Getting into Vinyl

[fultron89]

So I had some family up for thanksgiving, and they bought with them a Fisher phono table (turntable?) that supposedly their grandmother left them and now I have it.
I don't have a stereo system, but I do have a bunch of 33 albums and a huge amount (like 200) of 45's.
SO, what i did was use a 1/8th in headphone cable with an adapter to run from the phono's headphone jack to the input on my computer, and then put it through Grageband and play it through my computer speakers. Not the best sound quality, but it works.
It's crazy because I'm finding old beatle's 45s and The Doors and Cat Stevens and all these great 70's albums and I'm hearing them for the first time off of vinyl, albeit through tiny comp speakers...
I don't really have a point or question, I just felt like talking. :-)

[dogtrombone]

Ah, memories. There's something to be said for some music being heard on vinyl... especially rock n roll, and early Stones/Beatles- type music. The digital sound often is just too clinical, IMO.
I inherited from my older sister, an Ink Spots vinyl album, recorded I think in 1961, a time when *shock, gasp, horror* bands would record as a band playing together in a studio all at the same time. That, together with the funkiness of vinyl technology made for real "feel".

I also remember listening to....

(Adjusts false teeth and rambles off into distance...)

[uk2usadaz]

Yes I still play my old vinyl's on a turn table.

[kiwicolin]

They sound so much better than CDs, which sound so much better than mp3s, funny how technolgy goes backwards in some ways. It' s more convenient now, but sound quality isn't as good, which is fitting, because music isn't as good either. At least commercial music, is't so lame an not art anymore, all about the $$. Now it's all auto tune and "heeey..."
</end_rant>

[dogtrombone]

Hah! Colin, spoken like a true codger! I agree wholeheartedly, but then I was lucky to grow up hearing music go through it's radical changes... The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream, etc. Unfortunately not a lot of new changes have happened since then, it's largely retreading the old stuff, and more often than not, not doing it very well. Oasis? Please... all been done before, and much better.

<<<End of old codger rant>>>

I feel good... I knew that I would...:lol

[rcfreas]

Ah yes, vinyl. Nothing like opening up an album that has been wraped in cellophane for over thirty years and listening the phonograph needle hitting it for the first time. Sounds sooo sweet.

The collection:
http://www.rcfreas.com/files/musiccollection.jpg

Last count, over 1000 lps.
Recent addition: BRAHMS, The Four Symphonies. 1965. Sealed in original wrapper. Well, not any longer...

SAE TWO 75 watt amp & reciever.
Techincs Direct Drive turntable.
Original purchase date: 1982

...and yes, the stylis (needle) has been replaced many times.

Ron

[dogtrombone]

I spy with my little eye an album by Styx. "Pieces of eight", I believe?

[Merkindt]

rcfreas

that's an impressive collection! Love browsing through those in stores - so broad and solid...

[rcfreas]

Thanks Merkindt. Picked up a couple of Cheech & Chong lps in real good condition the other day at a thrift store for a quarter each. Still looking for a copy of Big Bamboo with the rolling paper. Also got a very good condition of Monty Pythons Matching Tie and Handkerchief. (the record with 3 grooves.)
...and yes Barry, a Styx picture disk with a very low serial number. Wasn't easy finding a clock where I didn't have to enlarge the spindle hole of the record to fit the lp onto.

Ron

[cfire]

Good thread, I still break out the vinyl now and again myself. I started to capture/convert them a while back with the intention of selling the vinyl on ebay just to get rid if them but when I started listening to them I just decided to keep them (at least for a while longer lol). The vinyl just seems to produce a richer sound although it may be nostalgia..........*says another old codger. lol

It's fun to just to go through them and check out the album art!

[Hermie]

Me too have a lot of albums. What about the white newspaper of Jehtro Tull's Thick as a Brick....

I mean really (still) white and the crossword isn't filled in!!!

I also made them into MP3 with the sounds of open fire still in them :lol

I used a turntable and hooked it up on a stereo mixer. This one to the line in of the Creative Labs soundcard!! Recorded with Soundforge

Oh and make sure the turntable is grounded on the computer (unscrew a screw and screw it back in with the wire.

[rcfreas]

Originally posted by cfire
It's fun to just to go through them and check out the album art!

One of the main reasons why I still collect vinyl. Album packaging and art. Not to mention, ya can read the liner notes without an electron microscope!

I'm finding that doing the vinyl capture and cleanup is time intensive. Especially when the cat decides to jump up on the turntable stand right near the end of the recording.... Sometime eaiser to find a re-released cd. Maybe not as cheap, but it will save the cats life. :D

Had a deal lined up for a complete first issue, mostly unopened, 50 volume set of Franklin Mint "The Worlds Greatest Recordings" for $200. Was really bummed when they backed out. Eventually found a complete first issue set used for $45. Awesome score anyway. Still haven't listen to all of them, yet.

Hermie ~ JT - Thick as a Brick. Nice. How about Grand Funk - Shinnin' On with the 3D glasses still intact?

Ron

[Edited on 5/7/2010 by rcfreas]

[Cappy]

You all are operating under a syndrome I call "Sentimental Logic". Created and existing in a "Purist Format".
We hear what we want to hear how we want to hear it and judge from that viewpoint.
I have experienced the evolution of sound and the music industry and I have to say, "Vinyl" is a lot of work to make it sound right. Correct RPM's dependant on the electrical flow from the outlet, needles, environmental interference, etc.
I am with you though. It goes the same with the musicians and their technical styles, the certain artist refusing to accept that there is talent in a computer generated image and on it goes.
You cannot argue that the digitally generated sound and art is the most consistant, and yes, the most sterile in every sense of the form. That is what defeats the evolution.
The same with many things. Old westerns digitally enhanced and slapped on DVD's, totally losing the originality of the actor and its pure form.
Rock on and thank God there are purists such as yourselves. Our society is becoming so sterile, soon anything original will be squashed and traded for the view of perfectionism. Look to our government and our neighborhoods, it is a sad thing. Nuff Said:o

[Hermie]

Origineel gepost door rcfreas

Hermie ~ JT - Thick as a Brick. Nice. How about Grand Funk - Shinnin' On with the 3D glasses still intact?

Ron



What to think of (almost) all the Dead Kennedys album!!! Great art work is that!

[Agvuj]

I remeber my grandad having a vinyl

[Hermie]

I remeber my grandad having a vinyl

:) I assume your not that old Agvuj that you had your own?