I have a love/hate relationship with my collection. It’s such a nice way to collect and listen to music. But they’re so heavy, fragile and take up so much space. A collection can quickly start to dominate your home and packing/transporting them is the worst part of moving house.
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Oh that’s super interesting. What was the process for transferring from vinyl to cassette? Takes me back to the days of recording radio broadcasts on a separate cassette player/recorder.
Do you find yourself buying older albums, or newer stuff, or both? Musical taste aside, I wonder if the romance of listening to vinyl is the same for an Interpol album as it might be for something like Abbey Road or Led Zeppelin IV etc...
You do you. My 17-year-old started collecting them mostly as art - but instead of amassing 10,000, he's got some built-in self-control due to wall space and funding. I think it's kindof neat. He has albums on his wall that I previewed new on CD at Blockbuster Music 30 years ago... Of course, according to him, his LP of OK Computer is cooler than my Radiohead CD or MP3s, but whatever.
I will admit - as others have said, there is something ritualistic and natural-feeling about flipping Rumours over for "side B" - but as a whole cultural experience, I just barely missed out on this growing up.
As far as the merch itself, Severance is probably the best thing I've watched all year - but I just need one cool trinket, not a whole set. Good luck to those who will really go for these.
Do you find yourself buying older albums, or newer stuff, or both? Musical taste aside, I wonder if the romance of listening to vinyl is the same for an Interpol album as it might be for something like Abbey Road or Led Zeppelin IV etc...
I agree with nearly every part of this, except the “fragile” thing - maybe the basics of care and handling come as second nature to me after dealing with these for more than 25 years but if you treat these things kindly, they will outlast you. Many of my records have outlasted many previous owners and are now 60-70+ years old, even significantly beyond that age if you’re getting out of the age of vinyl and into shellac…
To put things into greater perspective, a very small portion of vinyl sales are even tracked. It’s really only major label new releases passing through major distributors. Indie labels and DIY artists basically don’t count toward anything, though they make up a larger portion overall of what is actually being currently produced/sold. And then there’s the entire used market which isn’t tracked at all and is probably healthier and more active than even the new market, at least as far as the real record collectors are concerned. There is a whole world of records out there outside of what you’re going to find at Walmart and Target. It’s not even a drop in the ocean.Well for perspective:
What the Vinyl Records Comeback Really Looks Like...
How big are vinyl sales in comparison to the past? Well, your perspective on the 'vinyl records comeback' may completely change after checking this out.
I feel the same way. I started buying cassettes in the mid 1970s. So many commercial albums were poorly recorded, though, that I switched to vinyl in the late 1970s. I used to love going to used-record stores; I'd take a chance on almost anything that cost a dollar or two. What I didn't like about vinyl were the pops, ticks, and scratches that inevitably accrued over time. I was thrilled when CDs came out. In the 1980s, I began replacing my favorite LPs with CDs. I eventually sold my collection of over 400 LPs, except for some collectibles or ones that were never released on CD.
I feel the same way. I started buying cassettes in the mid 1970s. So many commercial albums were poorly recorded, though, that I switched to vinyl in the late 1970s. I used to love going to used-record stores; I'd take a chance on almost anything that cost a dollar or two. What I didn't like about vinyl were the pops, ticks, and scratches that inevitably accrued over time. I was thrilled when CDs came out. In the 1980s, I began replacing my favorite LPs with CDs. I eventually sold my collection of over 400 LPs, except for some collectibles or ones that were never released on CD.
I never heard an LP that I thought sounded better than a well-mastered CD of the same recording. Some people claim they can hear the difference. Some consider the pops, ticks, and scratches to be "character." Some like the fact that an LP is a physical object in which they can "see" the music in the grooves. Some like lifting and placing the needle on the LP. Some like the distinction between "side 1" and "side 2," especially when the artist intentionally broke up the music thematically. What I liked best about LPs was the large-format cover art and printed lyrics, although they usually were reproduced in smaller format for CDs. These days, I rarely buy physical media, since almost everything is available on Apple Music, often in remastered format.
As for "Severance," I loved the show, but I can't remember a thing about the soundtrack. Some of my most disappointing used-LP purchases were original movie and TV soundtracks. I'd buy them for the main- and end-title music, and the rest of the music usually was boring to me.
Anyway, of those of you who love vinyl, more power to you; I'm not criticizing.
What you’re talking about though is a difference in how the recording is mixed, it has little to do with storage medium. You can have extremely well mixed digital recordings too. The trend to mix badly for increased loudness, and the trend towards digital release formats, just coincided. The solution is not vinyl, the solution is to stop pressuring sound engineers to mix things badly.
Back in the old days, many home stereo systems had a turntable and a cassette deck (player/recorder) hooked up to a receiver (combination pre-amp, amplifier, tuner), and the cassette deck was hooked up in such a way that whatever the pre-amp was supplying to the amplifier (for the speakers) was also sent to the cassette deck.
Reel to reel was more of a boomer thing. GenX was all about compact cassettes, and recording stuff off the radio.
