If someone is smart, they'll buy up that pressing equipment. Niche market.
Sorry pete, your post probably won't garner much attention from the youngsters. They haven't a clue about records, except that you can get them in thrift stores and use them for target practice. That does tend to keep prices up.
Eh, wadda they know? You damn kids get offa my lawn artificial turf!
Oh, yeah, if you're interested in records, this guy is all about the vinyl.
I didn't think there were any vinyl presses left to shut down.
I want to press a vinyl album. Any suggestions on where to look?
Colored vinyl, fold out jacket. The works.
I'm even willing to put my plans to fight crime from a well-equipped technologically advanced hidden mansion on hold until it's pressed.
So Canada is de-pressed now?
I hear you can't get wax cylinders made anymore either.
A lot of dance music still comes out on vinyl. I know some stores that stock it almost exclusively.
Pete, if you're serious about pressing an album, see if you can find something like this.
There are very good reasons to keep using vinyl as an alternative medium. There are advantages. As an audio engineer, I can assure rocket88 that even though vinyl is an antiquated technology, it has qualities that many audiophiles including myself recognise as desirable. Just as magnetic tape adds compression and warmth to some audio signal, pressed vinyl tech also adds positive tonal qualities that do not exist in digital. In many cases to those with very good hearing, digital recordings sound harsh, almost too clean and crisp when warmth would be more harmonious. There's no good reason why vinyl recording tech should be relegated to the dustbin of audio history. We still use valve amps in the recording process for similar reasons, technologies that belong in the earliest era of electronics.
"Warmth" and other distortions of the true sound can always be added by downstream devices if the listener desires them. I prefer my hard medium to be the most accurate available, that being the closest to what the microphones in the studio/venue pick up.
There is no such thing as 'true' sound. The only way you're going to get true sound is stand next to the instrument, with one's perfect ears with 20hz-20k response (which almost nobody has). But then, at what distance? In what kind of room? In a white room, or a hall? At two feet or at the back of the auditorium? Even the temperature in the room alters the quality of the sound, the number of people in a room, the textures on the walls, the shape of the room...
There is no such thing as an unfiltered digital recording. Unfiltered digital recording sounds shithouse. What you call accurate has been processed by multiple filters and valve amps before it even makes it to the mastering process. The microphones themselves are not a perfect reproductive sensor, they alter the sound, and engineers choose mics depending on what they're recording and how those mics filter and alter the raw signal. And then where you place the mic alters the response, too, do you close mic, or put 'em up back against the wall?
Digital is a fantastic technology for audio, but no engineer or producer worth his salt uses it on its own. Older tech is integral to quality recording.
Even so, you can have whatever choice you want, does that mean valuable technology should not be available to others?
Well, of course nobody uses digital on it's own. Sound is inherently analog. Microphones and speakers are analog devices. Power amplification is only possible in the analog realm. Storage on a physical medium, however, is best done digitally. That's all I'm saying.
And if people *like* the sound that comes from a vinyl record, that's fine with me. That has nothing whatsoever to do with fidelity.
Storage on a physical medium, however, is best done digitally.
Some might argue with that. Shelf-life being what it is, the humble CD is a few micro-layers away from dropping your ones and zeros in general and in a storage bin has only about 1-100 years to be reference.
Well, digital storage shouldn't be on CD for archival purposes. It should be on tape and on backed up harddrives.
It struck me a while back that whole generations of kids are growing up without the simple but fulfilling joy of playing records at the wrong speed.
Or backwards. Fuck the muck. I buried Paul. Turn me on, deadman. Congratulations, you have found the secret message.
Or using the turntable as a merry-go-round for Fisher-Price People™, and then turning it up to 78 and watching them fly.
I take it I was the only one to drop my plasticene on it and try using it as a potter's wheel?
plasticine! OMG plasticine, I almost forgot it existed! I used to spend hours on that crap when I was a kid. I would mix all the colours together to get a sort of brown/purple/grey goo with which I would make monsters. Also I would make hollow soldiers and fill them with ketchup, then smoosh them, giving a gory effect. Ruiner of carpets. I have never seen it in a shop for 20 years.
I still remember the smell of fresh plasticine. One of the best smells of childhood.
It struck me a while back that whole generations of kids are growing up without the simple but fulfilling joy of playing records at the wrong speed.
Bzuh? It struck me that everyone in this thread has overlooked one of the four elements of hip-hop: turntablism. The kids still love vinyl at the wrong speed.
pete, a friend of mine just released his latest album on vinyl here in the frozen north. I have no idea where he had it done, but he paid a lot more for it. Mostly for aesthetic love of vinyl. Mostly.
IC: yeah, that's the ticket. Nothing like a big 12" if y'know how I mean.
I found a place where you can add extra features like running 2 grooves on the same side so depending on where the needle (excuse me: stylus) falls, you get a different selection of tunes.
Looks like there's a minimum of at least 100, and that with setup and everything, it's at least US$600 for the basics.
Maybe I can get kit to pony up the money. He's rich and a dilettante
But is your music bland and tame enough? ;-)
Don't know why, but this thread reminded me of the "virtual gramaphone" and such...
Back in the day, a local favorite punk band decided to issue their new album on a 78rpm platter to mess with everyone. Soon enough, not a 78 player was to be found - - all the local junk shops had been plundered by the diehard fans looking for the old-style turntables on which to play the new tunes.
Monty Python released an LP back in the day which had one of those hidden tracks, a lot of people didn't pick up on it (geddit? ha). More recently, Mr Bungle did it on a vinyl release in the 90s.
Mad Magazine put out a flexi disc in 1980 that had eight interlaced grooves - - it always started out the same but ended differently. I remember discovering it and being thoroughly confused at first!
lawnartificial turf! Oh, yeah, if you're interested in records, this guy is all about the vinyl.