People on this forum and other music forums talk about getting cds on "vinyl." What does that mean? I searched the internet but didn't get a good idea of what it was. And what's the advantage with vinyl?

Are you for real? Or is this just some hipster attempt at ironic trolling?

I'll assume you're serious and send you to the Wikipedia for a primer on the gramophone record.

Advantages? I personally hear a better sound coming from high-quality vinyl played on high quality equipment, but I think the difference is not SO massive that I must buy vinyl. The convenience of the CD has up-ended the possible sound quality difference for me. I now only buy vinyl if it contains tracks I can't get anywhere else.

Another big advantage: the size of the 33 1/3 record makes the art and packaging much more 'in your face.' Hold up an album cover and compare it to a CD. Big difference, in size and functionality.

I actually think you have to take the question at face value, pE. Even when you and I were selling records back in the day, the tape cassette was a wildly popular format. It's entirely possible that a listener growing up today could have parents that made the jump from cassette to CD and never had a vinyl LP laying around the house.

It doesn't keep me from considering the purchase of a big bottle of Geritol on the way home, though.

It's worth keeping in mind that an awful lot of music was mastered with the sonic qualities of the vinyl LP in mind and even today have never been remastered for CD. Those albums are still going to sound a lot better on vinyl than CD, even on more modest equipment. Though, like you, I find the convenience first of CDs, and now various lossy and lossless digital formats has made me even less of an audiophile than ever before.

I do, though, miss cover art terribly. When I picked up the Mike Viola you gave me the heads up on late last year/early this year, I was really struck with how much I enjoyed having a copy of the LP with the photo of his wife holding their baby on the screened in porch. I don't think that art would have nearly the warmth or impact as a CD cover.

One final thought I've been turning over in my head for some time. I hear arguments justifying file-sharing as the only way to build a broad and deep knowledge of music because of the expense of buying music. I think back to when file-sharing (and CDs for that matter) wasn't an option. You and I (and crazed and mark and others Peewee and flem_snopes and others...) bought an awful lot of used LPs. Even then, you could get used records for a buck or two. When I wander through used stores today, I see little has changed in that regard. Turntables are so cheap today and it's so easy to run a stereo into your PC, I'm surprised more people don't opt for that route in discovering new music at a reasonable price. It's certainly another advantage to the format, even in a more purely digital age.

Now Playing: "Pawn Shop" Los Lobos Look at All the Love We Found

Amen. Although I'm naught but a whippersnapper (22), I have bought nothing but LPs (mainly used) for the past couple months and it is great. My turntable is really cheesy and nowhere near hi-fi, but I still enjoy the crackle and frequency response of vinyl over cd. And the price of used LPs are generally quite a bit lower than used CDs.

I'm not sure I would be this way if I didn't have mp3s as well though. With the vinyl/mp3 combo I get the best of both worlds - the portability of the mp3s and the sound/artwork of the vinyl format.

Recently picked up the new Dylan on vinyl for my brother. I had to sneak a listen (wouldn't want to ship him a defective slab o' wax) and was blown away by how full and precise it sounded. Still so many LPs that haven't been released on cd. I found a 1976 Ruth Copeland record, Take Me to Baltimore, which I didn't even know existed til recently. She sang on Parliament's debut album and had a short solo career before heading off to obsurity. Nice little album that may never see its way to cd but who cares as the vinyl sounds so good. Also purchased a good cheap copy of Sadistic Mika Band's debut on Harvest. I've seen high priced import cd copies of this but again, the LP sounds so good and I love the cover art.

When I see people buying LPs in local record shops or at record/cd collector conventions, they are almost always high school and college students. Maybe vinyl is more popular in certain cities (university towns perhaps?).

No mention of 45's yet. There's a great all-girl garage band called The Sultanas who've recently released a fab 45 RPM, "You're the One" b/w "Move On Now", and in mono. Heaven!

Don't forget 12" singles either. The amount of music on vinyl 12"s that will never see the light of day on CD is huge. That alone is an essential reason for investing further into this media.

The last vinyl I picked up was my old record collection when I moved it from the unused freezer in my old garage to a new shelf in my new garage. I am a slave to the cd/download era and used to buy more than my share of cassettes. I owned several turntables but never bought a lot of records. I guess I preferred the portability that was available at the time. Anyway vinyl refers to "records" available at several sizes (78s, 33 1/3, and 45s) which really refers to their spinning speeds (for hlebowitsh, who asked). They are black plastic platters with grooves that a needle lays in that produces sound (by Edison magic?). They have two sides (A and B) which is now a completely superfluous concept. Anyway look it up on wikipedia just like PE wrote in the second post on this thread.

Well, I actually had no idea what a vinyl record was. Thanks, this clears a lot of things up.

quote:

Originally posted by hlebowitsh:
Well, I actually had no idea what a vinyl record was. Thanks, this clears a lot of things up.

The fact that there are folks who don't know what vinyl is just makes me feel old. Really old.

I'm gonna go check out retirement homes and eat an early bird special for dinner.

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:

quote:

Originally posted by hlebowitsh:
Well, I actually had no idea what a vinyl record was. Thanks, this clears a lot of things up.

The fact that there are folks who don't know what vinyl is just makes me feel old. Really old.

Makes me feel old too. And you're, like, 6 years older than me. You must feel terrible.

quote:

Originally posted by LinnTate:
Turntables are so cheap today and it's so easy to run a stereo into your PC, I'm surprised more people don't opt for that route in discovering new music at a reasonable price. It's certainly another advantage to the format, even in a more purely digital age.

