Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: pauldo on July 25, 2020, 07:46:21 AM
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We all have little quirks.
Listening to an interview with Michael Manring and he mentioned how these days there seems to be less reverence for music. In the ‘old days’ you would buy an album run home and listen to the whole thing. You and you pals would get together for no other reason than to listen to music. That doesn’t seem to hold true in today’s society as it did during my youth.
So here is the thing that I am curious if other people are strange like me...
At work I can listen to my own collection of music, I prefer listening to whole ‘albums’. Recently I acquired a nice MP3 player so I have many ‘albums’ at my fingertips. Anyhow - if I have to leave my work area for any reason I find that I need to pause the music because I do not want to miss any of the artist’s performance of that particular album... does that make me weird?
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I still buy hard copies of CD's and read the liner notes. As a musician, I can't imagine not doing that.
I do like the ability to put the smaller mp3/4 files on my phone and play them at will in my office and work truck. (which seems to be where I spend a lot of time lately...)
I haven't listened to that interview yet, but I don't think there is a blanket irreverence among musicians... I do think there is a prevalence of instant gratification everywhere. It's just the way of things. You don't have to wait for an album release anymore... click a app on your iPhone and *poof*, a couple hit songs appear in a playlist. I don't know if that's irreverent or even if it's what he means. If an artist sells a download, I doubt they care. Maybe some do.
I still like to read the liner notes. How else do you find out who played what? ;D
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To answer your question, Pauldo...no. You're not the only one! I also listen to new CDs in their entirety, and read every word of the liner notes. Hope we're not a dying breed!
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Warning, another “get off my lawn” rant ahead!
First of all, we listened to music. Much of the commercial audio entertainment out there today is more accurately described as rhythmic poetry than as music. And like plastic “silverware”, it is designed to be disposable after brief use. The music we listened to growing up was a soundtrack of the times, tied to the social and political landscapes in which it was created. It made statements. It reflected our personal experiences. Today much of popular “music” is a soundtrack for the accountants to count money by.
I also still buy CDs on the ever rarer occasions I buy new music. And I listen to the entire “album” in order. However, I must confess that when I’m listening to my Pono, (yea, I jumped on Neil’s Kickstarter bandwagon), which is loaded with about 200 CDs of my own choosing, I often put it on the setting to play songs from all the CDs in random order. It’s almost eerie how often the “random” universe plays tricks on me, like playing two vastly different versions of the same song in sequence! So, to answer the question, no, we are not weird. We’re just old and have taste! Yea, that’s it!
Bill, tgo
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I still very much enjoy listening to my albums. I have a vintage Accutrac 4000 turntable that is able to go to individual tracks on the record and drop. It uses IR technology and works great. You can skip songs you don't like.
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I have often said how sorry I am for today's youth, listening to crap on crappy earbuds all alone; they will never know the immense joy of sitting down with your friends, burning one, and dropping the needle of a kick-ass stereo on a brand new album! And discovering it together!
I still mourn the loss of all my vinyl in a flood in '96. CDs are sort of OK, but not only does the music sound better on vinyl, but the album art & liner notes have a greater impact at full scale, too. And while it's true that the CD of Live/Dead has the advantage of not having to flip it in the middle of a jam, the LP was a lot better rolling tray......
Peter (who still regards "listening" to be an active practice, and still prefers both burning one and listening to music to be communal events)
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Interesting - there is an article in the latest Bass Guitar Magazine (now incorporating Bass Player) by Michael Manring in which he says "Life is increasingly Technical and Globally inter-connected" He says in his article that as an artist he tries to observe what is going on around and respond in some meaningful way. He feels this notion went out of style in the tumult of the 20th century and art became a kind of anything goes proposition. He then talks a lot about the technical things he does.
Not sure where I am going with this but I don't think I can subscribe to knocking the youth of today (I am 70) and getting into a vinyl vs cd discussion. I think good music is good music whatever medium it uses to get the message over - just listen to the music and the message not the format of reproduction too much. I bought Bob Dylan's latest CD which had no lyrics as liner notes so I downloaded the lyrics to read as I listened! There is always a way, I feel. If the youth of today had to rely on producing vinyl albums and getting a producer to sign them then they wouldn't stand a chance - at least they can stream and YouTube their ideas without having to jump through the hoops we did.
