The joys of vinyl….

Just getting back into listening to vinyl after years of downloads/Spotify – without wanting to sound to knobish it certainly is a whole world away.

Three new LPs this week – Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai and The Range.

This could get expensive…new turntable on the cards..

Welcome back.
I’ve been spinning Kraftwerk and Neu this evening.
At one point MrsSlim came back into the living room from the kitchen to see if someone was actually playing piano in the living room.
£1000 on amplifier = justified

BTW, Mogwai are playing Atomic at the Barbican in June.

Just started buying vinyl again where available on stuff I want to listen to. Bonus is loads of it seems to come with CD or download too for mobile listening.

This week been spinning Bob Mould, Skilled Mechanics and Massive Attack. Not sure whether it’s just nostalgia but listening to an actual record seems to make listening to music more of an event…

seems to make listening to music more of an event…

It is a lot harder to do playlists though…

I still haven’t got one of them new fangled CD things;-)

I need to open a combined artisan coffee, tattoo and 3D printed record shop….

It is a lot harder to do playlists though…

Nakamichi cassette deck can solve that problem for you!

We were watching Better Call Saul the other night and I felt a distinct pang of longing when Chuck put something on the record deck and again yesterday seeing a deck on a shelf in an old fashioned living room (that had obviously been there decades) through someone’s window. There was a ritual and a physicality that digital music lacks.

I have around two thousand 12″ records, mainly house, techno, drum and bass etc, collected from when I was 16 to around 28 years old. I don’t DJ that often anymore and when I do I use vinyl emulation software and / or a MIDI controller. I’ve got no idea what to do with them now though as they just take up a load of space.

I’ve sold a few of the rare vinyls over the years on Discogs. I was surprised how much some of it goes for. I sold one record £70 to a lad on Australia which only cost me a fiver when it came out.

Vinyl does sound amazing, and I do miss trawling the racks in record shops for hidden gems. I don’t miss the days of lugging a heavy record bag between gigs though.

I’ve just posted this up on the Everyday Design Classics thread.

How much of the best music you’ve ever listened too, on the best nights out (or in) of your life, came via one of those? 🙂

jimdubleyou – Member
seems to make listening to music more of an event…
It is a lot harder to do playlists though..

True, which is why I like the fact you often get a CD or download version alongside the vinyl.

Playlists are for hearing music, vinyl is for listening to music…

Not when it turns up warped and gritty it’s not. Damn you , Clutch.

Pffft amateur!

Nothing like a bit of Vinyl nerd willy waving 🙂

I’m going around my mom’s at the weekend to pick up up a load of my late dad’s records (plus a bunch of mine) – she was paying someone to throw them away along with her old sofa and stereo. There’s first pressings of The Wall and A Night at the Opera, used to love examining the album artwork as a kid!

I saw vinyl albums in tesco the other day.

A couple of mates are opening a pop up micro pub cum coffee house cum vinyl store in Wallingford soon.

Bloody hipsters.

used to love examining the album artwork as a kid!

The artwork is the biggest loss.

The artwork is the biggest loss.

Also the messages written into the inner groove. I used to love looking for those.

My Rega has just had a service as it’s seeing far more use of late and the local Rise Records store carry plenty of interesting stock.

What’s a record?

Oh go on then..

Not when it turns up warped and gritty it’s not. Damn you , Clutch.

Have you got Psychic Warfare on vinyl. I got it on blue vinyl and first song (x-ray visions) after affidavit doesnt sound that good compared to the mp3 version i’ve got.

Mmmh I really should get off my arse and get my stuff out of the loft,got a LP12,Linn arm,some fancy AT needle, Pink Triangle power supply and an industrial weight of NVA pre ammp,with separate power supply and amps for each of the f-off huge NVA speakers.

Back in the day it could move me like nothing else but I fell in the trap listening more to the recording quality and techniques rather than the music and thats a mug game.

Why is it in the loft ? Well in 2000 our house caught fire, we got out ok but it took took 8 months to replace the roof,garage, gable end etc and my very precious record collection ended up in a skip 🙁 and that knocked the stuffing out of my vinyl habit but that the vinyl revival has fired up my interest — to be continued !

