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Originally Posted by Fabmaster  Isn't that the point of mastering? Optimizing the source for the medium? |
EXACTLY! How can the needs of vinyl possibly be exactly the same as that of CD or cassette for that matter? They're not even the same for AAC and CD, which are much closer in nature.
I speak with authority (as you say) on such subjects because I happen to know a bit about them. Vinyl requires processing that CD doesn't, such as gradually pulling back the level & compensating for HF response as the stylus approaches the center of the disk or narrowing the LF separation if it's too extreme. Vinyl needs a lot more compromises if you try to cram too much material on it.
In the early days of CD, it was routine to just take the vinyl master and copy it to PCM. This did not yield ideal results and consumers complained about it. At one point, one could take a good CD master and tweak it for vinyl, but that's mastering a master and not as good as going straight to the mix.
Nowadays with clipping and brick-wall limiting being routine, new problems have been created. You can't expect a stylus to instantaneously go from near-maximum velocity to a dead standstill, hold in place for a few milliseconds and jump back the other direction. If the CD master was distorted, the vinyl master will be a lot more distorted. Brick-wall limiting isn't as offensive, but there isn't an absolute ceiling with vinyl as in CD. Overall level is more important and excessive limiting won't get you much for level on vinyl, so you're just working against yourself. Sure, you can take a mildly limited master and master it for vinyl, but again, that's not as good as going straight to the mix. Besides, how many CD masters are MILDLY limited these days?
For the record (no pun intended) the best vinyl album I've heard to date had no limiting at all, but it was 15 minutes per side.