Comments on: Is vinyl making a comeback?

By: BRIAN

BRIAN — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:31:13 +0000

I AM 33 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR, AND I HAVE COLLECTED VINYL OFF AND ON SINCE I WAS 12 YEARS OLD. I WAS INTRODUCED TO VINYL BY MY MOM WHO GOT ME INTO THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES,THE KINKS,THE WHO,THE ZOMBIES,THEM,JIMI HENDRIX,THE DOORS,LED ZEPPELIN,BLACK SABBATH,DEEP PURPLE. THE POINT IS YOU NAME IT,AND I WAS VIRTUALLY EXPOSED TO ALL THE CLASSIC ROCK LEGENDS,AND THEY WERE ALL ON VINYL. THEN AS I GOT OLDER I STARTED BECOMING MORE FAMILIAR WITH THE UNDERGROUND PSYCHEDELIC,AND HARD ROCK OBSCURITIES OF THE 60′-70′S, SO MY COLLECTION KIND OF STARTED OUT SMALL,AND THEN GREW BIGGER WITH THE LESSER KNOWN STUFF AS I BECAME MORE AWARE OF IT VIA THE INTERNET,BOOKS,AND MORE EXPEREINCED COLLECTORS. BUT THEN I WAS A STUPID IDIOT,AND I SOLD ALL OF MY RECORDS. LOOKING BACK THAT REALLY HURT ME THAT ALL THE RECORDS I OWNED INCREASED IN VALUE, AND THEN I CAUGHT THE STOOPID CD’S ARE BETTER THAN VINYL FLU BACK IN 1995,AND THEN CAME TO FIND OUT THEY WERE NOT AT ALL WHAT THEY WERE CRACKED UP TO BE. SO NOW HERE WE ARE TODAY IN 2009.WELL I BELEIVE THAT THEY’RE IS A VINYL RESURGENCE FOR SURE. THE REASONS ARE QUITE CLEAR WHEN YOU ACTUALLY SIT DOWN,AND DO THE COMPARISON TESTS: VINYL JUST SOUNDS BETTER MORE WARMER, MORE DEPTH,RESONANCE,TONE,AND BASS. CD’S AND MP3 FILES I.E. DIGITAL IS TOO COLD,IMPERSONAL,WITH EAR PIERCING HIGHS TO KILL YOU. IN OTHER WORDS THEY ARE NOT ACCURATE IN PRESENTATION, AND CD’S I FEEL MAKE GOOD CUP COASTERS!! THE ART WORK IS I FEEL THE MOST PLEASING FEATURE OF ALL OF VINYL RECORDS. WITH A CD YOU NEED A MAGNIFYING GLASS JUST TO SEE THE NOTES,OR LYRICS. NOW WHEN I LOOK BACK TO WHEN I FIRST REGRETABLY, SOLD MY ENTIRE COLLECTION, NOW TO ONLY TRY AND REPURCHASE THEM ALL AGAIN, THERE IS A CERTAIN COLLECTIBILITY THAT VINYL WILL ALWAYS HAVE. I DO NOT BELEIVE THAT CD’S WILL EVER BE COLLECTIBLE,OR HAVE ANY CONNECTIVE SENTIMENTS EITHER THAT VINYL POSESSES. THIS IS THE BIGGEST REASON WHY I FEEL VINYL IS MAKING A COMEBACK.ALSO VINYL FORCES YOU TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC AS A MORE INTERACTIVE EXPEREINCE, BECAUSE IT FORCES YOU TO LISTEN TO AN ENTIRE SIDE BEFORE YOU FLIP IT OVER. HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW OF UNLESS THEY HAVE A RESPECT FOR THE ARTIST AND THEIR MUSIC THAT OWN CDS,OR MP3 FILES REALLY LISTEN TO COMPLETE ALBUMS ALL THE WAY THROUGH,WHICH BRINGS US TO ANOTHER REASON FOR THE VINYL COMEBACK. YOU CAN USUALLY PICK UP THE MORE COMMON CLASSIC ROCK TITLES QUITE CHEAPLY, AND FACE IT THE BIGGEST REASON WHY PEOPLE DOWNLOAD IN THE FIRST PLACE IS BECAUSE ALTHOUGH NOT ALL MUSIC TODAY IS HORRIBLE, IT DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME DRIVE,CREATIVITY, AND PIONEERING INNOVATION OF THE PAST. IT IS FOR THIS REASON WHY I FEEL VINYL IS MAKING A MAJOR COMEBACK. DEATH TO THE CD!! HAIL VINYL!!

