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Index » Radio Paradise/General » General Discussion » kurtster's quiet vinyl Page: Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7 ... 11, 12, 13  Next
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sirdroseph

sirdroseph Avatar

Location: Not here, I tell you wat
Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 16, 2019 - 4:35am

 kurtster wrote:
so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days.  Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing.  Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff.  I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years.  I'll put it up to desert island status for me.  This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album.  Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again.  No clipping.  All the settings are built around Living For The City.  The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus.  That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.  

So here it is.  One of those that truly are worthy.  I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones.  Don't let this one slip away.

CLICKY

{#Cheers} y'all !

 
Thanks for this!{#Cheers}
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Jan 16, 2019 - 2:25am

so this is the album I've spent about 30 hours working off and on over the past 10 days.  Stevie ~ Innervisions from a 1973 1st US pressing.  Did a lot of looking around about the album along the way and found out that it is one of those where the 1st's were the best and everything since the represses done after the 70's, including the CD's with the exception of the MFSL in 1991 have been pretty crappy, even the current 21st Century stuff.  I haven't listened to the whole album in nearly 40 years.  I'll put it up to desert island status for me.  This effort came out so good that I even gently remastered the whole album.  Hard to do on a global basis, but it worked out pretty nice breaking it up into 3 pieces and putting it back together again.  No clipping.  All the settings are built around Living For The City.  The bass / keyboard bottom end riff was the focus.  That whole vibrating bottom end thing is real ear candy to me.  

So here it is.  One of those that truly are worthy.  I'll even dare to suggest that it will sound really good with headphones.  Don't let this one slip away.

CLICKY

{#Cheers} y'all !


miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 11, 2018 - 4:10am

 kurtster wrote: 

amazing
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 11, 2018 - 2:03am




.
The story ...


kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 11, 2018 - 2:02am

 miamizsun wrote:
kurtster wrote:
CLICKY  {#Cheers}

thx  {#Music}

 
Yer welcome.  I'll leave them up a little bit longer, then something different.
miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 9, 2018 - 8:45am

 kurtster wrote:
CLICKY  {#Cheers}
 
thx  {#Music}
ScottFromWyoming

ScottFromWyoming Avatar

Location: Powell
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 9, 2018 - 7:57am



 kurtster wrote:
Just parking one of my long winded dissertations that no one asked for ;) I did over in a discogs thread to save it.

A high school kid has a thread with a poll about exploring the possibility of making and marketing a new type of record changer, like back in the 60's.  The poll is legit if anyone is interested.  Clicky for the thread if interested.

.
I'm real old (66 ;) and from the days when console stereos with turntables (changers) that did allow stacking of records were the norm. Sure they were convenient, but we didn't know then what we know now about vinyl. They did not protect your vinyl from damage, but vinyl was viewed in a different way. It was the primary audio source and easily replaceable if need be due to normal wear and tear. And we accepted all the flaws in the playback systems. Stacked records on a turntable would slip for example and playback would be funky not to mention that slipping would also cause scratching because of grit in between the two surfaces. 

Now records are expensive and not so easily replaceable, if at all in some cases. Having lived through those days, there is no way in hell I would even think of using a changer style turntable today. And today's heavier, thicker vinyl is likely not even suited for that kind of turntable. 

 gehringmc wrote:

There used to be turntables that allowed for automatic flipping of the record and queuing of multiple records, however these systems weren't entirely successful in maintaining the safety of the record, among other issues. This has prevented them from showing up in the vinyl resurgence of the past decade. We're interested in seeing how receptive vinyl listeners today are to these systems.


Going briefly into the weeds, with things like VTA (vertical tracking angles) being so critical, just think how much different it would be when playing on a stack of 180 gram records 4 or 5 high. That would be the same height for a stack of 8 or 9 thinner vintage records. The listening experience would simply get worse with the addition of every record on the pile. In order to be viable, there would need to be a way to automatically raise the tonearm to a new height every time a record was added to the stack. This factor all by itself is the best reason to never go back to the idea of a changer. It's already a pain in the butt changing the VTA for a paper thin Dynaflex pressing to a 200 gram platter. 

