OMG, People Buy Records? Vinyl In The News Thread

There was a feature on CBC (Canadian News) on vinyl resurgence. There was a lot of footage taken at the record store I frequent most, and I'm pretty sure I was there when they were filming, but didn't watch the feature long enough to see if I was there.

my momz sent me this article in the mail. seniors no what's up:

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/lifestyle/vinyl-records-back.html

But here's my theory: it's the unique imperfections of each vinyl record that make it irreplaceable. After enough plays, a record becomes a fingerprint of your listening experience. Just about everyone who owned the Beatles' White Album wore the thing down to a nub. Your copy, like mine, is a crackling mess through "Cry Baby Cry"—but then it becomes a mint-condition collector's item the moment that unlistenable jumble of sounds the Lads called "Revolution 9" fades in.

fightin' words!

your copy is an individual fingerprint of your unique listening experience and sounds the exact same as mine

they are like snowflakes

hahahahaha that is a totally LOL takedown of rev#9 though by AARP

"The cracks and the little imperfections that pop up seem to enhance the music. It's a way of experiencing music rather than just consuming it."

ffs will people stop saying this baloney

yeah, no one wants beat up records!

i need to get another copy of this, not enough snaps crackles or pops

the cracks and imperfections is why I buy 85% of my music on CD iirc

along with the rest of the world

cracks beat transients i guess

tbh when i started collecting records i would buy most of my records from dollar bins, and so there was always some pops and tics and stuff, but now i pretty much won't buy a record unless it's VG+ or better. i just upgraded a Scorces LP that i've had since college but one night gouged up one side of it. So i re-bought it a few weeks back despite the $20 pricetag; it's a nice record and I'm glad to be able to listen to it w/o that tic every revolution. (revolutionary tic?)

haha I remember you mentioning that on some other thread.

it's always nice to upgrade.

thank you upgraders for throwing away perfectly listenable copies of led zep II and bitches brew in front of ace hardware.

no prob

the problem i have with the annoying pop/crackle romantics is they honestly believe that ALL records sound like that to some degree. that their old beat up copies of tapestry or blue were made that way. cuz that's what they've heard for so long. which is just weird. don't they have ANY memory of buying a new record and playing it for the first time?

i guess i can understand people liking surface crackle somewhat, but pops drive me INSANE

maybe people are just thinking of all the old tv shows and movies when someone puts on a victrola and they hear that crazy victrola noise. even i get a little romantic/nostalgic when i hear some barely audible recording from the turn of the century. or even when i play a 78 in good shape from the 20's. like its coming from another world. but modern records, that's different.

it's kind of like the auditory equivalent of a yule log video

the tunes you love, plus a bonus of psychosomatic crispy ticks and buzz

If the record isn't particularly beaten up, how much crackling can be removed by cleaning?
I have a discwasher bottle + brush thingy but haven't cleaned a record in years.

i use them pretty regularly, but i guess mostly it's cleaning new acquisitions -- the expedit keeps them pretty dustless...

If the record isn't particularly beaten up, how much crackling can be removed by cleaning?

heaps. i have an RCM but i've taken many discs up a listening grade or two with a decent clean

a record with no crackle is a genuinely beautiful thing

what i mean is the crackle all due to accumulated filth? i get the feeling that distortion from having worn down the grooves wouldn't present so much as crackle than muddiness.

crackle is mostly dust and grot yeah, sometimes it can be pressing imperfections or due to needle damage (as opposed to play wear)

listening to a blue note lonnie smith record last night - late 60's deep groove heavy vinyl not a liberty pressing - it had NO surface noise whatsoever. it had never been played. it has the deepest fattest sound you can imagine. you could test a fancy stereo with it. the difference between that copy and a vg or even a decent vg+ copy? WORLDS! i could weep hearing a record like that. i bought something like 3500 records from a guy and 85% had never been played. so my jaw has been dropping on a daily basis for almost 2 weeks. seriously clean vinyl that has resisted the elements over many years that can still sound that amazing? over 40 years in a box in sheds and basements...i respect these things. they've got super powers. to mythologize a poorly kept/maintained/handled record is a slur to the technology. these things were built to last with even a minimum amount of care.

crackle just comes from somewhere else. unless it's like serious noise, it is in a different part of the room or a different part of your ears, sonically, than the music is, ordinarily. it isn't on top of it obscuring things.

I had a good friend for whom I taped a copy of my dad's American Beauty. When she upgraded it to CD, she was disappointed by the listening experience b/c she was used to crackling on certain places (I had also put the wrong side first, fucking up the track order). I can see how this might not translate for all albums though.

Those of us who fell for the Great Lie will never fully recover. My distraught friend from the used-record store is right: we'll spend the rest of our days trying to re-create our old collections, Ancient Mariners roaming the earth, our MP3 players slung about our necks like albatrosses.