By: Lionel Vinyl

Lionel Vinyl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:07:57 +0000

Vinyl is not ‘coming back’ or ‘making a come back’.
This is from someone who owns over 150,000, that’s right 150k+ albums and over 60,000 cds. I have gone to great expense in owning a large(ish) house just to hold 70% of them – the rest are at a storage facility.

I like to think of this as vinyl’s last breath before it withers away into our history of beloved music listening devices.
Reel to Reel, 8-Track, Cassette, MiniDisc, Acetates, 7in, 10in, 12in.
I’ve own those two and love them all dearly, especially RTR tapes

Whilst the vinyl listening experience can be great. This can only be achieve by high standards of specialist mastering and pressing. And, there are sadly less and less of those around these days.
It’s also a flawed product in that it doesn’t represent the music (long term). Whether you want them or not, time adds crackles and pops due to general wear. Not to mention the immediate inherent surface noise. Everytime the needle runs through the grooves, the sound fractionally deterioates with every listen.

My ideal music listening fantasy is to hear music via a pure platform…
Maybe psychically transmitted?! Who knows, maybe one day!
What I mean to say is, no artist or producer truly wants added hiss, crackles, pops or noises added to their masterpiece performances/recordings.

The cd and, respectively, SACD, DVD-A, & Blu-Ray have provided the closest medium yet to that experience. The latter two can hold an audio bit rate of 24-bit / 192kHz/ LPCM – Which is more than enough for the human ear. What’s also good is, there are no crackles, pops, hiss or surface added to the music. And, if you look after the discs well, they shouldn’t skip! CDs have a supposed lifespan of 100 years (they’ve been on sale for 24 years) and Blu-Ray discs have a supposed lifespan of 200 years. The next, and quite possibly the last )?) optical disc format will be HVD (look it up!).

Vinyl isn’t dead yet. Neither are cassette’s (for some people). Vinyl survives because it has had time build up an extensive back catalogue. New adopters – like young DJ’s – feel it has a legendary status. It’s seen as highly credible. There is a real argument for why a lot of older albums sound better on vinyl. And, that’s largely because there a lot of idiot record labels who do not put the same care into mastering (as they did in the 60′s, 70′s, 80′s etc) as they do for cds. A well mastered cd (and they, unfortunately are in a minority) will easily out shine a vinyl. It’s just a shame these aren’t the norm.

Lastly, I do want to add, I do love holding the vinyl, watching spin ’round whilst reading and taking in the artwork and text. Doing this with a cd is hardly a golden experience, even 24 years later since it’s birth!

Oh yeah, and I perosnally loathe the sound of mp3′s – even at 320k but, you can’t fight it’s popularity. The public love convenience!

By: Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog » Blog Archive » For the records

Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog » Blog Archive » For the records — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:56:23 +0000

[...] week our US sister-blog wondered whether vinyl was making a comeback. It got us [...]

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:27:35 +0000

Yeah, it’s definitely coming back. I’m actually starting a collection myself – and I’m supposed to be in the generation that’s done with vinyl. But I’m only seventeen, and lovin’ the sound of those Simon and Garfunkel LP’s. Some things just sound better on vinyl, you know?
Now, if I could only track down an original Tim Buckley…

By: Tory

Tory — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:18:24 +0000

Personally, I like vinyl because it’s something tangible that you can actually hold in your hands as opposed to a set of zeroes and ones in a computer file. The album sleeves are like works of art in themselves and you don’t really get that on a CD and certainly not in a download. There’s an acutal process involved in putting a record on a turntable and putting the little needle on it, whereas you don’t need to do anything at all to play something on a computer. Convenient though it may be, there’s a certain charm about records that CDs and downloads don’t have. I’m 18 and I only wish that records were more popular during my childhood.

