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Retroflections

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Albums to CD’S to MP3’s

by on Feb. 05, 2010, under Life

298x232-sonic_health-298x232_sonic_healthI caught myself saying recently that I did not own a certain collection of albums. The truth is I have not owned an “album” in a very long time. As much as I squawk about modern technology, my music remains on 4 external hard drives on my computer. I am a music fanatic. Just put it in an IV and feed it to me. I collect as much as possible and in such a small area, on a computer and it got me thinking…

I am unclear when I purchased my last album. It was probably in 1985 and was either The Pretenders or U2.  I am sure that when I purchased that album I had no idea it would be the last of the vinyl purchases for me.album

 Little did I know that CD’s would soon replace those bulky black disks that I had to put on a turn table in hopes that my needle would play them correctly or if I had to put on penny on the arm so it would even play. I would have to run and flip over my album every 20 or 30 minutes so I could hear side two.

 In comes CD’s and I found myself slowly storing my albums and replacing them with CD’s. Within the first year of CD’s I had thousands. My father, a word worker built me a series of CD stands and I would display my collection with pride.

 Then about 1999, I discovered something very awesome. A great place called Napster. I downloaded more music than I could have ever imagined. At first, downloading was not illegal and so I downloaded anything and everything.  I crashed my computers because I simply could not stuff enough mp3’s onto my hard drive.

 ipodSoon downloading music became illegal and I had to stop downloading however because we could convert CD’s into mp3’s, we started trading music with friends. In fact we would just started exchanging hard drives packed with music. I tunes and Rhapsody came along and the never ending streaming of radio came with it.

 Still I miss the smell of the black vinyl records, and some of the cracking and noise that came along with it. I miss the album art the most I think. The feel of that big piece of cardboard in my hand filled with colors and words. There are places you can go online to get album art, but it isn’t the same. Stay tuned for the blog on album art but in the meantime…

What do you recall about Albums? Do you like CD’s, mp3s, live streaming or the old fashion albums? Me, I like my ipod, so mp3 is the way I go. I suppose if I could just program a chip in my head I would. I love music and can never get enough no matter how it is served.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 7:49 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • tiponeill

    Have you ever heard a Mozart symphony on shuffle play ?
    It’s missing something. Although some “Albums” are simply collections of singles and the order that they are played in is unimportant, there once was an art form in which one piece followed another in particular order to create a larger work – and that art has been lost by a generation that thinks that random picks of a radio DJ is “music”.
    Actually it has reduced the field to what we used to call “elevator music” or background music.
    Also, once upon a time, people actually spent money and time installing a system which would try to reproduce music faithfully – with a large frequency range and a large dynamic range – it was called “High Fidelity” back then.
    The compression used in most digital forms (and even CDs) has again led to loss of information and the opening of Zarathustra or a Back organ piece is totally lost – but then people who listen to music thru earbuds would never know it.

    • http://tylerwoods.org Tyler Woods

      Indeed I agree with you and no I cannot imagine Mozart on shuffle play but I never use shuffle play.
      Man did I used to have a set up with my stereo It was awesome. Cranked it up and loved it when I played either AllAn Parson Project Tales Of Mystery & Imagination or the Who’s Quadrophenia.
      Today A good pair of boss ear plugs can rock as well with less hassle. But I agree there is just something about it. It was a ritual.

      • tiponeill

        Today A good pair of boss ear plugs can rock as well with less hassle. But I agree there is just something about it. It was a ritual.
        That simply isn’t true. There are no earplugs that can create a pressure wave against your chest, for instance. It is a different experience with your entire body experiencing the sound instead of just your inner ear.

        • http://tylerwoods.org Tyler Woods

          hmmmm Indeed I did forget that vibration in the chest!

  • leftfield

    I agree.  There has been something gained, but some things have been lost and I’m not really sure if music comes out ahead in the bargain.  

  • azmouse

    I still have my record collection.

    • http://tylerwoods.org Tyler Woods

      A friend of mine still has their and it takes up an entire room if not more. They just got a digital turn table to start converting. I think it is awesome for those who kept them.

      • koreyk

        Not only have I kept my old vinyl, I continue to buy it.  There is an allure to LP’s and 45′s that CD’s simply can not match.  Check out one of the half dozen or so record shows here every year to rub elbows with the vinyl faithful.

  • http://isontheair.blogspot.com/ Shawn

    I have all of the mediums… Vinyl, CD, mp3′s on a Ext. HD, cassettes, 45′s, 78′s….. I hate mp3′s for sound but agree that they’re convenient when you don’t care what it sounds like (mowing the lawn, plowing snow, background music while working). I prefer FLAC files (check these out!).
    However, nothing touches vinyl for true, real sound. That’s what analog is, real! No compression, just the sound waves that were cut into laquer when the source was recorded. Transerring that to digital just ruins the quality and nuance by compressing the sound into binary code (imagine seeing the most succulent, overly stuffed, delicious dagwood style sandwich….. imagine your self wanting to take a bite while standing over a disgustingly dirty trash can….. you have to squash the sandwich down to fit it in your mouth and you watch SO much of the ingredients fall from the sides into the trash….GONE!). That’s where the soul of the music, the fine “extras” (crisp, clean high frequency and the warm rumbling lows), go.
    Still can’t get away from the fact that REAL analog sound is true, and we all know that the truth sall set you free!

  • tiponeill

    Still can’t get away from the fact that REAL analog sound is true, and we all know that the truth sall set you free!
    Theoretically, digital can actually be more REAL than analog – which inevitably introduces distortion in playback. The problem is that the sampling rate and compression used for CDs is lousy. An attempt to introduce higher fidelity CD’s (Super Audio CDs) has been a failure.
    For which I am grateful, because the truth is that they could release music on DVD or BluRay with DTS/Dolby/whatever and it would have terrific sound – better than analog.
    I don’t know why they don’t – I suspect that the market just wouldn’t support it as everyone moves towards Ipods.
    If they did, I would be forced to buy my 5th version of the White Album, so it’s probably for the best.

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