Playlists are for hearing music, vinyl is for listening to music

Is that why people buy it in all different colours? 😉

Jeez ONE Judas Priest record is too many, let alone all that lot!

Jeez ONE Judas Priest record is too many, let alone all that lot!

Vinyl makes everything OK 😉

WHAT??! 😆

Vinyl makes everything OK

Its an unquestionable truth 😀

I love vinyl and everything about it except moving house. (Not a new genre)

Vinyl makes everything OK

until it gets scratched or dirty.

It’s the compression and channel crosstalk effects that everyone likes, makes up for the limitations of their hifi…

There’s an immediate distortion introduced on any record deck that doesn’t have a parallel tracking tonearm, for a start.

It’s the compression and channel crosstalk effects that everyone likes

Nah, I just love the way it sounds

How much of the best music you’ve ever listened too, on the best nights out (or in) of your life, came via one

Precisely? Absolutely zero, zilch, nada.
However, much of the best music I’ve listened to, on the best nights out of my life, have come from situations like this:

Or this:

Vinyl makes everything OK
until it gets scratched or dirty.

It’s the compression and channel crosstalk effects that everyone likes, makes up for the limitations of their hifi…

There’s an immediate distortion introduced on any record deck that doesn’t have a parallel tracking tonearm, for a start.
Exactly. My first CD was Peter Gabriel 4, bought in 1982, long before I even owned a player, because the four vinyl copies I bought and returned were just shockingly badly made, just unlistenable, due to the excessive surface noise that nothing could remove.
And that was a brand new release, being played on a couple of grands worth of turntable/arm/cartridge; Logic DM101/Zeta/AT moving coil.
I never bought vinyl after that, and at the prices being asked for vinyl these days, not likely to ever buy any in the future either.

cum coffee house

Now that’s niche

Oooh. Completely coincidentally I just dug out my vinyl for the first time in well over a decade, and started playing some of it to the boy on a knackered old amp and turntable set up in the attic. Some cracking bits of plastic in my collection that I’d forgotten about completely. Can’t say I’m going to start spending money on it or owt, but it’s nice to be able to listen to the old stuff again. 🙂

four vinyl copies I bought and returned were just shockingly badly made

There are bad presses, it happens. The 80’s and 90’s are notorious for poor quality cuts. However, there are many many delightful presses out there too.
A lot depends on who engineered the mix, the quality of vinyl/machinery used. There are some represses that sound shit where the original sounded marvellous, and vice versa.
Same can be said for many CD’s!

I have a hard to find Masterdisk cut of Moondance/Van Morrison from the late 70’s in mint condition. It’s well known for being a masterful mix and sure enough when playing it recently the MIL stopped yapping and was in awe of how good the reproduction sounded. It’s so bloody good at times that it can bring a tear to the eye.
Same goes for my Mo-Fi version of Beck/Sea Change. Staggers me how good a plastic disc and dragging needle can sound.

You were burned by a shit pressing of an album, id urge you to try again.

As is my habit I’m sitting here listening to a few records on my TT while dinner cooks and I have to say it works for me. Cost a few quid to get it to work this well but worth every penny.

It’s like folding back the page of a dusty paperback in front of a warm open fire in the corner of a cozy living room. Vinyl can be a rewarding tactile experience.
A vinyl collection is more like an archive, that the owner carefully curates and takes great pleasure from taking time out to look and listen to.

Digital music is great for a quick hard fix. Vinyl is for old romantics. Both are great, neither are wrong

It’s the compression and channel crosstalk effects that everyone likes, makes up for the limitations of their hifi…

Yup. Makes it all warm and cuddly.

Tell me more, Eddiebaby!

I love Vinyl.. and it takes me back to memory lane everytime. I love the rituals of playing it as well.. I wish I have a very spacious cozy and nice old style living room with huge fireplace where I can burn logs/wood to mask the crackling noise of old records

I have a Planar deck sitting in my wardrobe with my complete vinyl collection. Unfortunately we don’t have the room to set it up in a permanent position, but if I can kick my kids out of the lounge sometime, I should get it going again, even if it’s just occasionally.