Illsidgus
Desiccated Member
You are probably right. Now I am going to have to go to our local Good Will and see for myself. FYI, I have seen a few good records there in the past, I just hope that when I go back I can find a good Mitch Miller record.
JimmyS1969
MOODerator
I passed up a record today a Goodwill store. ABBA. 
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
oh, but the cool stuff ..... the real nice finds you get by digging thru piles of stuff you don't want.
kcearl
I see deaf people
I passed up a record today a Goodwill store. ABBA.
ABBA are awesome...dont care what anyone else says...ABBA are the business
My first crush as a schoolboy was the blonde one
With the beard
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
Yeah that's true, and I know a few folks who have found some thrift store gems, but in general your chances of finding something desirable are a lot better at a good used record store that does all that sifting for you... and ebay I guess though I've never actually used it to buy records.
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Rockinfox
New member
Hey Greg.I suspect many Nakamichi,Studer,Tascam,Revox and other expensive hi band width, flat response, low wow n flutter cassette machine owners, including me would disagree with your blanket comment ! A well recorded cassette on a good accurate system frequently pisses over a poorly recorded CD and an MP3 file! Ide agree agree with cheap disposable pieces of shit if applied to the allegedly indestructible CD. LOL!! Lean back n laugh mate. Regardless of the gear,bells n badges used to get a result we;re ALL judged on what come of the boxes!!Wish Ide a dime or a penny for every one of those millions n millions of cassettes sold LOL!!! Steve
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poobar
New member
In my opinion an LP in good condition is superior to an MP3 file any day. Don't forget that in addition to being a digital format to begin with (i.e. off or on as opposed to a continuous signal), MP3 is a compressed file, meaning that some data (the music) has been removed in order to make the file smaller.
There is a whole generation now that will rarely if ever have the chance to listen to music from the 70's and 80's in the way it was intended. Not to mention that even a mediocre stereo system from the 70's will blow away an iPod with earbuds or "docking station" every time. For most people now, that sweet, full, heavy sound of an LP played on a half decent stereo will never be heard... it has been lost to "progress."
I know about the "superior recording technology" and so on, but if the reproduction of the recording isn't there, then it really doesn't matter, does it? Mediocre sound has in many ways become the standard, the "new normal"... listening to a streamed, degraded MP3 file through a pair of cheap computer speakers plugged into an iPhone. Rock on.
There is a whole generation now that will rarely if ever have the chance to listen to music from the 70's and 80's in the way it was intended. Not to mention that even a mediocre stereo system from the 70's will blow away an iPod with earbuds or "docking station" every time. For most people now, that sweet, full, heavy sound of an LP played on a half decent stereo will never be heard... it has been lost to "progress."
I know about the "superior recording technology" and so on, but if the reproduction of the recording isn't there, then it really doesn't matter, does it? Mediocre sound has in many ways become the standard, the "new normal"... listening to a streamed, degraded MP3 file through a pair of cheap computer speakers plugged into an iPhone. Rock on.
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Rockinfox
New member
Hey Telegram Sam Re Your tape Meh, which I may have misinterpreted,due to the big pond between us I'll stand corrected, but aint tape how 90% plus of classic stuff got to vinyl in the first place? Oh and hav'nt the computer guys been spending the last 20 or so years trying to emulate it ! LOL. Regards Steve. B16, G16, M56-16, DR16, HD24,
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
There's a difference between quality open reel tape and mass-produced cassettes.
