The invasion of unwanted vinyl records ....

Dyr

Definite preference for vinyl over CD. I always hated CD, I hated their poxy fragile cases, their poxy fragile surfaces that make the whole record die on it's arse if damaged, how easily they break. I can remember when they were introduced, they were claimed to be the kryptonite of audio formats, almost impossible to damage, in reality they're fragile as ****. They suck balls.

Give me vinyl any day, expecially for albums that were made before the 2000s.

Only problem with vinyl now is the price has been driven up by demand and collectors. I buy the damn things to play them, not store them

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837485#Comment_119837485

Neil Young was complaining, years ago, that you only got a small percentage of the sound he wanted on CD. His beef was all about compression, I think. Really hated MP3 and streaming services.

I’ve always preferred vinyl but unless you’re playing it on a top sound system you may as well be listening to a CD or download.

Anesthetize

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837514#Comment_119837514

Unless you're throwing them about like a frisbee, CDs don't damage that easily. It's easy to look after them once you store them correctly, and transfer them straight from case to CD tray.

I've built up a sizable CD collection over the years and never had one badly scratched or damaged.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837543#Comment_119837543

Neil Young is nearly deaf, so his comments on this can be thrown away as nonsense.

He then released a digital music player, using 192kHz sampling which is known to have worse results than the 44.1kHz of CD; to just compound the bullshit from him.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837582#Comment_119837582

Everything lasts if taken care of.

I've the whole day to myself at home just listening to vinyl.

I bought this lp (iirc) in comet records in cork when it came out, probably early 1990.

It's still sounds fantastic and better than a lot of the newer stuff which I find can be hit and miss.

Greyfox

The Vinyl revival is for people who like to throw money away

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837735#Comment_119837735

You mean spend money.

That's what's it's for ya tight b*stard! 😆

Anesthetize

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837703#Comment_119837703

Great album 🙂

Count Dracula

You won't find me headbangun to Crazy Horse in my living room on Digital either.

Vinyl all the way , in fact anyone experiencing psychadelic rock on a CD need to take a minute and have a good hard look at themselves and whatever they are up to.

I listen to crazyvHorse on my decks with the earth off, the feedback, singe and subliminal electric twang gives me the horn. That sound is impodsible to reciprocate. Digitally.

Its sad really. Digicells have never really heard rock n roll properly before. Never felt the wind of basekick in the middle of Layla or the Guns of Brixton.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837756#Comment_119837756

Na, it's common sense. Paying for things that are free is a bit silly, I'd rather keep my money for beer

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837804#Comment_119837804

If you are listening to psychedelic rock in the "right state of mind" looking in a mirror can be a scary experience.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837850#Comment_119837850

Some people would think buying beer is throwing money away.

How 'bout you spend your money how you like and everybody else spend it how they like.

Count Dracula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837874#Comment_119837874

Not as scary as being locked from dawn to dusk in a medieval coffin for the last 937 years. You should try it sometime buddy? I have suffered from acute paranoia resulting from advanced Claustrophobia since the 1440's. That's a long time pal, Henry VIII hadn't even been born then., smartass.

Some people just don't get it, do they?

astrofool

The vinyl revival is literally record execs taking advantage of gullible purchasers. It'll die off in a few years ago along with the remnants of the high street record shops (or they'll have to morph into something else).

The medium really doesn't matter as alluded to earlier, it's about how it's used.

Now, the nostalgic days of browsing, listening and buying records, I understand, now, all music is almost immediately accessible anywhere it's wanted and that drives homogeneity of what gets produced.

(it also concentrates the available revenue into the hands of fewer artists which causes other issues)

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119835188#Comment_119835188

A bit unfair.

Here is a Golden Discs chart from 1981. Not exactly mainstream.

dasdog

I never liked CD's - still have records I bought in the nineteen eighties I would fight to the death for. Spindizzy and Freebird for the win although I did see some kids pointing at Miles Davis Bitches Brew in Golden Discs earlier which I was well impressed with.

Saturday afternoon shopping was Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and the great Cathal Coughlan's - Telefís A Dó.

NewbridgeIR

I have been buying vinyl since 1981, CDs since 1986. I buy stuff every week without fail.

Both formats have their advantages & disadvantages.

CDs work best for jazz, ambient tunes, tracks with quiet passages, long form abstract pieces, live recordings and genre compilations

60s beat, psych & mod tunes all work best on 7"

Techno, drum 'n' bass, house, hip hop works best on 12"

Most rock & indie will hold their own on vinyl, once the pressing isn't compromised by length

Multi disc box sets & reissues are ideal for the CD format - the vinyl equivalent would be cost prohibitive and wholly impractical - so what often happens is a cut-down vinyl release (usually half the tracks missing) for twice the price.

