Vinyl information
It has finally happened. Chaise Lounge has taken a giant leap ( well not so giant for us- we already live in 1962) into the past and put out Insomnia on vinyl!
It is just as exciting as I thought it would be having boxes and boxes of heavy records— yes records!– shipped here. One of my first stops with the record was to deliver one to Greg Lukens, one of our mastering engineers along with Bill Wolf. During all the oohs and ahhs of our conversation I asked Greg the dumb question that everyone asks about vinyl vs. Cds. Why do they sound so different? Notice that I didn’t say “better”. They are just decidedly “different”. Here is what I came out with: CDs have true stereo. The right and left channels are completely discrete. With vinyl there is no true stereo on a stereo record. The left channel is actually cut with the lathe as “left minus right” and the right channel is cut as “left plus right”. If you take the old panning knob on your antique stereo amplifier and turn it all the way to the right or left you will hear that there is still a weird ghost of the other channel playing, no matter how completely you try and hear only one side. This is what that “different” sound is all about. You feel like you are listening more into the center of the sound. Does that make sense? There is a heavy nuclear mass that feels more solid and more focused. At this point my technical knowledge of this process comes to a grinding halt. All I know is this is why you need to have old-school dudes in your corner when it comes to submitting a master for vinyl.
I don’t think we can go back now. All our CDs from now on will have a vinyl companion release.