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Rockinfox
New member
Cheers Poobar!! For laying out the FACTS clearly Its a strange situation where folk are encouraged to buy the most expensive gear avainable IE highest sample rates,lowest noise floor,all trying to capture and then reproduce those analogue waveforms we perceive as sound. Aiming for the greatest avainable bandwidth and dynamic range etc. Only then to be burned to a 16bit 44.1(indestructible !! LOL) disc Oh unless you spend even more for the HD version.(Well do tell !) Then as you have accurately stated its then stripped of bits the MP3 system deems one can't hear because its allegedly masked by a source of greater amplitude etc then to be reproduced through buds and other consumer "expensive" down market throwaway junk! This wreaks of (dumbing down)being more about money than music! Glad Ime not alone mate!! I bet you'd advocate mixing with ones ears as well!! YoHoHo Regards Steve
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Rockinfox
New member
Agree with ALL on your post,(have heard some amazing live cassettes!) There's also a difference with ears, perceptions and opinions Regards Steve
fat_fleet
Swollen Member
I don't think you'd find the opinions of most people here that different from your own. I don't think anyone is against analog in the way you seem to imply by saying "you computer people" (if I'm misunderstanding you than my bad). Most here are just hobbyists without a big budget to spend on a 2" 24-track Revox, though some here have very nice analog decks and some own studios. In the end it's about getting results you're happy with at the lowest possible pricepoint. Portastudios are fun, but they don't really cut it anymore for what I personally want to do.
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grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
There's a universe of difference between saying that you kind of miss the sound of the needle on a record........and actually wanting that sound. RAMI's OP strikes me as a nostalgic look back to the days that many of us grew up through when you'd get a record or get one from the library and there was this wonderful anticipation of hearing the music that was about to ensue and there was a kind of ritual in which removing the vinyl from the sleeve, sometimes cleaning it, placing it on the turntable, placing the arm on the record and hearing that faint crackle were all part of the process.
But putting the fake sound of an old record on modern day DAW productions misses the point completely and as such, ends up sounding fake as fake can be. Because the point was that the sounds of the needle on the record weren't part of the original tracking, mix or mastering. That is not how the artists, engineers, producers, masterers or record companies released their product and of course, those sounds were non existant on the cassette or 8 track versions.
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poobar
New member
Thanks Rockinfox... glad someone out there agrees!
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I remember the first time I saw and heard them. It was in the 1974 Eurovision song contest, which, in those days was a big deal and brought through two or three good songs a year. I usually wanted the British entry to win and I think that year was "Long live love" by Olivia Newton~John. It wasn't very good but I liked the chorus. I don't think I've heard it since.
You didn't usually hear of the winners again if they weren't British. But Abba were different. They kept releasing single after single but the quality jumped through the roof with "Mama Mia". They knocked Queen's "Bohemian rhapsody" off the top of the charts with it. They'd been No.1 for 9 weeks and no one could get them off. Then came Abba. And I hated them. Especially when my cousin Maureen went all gaga for them. But I loved their songs. They were so catchy.
When I did my French O level, for the spoken part, we had to describe a film we'd seen so I said I'd seen "ABBA; the movie". I hadn't really. All these years later I still haven't. Nor do I want to. I just made it all up. And I just about passed the exam !
That's all kind of much of a muchness if someone thinks cassettes were shit. I've noticed time and time again that people defend their choices by bringing into play science and the superiority of their chosen media. It's irrelevant how accurate a well recorded cassette is if one day it gets caught in the player or if you have a really hot summer and it stretches !
That doesn't prove the superiority of cassettes. When cassettes were selling in millions, you had a straight choice ~ record, cassette or 8 track. 8 track soon fell by the wayside so for about 8 or so years, it was record or cassette. When the CD entered the fray in 1983, it spelled the beginning of the end for cassettes. I should know. That's what I've used since 1975 and still do. And you know why ? Because I like them.
If you were talking about a generation who had lost their Dads in war or something vital, that would be different. Not hearing music "in the way it was intended" is hardly the social disaster to bring down civilization as we know it.
But to focus on "what was intended" for a moment ~ why should every human being be beholden to what an engineer that they will never meet or even hear of or be interested in dictates ? Music goes out in a variety of media and what you hear in your living room, car, earphones, radio or small player {be it cassette or MP3 or CD or whatever doesn't compare with the mixer in the control room or whatever. And arguably never has.
