SUNSOFT is Back! RETRO GAME SELECTION MUSIC

[rpbtz]

Marco Guardia/Monomirror provided new hardware recordings for this release: https://twitter.com/Monomirror/statu...48884072653125

[LuxKiller65]

maybe it's a good time to ask people like them why no cd, and what they think about recording digitally for a vinyl, like, does it make sense to them. i'm no expert but i understood from here and other places, that it defeats the whole purpose of the vinyl medium.

[rpbtz]

The music is getting released digitally too. I added the link to the Steam download page to the submission as well, so it's not just a vinyl release.

I think the Camp-fire page had a CD reward option as well.

[marklincadet]

The CD was just a thumbnail representation of the digital soundtrack in the rewards section, unfortunately.

[Aifread]

Originally Posted by LuxKiller65

maybe it's a good time to ask people like them why no cd, and what they think about recording digitally for a vinyl, like, does it make sense to them. i'm no expert but i understood from here and other places, that it defeats the whole purpose of the vinyl medium.

CD releases are literally invisible to vinyl bros and "preservationist" clowns like Jeremy Parish. Somewhat thankfully this means most of their efforts are completely inconsequential; everything on this release has already been on CD (several times in fact).

And to be brutally clear the vinyl medium barely even makes sense when the recording is analog; the source being digital just means they don't even have their usual pseudoscience to stand on.

[jmr]

Originally Posted by Aifread

CD releases are literally invisible to vinyl bros and "preservationist" clowns like Jeremy Parish.

This is a funny example to cite, as Jeremy Parish was just a hired gun writing liner notes and almost certainly played no part whatsoever in choosing to release that particular soundtrack on vinyl. That soundtrack had already been released on CD before the vinyl came out.

And no, CD releases are not "literally invisible" to the folks who work on vinyl releases. The "psuedoscience" you refer to (I've seen it; I hate it too) is rarely the justification for a small label doing a vinyl release over a CD - it's (perceived) demand. It's risk management. Doing a proper CD (non-CDR) pressing is really only economical in high volumes, meaning the options are to do a lower quality CD-R run, to properly press fewer copies and hope you can still sell them at a higher cost, or press more copies and risk having hundreds of unsold copies sitting around for years. A decent number of the labels that are releasing soundtracks on vinyl these days are just one or two person operations doing a handful of releases a year with small budgets. Each release is a passion project and they don't always have the wiggle room needed to take a chance on something they can't guarantee to break even on. Even though the production costs are higher with vinyl, there's at least a well established audience of "vinyl bros", as you put it, who will buy what gets pressed.

Personally I hope more labels start putting effort into CD releases (I've been involved with a precious few) but at the same time I understand why not every label prioritizes them. I feel like there's space in the market for labels that are passionate about VGM CD releases but no one seems to be willing to fully commit to that space. There's a perception that the demand for CDs is from a vocal, but small audience. Hard to say why.

So yeah, as much as it doesn't make really sense to take famicom music data, play it back on real hardware, sample the audio output of the 2A03 going through an analog mixer and buffer circuit back to a digital format, master it using an entirely digital process only put it out on an analog format , the question of what format to release on often has very little to do with the source material and everything to do with what the label feels they can break even on, and what they think there is a demand for.

(I'm not really sure there was demand for these particular soundtracks on vinyl, and I kinda doubt that Sunsoft will quickly break even on this vinyl pressing either but that's just my opinion...)

edit: made a few wording changes for clarification

[Psychonotes]

Originally Posted by jmr

This is a funny example to cite, as Jeremy Parish was just a hired gun writing liner notes and almost certainly played no part whatsoever in choosing to release that particular soundtrack on vinyl. That soundtrack had already been released on CD before the vinyl came out.

I don't think he was saying Parish was a reason that Castlevania album came out on vinyl. CDs are "invisible" to Parish because, as you yourself noted, the Rebirth soundtrack had already been released on CD, and yet his liner note erroneously claimed "This LP is the only way to purchase Castlevania Rebirth's soundtrack in any form" and "This record is the sole remaining proof of Rebirth's existence". A pretty egregious and sloppy error for a self-proclaimed "VG historian" to commit to print.

[Aifread]

He's also naturally a big proponent of LRG. The only "preservation" people like him are interested in is in the pockets of scalpers and speculators.

My other point was that a lot of these western labels aren't even pushing new material and a lion's share is already available on CD. Wayo and Streaming Arrow especially seem content with doing less complete reprints of commonly available Japanese releases. I'll stick to supporting labels like Cassetron, Clarice Disc, EGG, and Wave Master who actually seem to care about filling gaps in classic VGM album releases in ways that people can actually get their hands on and enjoy forever digitally.

[LuxKiller65]

Originally Posted by Psychonotes

I don't think he was saying Parish was a reason that Castlevania album came out on vinyl. CDs are "invisible" to Parish because, as you yourself noted, the Rebirth soundtrack had already been released on CD, and yet his liner note erroneously claimed "This LP is the only way to purchase Castlevania Rebirth's soundtrack in any form" and "This record is the sole remaining proof of Rebirth's existence". A pretty egregious and sloppy error for a self-proclaimed "VG historian" to commit to print.

i didn't know that. shocking. takes one minute of search engine to find out it had a cd release. actually not really shocking, lots of wrong info you can read about everything everywhere from so-called experts.

i think cd is just so incredibly convenient as a physical medium. you can play it on any cd/dvd/bd player, on portable players, it's easy to carry around, you can easily make a physical and digital backup of it, the case can hold a booklet with 20+ pages of stuff easily, all stuff you can't do with a vinyl. but i understand the current economics. to be honest though, the vast majority of contemporary vinyl bros (lol) are:
- resellers who don't give a shiz about the content
- collectors who, again, don't give a shiz about the content
those who actually buy recent vinyls for actual listenting must be what, 5% or less?
i'm sure if there was no vinyl and just cd instead, they would buy just the same. companies would still make a profit, and if they did a good job with some actual effort (i.e. not reprinting in 2023 the same audio source from akumajo dracula famicom best lol), we would even understand a higher price point.

[Aifread]

Vinyl also makes for better wall art for people who like to turn their plain white apartment walls into a shrine to their childhood I guess. I think there's also a weird misattribution that because analog is a retro thing then it must have been contemporary to retro games when we all know the reality was that CDs had always been around and VGM on vinyl and cassette had all but vanished by 1990.