lnoyl Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 Hey, Im very close to pressing my first set of records. At the last second, before sending off the order, I've received a note from the plant that suggests that certain colours (solid colours) may result in higher noise/less fidelity that transparent colours, or black. Is it true? Is it noticeable enough to make a difference? Will my white vinyl pressing have noticeably less fidelity? kris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamlikesmusic Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 I can tell the color of a record just by ear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickheitman Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 i feel like clear vinyl sounds the worse but i think i just hate clear vinyl. it doesn't really matter i think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcm1610 Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 I hate clear records, but I've heard people say black definitely does sound better. I have a shit system so I dunno. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtw88 Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 I've heard of certain haze or smoke effects leaving a gritty substance on the vinyl which can affect play until it is cleaned off, but other than that I would assume that anyone who claims for a fact that color vinyl has lower fidelity is just a snooty purist. I could be wrong though. I certainly can't tell a difference with my setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest afsdan Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 dudes, black will sound better no matter what, as there are no dyes, or other substances used to create colors/patterns/etc. Clear, and transparent colors are next, as white is the worst of 'em all, and it is used to make the solid colors. I'm no purist, but there's definite quality differences. but you're not punk if you give a shit. white vinyl is fucking sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickheitman Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 but you're not punk if you give a shit. white vinyl is fucking sweet. hahahah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Another Tom Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Dude, i couldn't tell if you if there was a difference in sound depending on colour or not. What i can tell you is that by my reckoning 90% of people wouldn't be able to hear the difference, and 97% couldn't afford a setup that would allow them to. I wouldn't worry about the left over 3% because they are searching for unreachable perfection that ultimately is going to leave them something to groan about. In my opinion a shitty album will still sound shit on 210g black vinyl spinning on a £3000 sound system, where as a great album will still sound great on a 25 year old thrift store Walkman hooked up to a loudspeaker filled with jelly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammyg Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Mmmm, speaker jelly.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minty Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 dudes, black will sound better no matter what, as there are no dyes, or other substances used to create colors/patterns/etc. Clear, and transparent colors are next, as white is the worst of 'em all, and it is used to make the solid colors. I'm no purist, but there's definite quality differences. but you're not punk if you give a shit. white vinyl is fucking sweet. you do know that black vinyl is coloured too, right? vinyl without 'dyes' would be clear. transparent records for the win!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlovecolouredx Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 from my experience and what are in my collection, i think clear sounds better than white.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
000000 Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 i dont have any clear, but my Big D "Strictly Rude" and Mewithoutyou "Brother Sister" sound just fine on white. i dont have a high-end system, but i'm not using a crappy turntable either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjaicomo Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Racist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest drahtuos Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 white always sounds noisier to me than anything else, but thats just me, i dont know for sure but what afsdan says makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychoriley Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I swear my copy of Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You red/black half N half sounds funny. I was gonna ask if anyone else has noticed any sound difference in half colored records. I can tell when it hits the red half. Especially the quieter it is. Its the only half and half color record I have right now so didn't have another to check it with. Wait, I just got All Aboard black/pink in, havn't listened to it...I'll have to check it out tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlovecolouredx Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Racist. hahaha. so i am a racism because my account name is love-coloured.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnoldlayne Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I have a fairly high-end set-up. I don't buy white records if I can avoid it, and hazes do need a good clean first, but otherwise you have to really want to hear a difference to find one. I've heard great sounding colour presses and terrible black presses. Well produced music on a professionally pressed record will sound good regardless of colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konsonant Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Looks like clear vinyl is the best: http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/classics_clarity_pressings/ http://vinylfanatics.com/content/view/436/38/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattstrike Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Friend of mine has a Classic Clarity pressing and you can absolutely hear a difference on A/B comparison, but it's pretty slight to my ears. However, even with my relatively mid-high-end gear, we didn't hear a jaw