But there will be the inevitable reunions with long-lost LP friends, the rush of anticipation when the needle hits that groove, and the exquisite moment when the music plays, warm and full, punctuated with the pops and crackles of passing time.

love this guy

I just forked over a lot of money for a turntable and am not sorry. When the sun goes down, I really enjoy putting a record on while I sit in another room and read. It's nice to have a break from digital music. Not for everyone, I know.

We gave my 90-something grandmother one of those "retro" stereos with turntable and cassette deck. She said she wished she still had her old records and my mom suggested I bring some of my easy listening LPs over some day so we could listen to them. She listens to cassettes mostly.

Actually quite interesting piece on the BBC site about the guy who ran Beanos in Croydon :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8507703.stm

NPR's All Things Considered, today:

"Vinyl is the real deal," White says. "I've always felt like, until you buy the vinyl record, you don't really own the album. And it's not just me or a little pet thing or some kind of retro romantic thing from the past. It is still alive. United Pressing Plant is two or three blocks away from here, and they're pressing up millions of copies of vinyl every year. And people are still buying them in droves."

United has manufactured records for Motown and Music Row since it opened in 1962. These days, the old pressing machines are going full tilt. Third Man's director of production, Ben Blackwell, says he's back and forth to United on a daily basis as they collaborate on new color schemes for their limited-edition releases. United workers slice hockey-puck-shaped ingots of colored vinyl in two or three pieces and then reassemble them by hand.

"And then that puck with the labels attached is fed into the actual record press, and approximately 20,000 pounds of steam pressure compresses that puck between two metal plates, which are the negative images of your actual record grooves, so when you have a record that has grooves, these pressing plates have ridges," Blackwell says. "It really is mystifying and captivating, too. It's almost like you feel something in the room while it's happening."

would he say the same thing about a plant that manufactured coasters? because it's the same fucking thing.

god i'm tired of romance-of-vinyl crap. just get over yourselves.

There'll be new Fred Dibnah's soon!

All marving about steam driven record pressing plants...

So, how are CD's selling now compared to vinyl? On the website of a major record store here they list they're top 10 sellers of the month with a note that all things listed are vinyl unless otherwise noted (and there are no notes otherwise). When exactly did vinyl start overtaking CD's?

still can't play vinyl in cars iirc

old_timey_car_with_turntable.jpg

they should just start making cds the size of laserdiscs. that would be awesome.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

And today's last word in business marks the birthday of a music technology that was supposed to die. Cassettes, compact discs and MP3 players were all supposed to kill it off.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

But the LP, the long-playing vinyl record, is still around - making something of a comeback, in fact. Artists are releasing new songs on a format that first debuted 62 years ago today.

INSKEEP: It took years of effort to overcome technical difficulties like grooves that were too wide and poor audio fidelity. But in 1948, Columbia Records finally introduced the microgroove long-play vinyl record, which could play an incredible 22 minutes of music on each side.

MONTAGNE: And according to Wired magazine, the first released was a Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor with Bruno Walter conducting the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York.

And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I hear some music coming up there, Steve. I'm Renee Montagne.

INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUG1hXq7GHU

I NEED THAT RECORD! THE DEATH (OR POSSIBLE SURVIVAL) OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE

OK

http://www.cnn.com/2010/IREPORT/08/11/vinyl.irpt/?hpt=C2

"Alice says that vinyl has soul and that its imperfect sound is like 'a performance every time it's played. It's never quite the same twice.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/fashion/23Gimlet.html

ha. i met the guy on the left of that photo last time i was in ny

haha! yeah I know him too.

a Dazzle Ships regular

guy in center with the glasses and beard is my default mental image of the every-ilxor

guess the big question is how many people actually expect to get the record on release day to listen to for the first time, as opposed to downloading/streaming it and then buying it later if they like it. I'm in the former category but I suspect I'm very much in the minority there.

haven't been buying much new vinyl but I'm still annoyed that all this results in a lot of people delaying the release of their new music by 6 months. the Vibe Shift might have already happened and I'm late hearing it!

lol

Not sure what thread to ask this on - does anyone press 140g vinyl anymore? Feel like everything that’s been pressed in the last 15 years has been 180g, which eats up the rubber rings in my spin clean. Is there a reason for this or is it just aesthetic?

180g pressings were originally done by boutique audiophile labels on the premise that a heavier pressing would be less susceptible to warping. I think I've seen more recent info that that's not actually the case. Regardless, it's just aesthetic/prestige at this point. Proper mastering and pressing is way more important.

180g records also have a tendency to put much more strain on the cardboard jacket in my experience, which leads to splits and tears much earlier. and anyway records are heavy enough as it is. not a fan.

yeah so weird considering vinyl pvc scarcity

https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/05/03/the-untold-story-of-the-white-houses-weirdly-hip-record-collection/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/05/mofi-records-analog-digital-scandal/

discussion here:

Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil