I saw some vinyl getting talked about, and it made me want to start a thread to ask this specific questions to the vinyl junkies of WeAreAFI.com.
So I have heard from more than a few people that the grey 2014/15 repressing of AFI’s Nitro-Era albums are pretty terrible pressings. However the other day I got an Art of Drowning vinyl from when it was first released, and even with my really good speakers, couldn’t hear any major differences in sound between that and my 2014/15 repressing of Art of Drowning. I have the Nitro-era box set, and have compared that to my repressings of Black Sails and Shut Your Mouth as well, and have heard minimal difference.
I was wondering if any of you vinyl junkies out there have heard anything about how good these pressings are, and if in your experience what you’ve heard has been true?
Sorry that was long…I hope that it all came across clearly
Ummm, maybe it’s because I’m not hipster enough, but I have both the original Black Sails and the original Art of Drowning and the 2014/15 repressings, and I can’t hear much of a difference. Again, I might not have that total vinyl junkie superpower to hear audible differences, but I don’t hear it; I even tried them out of my dad’s wall of sound (he has his old giant Marshall amps and sound board attached to his fancy turntable) and didn’t hear much of a difference. The repressings are a little granier in sound, but that’s about it, and I only heard that difference on the wall of sound at 3/4 volume.
Here’s the thing, I think the main difference comes when labels repress vinyl with MP3 files…and I don’t think they did that for the repressings. I could be wrong…
I like to think of myself as someone who can hear differences considering I’m a musician and have produced my friends’ bands’ records before, so it would be a bit embarassing.
I just hear a lot of bad shit about the repressings sometimes, and I always just think it must be their copy, because mine is fine.
Yeah, using MP3 files is the main way labels are doing it lately, right? At least for repressings?
But, like I said, giant Marshall Amps and still barely heard it. It just sounded a little rougher, but that could have been the needle, my copies, etc. There was nothing majorly different in sound between the pressings.
The problem is, a lot of labels didn’t keep the analog masterings…because they didn’t know that vinyl was going to remain so in demand. So now for a lot of older stuff, these big labels like Interscope or Atlantic only have MP3 masterings.
Luckily, more than often, little labels like Nitro made their money on vinyl, and kept stuff to be able to repress them well. I just don’t know what they’re repressing with since Nitro kind of stopped being a label, and now just does repressing of old records.
Maybe Nitro was able to retain the old masterings as part of the contract they have with their artists, and that’s why the repressings sound better than other repressings. Because I do have bad repressings- my ex had a repressing of Unknown Pleasures that sounds awful; thankfully I have the original pressing of that baby and retained it when we broke up. But the Nitro stuff doesn’t sound nearly as bad as that, or even bad at all.
I’ve only listened to my older pressings and never the new ones. I believe they have new Matrix scratches that could imply a new plate was made to press, but I can’t imagine them being any different. What they really need to do is make a definitive 180 gram repressing to give us the better sound experience.
Also make all the colors solid so collecting isn’t such a pain in the ass.
Those 2014/15 pressings annoy me. I got most, if not all of the pressings years back… around 2002/2003 when AFI was going to Dreamworks, however, I wasn’t around online when the newer ones hit. Some of this stuff is just too much to keep up with.
Thankfully, AFI is the only band I am crazy fan-happy about.
On another note, I have NEVER played any of my vinyl. I own it all for collector’s reasons.
I kid, I kid. I grew up listening to vinyl, so it’s weird for me to just listen on my computer/blue tooth speakers. Haha. But at least all your vinyl will stay in mint condition.
