During the last couple of weeks, I've dug out the old stereo record player from the dusty depths of the spare room - and brought it downstairs and set it up in the living room. I've now cleaned a batch of old LPs and started playing them:
Last night I listened to ELP "Trilogy", Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" and "Hendrix 64", an album of old blues-based demos that he made with his mate long before he did his famous stuff.
Tonight I've got lined up Talking Heads, Best of the Jam, Thin Lizzy and Santana to give a whirl.
Loads more for another night.
So ...... any Lifers out there who still play old vinyl .....?
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Same here ... but having read Oggy's post, I think I need to get a turntable again. So much music I haven't looked at for years and definitely not all covered by my CD collection.
Aaaah, that sounds like a good solution.
Can you rip records to MP3 or such like? A number of my old LPs can't be stolen online, so this could be exciting.
PS Record players should not be used for 'Best of' compilations - even by The Jam ;-)
That's the spirit, MoG .......!
So you still play vinyl, haven't you heard of cassette tapes and 8-track ....?
;o)
You can record onto a CD-R, or DVD or even DAT (I still got one of those beasts) and then put it in your computer an make a nice MP3.....dont get me started on the differing options, it's too early to geek out today.
Otherwise I'm going to have to ask fatkit to be geeky and explain his approach ;-)
best three albums to lisen to on vinyl...
Solid Air John Martyn
Home - Peter Broderick
and Secrets of the beehive - David Sylvian
And if so, How ?
Still got to go some to catch up with my old man, he has just gone over 50,000 I believe.
If anyone has any they don't want and would like to go to a good home, I have a great place on my shelves for them :-D
Beer stains on them frm 60s parties ......Quality!!!
What about your 78s, Terry?
You know, Bill Haley, Lonnie Donnegan, your Dad's old Glenn Miller ......not to forget, "Thunder of Trams rattling through Beresford Square" or "Sounds of destruction and burning at Charlton Depot, 1951"
and Co. Have got the tram stuff on video (remember that?) showing all that you mention and more! Remember the first singles I ever got were after the old man had a winner at Charlton dogs and he came home with the complete top ten of that week: Guy Mitchell 'Singing the Blues' was No 1. Bit later on he had another winner (horse this time) and he turned up with a state of the art Stereogram: I can still hear the sound of vinyls crashing on top of each other from the 'automatic loader'. Happy days!
Not read a good review about any of the USB turntables so when I finally do get space I'll get a Technics 1210 and use a high quality soundcard with analogue inputs.
What language you speaking BDL ?
Geekspeak I'm afraid!
Ok, happy to impart my knowledge to try and assist given the above questions.
Please note I am no expert and what I know I have set out in this post, I am by no means an expert and it’s just my experience to date.
I have no doubt in true forum style that some audiophile lifer will rush forward to point out the errors in my prose, actually come to think of it, it will probably not be a lifer but definitely someone from the pink oboe list...
It all depends on how much you have “hi-fi” wise in your home today, how much you want to spend, and of course your desire to get great recordings = how much it’s going to cost you.
If you have a big collection with years of emotional investment and thousands of pounds sitting on the shelves in your house, please don’t go for a cheap solution and hope it’s going to sound as good as your Vinyl does.
That said, it all depends on spare cash and everyone has a budget to work to.
Vinyl is analogue, you need to convert it digital (CD, DVD Audio, MP3, Windows WAV file and so on and so forth)
It’s all about getting a recording onto your PC. Once you got it there you can take a CD or DVD audio recording and convert it to an MP3 recording to play on your IPOD or whatever your weapon of choice is.
Don’t laugh, firstly you will need a record player, on old style one with just two audio leads coming out of the back (usually red and white connectors on the end) or a record player with a USB lead coming out of the back.
If you have a USB turntable already you probably don’t need to read this post.....
Examples of CD to MP3 conversion software can be viewed here (most of these are free, and legit)
http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=cd+ripper&tag=srch&searchtype=downloads&filterName=platform%3DWindows%2CWebware&filter=platform%3DWindows%2CWebware
USB turntables are easy to find and the cost varies massively, example of one here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SoundLab-USB-Turntable-Software-Lid/dp/B000UH0QPW
Search around the web, READ THE REVIEWS, and then decide what is best for you.
These USB turntables usually come with software to load onto your PC to make the whole process nice and easy.
If you don’t want to go the USB turntable route then you need to record from your “traditional” turntable to a CD-R machine or DVD Audio. I will stick to the CD-R route as DVD audio or FLAC recordings are quite niche.
So you get a CDR recorder, they are not expensive, and record from your turntable to your CDR. Take the CD, put it into your PC, run your “ripping” software on your pc to convert the track to an MP3 file and there you go.
You may have issues with the actual volume of the recording fromm the turntable (typically the strength of signal out of a turntable is not that high) hence the need to run the turntable through an amp (or a mixer, but if you know about mixers you don’t need me to tell you how to do this) or a suitable hi-fi system, but it all depends on the hi-fi systems functions to output to a external unit, aka CDR.
I could go on and on about different ways of doing it but if you want it easy, buy a USB turntable, if you have a turntable and a CDR already, then you will not need to spend any money at all.
Good luck.
I wish!
Blimey, Mr March51 ....... that is a quality post! Those names are legendary. People who worshiped Stuart Leary, Johnny Summers, John Hewie and Eddie Firmani will be salivating at your reminiscing. Bit before my time though,
But great little story.