Aldi do stereo cassette player!!

[Snoochieboochies]

The thing that makes me mad these day's isn't so much the recording format but how everything is turned up during the mixing phase. I think the rot set in with an Oasis album in the late 90's and music has sounded terrible ever since.

 

Instruments no longer have the space to breathe on a recording. Some of the drumming on 60s & 70s albums sound amazing but i can barely differentiate them from everything else on modern recordings.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

[jthompson]

The thing that makes me mad these day's isn't so much the recording format but how everything is turned up during the mixing phase. I think the rot set in with an Oasis album in the late 90's and music has sounded terrible ever since.

 

Instruments no longer have the space to breathe on a recording. Some of the drumming on 60s & 70s albums sound amazing but i can barely differentiate them from everything else on modern recordings.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 

I'd just assumed that a lot of music is mixed with the assumption that it'll be listened to through [tinny] Apple earphones. I've more than a few times felt really frustrated by the poor production quality of some albums: things which should sound belting can come off as really thin.

[witch]

That's the other thing - in my experience people who play vinyl use decent amps and speakers, whereas many (I didnt say all) CD players have rubbish amps and speakers, and if you play them through a computer - well you get what you get. As @jthompson says, the mixing these days is very different too. @synasthesia So you can't ever listen to live music then?

 

As for the warmth varying - it does, but then again it does in real life. To me it is quite obvoius which is CD and which is vinyl - except possibly the new stuff which has been remastered for vinyl - so it is still digital

[LeMarchand]

That's the other thing - in my experience people who play vinyl use decent amps and speakers

 

Isn't that part of the whole audiophile ethos amongst the older set? I think the younger peeps who aren't using hand-me-downs probably aren't using high end equipment -at least judging by the amount of cheapo vinyl players surfacing these days.

 

To me it is quite obvoius which is CD and which is vinyl - except possibly the new stuff which has been remastered for vinyl - so it is still digital

 

So those people buying (say) the new Ed Sheeran on vinyl really are just posing?

 

As an aside, helped one of Mme LeMarchand's friends empty her Dad's loft on Saturday. Piles of "Gramophone" back issues and loads of really old "brown paper sleeve" vinyl. Seemed to be on heavier gauge vinyl than most of what I have - though I may just have been tired by then! Reckon there may be some valuables there if she has time to sort through it.

[Snoochieboochies]

As for the warmth varying - it does, but then again it does in real life. To me it is quite obvoius which is CD and which is vinyl - except possibly the new stuff which has been remastered for vinyl - so it is still digital

 

I'm very dubious of the new vinyl. I think it's more about making a buck on the back of nostalgia than delivering a quality product for consumers.

[JATSO]

I have one disc on HD-DVD format that the kids bought me for fathers day a few years back when the format wars were going on between Blueray and HD-DVD, well i got this ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/Led-Zeppelin-Song-Remains-Same/dp/B000WGUPTS ) off the kids and have never been able to play it still have in the box with the VHS version next to it somewhere in the garage.

[witch]

 

So those people buying (say) the new Ed Sheeran on vinyl really are just posing?

 

.

 

Yep - and I have told my 26 year old son just that

[unixman_again]

Just for info - part of the reason for the resurgence of vinyl is musical. Digital CDs are cold and perfect - but music isn't like that, and analogue records have a much warmer feel to them -the music sounds better. If you listen carefully, you can hear the difference.

But cassettes - nope, can't see any reason for that

I've got something like 100 hours of Tony Hancock recorded on cassette, which I listen to quite regularly. I spent most of my teen years building the collection, recording Hancock's off the radio and swapping recordings with other collectors around the world. It gave me great pleasure to do it. A few years ago, a friend gave me three CDs with them all coverted to MP3 - all cleaned up, so none of those pops and whistles. I never listen to these - it's all too easy to get a complete collection. He is in Australia (where I'm from and where I recorded most of my episodes) and he got the cleaned up copies from somebody in the UK.

 

I listened to one especially rare episode and the cleaned up copy has little dropouts which coincide with those on my cassette copy. It appears as though the episode has come home, probably via several other collectors and no doubt several different formats.

[Snoochieboochies]

[JRA]

Can't wait until wax cylinders make a comeback!