Vinyl...

I was being serious when I said that mastering this album is all that I can thin of right now. I thought that I would pass along this interesting little nugget I found while reading this article. The quote comes from a section about mastering for vinyl.

"As the record gets closer to the end, the tone arm hits the groove at more of an angle (except with linear-tracking turntables), causing what's called inner groove distortion. As a result, song orders often used to be created with the softest songs coming at the end of an album's side, so that the inner grooves would be less subject to distortion."

Despite the fact that no one uses vinyl anymore except for punk bands and Djs, I still think that the general feel and pacing of rock albums is based on the album being presented on vinyl. For example, I think that the best albums come in at about 45 minutes or so. Also, I like albums that feel like they have two distinct sides. While I take it for granted that most albums end on a slow song, it is interesting to see an explanation for where this phenomena came from.