newbie help

Like I said, bought second-hand, so the warping already occured.

But I am afraid the scratching part can actually occur if your needle isn't steady enuf, or so I've been told.

I'm revealing my ignorance here...Why is vinyl "sound" considered superior to CD's? I have several albums in vinyl, and I recorded cassette tape copies (for use in my car), so that's a possibility for those who want the vinyl sound, but want to keep 'em mint.

You should start with WISH YOU WERE HERE, because it is one of their best, and it has their 'classic' sound. Dark Side of the Moon isn't the best for a begginer, because it has some boring parts to those who haven't really expirienced Pink Floyd Yet. I love Dark Side of the Moon, I love every track, but to be honest the First time I heard it, I thought there were some boring parts, so start with Wish You Were Here, no boring stuff there!!!!

Some people claim to hear things in vinyl that they can't hear in CD. I think that's bullocks, but vinyl is nice anyway. It's a more tactile experience than listening to a CD, I think.

vinyl is an analogue recording where as cds are digital, this means that there is more variance in vinyl than on cds particularly as it gets used as this creates imperfections which help cause the crackling sound. The needle used to play vinyl also affects the sound. This is why vinyl sounds differently to cd and to a lot of people sounds better. Tape recordings are not as good as some of the higher and lower frequencies are removed in recording.

OK then.

And I haven't put scratches in my vinyl from playing them - just my personal experience. Maybe my needle is OK. I need a new one, though. That costs a lot.

Vinyl has a certain kind of ambience that can't be duplicated with anything else. I can't describe it. I have found that vinyl gets better bass in some situations, however.

CDs DO NOT have the entire song. That's why there is this big push for DVD Audio, becuase they are supposed to get even "more" of the music.

I don't know the technical aspect, I just know that the digital technology used for CDs is imperfect.

You're right, NNJ, because CDs actually use tiny samples of the music. There's so many of them that you usually can't tell a difference, but that's what CDs are - basically about a thousand samples a second (I think, I'm not certain on the exact number... I'm sure Botley knows... ) pushed together to sound like a whole.
Analog (tape, vinyl) are both non-sampled - so you're getting the whole thing, not just a bunch of samples pushed together.

To tell you the truth, I can't tell that a CD is a bunch of samples (it's not annoying, of course... it sure sounds like a whole to me...), but vinyl still has that certain 'ambience' that I prefer over CD.

I was just wondering how they actually used to record back when vinyl was the only main stream medium. Is it just a case of making one recording straight onto vinyl as a master copy and then pressing from that. This would explain why vinyls have the ambience and sound like a whole

Before the advent of tape as a recording device, that's what they did - the band played live, a huge needle cut the sound into a blank disc, and that was the master.
However, in the early '50s, tape started getting used in recording studios. At first, it was mono (1-track) tape, as followed by 2-track in the mid-fifties, four-track in the early sixties, 8-track in the mid-sixties, and 16 and 24-tracks in the early-to-mid '70s. Musicians would record onto tape, and the tape would get mixed down to a 2-track (stereo) tape. From this, it was cut onto vinyl.
After that, every vinyl would get pressed from copies of that master disc.

As both tape and vinyl are analog, it still provides for the 'ambience' factor.

i think vinyl is great.