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Last song on most LP's pressed with compression

Over the last few yrs, I have spent more time with my cd player than analog rig. Anyway, the winter is here and I'm feelin the groove and started listening critically to LP again. What bothers me is the last song on a side is often compressed. You have hear this as a reduction in sound quality, akin to what an MP3 does to a cd original. Now if you inspect the LP closely that bothers you. You can see visually that the grooves towards the end are actually cut into the record differently. They are compressed together. I don't care what cartridge or equipment you use, the distortion is there..period . Once your brain locks onto it, listening thru this distortion is very difficult. Now before the experts chime in, I'm not talking about inner groove distortion here. Nor is there anything wrong with my alignment,VTA, tracking,azimuth etc. If you can't hear this on your rig (with an LP that is cut compressed on the last track- not all are)then no doubt your system is not resolved enough. Part of my LP collection (about 500 records)are 12" singles. These do not suffer from this problem for obvious reasons. But I'd bet that 60% or more of regular LP's do. What all this means for me is that the days of investing big $$$ on LP playback are over. What I have is what I have and when it eventually wears out, I doubt that I'll replace it. Yup, I am that bugged by wasting a portion of my valuable listening time listening to a lower quality signal. I modify my own equipment to achieve the highest quality signal that I possibly can. So subjecting myself to a flawed LP format is a step backwards. Before I play an LP now, I examine that groove pattern towards the end. If it looks extra compressed, then back on the shelf that title goes. I'll pick the original (non maximized) cd version every time.

Feel free to chime in.
reb1208
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
By the way, the inner groove problem that Herman mentions will also affect the visual appearance of the grooves.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
Reb1208,

What you say is a reality. The way you get round it is to put a quiet track on the inner groove so it won't be as noticeable. The other option is to drop additional tracks and make the overall LP shorter. Since it is a physical problem there is not much else that can be done.

Sadly much of what you buy on pop CD's are compressed just as badly (if not much worse - such as Metallica) simply to get the desired punchy sound for radio play or in people's cars.

Getting good recordings is and still remains a challenge with both technologies....
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,150 posts
 
As others have pointed out, compression is the wrong term. Vinyl mastering is far more difficult than its digital counterpart. One of the secrets to effective vinyl mastering is getting the proper song sequencing. With digital there are no physical considerations in the song sequencing and it's purely an artistic decision. However, with vinyl you have to take into account the side A/side B issue plus the dynamic challenges of inner groove spacing. Add to that the artistic element and you've got several variables to juggle. For symphonic music the situation is even worse than for pop/jazz. I've noticed that many vinyl releases are now two record set. I speculate they would have been single disks back in the day. It's something of a hack solution, but it's better than the alternatives.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the visual spacing of the grooves is not necessarily related to the music's dynamic range. You can have widely spaced grooves and not have wide dynamics. Narrowly spaced grooves have less potential dynamic range, but depending upon the music it may or may not be a factor.
jdaniel13
129 posts
 
You're absolutely right, but all delivery methods have problems; the "thinning" of sound towards the end of *some* lp's is indeed a compromise. But wouldn't you rather "waste" only a *portion* of your listening time listening to the end of an lp, or waste *all* of your listening time listening to a CD, in which the distortion is interwoven into the information, perverting the rhythm and delicacy of the music, kind of like when that scientist comes out of his molecular transport machine not knowing that now he's a fly.

(Sorry, just wanted to cover all the Lp-only idealogues' (sp) outrageous statements first. : )
pryso
1,912 posts
 
As others have suggested (stated), compression is not the problem. During the mastering process the speed at which the cutter head moves across the disc can be varied to compensate groove width for loud and soft passages. This is true across the record when properly mastered, unless that process is screwed up. With an LP of unusual side play time, say 25 minutes or so, bass may be compromised but that should be apparent across the entire side.

But the slower speed of the stylus through the inner groove can affect sonics, just as Herman describes. Another potential cause for inner groove distortion is cartridge alignment, at least if you use a pivoted arm. Among the different alignment procedures, one can select for average overall alignment, mid-record optimization, or latter half optimization. But if you have not carefully aligned your cartridge to one of these, all bets are off and you will likely hear greater distortion on the inner groove of an LP.
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