A long time ago, when there was no such thing as iTunes, I pretty much snubbed digital music. First, mid-eighties, because I didn't have a CD player to start with. Later I noticed that LP's were still cheaper than CDs, and used vinyl was even cheaper since lots of folks re-built their collections with silvery plastic discs and flooded the market with their now "obsolete" 60s and 70s gems. I had a short fling with CDs when my dad handed me down his first CD player around 1991, especially when I lived in a godforsaken university town where there was simply no shop that sold vinyl anymore.... but I soon had enough of the silver frisbees... they got scratches, too, after all, and my smoking habit tended to fuck up the player's lens, and once I had some decent speakers, I noticed that I didn't even like the sound of CD (which had been a selling proposal at some point...). So when I moved to Berlin in 1995, I started collecting some more vinyl, got into a little bit of DJing, and one happy day, I bought myself a pair of Technics and a mixer. All was fine. My domestic music life was pure bliss: I could listen to my vinyl stuff seamlessly, which kept my kind of busy with changing records, but that suited my slightly hyperactive nature just fine. I'd plan a playlist and write it down, or I just went with the flow, digging through the crates for the perfect next tune while the last one was playing.
Then 6 years ago my son was born, and "somehow" there wasn't any more time to spend just changing records and listening. And I needed to keep the vinyl and turntables under lock and key lest the apple of my eye "investigate" them too thoroughly. A few years ago I went to study abroad for a year with only the music on my laptop... and finally, I must've gotten used to the sound of mp3. They just seemed so convenient: Never having to get up to turn/change the record, and then there was the iPod, too. This is how I ended up using only one turntable, and rarely, for about 2 years. Until today.
I'd had to deal with some serious shit lately and I really needed consolation. And music, one of my favourite things to turn to during bad times, just didn't seem to do the trick any more. Today, I found myself pacing my flat, looking for something to take my mind off things, and I started playing some records. And I felt: something. Something I had been missing, and not even known: It was the sound of vinyl. The digital stuff felt all watered down in comparison, and that's why it could do nothing for me in that critical situation. Not everything can be treated with only Baby Aspirin. After a few tunes I knew what to do and brought my mixer and second deck back from early retirement. Ohhhh that bass sound! It's round, and soft, and full, and the funk seems so much funkier and chunkier, coming from the good old analogue. I compared a few songs I have both digitally and on vinyl, and it was SO obvious. Not even the higher bit-rated ones could hold up to their counterparts with the dusty sleeves. So now... at least, something good came out of all this trouble that has been raining down on me... I re-discovered my true love... don't think I'm getting any CDs or mp3s in the near future...
My Trusted MOGs
I love the sound of a record playing. I have always wanted to get a nice record player, instead I invested in a really nice needle for a record player I had been using. I found it in an old storage closet at school, and after all the kids and teachers had left brought it home. It has an old sound to it, but I love the way it sounds. Its pictured below.
My Trusted MOGs
Micki, I'm sorry to hear that you are troubled, but at least something good has come of it. I never had a record collection growing up. When I was very young, my brother and I used to play our parents' records, but by the time I was of age to start buying my own music, I bought cassettes. Cassettes that were all stolen and replaced with CDs. It's only very recently (through happenstance) that I received vinly for something I ordered instead of acetate. After posting about it, I became convinced to keep the record and to acquire a player. I now have two. I've recorded my own copies of songs from the record and done a comparison. Even on a crappy set of computer speakers, the difference was obvious. Through my stereo... well, my first play of a Portishead record almost moved me to tears. Just don't tell anyone. :)
Rawk, that is an awesome player.
My Trusted MOGs
whoa...that's a bold statement but I'm feeling you on the warm amience of vinyl (espcially with the jazz and reggae)...too, something tangible occurs when the needle arm drops onto the record...which is never experienced when your rolling your thumb around a click wheel...right on...
My Trusted MOGs
The awesomeness of vinyl cannot be replicated electronically. And besides, there's just something soothing about watching a record spin.
My Trusted MOGs
Can't help but think that the ear will discern the difference between the material vibration of a needle in a groove that results in a sound wave, and the digital tic-tic-tic of all those bits, bytes, ones and zeros. But I ain't a scientist...
My Trusted MOGs
absolutely. i think a big part of vinyl is the tactile nature of it too. taking it out of it's cover, the delicate handling of it from side to side and the placing of it on a player...i really enjoyed this post. i grew up with vinyl but due to travel, moving and lack of space/money, i haven't touched my own vinyl since i was a kid!
My Trusted MOGs
@Rawk: That is one funky turntable. Can you imagine a CD player aging gracefully like that?
@Zero: Thanks... Everything is going to be o.k., life moves on and so do I, and it's cool to have a forgotten but loved "hobby" back. I saw you are in the process of getting into vinyl and I think it's amazing. Maybe mp3's even contribute to the pleasure because we get accustomed to that slightly lacking sound quality, so when we're hit by the sound of a really good pressing (like they make them again), the difference is stunning. Keep on!
@Crash: you are bold! Btw, when I posted this, I hadn't even realized that your Q-Bert post with that mad video must have inspired me to grab some vinyl yesterday. THANKS :-)
Lemon & Mike: That's what I think. The vibration of a stylus can't be reproduced in 1s and 0s. No such thing as lossless, really. Maybe "the CD sound" might be closer to a "live" sound, don't know about that. But I think the vinyl record adds some magic ingredient... like when an unplugged turntable still "magically" (or rather, mechanically) delivers sound to the amp.
@ Lady C: Oh yes, of course there's the big (once) shiny covers. And let's not forget the labels! A printed CD somehow can't get close to the glamour of, say, a "Swan Song" or "Westboung" label (just to name some colourful ones that came to my mind). And then, they _spin_. Yeah, that's soothing. Beautiful, beautiful.
My Trusted MOGs
I just got my copy of Radiohead's The Bends in the mail today. It is very beautiful. Glad you found the other post from Amy Honey. Cheers.