Now Playing: "Pawn Shop" Los Lobos Look at All the Love We Found

I have never thought of trying this and it's a great idea. As I said once in another thread, I have over 10,000 lp's at my disposal. Well, practically at my disposal. And while none of them constitute any music produced after 1981, I could put together quite the little library. Hmmm...

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
Still so many LPs that haven't been released on cd.

Absolutely, c., that's one of the big arguments in favor of vinyl. There's more great music going unheard because it's not made it to CD than people might think.

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
When I see people buying LPs in local record shops or at record/cd collector conventions, they are almost always high school and college students. Maybe vinyl is more popular in certain cities (university towns perhaps?).

I know Jason and Heath over at Landlocked have been doing a brisk business in vinyl and when they started selling actual turntables, they couldn't keep them on the shelves. I was surprised, but I guess younger, hardcore listeners are embracing the format more than I might have thought.

quote:

Originally posted by PRG:
As I said once in another thread, I have over 10,000 lp's at my disposal. Well, practically at my disposal. And while none of them constitute any music produced after 1981, I could put together quite the little library.

Absolutely, and it would be incredibly easy to do. Just run a line from your Amp to your sound card, load up a free digital audio editor like Audacity, and you're in business. In fact, there's a company out there that says they're planning on releasing a turntable with a USB out, which cuts out a whole step in the process. I don't know if it's come to market yet, but I've thought about picking one up for convenience sake.

Now Playing: "Talk" Coldplay X&Y

quote:

Originally posted by LinnTate: In fact, there's a company out there that says they're planning on releasing a turntable with a USB out, which cuts out a whole step in the process. I don't know if it's come to market yet, but I've thought about picking one up for convenience sake.

EGAD! I would have a reason to get my vinyl out of storage...

quote:

Originally posted by LinnTate:
I know Jason and Heath over at Landlocked have been doing a brisk business in vinyl and when they started selling actual turntables, they couldn't keep them on the shelves. I was surprised, but I guess younger, hardcore listeners are embracing the format more than I might have thought.

Great shop Landlocked. Vinyl seems to be doing a healthy business in B-town. Never hard to find good wax wonders at Landlocked, TD's and Tracks.

Anyone else here hunt down albums at cd/record cons? I'm hoping to make the Indianapolis show this weekend. Always some great finds- both cds & LPs- at very low prices. Even if I go away empty handed, there's always the Luna record shops and the dynamic duo of Indy vinyl shops, Missing Link and Funhouse.

I quit pursuing vinyl quite a few years ago (though this thread is reawakening the enthusiast in me), so I've not been to a record show in many, many years. When I lived in St. Louis, though, I used to regularly go to one at the American Czech Center. Ironically, we used to go mostly for hard to find CD bootlegs like the Beatles Past Masters and Beeb recordings.

Now Playing: "Wish You Were Here" Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here

For the record, I didn't know what vinyl was for a while either. I thought is was some kind of special edition packaging for CDs. That was a few years ago though.

i tell ya. once you've heard a favorite record on a high-end analog system, you'll want each of your favorite albums on virgin vinyl.
that's how it was with me.
i bought a Pro-Ject Xpression turntable a little over a year ago and it's been no-holds-barred ever since.

prior to the 1950s records were only made to be played at 78 rpms. I learned to like big band music as a kid listening to my folk's 78's. Somewhre I have a pile of Enrico Caruso 78's I found in someone's alley trash years ago. Amazing. 78's broke easily; I forget their composition. There are treasures out there and they are not all on CDs.

I got my first turntable about four years ago, my freshman year of high school. It broke soon after because it was an ancient one given to me by a friend's mother (who had had it since the 70s). I told my parents about the USB turntables that allow you to not only play your albums but to rip them to your computer or mp3 player too. My mom jumped right on it, told me to buy one and she' pay for it. So, I did that before work yesterday and my dad and I went to get some albums (I used to have a bunch but they disappeared in our latest move). So, here are some of the albums I got:

Houses of the Holy- Led Zeppelin (Mint Cond. 1st press)
Clash- The Clash (my favorite clash album)
Echo & the Bunnymen- Echo & the Bunnymen (fav. Echo album)
The Catherine Wheel- David Byrne (never heard it but David Byrne is awesome)
Aja- Steely Dan (Yay Aja!)
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5- Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra (amazing piece but I've no clue if this recording is good.. we'll see)
I Advance Masked- Robert Fripp and Andy Summers (never heard it before but Fripp is awesome and this spacey jam sesh is playing my mind)
Journey to the Center of the Earth- Rck Wakeman (acc. by the London Syphony Orchestra an The English Chamber Choir) (my father rec. this)
Revolver- The Beatles (classic)
Shaved Fish- Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band (never checked out the Plastic Ono band because of Ono's scary rep)
Europe '72- The Grateful Dead (mint 1st press)(excellent live album my uncle gave me for christmas a couple years ago)

Now if only I could find all the other vinyl I used to have..

And the turntable (Ion iTTUSB) I got sounds incredible. Only $160 and it sounds so so so good.. I've always been a big digital fan (mainly for the download convenience) but the sound quality is def. noticeable (I've never really noticed the difference previously)

Just bought wayy too much vinyl because my very first credit card showed up with way too high of a limit ($700!!! Scary):

of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer

Liars- Liars

Ellen Allien/Apparat- Orchestra of Bubbles

Battles- Mirrored

Gui Boratto- Chromophobia

Sunset Rubdown- Random Spirit Lover

Moknok- Slugstorm

Sarin Smoke- Sarin Smoke

I think I've got an addiction.