I'm going back to cds as my primary

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banana brains
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I'm going back to cds as my primary

Post by banana brains » Sat May 02, 2015 4:09 pm

that's it, i'm going back to cds instead of downloads or streaming as my primary. Not that I won't ever download, but...

I've gone back and forth twice now and I think I can conclude my listening experience is all around better when I have a cd.

I primarily listen in my car on commutes and I just don't have the patience to scroll through my itunes library and when I do settle on something, I'm not satisfied for long, for whatever reason.

When I have a few cds in the car, I'll thrown one in and its in the rotation for a few rounds over a day or two. I feel much more invested/interested in it and I get to know it better.

I don't know why, and I know I'm in the minority. But I think I've settled.

When I'm at home I generally only listen to vinyl because I don't have a cd player and I hate listening to youtube on the tv and completely uninterested in hooking up my iphone to my in home stereo.

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Post by floid » Sat May 02, 2015 5:05 pm

yep, vinyl at home, cd's in the truck. jazz sunday on the tube radio. Luddite, is the term i think.
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Post by vvv » Sat May 02, 2015 6:45 pm

CD's, each and every day, in almost every way.

I carry a Discman, use it on the mile to and from work - walking ...

On the train, when the cell-phone bitches is screamin' at their moronic lovers ...

In the orifice, less - there I stream and listen to d/l'd live stuffs. And yooze guys.

In my old truck, sometimes, w/ the Discman, because I'm all about bein' a outlaw - Mudhoney rules at 75 mph.

At night, laying in bed, with the Optimus 5" on the bed-posts ...

Right now, ribs on the BBQ and box winein', thru the Klipsch w/ Yamaha subs cranked, listenin' to Lanegan's Bubblegum, and the EP ...
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banana brains
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Post by banana brains » Sat May 02, 2015 8:09 pm

good to hear...I expected to be called an old guy or out of touch (its probably coming any minute). I'm not even that old, 39, which is old enough to have grown up with the pleasures of physical music formats.

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Post by ubertar » Sun May 03, 2015 8:22 am

Vinyl and CD at home... it was cassettes in the car, until the cassette player started getting noisy, now it's WKCR most of the time. It would probably be WFMU if it would come in.

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Post by Gregg Juke » Sun May 03, 2015 9:00 am

Digital has its conveniences, but for me, reliability is key. Files suck re: reliability, and quality control even, IMHO.

A few examples? I DJ'd a wedding last night. I do not use a laptop, but I do use files for "convenience" (mp3s on USB stick that can be played from my pro CD players, and an iPod Classic for back-up). Digi-files almost ruined the gig and I was sweating bullets several times as there were several glitches at critical event points, and I had to re-download several tracks on the fly with spotty wifi. After downloading tracks and making playlists all week to avoid that very scenario. Re: quality control, a few years ago, I downloaded about 200 or more songs from iTunes to jump start/super-charge my mp3 library, and I wound-up having to fix at least 50 percent of them in Sound Forge one way or another. This from the world's leader in digital music retail.

I buy an LP, it works. I've had a bad CD or two out of literally thousands purchased since the format began. Never a problem. You never put a CD in, and it only plays the first three seconds of the song, over and over. You never put a CD in and play one track, to find that it is actually re-cuing another track, and the only thing you can do is waste valuable time reloading.

Luddite-schmuddite; CD's and vinyl are a known quantity with very little tech issues or major quality control problems; in my experience, digital music "bites the big one," as they used to say on SNL.

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Post by kslight » Sun May 03, 2015 9:35 am

I've had some crap downloads from iTunes, in my limited purchasing experience through them (only a dozen or so albums purchased through them maybe, because why pay $10 for an album download when I can buy the CD?). I had one album that I repeatedly kept getting glitched out downloads, and upon contacting Apple Support I was met with "sorry, we're just gonna refund your money rather than attempt to find a solution for you to get what you actually wanted." Which is disappointing because I did want the album, and I wanted to support the relatively small artist, and I just have to assume that if other people are having this problem due to Apple they are simply losing out on whatever meager revenue rather than gaining any fans. I did send an email direct to the artist to let them know what was going on also. Somehow over the course of these glitchy downloads I was giving a refund and some song credits?which had sat in my account for maybe 2-3 years at least?and I just the other day decided to turn those credits into songs.

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Post by soundsofcallado » Sun May 03, 2015 2:08 pm

A buddy of mine and I here get ripped on all the time for having and using Walkman's and mass amounts of cassettes.

I'm in the boat with the rest of you: CD's in the truck; vinyl in the house (with the cassette thang going on too).

I NEVER stream. EVER! I do download from time to time, however, it's usually from a download card. I hardly ever get anything off iTunes unless I just can't find it anywhere else.
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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Sun May 03, 2015 2:36 pm

I think you'll get support here for listening to whatever you want as long as you don't say you're doing it because it sounds better. If it's a "workflow" or "playflow" issue it's valid, but if you think CD's sound better than mp3's or flac or vinyl, you're nuts.
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banana brains
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Post by banana brains » Sun May 03, 2015 5:05 pm

Snarl 12/8 wrote:I think you'll get support here for listening to whatever you want as long as you don't say you're doing it because it sounds better. If it's a "workflow" or "playflow" issue it's valid, but if you think CD's sound better than mp3's or flac or vinyl, you're nuts.
I think I can honestly say that my ears are not good enough to hear the difference between MP3s and CDs. But I've never A/B'ed them.

Vinyl, I can obviously hear a difference. But I'm not talking about sonic quality, it is strictly about the overall listening experience.

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Post by kslight » Sun May 03, 2015 5:44 pm

Eh depends on the resolution of the mp3s but if we were to go by the late 90s "cd quality" 128kbps then yes absolutely there's a difference.

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Post by vvv » Mon May 04, 2015 9:46 am

I definitely hear a difference between 128kps Empty3's and CD's, less so above the 256 figure; 320 sounds fine.

That assumes, of course, I'm not processing the file.
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Post by Gregg Juke » Mon May 04, 2015 12:41 pm

Ah, the endless debate followed by endless "scientific taste tests." I believe some people can hear the difference. For me, I have to admit, not-so-much, and after all, although this is "Tape Op," we know that many/most/a significant sum of us are producing using digital in the first place... So I get what you're saying CK, but for me, that playability/glitch-probability issue is a huge factor for me.

LP = best sound and most fun for me

CD= easy as 1,2,3

Mp3= almost ruin the gig and make me play for free

So I think you can see, I'll stick with CD's...

(la di dee-- Help me, I CAN'T STOP!!!)

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Post by Trick Fall » Mon May 25, 2015 6:52 am

I do vinyl, cd's and files. I'm just glad we have so many choices. I mean cd's are cool, but how cool is it that you can have your entire music collection with you for a long road trip or a vacation. I love being able to bring an iPod with everything on it in the car and a little bluetooth speaker for listening on vacation. I also bring a really small mono bluetooth speaker to rehearsals in case we decide to do a cover and need to reference it. It really is awesome to have these options.

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Post by Nick Sevilla » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:52 pm

I only listen to digital audio files in low resolution, when I have to reference something quickly.

Or practice drums to a bunch of different styles.

Otherwise it's CDs for the car, and vinyl, if I have the album I want to listen to for pleasure.
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