DS Forums

 
 

There is more vinyl than CDs just now!


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 11-10-2016, 13:52
unique
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,030
Image has been important in pop music ever since at least Elvis, so it didn't start with MTV but clearly the visual dimension became more important post MTV. And I wouldn't disagree that many artists have tried to use music videos to disguise poor musical recordings but there also many artists who make great use of video and album covers.
image was important, but it's became a lot more important to some over the years. in cases like lady gaga the image is arguably more important. compare her to bowie where the music was more important


You do get artists like Kate Bush, Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Eno, MJ, Madonna, Beyonce who excel in a multimedia approach to their work. They use the visual to enhance the work especially in music videos.
and certainly some of those artists it could be argued put the videos and visuals before the music


When it comes to album covers, you get some great collaborations as well: Yes/Roger Deane, Joy Division/Pete Saville, Pink Floyd/Hipgnosis/Thorgenson, VU/Warhol....
Pink Floyd's cover for 'Wish You Were Here' is a work of genius and is an amazing statement about the nature of the business and complements the music perfectly.
wish you were here is a great cover, but I wouldn't call it a collaboration as the artist isn't making the cover with the artist (see what I done there). the people making the music engage someone else to make a cover. in some cases they may collaborate in regards to posing for pictures, but with most hipgnosis stuff they make the covers without the involvement of the band at all. the band may see and approve works, but they aren't involved in the creative work at all in the cases of covers without band photos


The simple point is that the visual can be used to enhance and not displace the experience of the music. I agree that the quality of recordings on CDs is better than vinyl but the album cover was a great vehicle for some visual artists.
yes, however you don't need the artwork and packaging to enjoy the music. a shit cover shouldn't detract from a great piece of music and a great cover shouldn't make shit music sound better. that's why I separate the two things, and playing digitally from an HDD is a great way of doing this
unique is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 11-10-2016, 13:56
unique
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,030
But then - apart from the digital masters bit - hasn't that always been the case with the second hand market? In the 60s and 70s many people would treat their records appallingly. I'm not talking about not storing them in an upright position or not cleaning them before and after playing either. I'm talking about people discarding the sleeves from 45s and cramming them into wire racks; stacking coins on the tone arm to make the tracking weight god-knows-what; passing through endless pairs of hands as they were swapped back and forth at school etc. They would be thrown about at parties and impregnated with beer and smoke... and this was all before they were forgotten about and dumped in an attic or a damp garage for two or three decades. There weren't too many amateur archivists during the glory days of music.

Compared to that, two or three turns of a 180g LP on a pretend record player before the novelty wears off followed by a couple of years on a shelf waiting for someone to buy it off Discogs seems particularly gentle.
the difference is, that people treating records badly is often spotted easily as the cover may be knackered and there will be scratches and marks and obvious signs. the problem with now is people are spending more on vinyl than the cd and perhaps handling the records well, but it's the turntable that's destroying the records, but doing it in a way that's not so visually obvious to the naked eye. so the record may look fine initially as there aren't scratches across it and the cover may still be in the shrinkwrap with a slit down the side to let the record out, but the record itself is Donald ducked from the shit record player
unique is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-10-2016, 14:52
Doghouse Riley
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,838
I've always stored my albums properly, but only got into 45rpm records again nearly ten years ago when I got into vinyl jukeboxes.
Some of these 45s are still available in mint condition in the "Collectables" series. I bought quite a few classics at the time from the USA but gradually the postage got far too expensive. So I stopped. I had enough anyway.
You can get some decent ones on eBay from time to time, but I think the "official grading," is nonsense. What would be described as "good," I'd call rubbish.

At the time I wanted one of those wire record racks for my spare records. I ring the changes from time to time. Given that millions of these must have been made. I couldn't find one on e-Bay! I eventually managed to find a nice new fifties style retro one with ball feet, quite cheaply. Now there's no end of them on e-Bay, some at silly prices.
Doghouse Riley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-10-2016, 15:16
Heavenly
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 30,890
My fella's dad has bestowed him his vinyl collection.

Some real beauts in there, including a couple of first edition Beatles albums.

He is now replacing his vast cd collection with vinyl. I got him a turntable last year and I have created a monster.