By: mousybabie

mousybabie — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:47:46 +0000

I’d say it never really went out, just stepped back and leant against the back wall. Vinyl has a richer sound quality and is more “real” sounding. Vinyl is nice to listen to after nothing but digital for a while.

By: HTG

HTG — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:18:49 +0000

I’m heartened to read the comments from so many teenagers that are “into” vinyl today.

I’m also hearted to read a post that some think that vinyl is “making a comeback” – I had no idea- thanks to all for the links.

As others have said- it turns music appreciation into a mindful event. Perhaps that indicates a bit of a backlash tward digital impersonality.

I do wonder about what another poster said earlier- what of the cost of Petroleum ??

Don’t agree about cd’s superiority at all- they are garbage in terms of a product- a case that shatters like it’s namesake- “jewel case”, and zero durability- my records last longer. Mp3 trumps them for sure if you are looking for portability, which is why all my cds are now in storage- but my vinyl stays out

And as far as “upcycle” crafting goes- please do me a favor and do what I do- if the album is unscathed & in top condition- please don’t hack up the album for your purses, or melt the record into a candy dish- perhaps someone would really like to actually use it for it’s intended purposes. That’s the first “r” ( REUSE)

-HTG

By: merrell

merrell — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:53:06 +0000

The one thing I miss, from the Vinyl Age, is the package — the cover art and liner notes. I’m not the first person ever to say this, I know. But it’s almost impossible for people to imagine what those liner notes meant in pre-net days. They were often the only source of information about artists who might never be mentioned anywhere else in culture — not on TV, general circulation magazines or books. I remember returning again and again to the package while listening to the music, absorbing the images of the album artists, or savoring the phraseology the essayist used to paint the artist’s history. (Not to sound weird about it — too late! — but some of the exact wordings I read on those notes are still a part of my consciousness.) It was a definite “value added” to the ritual/experience of discovering the new music. – - – On another note, I think vinyl sound was more vibrant that CDs. But there’s a trade-off here. “Skating” was a major problem unless you had a near-professional set-up, which as a teenager, I never did. (“Skating” is the tendency of the needle to skip to the next groove when the groove walls were too thinly sliced, or the vibration within the groove was too dramatic, on an analog record — hence “anti-skating” controls, which on cheap models was basically just a weight increaser. A cheap anti-skating control may have stopped the skipping across grooves, but it usually dug the needle deeper into the vinyl, and in short time damaged the sound quality of the record.) So CDs are better for withstanding physical perils and handling.

By: Justin Reynolds

Justin Reynolds — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:58:21 +0000

As much as i love vinyl, hip-hop, record digging, etc vinyl WILL NOT MAKE A COMEBACK.

The problem with vinyl is that people don’t buy it, people collect it. Some people see themselves investing in a piece of history rather than buying it for music.

It’s only really DJ’s, sound engineers, hip-hop beatmakers, old men and the anorack crowd that really collect vinyl.

No-one can stop evolution. Eventually tangible formats will die and digital formats such as MP3 will take over.

MP3 is just so much easier than vinyl. Of course the quality is crap but you can take it anywhere, get tracks from the comfort of your living room and get thousands of MP3s on 1 little iPod.

Big UK high street retailer Woolworths even stopped selling CD singles due to people not buying them.

By: Hollie

Hollie — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:53:10 +0000

Vinyl is to cds what film is to digital. Vinyl and film have actual dimensions whereas digital is flat and I am glad it’s making a comeback. Sound is superior on vinyl. Who does’t love that sound the needle makes when it hits the vinyl?!