Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Can I Get Anime Soundtracks on Vinyl?
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Shiflan
 Posts: 418 |
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Most of what I've seen as far as recent anime music releases on vinyl are really just collector's goods--no different than figures, wall scrolls, plushies, and other stuff that fans collect from their favorite show. As far as the appeal of vinyl in general there's really two things that I can see: First is the nostalgia (if you were old enough) and perhaps "retro appeal". There's also the ritual involved. It's a bit like hand-rolling cigarettes or brewing your coffee one cup at a time. When you listen to an MP3 on your phone or computer you just push play and think nothing of it. But when you play vinyl you have to get the disc out, queue up the needle on what track you want to play, etc. It forces you to take your time. Second would be the audio quality. And this is something that is very much hit-or-miss. On the one hand, LPs are totally analog so there is no potential for noise from digital compression. If we are talking about older releases from the heyday of LPs then that pre-dates a lot of modern things like "auto tune" and dynamic range compression that tend to plague many modern releases. LPs have distortion just like any method of storing music but the type of distortion they have tends to sound better than that introduced by digital processing. But LPs have problems too: not all of them are necessarily well mastered. The quality of the LP is also a bit of a crapshoot: they are stamped in a large press. When the stamper is fresh and new then the first LPs to come off the press have perfectly formed grooves and sound amazing. But as more LPs are pressed the stamper wears a little bit, the grooves it stamps aren't quite as sharp as they ought to be and quality decreases with each pressing. But when you buy an LP you have no way of knowing if it was early or late in the run. I can think of several albums in which I own both the CD and LP and the CD is clearly superior. I can think of other albums which I own multiple vinyl copies of and even though they are the same catalog number from the same record label they do not sound the same. Records are also fragile--you have to be careful not to scratch them. Dust, etc, tends to stick to records and makes for annoying static sorts of sound or pops and hisses so you need to keep them clean. They need to be stored such that they don't warp. And they wear out bit by bit every time you play them. The needle on the player is fragile as well, and if you have a nice turntable it's also expensive. Expensive + fragile. And finally, because it's an analogue medium the playback quality is highly dependent on the rest of your stereo. Whereas there's not much difference in audio quality between a $100 CD player and a $1000 CD player there is a massive difference between those price points for a turntable. So as far as the audiophile angle goes it's certainly true that you can get amazing sound out of an LP which will put a typical CD recording to shame, there's no guarantee of that happening. Last edited by Shiflan on Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DirtyCircle
Posts: 127 |
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You could use eBay but I suggest CDjapan or discogs. You also have to be careful as not to buy bootlegs from eBay. Example: GHOST IN THE SHELL has never been released officially on vinyl except for the PlayStation soundtrack.
On a side note, my most recent purchase is the anniversary release of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION- never before available on vinyl. |
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ShindoW
 Posts: 88 Location: TX |
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Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon Crystal?) had some vinyls released recently. It was when Crystal began airing, but I think the vinyl was for the original soundtrack.
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3890 |
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I have quite a few old anime soundtracks on vinyl myself! My very first anime vinyl was the soundtrack for "Do You Remember Love?".
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2552 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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There was also a Samurai Champloo OST released on vinyl some years back; I know because I got a friend that for X-Mas a couple of years ago.
Personally, I only own a couple of vinyl records, but that's only because one was included as an extra in a special edition (Bioshock 1's OST from the Bioshock 2 special edition), and the other was a special case (I just felt that getting Weird Al's last traditional album on vinyl would make more, weird sense). I'm not against getting vinyl, though, and if a really good OST was to be released on there I may get it. I do regret not buying Data Disc's Streets of Rage release, however, and I hope that the company will make another run. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13558 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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If they can make vinyl have a come back for some anime soundtracks, then what hurdles could there be for cassettes doing the same thing?
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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I dunno. Many (relatively informal) tests have shown that no one can actually tell the difference between a high-bitrate MP3 and uncompressed audio, though pretty much everyone thinks they can. Audio CDs aren't compressed anyway, and (presumably) can store a lot more raw data than a record. Dynamic range compression is a separate problem, but that has nothing to do with the storage format, it's just that they stopped making records before overclocking the volume got popular. It seems to me records are making a comeback for a pretty simple reason: the digital age in general has changed music (and everything else) dramatically and quickly, creating a larger-than-usual "music was better in the good old days" backlash. But listening to a record makes you feel like you're listening to really old, and therefore good, music, even if it's not old (or good). Music producers have caught on to this and started cranking out vinyl versions of current albums so people can have their nostalgia and consume new music, too. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9847 Location: Virginia |
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I've been around for the whole history of what is now called vinyl. Actually my first records as a child were 78s. When I could afford one I got the whole high quality audio system and turntable. Now that I think of it, the system was mid range. High end has always been stupid expensive. I did that whole "ritual" thing all the time, not for fun but because you had to in order to keep the records decent.
No matter how hard you try, vinyl wears out with use. The more you play them the faster they wear. A good quality tone arm can slow the process but not stop it. Once I found CDs, I couldn't wait to dump all those records. There is no way I would go back. Vinyl was a royal pain in the butt. When I realized I wasn't playing them, I gave several hundred vinyl records to charity. |
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lem
 Posts: 734 Location: Land of trying to figure sht out |
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It took me longer to post this than to find them *pulling my hair out all the while*, the ANN servers must be really busy tonight. I'm sure there's more but I gotta go.
There's vinyl LP's available for NEON GENESIS EVANGELION [Analog] Limited Edition Brave Shine / broKen NIGHT (完全生産限定盤) [Analog] Limited Edition ring your bell [Analog] Single, Limited Edition 攻殻機動隊ARISE O.S.T. (10inch Analog) K-ON! 7inch Vinyl “Donuts" BOX [Analog] Limited Edition |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I have to wonder if the people chasing vinyl editions would love them so much if they had to tape a nickel to their tone arm just so their favorite song would play without skipping. I took care of my albums with loving care and they still ended up scratched and warped. When the digital age hit, I tossed all 600 some of my albums and never looked back.
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1114 Location: Puget Sound |
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On the other hand, there's tons of potential for noise from sources don't exist in digital music systems - dust on the vinyl, damage (even microscopic damage) to the vinyl, physical distortion of the vinyl, wear to the vinyl... All these can be minimized or avoided, but it takes a bit of work and attention do to so. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14766 |
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How popular is vinyl in Japan anyways?
Look, don't expect vinyl to take off in Japan as much as it's doing in the West. The Japanese music industry is built upon consumers buying multiple CDs not for the sound but for the election votes and lottery events. It's certainly not for "warmth of analog." That's the last thing on their minds. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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PingSoni
 Subscriber Posts: 195 Location: Lansing MI |
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Between the time in the early 1960's when stereophonic sound became feasible and affordable, and the advent of the accessible and usable Internet (which pretty much coincided with accessible and afordable CDs and playback equipment) vinyl albums delivered an information package of sound + lyrics + artwork + written message that often wasn't available any other way.
The physical layout of the music, especially side A and side B (even if not explicitly mentioned except by groups like the Firesign Theatre) was part of the playback experience (and part of the composition for many groups). I won't claim that is was better in any way, but walking to J.C. Penny to browse the record section, deciding how to spend my allowance (I remember albums costing three or four dollars) then going home and diving into the whole experience of listening to, looking at and reading the album contents was certainly different than buying and downloading a few tunes today. |
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Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
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Analog or Digital is so last century. The real problem, and one which we have had for the last 30 years is bad mastering. Music is mastered badly, no dynamic range at all. It doesn't matter if it ends up in a cd or a vinyl, you're still getting badly mastered music. |
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