Finally, the questions regarding the "quality" of the sound on the vinyl. For me, it's the preparation of the sound that ends up on the vinyl or the mastering process. Vinyl is inherently imperfect, but when all things are optimal, it's hard to beat. But most important is the quality of the sound put on the vinyl. That sound is prepared differently than for a digital medium. And not everyone knows or knew what they were doing. 

In conclusion, as someone who has lived through all these changes and the evolution of what we are discussing, way back when I wanted a way to skip through the songs on albums that I did not like. Just wasn't possible, until home tape recording was easy and of good quality. I made mixtapes, first on 8-tracks and later on cassettes. Now I do it digitally. I belong to a group that exchanges mixtapes on a rotating monthly basis. I'm the only one who still mostly uses vinyl as the source. Everyone else uses files or CD rips for their songs. 

I am in the process of ripping my old and new vinyl. Having the rips allows me all the conveniences of a record changer without all the fuss. I simply load up the rips on a media player (foobar) and play away. I can listen to what I want, when I want, with very little effort. And since they are ripped, they don't get worn out or damaged from mishandling plus I can hear them anywhere. They will always sound the same. That and they will sound like the vinyl they come from due to the preparation and the programs and type of files used to record the music. 

Vinyl is a huge pain in the ass. It is very expensive. It is bulky, heavy and fragile. The playback equipment is expensive. It is simply a high maintenance operation. But when all things are right, it's awesome. I don't give a rat's ass about the artwork anymore and the preparation and act of playing vinyl is a real pain in the ass, too. My rips will be sufficient to live with because for me it's what is on the vinyl anymore, not all the fuss (ritual) about the physicality of it. Now my time and fuss is spent on making and editing the files. That is a ritual all by itself.


 

I lied and clicked thru the survey to see what he was up to. It'll be a good learning experience to find out that there's no market for your great idea.
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 8, 2018 - 11:10pm

Just parking one of my long winded dissertations that no one asked for ;) I did over in a discogs thread to save it.

A high school kid has a thread with a poll about exploring the possibility of making and marketing a new type of record changer, like back in the 60's.  The poll is legit if anyone is interested.  Clicky for the thread if interested.

.
I'm real old (66 ;) and from the days when console stereos with turntables (changers) that did allow stacking of records were the norm. Sure they were convenient, but we didn't know then what we know now about vinyl. They did not protect your vinyl from damage, but vinyl was viewed in a different way. It was the primary audio source and easily replaceable if need be due to normal wear and tear. And we accepted all the flaws in the playback systems. Stacked records on a turntable would slip for example and playback would be funky not to mention that slipping would also cause scratching because of grit in between the two surfaces. 


Now records are expensive and not so easily replaceable, if at all in some cases. Having lived through those days, there is no way in hell I would even think of using a changer style turntable today. And today's heavier, thicker vinyl is likely not even suited for that kind of turntable. 

 gehringmc wrote:

There used to be turntables that allowed for automatic flipping of the record and queuing of multiple records, however these systems weren't entirely successful in maintaining the safety of the record, among other issues. This has prevented them from showing up in the vinyl resurgence of the past decade. We're interested in seeing how receptive vinyl listeners today are to these systems.


Going briefly into the weeds, with things like VTA (vertical tracking angles) being so critical, just think how much different it would be when playing on a stack of 180 gram records 4 or 5 high. That would be the same height for a stack of 8 or 9 thinner vintage records. The listening experience would simply get worse with the addition of every record on the pile. In order to be viable, there would need to be a way to automatically raise the tonearm to a new height every time a record was added to the stack. This factor all by itself is the best reason to never go back to the idea of a changer. It's already a pain in the butt changing the VTA for a paper thin Dynaflex pressing to a 200 gram platter. 

Finally, the questions regarding the "quality" of the sound on the vinyl. For me, it's the preparation of the sound that ends up on the vinyl or the mastering process. Vinyl is inherently imperfect, but when all things are optimal, it's hard to beat. But most important is the quality of the sound put on the vinyl. That sound is prepared differently than for a digital medium. And not everyone knows or knew what they were doing. 

