Non-digitally produced vinyls?

Hi,

The current trend of vinyls intrigues me. I admit that I find it magical: if the music is produced in an analog fashion, then pressed on vinyl, the sound is getting uninterrupted/undigitalized, straight from musical instruments to my ears.
But, alas, what’s the point of all this hassle when the music is digitized, mixed, and mastered digitally, then pressed on vinyl? This way, analog qualities are lost, and I fail to see the point anymore… I can just stream music online if the music is digitized either way…

Aside from philosophical debate, a practical question also arises: How or where can find vinyl releases which are not recorded, mixed, mastered digitally? Is there a keyword for this? A database of some sorts, perhaps?
I am interested in modern (mostly electronic, psytrance and siblings) music.

Thanks!
Zsolt

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apart from vinyl, i wonder if electronic music produced digitless exists at all

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You sir, believe in magic.

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I’m not sure about now, but certainly around 7-8 years ago there were still cutting facilities that accepted analogue masters, probably some still do.

However probably worth remembering that even in the 90’s most stuff was cut from digital masters like DAT, also digital samples have been used since the 80’s, so getting a vinyl with 100% analogue sound was always pretty rare from the 80’s onwards.

Also worth considering the process of cutting to vinyl imparts certain restrictions on any source, limited bandwidth being the most obvious, so if listening to vinyl vs a purely digital track there will definitely be a difference in sound.

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One of Jack White’s solo albums had a completely analog path, from recording to mastering to pressing, if I’m remembering correctly.

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Please explain this.

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To clarify: I am ok with some digital effects here and there, as long as the main signal path is analog.

I am not sure that I can explain. I just attribute some transcendental relevance to analog sound. I get that digitally created or reproduced can sound similarly good, but my issue is not with perceived “goodness”, but rather, the essence of sound.

What’s left is just your practical question then. And you’re looking for modern music with pure analog signal path, which is of course a niche in a niche in a niche… probably close to zero recordings.

Should you listen to music made in the 70s (and before), then yes, you could find such gems.

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Niche or not, there are actual people who post analog (e.g. Eurorack, or Elektron Analog series based, etc…) jams on youtube.
Or, I myself do not post, but analog jams are indeed in existence in my very bedroom.
So it’s not entirely unimaginable that some of these folks are pressing recordings on vinyl…

Well, back in the day records had a three letter code with A and D letters signifying the production stages of recording/mixing/mastering. So you’d look for records from that era that had a code AAA on them that signified that recording, mixing and mastering of that record was done in the analog domain.

This practice stopped at some point however, so perhaps it was felt that as time went on and digital systems caught up, such info had became moot? No idea…

I’m a bit sceptical of the whole AAA vs DAA, DDD or any other combo myself. There are millions of variables in making a record, and many of them are much more severe and significant wrt the end result IME

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You’re right that it’s technically feasible, but there really is no reason to do so, besides your desire of course. Maybe that’s a niche you can occupy then :wink:

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I find it hilarious that you’re trying to reconcile your belief in the magic of an entirely analogue signal path with a preference for a musical subgenre where the use of digital technology is an essential ingredient of its production.

Recording and mastering aside, I honestly can’t even imagine how you’d build up a proper psytrance track without using any samples, without any digital synth, without wavetables, and without any digital effects…

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That’s called SPARS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARS_code

And back in the 80s, people like me used to seek DDD recordings, because “purity of digital” :smile:

How time flies…

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Metamono try their best to avoid using digital recording:

"metamono will only

  • use analogue electronic sound generation
  • use analogue electronic sound processing
  • use digital recording and basic editing when no alternative is available"

http://www.metamono.co.uk/page6/index.html

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As said

so their last bullet point essentially makes all the other bullet points moot :diddly:

cute

This type of stuff is the reason why I left purism behind me decades ago

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Are you sure there’s not a single digital module in those jams? There’s tons of digital gear in Eurorack format and it’s widely used.

You realise that those are digitally controlled, that the envelopes and LFOs are digitally generated, that the oscillators are digitally controlled, that the noise is digital, and that the effects are entirely digital, right?

Just for fun, would you mind listing all the gear you currently have hooked up in your bedroom?

They try their best to avoid doing so at least.

Not proper psytance, but the closest I can think of is Alexander Robotnick and his friend:


I’m not sure about the lack of samples though…
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