Glynn
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Like David I listen mainly to vinyl on my elite Rock mk1. To my ears it's far superior to any modern media including a lot of CDs. I much prefer the 'occasion' of getting the LP out, cleaning it and reading the liner notes.
Graeme
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My daughter prefers going through the vinyl and finding a cool cover and checking out what's inside. We'll sit together listening.
Most of the time lately I just stream music changing stations depending on mood. Or, youtube on the laptop... when I'm not playing.
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I mostly listen to music in my workshop, doing stonesetting to Mastodon which seems crazy as I should probably pick calm music for things like that, but yeah, I listen to whole cd's and buy them regularly; I don't do streaming and while I do have an Ipod, I never put it on random, I'd rather hear an album.
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I have to agree with everyone that at least for me there is something special about having a physical copy of the music in hand whether that be vinyl or a CD. I hate it when someone releases only on iTunes and I'll never do Spotify.
It's not the entire younger generation, however who is into instant gratification commercial crap listened to on ear buds. My son, a carpenter/musician, still has my old Thorens turntable with a 19 lb platter and JBL L100 speakers which I gifted him when he went to college (they also got me through college in the 70s). His idea of a great Saturday afternoon is to go to the Electric Fetus, an old time record shop in Minneapolis, and spend 2-3 hours looking through the used record bins for treasures that others have discarded. He's picked up a myriad a classic albums ranging from original Dylan, Dead, and Quicksilver vinyl to a whole series of recordings from the library or Congress and the National Recording Archives of some of the original blues greats including Lighting Hopkins, Robert Johnson, the Rev. Gary Davis, Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, etc.
And yes, I also listen to entire CDs and albums in the order in which the artist intended and have always hated playlists and the random play functions of personal players,
What I miss the most is unpeeling the plastic covering of a new album, putting it on the turntable and then sitting with friends, listening to it the first time together (not through earbuds but through speakers we could all hear together) and then talking about what we had just heard. Today, if your at a music listening session with friends, everyone's plugged into their own MP3 players and no one is talking to each other (they might be texting but I'd nevertheless know).
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We still have our Thorens iron turntable that we bought in 1970 together with HUGE Cambridge Audio speakers that we bought at the same time (before we bought lounge furniture actually). And then again I use Spotify Premium at £9.99 per month which I use for listening to tracks that I am asked to play in a band - I also have built up a "free" library of stuff on it including one of Buddy Rich's last performances. I intend to get the new Deep Purple album "Whoosh!" on Spotify to check it out and then I will probably order the CD jewel case. My point being that I try not to eliminate any type of music or way of reproducing it. Hope I succeed!
Glynn
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......and The Thorens still works with the same cartridge. Do you remember how we used to do loads of research into what was the best cartridge? They could cost a shedload and I am sure a lot of it was hype - hence ours still working after 50 years - it was a Sure of modest cost.
Glynn
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I listen to music a great deal and enjoy the ease of use and clarity of digital music. I can't abide noise. Tapes To each his own. Apple has a subscription service I use and it enables me to encounter recordings of artists I don't have and to be introduced to new music by very talented artists. It is worth it for me as I download quite a lot of albums. I have just gotten back into cover band mode and do buy singles on iTunes quite a bit so I'm still feeding the machine.
Back to the original point of the discussion, yes the ritual of discovering an album and pouring over the sleeve and liner notes was a very positive and enriching practice. Even the dishwasher cleaning brush and destatic gun use before listening were all part of the process. I still vividly remember discovering Gentle Giant's Octopus album in a head shop in my town in the 70's. I can still recall the black light posters and smell the incense!
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I found an Audio Technica limited edition cartridge at the Goodwill Outlet store year and a half ago which turned out to be some kind of holy grail type cartridge. I sold it on EBay for a good chunk of change! I had also found Bugle Boy, Mullard, Genelex, RCA, Sylvania, Westinghouse, etc tubes there, which I now own!
Last year I bought a used PC at the same store that had every song I had ever heard on it, plus a zillion more. The previous owner had several music subscription services and downloaded thousands of songs.
Youtube is a good source of tunes, if you have a good mp3 converter. I switched Macs and can't remember which one I used to use. Can anyone recommend one to me?
One day at that same store I came across an album from a group I used to be in there in the bins. I was pictured with the group on the back cover. Talk about a weird feeling. Like I had died and come back to earth to visit, is the only way I can describe it.