In conclusion, as someone who has lived through all these changes and the evolution of what we are discussing, way back when I wanted a way to skip through the songs on albums that I did not like. Just wasn't possible, until home tape recording was easy and of good quality. I made mixtapes, first on 8-tracks and later on cassettes. Now I do it digitally. I belong to a group that exchanges mixtapes on a rotating monthly basis. I'm the only one who still mostly uses vinyl as the source. Everyone else uses files or CD rips for their songs. 

I am in the process of ripping my old and new vinyl. Having the rips allows me all the conveniences of a record changer without all the fuss. I simply load up the rips on a media player (foobar) and play away. I can listen to what I want, when I want, with very little effort. And since they are ripped, they don't get worn out or damaged from mishandling plus I can hear them anywhere. They will always sound the same. That and they will sound like the vinyl they come from due to the preparation and the programs and type of files used to record the music. 

Vinyl is a huge pain in the ass. It is very expensive. It is bulky, heavy and fragile. The playback equipment is expensive. It is simply a high maintenance operation. But when all things are right, it's awesome. I don't give a rat's ass about the artwork anymore and the preparation and act of playing vinyl is a real pain in the ass, too. My rips will be sufficient to live with because for me it's what is on the vinyl anymore, not all the fuss (ritual) about the physicality of it. Now my time and fuss is spent on making and editing the files. That is a ritual all by itself.


kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 8, 2018 - 10:56pm

 SeriousLee wrote:


Thanky! {#Cheers}

 
Yer welcome.  Enjoy !
SeriousLee

SeriousLee Avatar

Location: Dans l'milieu d'deux milles livres


Posted: Dec 8, 2018 - 3:19pm

 kurtster wrote:
So here it goes.

Remember once upon a time we had a balance knob on our stereo receivers and just about anything else that played in stereo.  Nowadays the knob is pretty much gone, along with the other two knobs, treble and bass.  Iffen you had a Marantz you might have had a mid range knob.  This is a pic of what my first ever receiver was.  My first wife ended up with it.  Sigh ... 



anyway, back then you needed a balance adjustment if you played vinyl.  Never knew why per se, only some records needed it and more often than not slightly to the right.  Usually 1 o'clock with a knob.  We rarely use the balance control anymore.  It's still around but buried deep in the menu of your device since we have gone digital.

But with vinyl there was more often than not a difference in the levels between the right and left channels.  Shouldn't have been once we went away from fake stereo to true stereo, but it still happens even today.  I always thought something was wrong with my turntable or something else and lived with it.  When you see the two individual stereo tracks in a wav file, the difference stands out plain as day.

Rebalancing tracks on an album basis is something I only started doing recently.  Before, everything was all individual songs one at a time on a stand alone basis.  Since working on album sides as a whole, the volume leveling and rebalancing of the whole side has made a huge difference.  It has opened up the music as a whole and now I can hear the actual soundstage as was intended in the final mastering process before the lacquers were cut, at least that is my conclusion.  I'll post some screen prints of the before and after examples down the road.

At any rate ... here we go ... two iconic albums that came out pretty damn nice.  All the work done manually, no slick programs and absolutely no clipping, balanced out at -4 dB peaks.  Everything from here on in will be at least this good or I won't post them.  Dave Mason ~ Alone Together and Cream ~ Disraeli Gears.  Alone Together came out the best and side 2 sounds better than side 1.  That is a whole nuther problem with vinyl and more on that later.

CLICKY  {#Cheers}


 

Thanky! {#Cheers}


kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Dec 8, 2018 - 5:04am

So here it goes.

Remember once upon a time we had a balance knob on our stereo receivers and just about anything else that played in stereo.  Nowadays the knob is pretty much gone, along with the other two knobs, treble and bass.  Iffen you had a Marantz you might have had a mid range knob.  This is a pic of what my first ever receiver was.  My first wife ended up with it.  Sigh ... 



anyway, back then you needed a balance adjustment if you played vinyl.  Never knew why per se, only some records needed it and more often than not slightly to the right.  Usually 1 o'clock with a knob.  We rarely use the balance control anymore.  It's still around but buried deep in the menu of your device since we have gone digital.