LP artwork is obviously superior to scaled-down CD images but a well-annotated CD box is lovely especially with a decent book containing essays, sleevenotes & information that contextualises the recordings.

So in my opinion, if you are into listening to music on physical media then you need both formats.

I find that a lot of people who climbed on board the vinyl revival train are now dissing CDs in a rather exaggerated fashion - it's like they're over-compensating for ignoring the format for so long. I know people who stopped buying records in 1991, re-started a few years ago and are constantly telling me how rubbish CDs are.

dasdog

eBay around 1998 on dial up modem and posting of physical dollars which had to be exchanged at a bank was the golden age for bargains.

Nobody wanted records.

Count Dracula

Just before this gets out of hand, I just want to state that I own a mulitude of CD's. They are scattered all over the gaff and I do enjoy listening to a CD driving home in the evenings.

Anything would beat the bland humdrum of drivetime radio, it really is not good for your soul to be sat listening to an avalanche of propaganda and current affairs when you could be bopping along to your favourote tunes, or indeed your collection of illicit audio porn, whatever grabs your bag.

CD's can deliver in the car, it happens.

But vinyl still sounds more profound.

The Rivers of Babylon is a revelation when first experienced on 7 or 12 inch. It brings you right back to the dance floor. What a groove.

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119838306#Comment_119838306

I remember those days fondly.

But 1993 was the nadir.

My local record shop got 502 copies in of U2's Zooropa on release day. 300 CDs, 200 cassettes and 2 LPs.

I had pre-ordered one LP, someone else the other. A week later, I saw the second copy in the racks. The owner told me that the guy changed his mind so I bought that one as well.

Similar for Nirvana's In Utero, Neil Young's Unplugged, Kate Bush's The Red Shoes, PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me......

In Virgin and HMV, nearly every new LP on a major label was discounted after a few months - usually to £3.99 or less. They just couldn't shift them. George Michael's Older being the most notorious example. HMV got in 10 copies. I bought one, a mate bought another and an unknown person the third. They were stuck with seven copies for weeks on end, eventually selling them off for £3.99. Sadly I didn't buy another - and it's become the most sought after LP of the decade, routinely selling for €800+ - albeit was finally reissued in September.

Whipping Boy's Heartworm - plenty copies of the blue vinyl pressing in Virgin at the time, nearly everybody ignoring it and buying the CD or cassette (now there's a crap format). When it was reissued last year, they all came out of woodwork, all anxious to post photos of them playing it.

Ubbquittious

I would not be surprised if a lot of the modern vinyl out there is created from .flac files or similar and the whole purity aspect of it is gone before the race even begins

dasdog

I paid about €34 for Achtung Baby this year even though I got it on CD twenty years ago. I blame that on the Zoo TV gig in the RDS in 1993.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119838377#Comment_119838377

All of it for decades has been created from digital masters; usually LPCM the same as CDs. FLAC decompresses to LPCM.

PCM use in studios started before CDs - plenty of early 80s albums would have only ever existed in PCM before going to pressing/tape making.

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119838383#Comment_119838383

It sounds way better spread over 2 LPs. The original LP didn't sound great. They did a great job on the 20th anniversary editions with the Uber / Super boxes.

Tork

I missed the original vinyl era so I don't have any nostalgia for it. It was CDs I grew up buying and I'll stick to that format for as long as they continue to make the things. I've decided I'm not going to go down the vinyl route but if it encourages other people to buy physical music how bad is it? Before the vinyl resurgence, record shops were closing all over the place. I'm not sure how long the current "bounce" will last but it is nice to have the option to walk into a shop selling music and do some sort of browsing.

TheRiverman

The current price of vinyl is insane. There is no argument that can convince me otherwise. It's outrageous to be charging two to three times the cost of a CD.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119837920#Comment_119837920

Or people can give their opinions on Vinyl

Dyr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119836161#Comment_119836161

I was listening to a Nick Drake reissue on vinyl there this morning, I imagine it was lovingly remasterd by hand by artisan audiophile gnomes who kept the original tapes safe in an underground vault and nary a single note was polluted by digital processing. Or something.

All I know is that it knocks my CD version into a cocked hat in terms of warmth and sound. You feel like the great departed man is at your shoulder singing. Same with my original Sabbath and Scorpions etc. LPs, the CDs are inferior

Your argument is now invalid

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119838863#Comment_119838863

40 years

Nick Drake died in 1974.

In this case, its probable that the original CD version was ripped off a degraded analogue tape; and the vinyl reissue was extensively remastered. Digitally. And is probably available on CD as that remaster also.

Dyr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119838870#Comment_119838870

So wrong, so so wrong.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/nick-drake-5-1261909

Oh yes, analog is just better than digital in many ways.