Anyway, I am rambling on...
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I'm one who also listens to new albums in their entirety until I get to know the songs then I tend to listen to my favourite tracks. But these change with time so eventually most tracks become faves at some point. I also read the album notes, study the pictures or the cover art whilst listening to the music, it helps me create a visual connection with the music. Also if I'm in the car listening to an album I and I reach my destination before a track finishes. I have to stay in the car until the track completely finishes before turning everything off and getting out of the car. I tend to listen mainly to instrumental music so the album art and writing helps visualise the music.
I also do not watch a video of a track I have not first listened too as pure audio as I want my mind to create it's own vision of the track without being influenced\ but the video putting it's own imagery in the way of my own. If someone sends me a video to watch of a song. I listen with my eyes closed or close the window down on my computer. Yeah I'm old fashioned and proud of it.
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I still have my Thorens TD 160 though I listen to CD's more than I do vinyl. I use a Micro Acoustics 2002e cartridge in it.
I think the listening parties are a generational thing that are gone in what has become more of a 45 RPM single world. I worked at and hung out at a record store in high school. The first thing every Tuesday was to put on the latest LP's that had just come in to see what was new. My friends and myself would get together to listen to the full album in sequence to get the full context. We also had available and listened to radio stations that would play full album sides. It wasn't limited to music either as there was a good smattering of Firesign Theater, Cheech and Chong or George Carlin. Whenever I got a new album I would record it to cassette to take in the car or to listen to on a portable player in the park. Personally I think it all started to go south with my little brother's generation in the 80's and mixtapes but what do I know I listened to Frank Zappa for the music arrangements.
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We're all bozos on this bus, the giant rat of Sumatra, Fun stuff. I have a couple of those records.
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Okay... I'm going to issue a postulate, and I seriously don't mean this in a bad way, quite the contrary.
I think this particular forum is not a fair cross-section of the "listening to anything with a critical ear" world. I've been hanging around here for 6 years, and there ain't a single one of us casual about anything sonic. Some of us, (I'm pointing at the dude in the mirror here too) are plum nutty about these things. It's how we ended up in the virtual living room of the Wickershams. "Sounds pretty good" just doesn't cut it.
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;D
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I am actually going through something related - I discovered that through AT&T I had 6 months of Spotify free. I hate the Spotify business model and the way they treat artists, but it's amazing to have so much music available. I use it to listen to albums, I use it to listen to favorite songs over and over (like Deep Purple's new song "Nothing at All"), and I have playlists with stuff I like to play along with. It's at the point where I have hundreds of CDs in bags to sell once stores start opening again. I haven't committed 100% yet - I'm concerned that I might be making a mistake - but at the same time, I just can't be the caretaker of all these storage discs. I will be losing something in audio quality but not sure I can really tell the difference. The lack of documentation is a major bummer, but I can generally look up that info on the internet.
I still try and support the music I love - if a band is on Bandcamp, I buy their album digitally, then listen to it on Spotify. I tend to pay a little more to the bands on Bandcamp too. I'm hanging on to CDs that aren't on Spotify, or if they have some sentimental connection. But even that stuff I am getting close to jettisoning.
Any thoughts? I should have asked here earlier!
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When our power went out during the planned outages last year we lost connection to the net. We ran the house on a generator. Without any cable TV or internet access, we relied upon DVDs and CDs. And Spotify won’t help much when you find yourself on that famous desert island with your ten favorite albums! It may be more evidence of my approaching old fartdom, but I like to physically own my music. What’s next, no physical instruments? Just plug these electrodes to your head, the other end to USB, and think your part?
Like I said, get off my lawn!
Bill, tgo
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I like the physical item myself, neither of my stereos is hooked up to internet and with a good stereo you REALLY hear the data loss of MP3's...and I agree that we here aren't most people, we're all sound nerds of one degree or another...
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I am - not for the first time, and I imagine not for the last - in agreement with Brother Bill. Likewise with Tony.
Peter
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In a similar vein, for a birthday some ten or more years ago my kids bought me a kindle. So far I've added about 30 books to it but I've bought at least a couple of hundred 'real' books in the same period. Like listening to music, I guess there are those who just want the information and those who like the full experience.
Graeme