Picture discs versus "regular" LP's

[digitalmind]

I've recently bought a 180 gram pressing of Tool's Lateralus from a webshop along with some other records since the HDCD I have of it recently stopped working. Figured I might as well move up to the real thing.

It ended up being a picture disc. I missed this little fact when I ordered it. Still, happy as heck to have this awesome album on big black wobbly things, I placed it on the turntable. And oh dear, was I dissapointed. Looks awesome, but apparently sounds horrible. It's filled with background noise, cracks, and pops, while it looks perfectly clean and without scratches. I'm tempted to return it, because even though it makes a nice thing to have, it doesn't do what I bought it for, which is deliver good sound. Cleaning the record with my record cleaner didn't help.

Is this a common problem with picture discs? I would recon they sound slightly worse, but not this much worse. Anyone else with this same album on a picture disc? The label is "Volcano". The CD sounded much, much better.

I want my Parabola!

Aak! Did a search and found this comment:
Quote:

dont bother with the lateralus picture discs, they sound horrible.

Guess I'm off to get the CD... again.

 

[goldenratiophi]

Hmm, that's interesting. Does anybody know if this is a problem with all picture discs? What about colored vinyl?

 

[ozz]

back in the days when i had my vinyl the same problem with colored
vinyl i tried everything to get rid of the scratchy dirty sound i used
everything discwasher had at the time ended up replacing it with a cd
the album was wish you were here -pink floyd and the vinyl was blue.

 

[digitalmind]

I've had some colored/see through vinyls that sounded just as good as black solid ones. Though this was in the time that I still had an HD-595 and was far less experienced with telling recording/pressing faults.

The problem is that a picture disc shouldn't sound different from a regular LP since they print the picture on the edges in between the grooves (from what I can see, that is). Theoretically, the needle shouldn't touch the picture so why does it affect the sound quality so much?

 

[Duggeh]

In my experience coloured and picture discs do not have as clean a background noise as black vinyl. I read on the SH forums somewhere that LPs are black because of a dark compound used in their manufacture to reduce noise and that vinyl is normally clear and noisy.

 

[digitalmind]

Duggehman, I think I read that as well. Interesting. Time to do some diggin'!

After playing the record twice today again, I'm going to have to get back on my comments on the quality of the record. It's not that bad, so long as you can ignore the extra pops and background noise. Background noise isn't substantial, it's really pretty low but not as dead silent as a good "regular" LP. I can live with it, though I still prefer the HDCD to the vinyl.

 

[bigshot]

Picture disks are made by putting a decal over the vinyl and pressing through it. They always sound awful.

Colored vinyl is by definition "virgin vinyl" because recycled vinyl has to be black like the records melted down to make it. Colored vinyl usually sounds good. In the old days, audiophile records were usually red vinyl.

See ya
Steve

 

[jonnywolfet]

yep, my lateralus sounds horrible too, good job i have it on cd too.
i cant tell any difference between colored or black vinyl either. probably because i dont want to hear any difference, seeing as most LP's i buy end up only being available in colored vinyl.
ah well, at least its really pretty, i think im gonna make a frame for it so that i can look at it (because i will never listen to it!)

 

[s m @]

I avoid pic discs like the plague unless I just want them for what they are: Cool novelty items. I also have had excellent luck with coloured vinyl and it looks really cool usually.

To the OP, I suggest you just reburn your Lateralus CD using Exact Audio Copy, it will almost surely give you a perfectly playable copy (unless you ran your original over with a tank) and the HDCD encoding will remain intact. And you won't have to buy it a third time and can keep your cool pic disc. .....At least I think it will rescue a non-playable disc, the worst I've ever salvaged was a disc severly marred by digi-noise that regular programs couldn't burn without major errors.

 

[steviebee]

The first picture disc I ever remember was Curved Air, many many moons ago...it was horrible too compared to the regular black edition. I don't like em...good as a gimmick only. Frame it, good idea!

 

[meme]

I will avoid anything on picture disc, although about year ago i picked up the Matt Valentine, Alex Neilson, Erika Elder & Moses Jiggs LP, on Qbico. I was a bit wary, but as it was only available on that format and going out of print, i had no choice. It sounds sweet with little if any background noise. It's a pretty good record too, i don't think i'll be framing it!

 

[NightWoundsTime]

I own that same Lateralus pressing, and it indeed is rather noisy. For me it's a constant swoosh in the quiet sections, which is annoying. Still though, on direct comparison to the CD from my respectable cd player I'll take the vinyl any day, just so much more gut to the sound than the weak compressed digital version.