I am listening to it.

The original vinyl pressing on my dads Zenith stereo he bought in 1968.


Wow...

It's funny, I love CD and digital music, but there is nothing that compares to the extreme frequency expansion that a vinyl recording can accomplish.
I have hundreds of albums from the 50/60s, and they only leave my hands when I die.

Quote from: Solar on February 13, 2011, 06:40:20 PM
It's funny, I love CD and digital music, but there is nothing that compares to the extreme frequency expansion that a vinyl recording can accomplish.
I have hundreds of albums from the 50/60s, and they only leave my hands when I die.

I know what you mean.  There's a warmth that cannot be duplicated...

Exactly, it's body, CDs just haven't got a soul, they seem like a high quality black and white print, of a color picture.

Quote from: Wallington Minge on February 13, 2011, 06:53:23 PM
I know what you mean.  There's a warmth that cannot be duplicated...

Weren't there technical terms for that "warmth?" Like "wow" and "flutter" and "rumble?"

At least the "warmth" hid things like the sound of the delivery truck going by the studio...

I read an article once many years ago about a sleep clinic where they had vinyl LP's that were "recorded" with "silence," meaning there was no music or sound on the master. They used these "blank" discs as "white noise" sleep aids. Hmmmm.....
:P :P :P

Vinyl through a tube stereo.  Nothing can compare.  And Sgt. Pepper is a timeless classic.  I never get tired of hearing Lovely Rita, Getting Better, Good Morning, Good Morning, etc.

Quote from: Solar on February 13, 2011, 06:40:20 PM
It's funny, I love CD and digital music, but there is nothing that compares to the extreme frequency expansion that a vinyl recording can accomplish.
I have hundreds of albums from the 50/60s, and they only leave my hands when I die.

I think thats helped give old crooners like Bing Crosby their smooth sound. If Bingo was singing through today's crisp mikes and digital equipment, he might not sound as smooth.

Quote from: CaliforniaCatholic on May 26, 2011, 05:17:07 AM

I think thats helped give old crooners like Bing Crosby their smooth sound. If Bingo was singing through today's crisp mikes and digital equipment, he might not sound as smooth.

To the contrary, they had far less control over the final outcome than artists do today.
Reverb and stereo were great accomplishments during the day, but today, they can take an entire piece of music and break it down by nanoseconds and manipulate it any way they like.

But when it comes to Sinatra, he really wasn't all that great of a singer, he just had the best band making his sound better than he was.

What makes a great singer, a great singer, is not the tonal accuracy of the notes - it's the pacing and emotion behind the notes.  Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby - technically, they were NOT good singers with pitch challenges and typically harsh formants (especially Bennett).  BUT - the emotion, pacing, presentation is what made their music "music".

That's what is lost with many today - they'll use digital on-the-fly correction, or fix it in the mix to get the technical performance just right.  And in doing so miss a lot of the soul and passion of music.  The pursuit of the sale and the appearance of perfection are the reason passion and intoxication of performance is rarely found in music today.

Listen to "The Story" by Brandi Carlile.  The vocals were one take, and her voice actually BREAKS because she's pushing and feeling what she's singing.  And it was left in on purpose because of the emotion it brought - the artist and engineer wanted it left and got their way over the label who wanted it redone to clean it up.  That single break at the start of the 3rd chorus (about 2:52) totally makes the song.

When music breaks down to simply a pursuit of technical purity and accuracy, it becomes not much more than an alternate means to express a mathematical equation (for music, at its base, is simply mathematics).  It's the "approximations" and the passion that leaks through the performance that provides the transformation from an algorithm to art.

Has anyone here earned a living as a musician, officialy?

Quote from: CaliforniaCatholic on May 27, 2011, 04:56:10 AM
Has anyone here earned a living as a musician, officialy?

Do bongos and and a donation cup count? ::)

Not a professional musician, but I make my living - and have, for the last 13 years - designing audio systems and transducers (woofers, mids, tweeters).  Much of my work is used by musicians and engineers when recording and mixing their products; for example, you can "hear" my handiwork with the new king-of-the-hill recording monitor, the Event Opal - the monitor of choice for Alan Parsons and many other big-name engineers/artists.

Quote from: Shanghai Dan on May 27, 2011, 09:07:16 AM
Not a professional musician, but I make my living - and have, for the last 13 years - designing audio systems and transducers (woofers, mids, tweeters).  Much of my work is used by musicians and engineers when recording and mixing their products; for example, you can "hear" my handiwork with the new king-of-the-hill recording monitor, the Event Opal - the monitor of choice for Alan Parsons and many other big-name engineers/artists.

Fascinating Dan.
I have a question.
I had a neighbor that built systems, )this has been at least ten years ago) but he said that they still prefer the old tube type amplifiers.
I would think its hard to even find tubes anymore.

Has that been your experience, that they still ask for them?

Some folks still love tubes, 'tis true.  And many musicians use them as well - but it's more for music PRO-duction not music REPRO-duction.  Tubes have their own set of distortions to deal with; if you like the changes they impart on the music, then go for it - personal preference is pretty inviolate, like dealing with the right amount of pepper on a steak.

BUT, if you want to talk accuracy, tubes are pretty far down the list in terms of amplifier devices and topologies.  Especially single-ended tube designs.

Quote from: Shanghai Dan on May 27, 2011, 06:46:46 PM
Some folks still love tubes, 'tis true.  And many musicians use them as well - but it's more for music PRO-duction not music REPRO-duction.  Tubes have their own set of distortions to deal with; if you like the changes they impart on the music, then go for it - personal preference is pretty inviolate, like dealing with the right amount of pepper on a steak.

BUT, if you want to talk accuracy, tubes are pretty far down the list in terms of amplifier devices and topologies.  Especially single-ended tube designs.

Yeah, this guy builds amps for huge productions, outdoor concerts.
He had a pretty impressive collection of thank you letters from some pretty famous rockers.

He said the one reason they most like tube, is the passive coils that give that extra boost for bass.