But with vinyl there was more often than not a difference in the levels between the right and left channels.  Shouldn't have been once we went away from fake stereo to true stereo, but it still happens even today.  I always thought something was wrong with my turntable or something else and lived with it.  When you see the two individual stereo tracks in a wav file, the difference stands out plain as day.

Rebalancing tracks on an album basis is something I only started doing recently.  Before, everything was all individual songs one at a time on a stand alone basis.  Since working on album sides as a whole, the volume leveling and rebalancing of the whole side has made a huge difference.  It has opened up the music as a whole and now I can hear the actual soundstage as was intended in the final mastering process before the lacquers were cut, at least that is my conclusion.  I'll post some screen prints of the before and after examples down the road.

At any rate ... here we go ... two iconic albums that came out pretty damn nice.  All the work done manually, no slick programs and absolutely no clipping, balanced out at -4 dB peaks.  Everything from here on in will be at least this good or I won't post them.  Dave Mason ~ Alone Together and Cream ~ Disraeli Gears.  Alone Together came out the best and side 2 sounds better than side 1.  That is a whole nuther problem with vinyl and more on that later.

CLICKY  {#Cheers}



kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Nov 27, 2018 - 12:39am

Just bookmarking this handy dandy little tool for calculating bit rates and times for audio files.

Audio Bit Rate and File Size Calculators

otherwise, still ripping away.  Have a Christmas project putting together needle drops for one of Patty's friends.  She was the one who put her up for most of the time she was out west taking care of her daughter.  Her friend is a HS classmate, an architect doing her last gig down in Puerto Rico.  She texts Patty a picture of sunrise at the beach every morning.  A year and a half hitch for FEMA  helping to rebuild the big stuff.  She's traveling light so I'm putting together as much as I can stuff on a flash drive in the next couple of weeks to send her as a thank you to help her get through her last year there.  With a little luck, at least Patty can get down there for a visit in February.

I'll put up some of the really good ones for consumption so to speak now and then.  The process is finalized and as good as it is ever going to get.  They'll be what I'll be listening to for the rest of my days.  If it should happen to be something you got from me before, this will be the keeper, delete the other ones.  No files were clipped in the making. They're just where they should be.

I finally got headphones for the first time since the 70's or 80's.  BG mentioned them in a post about sound quality awhile ago.  Figured him using them was as good of an endorsement I was ever gonna get for something like that.  Holy sh*t.  Blew out my ears before I realized what they were doing.  Had no idea how loud they were playing, they sounded so good.  Could feel the bass in my toes. An evening was all it took.  Afterwards my hearing was like I had just left a 3 hour concert in the front row.  Uh oh.  What, its been nearly 3 months and they still ring.  It's getting intermittent now, but it's there more than it's not.  Gives me hope of sorts.  Still can hear well, I just hear a little bit more now ... Did in one evening what I had tried to avoid most of my life by not using headphones. Oh well ...  But they are awesome, I would recommend them as well. I just have them turned down very low and do clean up work with them.  Still use speakers though for everything else.  That's it for now.  More to come.  Look for that CLICKY thing.


kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Aug 27, 2018 - 8:40am

A repost from Discogs just because this is my journal thread and the place to save stuff like this.

My response to the age old question posed in a thread  ... Does Vinyl sound better than CD's?
.
prefer the sound of vinyl to CD's. I grew up with vinyl. Along came CD's which offered portability and noise free listening without all the hassles of vinyl and I moved into them, basically replacing most of my vinyl with CD's. But there was always something lacking, that and the "fizz" as Neil Young famously said. They did sound pretty much flat or lifeless and needed to be played louder and with lot's of EQ to make it sound more like what vinyl sounded like originally. 