dropping improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjaicomo Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Negligible - That is the bottom line here. The vast majority of the quality is indelibly laid down on the recording end of albums. I am not entirely sure what the natural color of PVC is, but it definitely not pure black, and it's probably not perfectly clear either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtz Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I swear my copy of Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You red/black half N half sounds funny. I was gonna ask if anyone else has noticed any sound difference in half colored records. I can tell when it hits the red half. Especially the quieter it is. Its the only half and half color record I have right now so didn't have another to check it with. Wait, I just got All Aboard black/pink in, havn't listened to it...I'll have to check it out tomorrow. I have heard this on some half/half records too. You can definately hear where it goes from one color to the next. It's not like that on all my half/half records, but a couple are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexH. Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I swear my copy of Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You red/black half N half sounds funny. I was gonna ask if anyone else has noticed any sound difference in half colored records. I can tell when it hits the red half. Especially the quieter it is. Its the only half and half color record I have right now so didn't have another to check it with. Wait, I just got All Aboard black/pink in, havn't listened to it...I'll have to check it out tomorrow. Same. I have a bunch of half black/half colored records, and they all have noticeably more surface noise on the colored half. I don't even have a very nice setup, and I can tell. The other commonality my half & half records share is that they were all pressed at GZ press. In fact, almost every colored record I own that was pressed at GZ has surface noise, more so than even recycled United vinyl. Coincidence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tak3n0prisoner5 Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 dudes, black will sound better no matter what, as there are no dyes, or other substances used to create colors/patterns/etc. Clear, and transparent colors are next, as white is the worst of 'em all, and it is used to make the solid colors. I'm no purist, but there's definite quality differences. but you're not punk if you give a shit. white vinyl is fucking sweet. you do know that black vinyl is coloured too, right? vinyl without 'dyes' would be clear. transparent records for the win!! true, clear wax seems to be the best Today at 2:36am, NoControl wrote:I swear my copy of Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You red/black half N half sounds funny. I was gonna ask if anyone else has noticed any sound difference in half colored records. I can tell when it hits the red half. Especially the quieter it is. Its the only half and half color record I have right now so didn't have another to check it with. Wait, I just got All Aboard black/pink in, havn't listened to it...I'll have to check it out tomorrow. I have heard this on some half/half records too. You can definately hear where it goes from one color to the next. It's not like that on all my half/half records, but a couple are. I got Jesu-Lifeline gold/black split LP and gold half sounds more noisier, strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattstrike Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I swear my copy of Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You red/black half N half sounds funny. I was gonna ask if anyone else has noticed any sound difference in half colored records. I can tell when it hits the red half. Especially the quieter it is. Its the only half and half color record I have right now so didn't have another to check it with. Wait, I just got All Aboard black/pink in, havn't listened to it...I'll have to check it out tomorrow. Same. I have a bunch of half black/half colored records, and they all have noticeably more surface noise on the colored half. I don't even have a very nice setup, and I can tell. The other commonality my half & half records share is that they were all pressed at GZ press. In fact, almost every colored record I own that was pressed at GZ has surface noise, more so than even recycled United vinyl. Coincidence? I've said it before and I will opine again: GZ is a horrible pressing plant that is good for one thing - making gimmicky records that are appealing visually (+/–) only. I wish to hell labels would stop using them or that Pirates Press would contract with a US plant (like my favorite – RTI) and at least give folks a choice between sonics and novelty. I'd rather have it on black than an umpteenth 3 color haze that sounds like utter shite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundstudymatt Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Dude, i couldn't tell if you if there was a difference in sound depending on colour or not. What i can tell you is that by my reckoning 90% of people wouldn't be able to hear the difference, and 97% couldn't afford a setup that would allow them to. I wouldn't worry about the left over 3% because they are searching for unreachable perfection that ultimately is going to leave them something to groan about. In my opinion a shitty album will still sound shit on 210g black vinyl spinning on a £3000 sound system, where as a great album will still sound great on a 25 year old thrift store Walkman hooked up to a loudspeaker filled with jelly. This is the truth. Also, why does everyone alway hate on Pirates Press? I've pressed records at three different plants at this point and they have always been the easiest to work with/done the best job and the records sound great. Pirates Press (more specifically GZ Media) always uses virgin vinyl and they use a DMM (direct metal mastering) As far as I know they are the only plant that does. DMM reduces noise, improves imaging and increases high frequency response. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_metal_mastering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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