Also there are instrument lines that are constructed with great care and intimacy that many, many punters never or rarely notice because all they hear is 'the song'. So it hardly matters.
Why should that even be an issue if you dig your ipod and docking station ? That's like saying to a little old lady who loves her Honda civic "my Audi XY2000 will always blow away your poxy little Honda, luvvy". Why should she care ? She digs driving her Honda.
Most human beings are not audiophiles and possibly find surprizingly little difference in mediums if they like what they are listening to.
How frustrating it must be for those poor people that are separated from their old LPs and subjected to the horror of hearing an MP3'd song that their nephew or niece happens to be playing at that moment. Oh, the torture ! Oh, the horror ! Oh, the pain !!
What you've never had, you're unlikely to miss.
I've often found that amusing but in a way, it's logical. What digital developers have often been concerned with is getting the best of analog sound but without alot of the inherent noise and flaws. That of course has led to it's own issues but in truth, what else could they emulate or improve on ? Only what currently exists.
I remember once walking through this rather dangerous shanty town in Nigeria, the kind of place you took your life in your hands if you went through alone when darkness fell. And there were these kids playing table tennis. The table was an old, thrown out, dining table, the net was a sheet of cardboard, the bats were two slabs of wood. At the time, I worked with inner city kids in London that rarely appreciated the proper table tennis equipment they did have. I remember the juxtaposition in my mind at the time because those shanty town kids were enjoying themselves with an abandon that was refreshing and every time I went through their quarter, I noted that they were enjoying themselves far far more than those that did have "the proper stuff".
I think someone that enjoys their music on what you refer to as buds and other "downmarket throwaway junk" probably is capable of greater music appreciation than the more fussy and superior among us because they don't need all the "superior conditions" to be in place. They just know know to dig their music ! That's all that really matters, innit ?
In all the analog vs digital wars and their variations, ^^^^this, for me is the bottom line. Superiority or inferiority be damned !
J
JohnL
New member
...and if it was a double album (Eat a Peach, Layla...), you could use the cover to clean your weed...
Illsidgus
Desiccated Member
Even though I was born and raised in the U.S. I did live in Europe for 14 years and did on occasion enjoy watching the Eurovision song contest. One thing that I specifically remember about it comes from a Cliff Richard interview I watched. In essence what he said was that he liked to enter the contest because it didn't matter if he won or not but that it always boosted his record sales. BTW I have always been a big fan of Cliff Richard. I especially enjoy "Living Doll" with the Young Ones.
To expand on that a little, I enjoy watching videos on YT of the bands and artists I grew up listing to in the 60s and 70s. As part of my YT experience I enjoy, for the most part, reading the comments that people leave. A common thread that I see and disagree with is "this is real music" or "these kids now days don't know what real music is." My response to that has been that the music that the young people are listening to today is just as real as the music we listened to in our youth and is just as important to them as ours was to us. Personally I don't like most of today's music but I understand how important and real and exciting it is to the current generation of listeners. We really can be musical and technological snobs some times.
Doei
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RAMI
Guest
Exactly. I'm pretty sure that everyone in this thread, with the exception of a couple who are comprehensionally-challenged, got it.
aaronmcoleman
The truth is out there!
I just raided the local record store and scored a bunch of Neil Young, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, Steely Dan, Tex Ritter, Marty Robbins, Earl Scruggs, and The Limelighters...for $3-4 a piece. I love records, there is something about the sound, the nostalgia, the art work...what a wonderful experience listening to them.
Illsidgus
Desiccated Member
Despite what my last post in this thread my have sounded like, I love records too and still listen to the ones in my record library quite often.
On an other note, "Ron Paul 2012" I don't know about that but his son Senator Rand Paul used to be my eye doctor. I am still wearing the last pair of glasses he prescribed for me back in 2009. He was a very nice and interesting person.
Doei