Now since I have returned to vinyl in the past 10 or so years, I have rediscovered the vinyl sound of my 50 year old records and once again, I much prefer the sound of vinyl. It's not so much digital vs analogue, but the mastering processes involved. Mastering for vinyl required using the RIAA EQ curve in order to playback properly so the sound was required to be prepared or mastered a certain way. 

I have now gone full tilt into digitizing my vinyl. When I play back the files either on my computer into my receiver or play back CD's burned with my digital files, the digital rip still sounds like vinyl. This really only applies more to music produced before the 1990's. Modern music is different as it was digital all the way and produced for digital playback on CD's. So you could flip a coin on that I guess. 

Maybe its the inherent background noise of vinyl where there is never pure silence since the stylus picks up the rumble and just the noise of the vinyl surface itself along with the recorded sound. Or the RIAA EQ formula sound. Hard to say. That said, I've only had two turntables throughout my life, both direct drive Technics the second being my present one an SL1200 and one type of Cart / Stylus combination, the Audio Technica Shibata stylus. I tried an AT linear contact stylus that was oddly described as trying to sound like a CD. I did not like it. It was too bright and sterile sounding. With having had basically only one type of turntable / cartridge combination, vinyl has always sounded a certain way to me. And I am used to it. 

I must also add that since I bought a VPI RCM, hearing truly clean vinyl for the first time may also be a big part of my present preference. A properly cleaned record sounds so, so much better now. Turntable rumble is largely gone. I suspect most rumble that I have encountered was more from dirty vinyl than the turntable itself. With the exception of the old MFSL halfspeed masters, even brand new vinyl was never as clean as it could be. Modern pressings especially, require serious cleaning 100% of the time. 

Not so long ago since getting back into vinyl and doing serious ripping, I wondered that since the goal of a CD was to sound like a vinyl record, why didn't they just make a high quality recording of the record played back on the same system used to cut it itself and use that for the CD master ? Then again, if I grew up listening to factory reel to reel tape recordings, my answer may be entirely different. 

Cheers !


kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Aug 19, 2018 - 10:51pm

Vinyl seems to be really exploding again with the coming 50th Anniversary of so many iconic albums.  50th birthday pressings are being made left and right as well as so many box sets.  The pressing quality is still pretty much hit or miss for too much of this stuff though, especially with the prices being asked.  That said, if you still play vinyl or are thinking about giving it a go again, now is a great time to start paying attention to what is coming out as so much of this stuff is truly limited editions with runs of between 500 to 10k like the last MOFI reissue of Layla.  After spending so much time again horsing around with my records and buying too many new albums again, I'm starting to look more to box sets than single albums.  Might as well get a bunch of albums from one band at one time if most of the included are something you really want.  Slightly less than the singles combined and more likely to hold their $ value.  The best quality sets I have found so far are the Tom Petty box sets and the Buffalo Springfield box set.  The latter was done by Young very quietly and surprised Stills  who had no idea he was even working on it when it came out.  Its all from the original tapes with the original mixes.  5 discs.  The first two albums in both stereo and mono and the last in true stereo.  Turns out that the band like many others were only involved with the mono mixes.  The company did the fake stereo mixes and when compared, the mono mixes just plain kick ass over the stereo mixes.  Young even commented in the notes that he prefers the sound of the vinyl to the FLAC and CD versions of the set.  I have to agree.  The price has risen and fallen and now its back up again and with only 3k copies it will keep climbing and sell out shortly. The Petty boxes are amazing in their sound and pressing quality as well.  All analogue masters used with Petty's involvement.  No worries about bad pressings with these 3 sets unlike so many others. 

However they will be limited in pressings and keeping track of all the new releases coming out and what to get and not to get, the prices is mind boggling.  In the past couple of days I was directed to 2 reddit threads dedicated to this very subject.  I've never used reddit for anything before but these seem to be worth paying attention to.  Evidently they are competeing threads but not everything is being cross posted so I have been watching both.  Check them out if the buying light is on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VinylDeals/

https://www.reddit.com/r/VinylDealsUS/

More and more of these are now coming from digital copies of the analogue masters because the original analogue masters are really starting to fall apart.  That's not as bad as it may sound using a digital master for an analogue playback medium.  I used to think that it was just wrong but when done properly it will sound great on vinyl.  Its still all about how a master is prepared for vinyl and in the process it will take on the analogue sound and sound just like it should.  But do your homework and read reviews if you can.  Even with all the information available, buying vinyl is still just as much a crap shoot now as it was 50 years ago.  Back then we had no idea of what plant pressed what and who mastered what.  The copy we got either played properly or it didn't.  Still pretty much the same except we can know to avoid albums made by certain companies and seek out others for their consistent sound and vinyl quality.