It is lovely putting on a classic vinyl of an evening.
Heavenly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 31-12-2016, 22:36
Woodbine
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,403
We had a turntable when I was growing up. Thinking about getting on the bandwagon and get one again now, but I don't have a lot of money to buy a top of range one. I hear Crosley players aren't good, but seen this one I like the look of but don't know if it will be any good. https://goo.gl/KBbdtx

Any opinions are welcomed
Woodbine is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 01-01-2017, 05:10
scrilla
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,642
We had a turntable when I was growing up. Thinking about getting on the bandwagon and get one again now, but I don't have a lot of money to buy a top of range one. I hear Crosley players aren't good, but seen this one I like the look of but don't know if it will be any good. https://goo.gl/KBbdtx

Any opinions are welcomed
I think Richer Sounds are knocking out the Pro-Ject Essential 2 for £169 at the moment which is a pretty good deal. There's a USB version for about 30 quid more. Unless you can score a secondhand Rega Planar for similar cash I'd stump for one of the Pro-ject models. A direct drive Audio-Technica LP-120 which is more DJ oriented is a reasonable choice too but likely to be £220+. Personally I'd avoid the cheaper stuff due to sound quality and build quality. A reasonable old 70's or 80's Japanese deck could probably be had for similar or less but will need research and patience and may need some fettling / servicing / repair / replacement cartridge.
scrilla is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-01-2017, 08:37
Inspiration
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 53,385
I think CD is going to become a dead format.

If you want music, you'll get it online via streaming.
If you want quality, you'll get vinyl.
Inspiration is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-01-2017, 09:05
unique
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,030
I think CD is going to become a dead format.

If you want music, you'll get it online via streaming.
If you want quality, you'll get vinyl.
technically you can get higher quality sound from streaming than on vinly so that makes no sense
unique is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-01-2017, 13:24
Woodbine
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 3,403
I think Richer Sounds are knocking out the Pro-Ject Essential 2 for £169 at the moment which is a pretty good deal. There's a USB version for about 30 quid more. Unless you can score a secondhand Rega Planar for similar cash I'd stump for one of the Pro-ject models. A direct drive Audio-Technica LP-120 which is more DJ oriented is a reasonable choice too but likely to be £220+. Personally I'd avoid the cheaper stuff due to sound quality and build quality. A reasonable old 70's or 80's Japanese deck could probably be had for similar or less but will need research and patience and may need some fettling / servicing / repair / replacement cartridge.
Thanks for the advice, appreciate it.

Not sure I can afford all that at the moment, I need to buy speakers as well. Might have to wait and save up.
Woodbine is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 01-01-2017, 15:25
scrilla
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,642
I think CD is going to become a dead format.

If you want music, you'll get it online via streaming.
If you want quality, you'll get vinyl.
The truth is that if you want quality you buy quality components for playback and try to pick up records or CDs that are mastered for sound and not 'loudness'.

A CD is like a hard copy of a lossless download or stream (both of which can sometimes be obtained in higher resolution than the 16-bit Red Book CD standard). CDs are currently seen by many vinyl aficionados as the work of Beelzebub but people have become more stupid since the mp3 became the yardstick to measure audio reproduction!
scrilla is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2017, 09:28
Glawster2002
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
Posts: 10,402
The truth is that if you want quality you buy quality components for playback and try to pick up records or CDs that are mastered for sound and not 'loudness'.

A CD is like a hard copy of a lossless download or stream (both of which can sometimes be obtained in higher resolution than the 16-bit Red Book CD standard). CDs are currently seen by many vinyl aficionados as the work of Beelzebub but people have become more stupid since the mp3 became the yardstick to measure audio reproduction!
The problem is that for a lot of people it really has become a question of quantity over quality.

Interesting to see in the news recently that vinyl sales are at their highest for 25 years or so...

Vinyl sales 'at all time high'

That is the BBCs headline, not mine!
Glawster2002 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2017, 09:57
barbeler
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,679
technically you can get higher quality sound from streaming than on vinly so that makes no sense
Not true, unless the streaming sites use the highest bitrate possible and even then, there is the question of compression to argue about. The only problem with vinyl is that you really do need very good quality equipment to get the best out of it and even a single play on a worn or badly set up stylus can degrade it. I remember reading how engineers were amazed at the sound quality and detail that could be extracted from some of the old wax cylinder recordings once played through modern equipment.
barbeler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2017, 13:54
unique
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 8,030
Not true, unless the streaming sites use the highest bitrate possible
so basically you are saying "Not true" and then confirming what I have said is actually true






and even then, there is the question of compression to argue about.
no need for that if someone is going to say something isn't true and then go on to confirm it is true afterall





The only problem with vinyl is that you really do need very good quality equipment to get the best out of it and even a single play on a worn or badly set up stylus can degrade it.
now this is not true. there are many more problems with vinyl, such as wow and flutter, bad pressings, turntables that can permanently damage records with a single play, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
unique is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply



Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 09:55.