I have to agree with Veerle. Most DJ’s (the big ones included) still use vinyl.
I wish I was in Arnhem when Tiësto was playing…. I have the DVD, so I can enjoy it at home :-)
8
Reinier: yeah it was very cool in Arnhem especially the live performance from Dinant of Kane, that was really impressive… and it’s now becoming a hit here in Belgium. Is the DVD worth buying btw?
9
I got it for Christmas. There are 2 DVDs in the jewelcase dvd box. The first is a registration of the ‘concert’ in 2 hours. The second DVD shows behind the scenes footage and some extra stuff. Till now, I only watched the first DVD. I liked it very much!