One to stay away from at all costs is  https://www.discogs.com/label/430654-GZ-Media  Sad cuz they have some really great artists and albums.

A good one is https://www.discogs.com/label/75430-Speakers-Corner-Records.  They are excellent, sell out fast and their value usually goes up.

and for a quality pressing, this company gets it right more often than anyone else.  https://www.discogs.com/label/271440-Schallplattenfabrik-Pallas-GmbH?sort=year&sort_order=desc&page=1   Look for Pallas whenever pressing info is offered or ask.

and of course good old MFSL or MOFI as they are more widely known.  and if you're going to buy a MOFI might as well get it from their distributor for the best prices, Music Direct.  Not always the best prices for other labels, check Amazon first, but for MOFI, its your first stop.

So when you look around for different records this little bit should help in keeping your hard earned dollars from going down the crapper.  I'll add more names as time goes by.

Hey, this stuff keeps me busy and out of the poly threads and broke, too ...



and if you read all the way to this point here's a little bit more.  With all of the album ripping i've been doing lately, I haven't been remastering any individual songs because there simply isn't time.  I did do these two though because the vinyl was so good and they are two of my favorites.  From the Allman Bros Beginnings album which was the reissue of the first two albums remixed properly for the first time and the same mix used since.  Whipping Post and Dreams.  They came out pretty freaking good if I do say so.

CLICKY
SeriousLee

SeriousLee Avatar

Location: Dans l'milieu d'deux milles livres


Posted: Jul 3, 2018 - 12:07pm

 kurtster wrote:
Some fun facts ...

TOP 10 SELLING VINYL ALBUMS OF 2017 IN U.S.  
RankArtist, TitleSales 
1The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band72,000 
2The Beatles, Abbey Road66,000 
3Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 162,000 
4Ed Sheeran, ÷ (Divide)62,000 
5Amy Winehouse, Back to Black58,000 
6Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain (Soundtrack)58,000 
7Bob Marley and The Wailers, Legend: The Best Of…49,000 
8Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon54,000 
9Soundtrack, La La Land49,000 
10Michael Jackson, Thriller49,000 
Source: Nielsen Music, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2016 through Dec. 28, 2017.


DSOTM is still selling !!!  That is simply amazing considering that it never went out of print its entire existence.

Some related news that may have been missed, but since July 1st has arrived it's fresh again.

Best Buy to Pull CDs, Target Threatens to Pay Labels for CDs Only When Customers Buy Them

It's kinda like being around when the Berlin Wall went up and living long enough to see it come down.  Vinyl is becoming more than a niche market.  It's back full tilt but with different market drivers this time around.  No doubt there is curiosity driving sales, but there is renewed interest in the sound and the rituals involved in playing vinyl.  Once you have accepted that there is going to be some things like pops and clicks, it gets easier.  If you can't accept these unwanted artifacts, well you're stuck with CD's and stream downloads.  People like Taylor Swift need not be worried.  Indie artists are going to be the biggest winners and losers because vinyl only releases are going to make it difficult to get any airplay, yet since many are direct marketed by the artists, they actually make some money.

But vinyl is back.  It has passed the fad stage.  And some good engineers are rising up to take over from the original ones that were so critical in shaping the sound we eventually got to hear.  These guys have passed on or have simply retired.  The sound is as much as the driver as is the artwork and all the 'collectible' aspects of a vinyl LP. 

