Records vs. MP3s

In a moment of introspection, I purchased a record player.

I had a teacher in high school who was an ardent advocate for older methods of recording, contending that music quality was declining as a result of digitization  I didn't understand much of it at the time, but as I encountered more like-minded people and increased my music knowledge, I came to learn that the supposed advantage of listening to LPs versus MP3s has to do with overtones.

Overtones are the reason that in-tune music sounds so good and out-of-tune music lacks moving quality. It has to do with the way the notes vibrates- in layman’s terms, when a chord is perfectly in tune, the notes vibrate together in such a way that they create completely new extra notes way up high (synergy!). The argument is this- because records use analog recording, they capture overtones, while digital recordings do not.

    

Complicated stuff; if I had a constituency of music nerds maybe I would post a blog about overtones...

Back to records. I was curious to know people's reactions to MP3s and records played side by side and whether not they could hear anything like overtones. So, I prepared three songs (Thriller, More Than a Feeling, and Oh, Lady Be Good) and set up an Oz-esque curtain in my apartment so that I could switch between sound from the computer and the record player without people knowing which. I then invited several groups of people into my apartment to listen to the different sound bites one after another and fill out a survey with specific questions on what they heard and which they preferred. I also asked them to try to identify which was the MP3 and which was the record.

My findings can be summarized with one word- inconclusive. 

There was no definitive leaning toward one medium or the other since almost everyone preferred at least one analog and one digital recording. As far as identification goes, the listeners performed somewhat more consistently, able to identify which was the record approximately 75% of the time. The exception to this statistic was the third selection, Oh, Lady Be Good; I purposely chose an MP3 that sounded scratchy while the LP was silky smooth in order to test whether people identified the records by some sort of greater depth of sound, or simply by listening for scratches and pops. Apparently the latter was the case, since identification of the analog recording dropped to 35% on that song.

Basically all this proves is that everyone's taste in music and sound is different. Some prefer the vintage, sometimes compromised tone of a record while others opt for the squeaky clean, remastered MP3s. Few, if any, can really hear overtones coming through on a record and only orchestral and homophonic vocal works would really display them anyway. 

To me, I love listening to both for very different reasons having nothing to do with the sound quality. If I want to listen to a mix, especially one that includes pop or hip-hop, I'll usually go with an MP3 since the digital medium allows for easy skipping and in my opinion most computer-generated sounds weren't meant to be put on records. However, if I'm in the mood to clean around the house while listening to an entire album without having to choose tracks, I'll almost always go with an LP. This is essentially why the record industry has seen a huge dip in album sales and a proportionally large spike in single track sales. But that is a topic for another day.

My recommendation- listen to both on different occasions. If you don't have access to a record player, feel free to purchase a record for a dollar or two and bring it to my place and I'd love to listen with you.