philtex Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 I have just re-discovered vinyl, been away for about 30 years and have just now come back into the fold. Over the last 2 months after getting my Orbit, I have purchased maybe 30 to 40 new records, and having a great time. Some new stuff and a lot of reissues. Back in the day, getting a double album was really special: It meant you got a ton of new songs with one release. I have been really surprised at how many records that I order now arrive as double LPs. Many have only 3 songs on each side, and the other half of the sides are blank. Can anyone explain the motivation for this? Is there some type of technical benefit or aural advantage to release as a double? I don't think its financial because it seems to be about the same price as other single release LPs. (unless there actually happens to be more tracks) I usually like the extra heft and graphics with the double packaging, but getting up to flip that damn side so quick ain't fun for me in my advancing mid 50s! http://leeeditorial.blogspot.com/2016/04/after-over-30-years-i-have-fallen-in.html poweredbytrust 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryantark Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 My best attempt: 1- Cash money 2- Avoiding inner groove distortion 3- Some are 45rpm, wider grooves, better fidelity. 4- Some have fancy etchings or screen prints to make you feel better about a completely blank side. The Vool 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philtex Posted June 7, 2016 Author Share Posted June 7, 2016 11 minutes ago, ryantark said: My best attempt: 1- Cash money 2- Avoiding inner groove distortion 3- Some are 45rpm, wider grooves, better fidelity. 4- Some have fancy etchings or screen prints to make you feel better about a completely blank side. Thanks... yeah a few are 45. But what is inner groove distortion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGhostOfRandySavage Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm philtex and dnl 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryantark Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 6 minutes ago, philtex said: Thanks... yeah a few are 45. But what is inner groove distortion? The inner/last song towards the inside of the record can sound distorted. I believe the grooves are tighter or something. Google it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCDELTAT Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 39 minutes ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said: http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm This. I'd read this several times on other forums and it does a decent job at explaining inner groove distortion (paragraph 8) amongst other things. If a record label could care less about how the LP comes out, then many of these things may be neglected. But if you come across an artist that cares, then they will split it up on 2xLP when any of these limitations of vinyl become a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colbourne25 Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 56 minutes ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said: http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm Great read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGhostOfRandySavage Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 I just figured...why try to explain it when he does a better job than I could hope to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Vool Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 5 hours ago, ryantark said: My best attempt: 1- Cash money 2- Avoiding inner groove distortion 3- Some are 45rpm, wider grooves, better fidelity. 4- Some have fancy etchings or screen prints to make you feel better about a completely blank side. To the point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tape Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 No one's really brought up average song/album length yet. The CD era brought along single albums that were over 60 minutes in length (since the maximum length of a CD is either 74 or 80 minutes). Before CDs, albums were created specifically to the time limitations of vinyl where once you start getting past about 22 minutes/side you start having to make tradeoffs w/r/t fidelity and volume. Therefore, a single 75-minute CD best fits on two LPs. A 60-65 minute album probably best fits on three LP sides. Then there's song length as well. Songs in excess of four minutes are far more common than they used to be. Three six-minute songs and you're at 18 minutes. firefoxUSSR, philtex, soundofsilver and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ethanpricington Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 8 hours ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said: http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm Such a great article. A must read for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thievedrelic Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 12 hours ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said: http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm " A hot club record should be under 12 minutes, 8 to 10 minutes is ideal. Some of the top club DJs tell me they won’t even play records that are over 12 minutes long because they know the levels will be low and don’t want to adjust gain. " This is the most interesting thing I learned. I always wondered why dj's used singles, etc...never considered the depth of the groove and how a deep cut would compress the amount of music you can actually fit on a side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steeltoeagogo Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 1 hour ago, thievedrelic said: " A hot club record should be under 12 minutes, 8 to 10 minutes is ideal. Some of the top club DJs tell me they won’t even play records that are over 12 minutes long because they know the levels will be low and don’t want to adjust gain. " This is the most interesting thing I learned. I always wondered why dj's used singles, etc...never considered the depth of the groove and how a deep cut would compress the amount of music you can actually fit on a side. I always wondered the same thing. Thanks for the read Randy Savage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somethingvinyl Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 13 hours ago, tape said: No one's really brought up average song/album length yet. The CD era brought along single albums that were over 60 minutes in length (since the maximum length of a CD is either 74 or 80 minutes). Before CDs, albums were created specifically to the time limitations of vinyl where once you start getting past about 22 minutes/side you start having to make tradeoffs w/r/t fidelity and volume. Therefore, a single 75-minute CD best fits on two LPs. A 60-65 minute album probably best fits on three LP sides. Then there's song length as well. Songs in excess of four minutes are far more common than they used to be. Three six-minute songs and you're at 18 minutes. Certainly a forgotten reason in the age of progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allenh Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 16 hours ago, tape said: No one's really brought up average song/album length yet. The CD era brought along single albums that were over 60 minutes in length (since the maximum length of a CD is either 74 or 80 minutes). Before CDs, albums were created specifically to the time limitations of vinyl where once you start getting past about 22 minutes/side you start having to make tradeoffs w/r/t fidelity and volume. Therefore, a single 75-minute CD best fits on two LPs. A 60-65 minute album probably best fits on three LP sides. Then there's song length as well. Songs in excess of four minutes are far more common than they used to be. Three six-minute songs and you're at 18 minutes. I must admit I thought it was mostly this, for a long time after CD's became the mainstream albums were still formatted for vinyl so CD's were not exactly full even though they were the primary medium. And on a download there isn't even the 80 minute limit Now that people have got used to the space available and not having to worry about where the tracks need to go in the sequence because digital doesn't have the same technical limitations as vinyl it does mean that more thought is needed on the layout of a vinyl album over it's CD equivalent but you still don't see that much track resequencing apart from splitting them over 3 or 4 sides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundofsilver Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 (edited) On 6/7/2016 at 1:34 AM, The Ghost of Randy Savage said: I just figured...why try to explain it when he does a better job than I could hope to Good read - the DJ comment is spot on Something to keep in mind for future releases - online streaming rules pertaining to what counts towards sold units/recognition (Gold, Platinum) have some stipulation regarding the length of the songs. Prob has something to do with royalties, but I've read more than one source explaining this might be an issue w physical releases going forward. Just something to keep in mind. Edited June 8, 2016 by soundofsilver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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