But what of the sound itself ?  You can digitally rip the vinyl well enough to really challenge critical listeners to pick between the rip or playing the vinyl live.  It's not the digital part that is the difference.  As I occasionally share rips of my vinyl, I offered up some to someone who lives and breathes music and whose opinion I respect highly and I received a funny response to the rips.  I paraphrase ... they sound like vinyl.    Hmmm.  Isn't that what has been the goal of replacing vinyl since the creation of CD's ?  I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of pops and clicks because I took care of those.  

I have finally gotten over the purest attitude that the vinyl chain must be pure AAA.  Many cutting lathes have been digital since the 80's as most are now.  I finally tried the Steven Wilson remix of Tull's Benefit and immediately liked it, even though it went through digital processing and was no longer an analogue sourced pressing.  I'm now working through his Yes remixes and holy sh*t who cares how it got to this vinyl, it's sofa king good even with the occasional click.  

Finally, for now anyway, if ya really have a problem with pops and clicks and real deep pockets, this is for you !!

SweetVinyl - SugarCube SC-2

 
 
Interesting!  Unfortunately,  no pockets that deep. {#Cheers}
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Jul 3, 2018 - 11:55am

Some fun facts ...

TOP 10 SELLING VINYL ALBUMS OF 2017 IN U.S.  
RankArtist, TitleSales 
1The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band72,000 
2The Beatles, Abbey Road66,000 
3Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 162,000 
4Ed Sheeran, ÷ (Divide)62,000 
5Amy Winehouse, Back to Black58,000 
6Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain (Soundtrack)58,000 
7Bob Marley and The Wailers, Legend: The Best Of…49,000 
8Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon54,000 
9Soundtrack, La La Land49,000 
10Michael Jackson, Thriller49,000 
Source: Nielsen Music, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2016 through Dec. 28, 2017.


DSOTM is still selling !!!  That is simply amazing considering that it never went out of print its entire existence.

Some related news that may have been missed, but since July 1st has arrived it's fresh again.

Best Buy to Pull CDs, Target Threatens to Pay Labels for CDs Only When Customers Buy Them

It's kinda like being around when the Berlin Wall went up and living long enough to see it come down.  Vinyl is becoming more than a niche market.  It's back full tilt but with different market drivers this time around.  No doubt there is curiosity driving sales, but there is renewed interest in the sound and the rituals involved in playing vinyl.  Once you have accepted that there is going to be some things like pops and clicks, it gets easier.  If you can't accept these unwanted artifacts, well you're stuck with CD's and stream downloads.  People like Taylor Swift need not be worried.  Indie artists are going to be the biggest winners and losers because vinyl only releases are going to make it difficult to get any airplay, yet since many are direct marketed by the artists, they actually make some money.

But vinyl is back.  It has passed the fad stage.  And some good engineers are rising up to take over from the original ones that were so critical in shaping the sound we eventually got to hear.  These guys have passed on or have simply retired.  The sound is as much as the driver as is the artwork and all the 'collectible' aspects of a vinyl LP. 

But what of the sound itself ?  You can digitally rip the vinyl well enough to really challenge critical listeners to pick between the rip or playing the vinyl live.  It's not the digital part that is the difference.  As I occasionally share rips of my vinyl, I offered up some to someone who lives and breathes music and whose opinion I respect highly and I received a funny response to the rips.  I paraphrase ... they sound like vinyl.    Hmmm.  Isn't that what has been the goal of replacing vinyl since the creation of CD's ?  I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of pops and clicks because I took care of those.  

I have finally gotten over the purest attitude that the vinyl chain must be pure AAA.  Many cutting lathes have been digital since the 80's as most are now.  I finally tried the Steven Wilson remix of Tull's Benefit and immediately liked it, even though it went through digital processing and was no longer an analogue sourced pressing.  I'm now working through his Yes remixes and holy sh*t who cares how it got to this vinyl, it's sofa king good even with the occasional click.  

Finally, for now anyway, if ya really have a problem with pops and clicks and real deep pockets, this is for you !!

