Tracking modern pop recordings with very loud bass

Are there any new vinyl releases like this? Can people’s Record players track it? Or do the producers tone it down when mastering for vinyl.

**Of course** it can be tracked on LP! And mastering houses don’t need to hold back. Back in the old days (the 1990s) we had the ’Atma-Sphere Bass of the Year’ listing of recordings, most of which are LP:

Vangelis- Conquest of Paradise ST (original vinyl import)
Mike Oldfield - Songs of Distant Earth (original vinyl import)
Global Communications - Remotion (original vinyl import)

Mystical Experiences (vinyl import)
Symbiosis- Numinous EP (domestic vinyl)
Fields of Nephilim - Zoon (import vinyl)
Massive Attack - 100th Window (original import 3LP set 45rpm edition)
King Crimson - Islands (original domestic white label)
Steven Roach - Early Man (CD only)
Infinity Project- Mystical Experiences (original vinyl import)

BTW you may have noticed something here- a good number of these recordings are imports. The US labels were actively suppressing vinyl during most of the 1990s so the import was often the only alternative. I imported several titles for resale in this manner- if you have original vinyl of Songs of Distant Earth or the Dances With Wolves soundtrack both from the early 1990s, its likely because I imported it for resale.


In the 1990s I first heard Sarah Mclachlan and so imported her Solace LP but it sold out immediately. This was a cause of frustration (it has killer bass on it) and I mentioned this to Michael Hobson of Classic Records at a Stereophile party at CES back about 1995. Only a year later he was putting Sarah McLachlan’s music out on LP. I never thought his version of Solace had the same bass as the original though. He also produced several Peter Gabriel LPs on my suggestion. Peter Gabriel was always good about getting bass in his recordings :)


The bottom line is getting good bass on LP is no worries at all! Because for so many years digital sounded bright and because the human ear reacts to tonal balance in a particular way (brightness makes bass sound weak; too much bass makes the highs sound rolled off) If you really wanted to hear what the bass was about you had to get the LP. These days that’s not so much of a problem as digital has improved so much.

1+ Atmasphere. 

You want to blow your roof off. Get the newest vinyl release of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex and Magik. It is more potent than the CD. 

Thanks Atmasphere. That is the kind of relevant response I was hoping for.

I guess I have no doubt its possible. But can can any good quality vinyl rig track those well? How hard is it and what does it take? Does it take an audiophile vinyl setup to track modern pop recordings like these well? Cost?

Just wondering. Most all my vinyl is old releases, 1980s and older so I don’t have much to go on.

I think I still have the old Telarc Firebird vinyl release from teh early days of digital vinyl mastering with the big dynamics that took a very well thought out rig to track. Most standard issue Japanese tables of the days with the S shaped tonearms and popular cartridges of the day could not handle that one.

So what is it that makes similar very dynamic digital recordings more digestible to the masses on vinyl these days? Or also say merely loud ones with lots of loud electronic synth bass? Thinking Eminem, etc. Can the average Joe buy a record like that and be successful? Or should they just stick to streaming/digital where tracking a good quality challenging record well is not an issue and leave those records to the audiophiles to tackle? Or do the record makers these days tone it down to make it less problematic for the average Joe?

Seems to me the newer one’s taste in music, the less it makes sense to invest in vinyl because most all tend to be much louder in general these days and that includes the bass. At least that’s the case with digital/streaming format. Are newer records mastered to not be as loud? louder means more modulation...more modulation means harder to track.  Am I off base there? Off course the nice thing about vinyl is always the nice packaging with a product that you can still own but that has nothing to do with the sound.

What are you talking about ?

You’d better go to a party to hear some Drum & Bass spinning by your local DJ on vinyl, it will blow you b.....s off. There is nothing but a drums and bass, and it’s on vinyl! An average $50 pro cartridge like Shure M44-7 on $350 Technics SL1200mk2 turntable tracks everything, including some super bass heavy club music recorded and mastered digitally and pressed on vinyl. Even if the music is nothing but shit, technically, it’s not a problem to reproduce deep bass that will shake buildings in the nearest blocks if there is a festival or some rave nearby with sound system that can be dangerous for your health.

Asking about "bass" you have to remember club culture and electronic music of the 80’s and 90’s before digital !

If you want to go deeper in details read about special mastering for vinyl and you will find tips about bass (it must be in mono). 

It make no sense to compare overcompressed digital electronic music to real live music. What they do in electronic music does not exist in real live music. If you want to check the extreme then electronic music is a good example. 

A proper music can be recorded direct to disk without any problem with tremendous dynamics and instruments like bass guitar or double bass will be real. 

@mapman, there are many inexpensive setups that will track difficult records beautifully. Take a Rega P3, put an Audio Technica VM95 ML in it and you will have an excellent tracking turntable for $1300