I feel old (mix tape content)

I listed an old bookshelf stereo on CL and wanted to test the cassette decks. Found my old case of Mixed Tapes in the attic and pulled it out. My daughter looked at it with a mix of curiosity and revulsion, so I explained the whole process of mix tapes, recording your favorite song from the radio and having a boom box with 2 decks and high-speed dubbing.

She pulled a cassette (in its case) out and turned it over in her hand. "How do you open this thing?"

I tried to be ok with the tapes, but I found out that even my favorite local record store has given up on them. They carry them but they're all in a bunch of boxes tucked under the table the CDs are on. That very short lived exercise ended when I took the tape deck out of the beater Malibu.

In other news, vinyl is back!

Mix tapes? Phhhtttt....I remember these, I had one.

RossD wrote: In other news, vinyl is back!

It sure is.

In reply to Tony Sestito:

Hahaha....

PS - I'll take $150 for the first person to show up & haul them all away. They need to go. Soon.

In reply to Pete Gossett:

And that's the problem with vinyl: it takes up so much space. At least my current collection is all killer with no filler.

In reply to Tony Sestito:

Not to mention the weight!

Yeah, that's the problem with digital, it just takes up so much space! Here's my archive:

Tony Sestito wrote: In reply to Pete Gossett: And that's the problem with vinyl: it takes up so much space. At least my current collection is all killer with no filler.

I agree---- I love vinyl and listen to it more than any other medium. (at least at home) It's hard to find collections for sale that aren't filled with garbage though. I have plenty of Tijuana Brass records......what I need is more quality vinyl!

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Oh I have plenty of quality records in there - you just have to take it all home and sort through it yourself.

Edit: I had some people from Canada interested in about 50 albums last week. They offered me $60 for them... Even at 50% of book value there was over $150 worth, and that was just the first 6 albums I looked up. I told them I'd take $125 for all the ones they wanted + my time/trouble to pack & ship them, but they declined.

Hold on to the tapes. The hipsters will be on that next. You'll make bank.

Appleseed wrote: Hold on to the tapes. The hipsters will be on that next. You'll make bank.

They already are.

I've seen a lot of local bands in the past few years that are even offering NEW cassettes at their merch tables.

I went down the vinyl rabbit hole a little over 10 years ago. I've got a small collection of LPs, a lot of it is "junk" that was given to me when family and friends found out I was collecting records. It was an easy way for them to get rid of something that was taking up space, and "help" me at the same time. It took me a while before I started turning folks down on their oh-so-generous offer of "free records."

I don't collect to collect I collect records to listen to them. As such, I really don't usually go after the "collectable" stuff, sure I've got a few must have albums, but I mostly focus on "Greatest Hits," "Best Of," "Number 1 Hits," etc. albums. I'd rather have a few records with a bunch of songs I like, than a whole bunch of "collectable" records with only a handful of songs I even know, let alone like.

I doubt I'll get into collecting cassette tapes, I'm sure there's a shoe box of my old tapes at my folk's somewhere if I start feeling nostalgic.

I have just recently gotten into reel-to-reel though, thread that started it. I picked up this Akai 4000DS a little over a week ago.

I figured I'd use it for the little project I bought it for, and it'd collect dust, but I've really started to get into it. I bought some Scotch 7" tape reels on eBay last week, and they showed up today.

As I type this I'm recording Elton John "The Definitive Hits," from FLAC files on my laptop to one of the new tape reels I just got.

Tony Sestito wrote:

RossD wrote: In other news, vinyl is back!

It sure is.

Oooh, vectrex and Sega master system !

Most shows I go to now the bands are selling vinyl and tapes but not CDs. Kinda interesting.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Whipped Cream and other delights is worthless without the sleeve.

RossD wrote: In other news, vinyl is back!

But why though? What is the actual draw to having records as opposed to digital? I guess vynil does make a better weapon in the event of the zombie apocalypse, i.e. Shawn of the Dead. When they were debating which albums they should throw and which to keep i was rolling.

Tk8398 wrote: Most shows I go to now the bands are selling vinyl and tapes but not CDs. Kinda interesting.

For the bands I follow, it's vinyl and/or digital download.

gearheadmb wrote:

RossD wrote: In other news, vinyl is back!

But why though? What is the actual draw to having records as opposed to digital? I guess vynil does make a better weapon in the event of the zombie apocalypse, i.e. Shawn of the Dead. When they were debating which albums they should throw and which to keep i was rolling.

Some people think it sounds better.

I'm not one of them, but I do empathize with the idea.

In reply to Joe Gearin:

I love Tijuana Brass!

alfadriver wrote:

gearheadmb wrote:

RossD wrote: In other news, vinyl is back!

But why though? What is the actual draw to having records as opposed to digital? I guess vynil does make a better weapon in the event of the zombie apocalypse, i.e. Shawn of the Dead. When they were debating which albums they should throw and which to keep i was rolling.

Some people think it sounds better. I'm not one of them, but I do empathize with the idea.

To compress the information into an MP3 file, some audio information is left out of the conversion. Think of lopping off the tops of mountains and filling in the valleys. Very minute differences that an hearing impaired person like myself will never hear.

Woody wrote: In reply to Joe Gearin: I love Tijuana Brass!

Nothing against Mr. Herb Alpert! :) He sold a metric ton of those records. It seems every collection I see has at least one copy....I think I have three! Clearly the cover art was well done!

And yes----- Some folks prefer the sound of vinyl to digital recordings. I am one of them--- there's more depth, and the music is more vibrant. (you'll need a record in good condition, a record player with a quality stylus, good speakers and good ears) If you have the right equipment, the difference is absolutely noticeable, but varies according to the quality of the original recordings. (which vary pretty wildly--- especially in digital form)

gearheadmb wrote: But why though? What is the actual draw to having records as opposed to digital?

Pop Mech just ran an article about Jack White opening a new Vinyl Production facility in Detroit. He is a big fan, and his POV is that digital is only recording part of the music and computers are making decisions about what you should hear. Vinyl records everything that the artist is putting out. While I agree that I won't hear the difference with my damaged hearing and crappy equipment, I dig what he is trying to do.

There is a great PBS series about Jack White and a producer bringing artists into the studio to record classic hits in their modern style. He records with the oldest working studio equipment in the US, right to wax records. I'm no audiophile, but I loved watching it. The recorder uses a lead weight to spin the turntable. It's just cool.

While I like having a good chunk of my music collection on a Micro SD card half the size of a fingernail (which is seriously awesome, BTW), there's something about vinyl records that just does it for me. From the blown-up size of the album art and liner notes to the mechanical awesomeness of how the records are made and played, it's a more tangible experience than just hitting play on a touchscreen.

And honestly, some stuff sounds better to my ears out of my turntable than it does through all the digital wizardry of a PC or phone. For the classic stuff, it seems like it's how the music is meant to be experienced.

I've built my current collection by handpicking what I want in there, and I have most of what I want at this point. It's mostly classic rock, classic metal, and new stuff I've bought from metal bands at shows locally. Recently though, I was given about 50-60 records by a friend who inherited a huge record collection, but nearly all of that was quality stuff. Some examples:

You should have seen what he kept!!!