SweetVinyl - SugarCube SC-2

 

SeriousLee

SeriousLee Avatar

Location: Dans l'milieu d'deux milles livres


Posted: Jun 21, 2018 - 11:14am

 kurtster wrote:
Moved from the Mixtape Culture Club thread so as not to take away from its real purpose which is about us sharing mixes with each other not for getting up on a soapbox.

That is what this thread is for.  So ...
.
So here is the finished CCR first album from a uniquely great 1st pressing of the album.  I also put up with it the raw fourth track from side 2, Gloomy.  This is what the album sounded like before all the work that went into it.  This was the most distressed part of the album and it took me around 8 actual hours of work on this 3' 50'" song to get just the scratches out.  I left the album in stereo.  The mixtape version of Suzie Q was turned into mono to make it more agreeable with the rest of the songs on the disc.  I think that this is my best restoration effort to date.

CCR AND MCC 15

in 16 bit / 48 khz wave for your listening pleasure.

{#Cheers}

 
Thanks Kurt! {#Cheers}
jambo

jambo Avatar

Location: prairie


Posted: Jun 20, 2018 - 7:45pm

 kurtster wrote:
Moved from the Mixtape Culture Club thread so as not to take away from its real purpose which is about us sharing mixes with each other not for getting up on a soapbox.

That is what this thread is for.  So ...
.
So here is the finished CCR first album from a uniquely great 1st pressing of the album.  I also put up with it the raw fourth track from side 2, Gloomy.  This is what the album sounded like before all the work that went into it.  This was the most distressed part of the album and it took me around 8 actual hours of work on this 3' 50'" song to get just the scratches out.  I left the album in stereo.  The mixtape version of Suzie Q was turned into mono to make it more agreeable with the rest of the songs on the disc.  I think that this is my best restoration effort to date.

CCR AND MCC 15

in 16 bit / 48 khz wave for your listening pleasure.

{#Cheers}

 

hey kurt! thanks so much and yer right. i'll be doing the same asap.
kurtster

kurtster Avatar

Location: where fear is not a virtue
Gender: Male


Posted: Jun 20, 2018 - 7:22pm

 Proclivities wrote:

It seems like most bands (if not all) were releasing albums that were shorter than 50 minutes long until 1967 or '68 - The Beatles first several albums each were shorter than 40 minutes.  I guess part of idea of the label was releasing as many albums as possible as quickly as possible.  Still, like you said, the standard "pop" song rarely exceeded 3 minutes.

 
Back in the days when I ripped to cassettes until the mid 90's, I would say that 95% of everything released through the 80's and before I had fit on a 45 minute long side of a 90 minute cassette.  I forgot about the Doors first album which came out in very early 1967, at least we were hearing it in LA then and Light My Fire and The End.  They really crashed through the 3 min thing, but like so many things back then, there were the edited short versions.  There were so many albums coming out so fast that CCR's first was quickly forgotten.  Led Zep I kinda sealed the deal for main stream rock and the longer stuff became more widely accepted especially with the beginnings of underground FM stations that had no holds on what they could play, sorta ...

And The Beatles.  The early US albums always had two less songs than the English releases up through Rubber Soul.  We was robbed.  Here's a simply amazing (to me) fact that I just learned while poking around.  HELP ! was never released in the US before MOFI did the album in 1985.  We just got singles.  We was screwed.  But we got Magical Mystery Tour in the states 9 years before the UK got it on vinyl.  Still ...
Proclivities

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Location: Paris of the Piedmont
Gender: Male


Posted: Jun 20, 2018 - 5:47pm

 kurtster wrote:

It was 1966 when the average song was just 2 to 3 minutes at most.  That's one of the things that blew me away about this album.  The songs kept going after they just got interesting, not ending.  Nobody was playing anything this long in the world of "pop" back then.  Even the shortest song was long by those standards.  Cream, The Who and Pink Floyd and their extended material was still a couple of years away.

 
It seems like most bands (if not all) were releasing albums that were shorter than 50 minutes long until 1967 or '68 - The Beatles first several albums each were shorter than 40 minutes.  I guess part of idea of the label was releasing as many albums as possible as quickly as possible.  Still, like you said, the standard "pop" song rarely exceeded 3 minutes.
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