Vinyl

[Matt J]

Anybody around here listen to records?

Long story short, during the early 70's a relative worked in the music industry and collected a few hundred records. I inherited them mostly because no one else wanted them. I finally safely moved them from my grandparent's house to mine and bought a turntable. Picked up a pretty sweet old Technics direct drive at a local second hand store. Got a new needle and cartridge and have been going through this collection one by one and acquiring a few of my own. Of the originals a few of my favs so far:

Joe Cocker: With A Little Help From My Friends

Cat Stevens: Catch Bull At Four

Just picked this up after reading an interview with Ray Lamontagne where he says it was his biggest influence:
Stephen Stills: Manassas

This is a new release I've been enjoying too. This guy's been a fav of mine for a while. Now they call him Americana, but I don't mind.
Jason Isbell: Southeastern


Anybody else?

[cesare]

Manassas was a great group and a great album. I have that vinyl in a box somewhere along with about a hundred others. Have not touched them in decades but they were already played to death back then. My hearing is getting so bad I don't care what medium the music I'm listening to is in. I just can't tell the difference anymore.

[Dostie]

Converted the vinyl I had to WAV and then MP3 during spells of spare time over the past few years. When done I sold my turntable and dropped the vinyl off a place in Reno that resells vinyl. My taste is pretty eclectic and they didn't want most of what I dropped off, so it went to Salvation Army. Hopefully somebody picked 'em up and is recording them for posterity too.

One thing I noticed was that music converted from vinyl was a lot "hotter" and richer than the same songs from CD. The only problem with the vinyl conversions is many of them have something you won't hear with digital music - scratches! You can edit some of them out with a good audio editor, but I don't really have that much spare time.

[Matt J]

You gotta elaborate on eclectic. Classical? World? What are we talking here?

[Nurse Ben]

These days it's XM radio or road noise, unless my wife or kids ride along, in which case we talk a lot

I used to love listening to music, but now I find it distracts me when I work around the house, and in the car it just seems to add to the noise.

Maybe I need to play the music louder so it blocks out the voices?

[Rock_Doc]

Converted the vinyl I had to WAV and then MP3 during spells of spare time over the past few years.

One thing I noticed was that music converted from vinyl was a lot "hotter" and richer than the same songs from CD. The only problem with the vinyl conversions is many of them have something you won't hear with digital music - scratches! You can edit some of them out with a good audio editor, but I don't really have that much spare time.

^^^^^THIS is what I would like to do one of these days, years, decades from now. Still have my collection of some 150-200 vinyl albums and a pretty nice turntable (though would need to replace cartridge and stylus). I'm thinking this will be a good retirement activity - but that will not be for a few couple of decades. In the meantime, I continue to slowly replace my great vinyl albums with cds, as available, and the occasional itunes download.

Cheers!
JT

[william]

What we are really missing from the age of vinyl is the album art.

[Matt J]

Album art, quality of sound, lyrics and song notes - there's a lot to like about vinyl IMO. I like supporting the artist while getting something real and tangible, not just the rights to listen to their music.

[Baaahb]

I find it much harder to clean spices on a double CD.

IMO, albums are very cheap right now and will significantly appreciate in value as more of them get lost to garbage dumps. I recently picked up a few as much-appreciated presents for my kids (maybe the same one's Dostie dropped off at Recycled Records?). I have resurrected my turntable...simply can't see going out and replacing a bunch with CD...I'll buy CD "best of" compilations but don't see the need to replace entire collections of an artist.

[Matt J]

technically if you own the album then you own the rights (to listen to it and make necessary reproductions for your own enjoyment) - so if you can find a free copy on CD or convert your own - that's within the law

I buy albums because I hate compilation CD's. I don't always agree with others about what a "hit" may or may not be. What are "clean spices" btw?

and if one of you doesn't mind answering - what does a used record go for in Reno? Around here most common stuff is $5

Dostie, if you get back around to poking your head into here - did you use one of those USB turntables to rip your stuff? I'd like to figure out a way to use the composite outs on my table to go into my sound card of my laptop.

[Matt J]

kinda considering something like this...

http://www.amazon.com/Mix-Vibes-UMIX44-DJ-Package/product-reviews/B002WMGVR0/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1

anybody have any experience with this kinda equipment? Maybe when I figure it out I'll start DJ'ing too

[Matt J]

To the top.

Just checking if that place marker will move down the page as intended.

[Baaahb]

technically if you own the album then you own the rights (to listen to it and make necessary reproductions for your own enjoyment) - so if you can find a free copy on CD or convert your own - that's within the law

If you make a copy for yourself as backup that is ok. If you give it to another that is theft of intellectual property. If you find a CD copy by accident...yeah, right, "by accident".

What are "clean spices" btw?

Seriously? How old are you?

and if one of you doesn't mind answering - what does a used record go for in Reno? Around here most common stuff is $5

Sounds a bit right, depends a lot of course on album and condition. I was only buying classic albums and I think my average was about $4 but that was more than a few years ago. At Recycled Records, you'd select a stack, they'd ring it up, the total would be $26, the clerk would then declaim "How about twenty bucks?"

[Matt J]

I'm nearly 40. I remember my pops' turntable sitting in the den when I was a kid and I had a few kids records, but my childhood saw the 8 track player and cassettes replace it pretty quickly. Never remember seeing a reel to reel in person but was familiar with them as a teenager due to the Grateful Dead mostly. DATs too for that matter.

[Clydesdad]

Looks like I killed the coffee thread, let's see what I can do here... (winky face, eh...)

The one big thing that still hurts from the fire that burnt down our house is the loss of my vinyl collection. It wasn't much, really, but I had a few gems in there. Mostly, however, going through record bins at garage sales and thrift stores (and far less often, music stores that sold vinyl...) was just a really satisfying way of being a dirtbag and, on occasion, finding a new vein of older music that I enjoyed. My prized possession was a collection of JD Loudermilk songs (can't remember the exact title..."12 sides of Loudermilk", maybe?...) that cost 10 cents and didn't have a jacket. Beyond that some of those Merle Haggard albums from the 70s (the Strangers plus the songwriting, of course...) and a copy of Return of the Grievous Angel ($1) also hurt. I had a couple of albums I actually paid good money for (Lefty Frizzell doing Jimmie Rodgers covers was worth it...) Of course there were plenty of others where I only listened to one side, once, before noting that I'd hit a dead end in my archeological digging...

I know I should get myself a turntable and get back at it but I figure I need to find that one great box of old albums at somebody's garage sale first. If I could buy that (for, say, $5 or $10 or $50...) then I might be able to spring for the much more expensive) turntable and cartridge. Anybody want to trade a turntable plus some old (country) records for some coffee gear and/or some free heel gear? :wink: Storage is for losers... :lol...

Sorry for the interruption, carry on with the discussion about digitizing... :smile: