|
?? is there a finite value to vinyl $$
Viewed 2406 times. 5 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
-->
Vinyl records have become today's buggy whip... Unless you've got a fetish for that sort of thing; you probably don't own any vinyl or a leather cropped whip. As a person who's grown up with vinyl, collected it, and labored with it from place to place... I am facing the fact that fewer and fewer people still cherish and love vinyl records.
Bedroom to club DJs around the world play records on any given nite. They share a common love for the 'wax' they molest. With each record an artist's moment of inspiration is captured and formed into something tactile, and physical. It's easy to be enamored by these disks. The whole vinyl experience is built on solidifying that invisible something. Transforming charged energy into something that radiates out from the speakers to our ears......
That transformed mechanical energy inspires us and speaks to our inner voice. Be it the artist, the dj, or the listener,..... it's an experience that matters.
To Mastercard the moment correctly:
For the average passive listener, the basic requirements are: a turntable and a pre-amp/amp. And a record for every song or album you'll want to listen to, *if* you can find it on vinyl. The experience is priceless, but in reality it costs time and equipment. And as an advanced user, owning dj equipment dwarfs the cost of any digital equivalent.
Now, in a world of laptops, mp3s, and record emulating software, the experience can be transposed away from the real and solid record and into something else.... something that can't be touched. Something that isn't captured in a medium we can physically relate to. The music stays trapped in a purgatory, trapped in its unrealized state.... not quite fully brought into existence. When we do access it, it's a fleeting idea that relies directly on other technologies to keep itself in our frame of reference and keep it in existence.
So what is the value of vinyl? It's like asking what is the value of a photograph. We all have memories in our heads and hearts... but it is the actual image that we can look at and share that matters most. The experience may seem the same, but the material we remember with is all we have to relate to in the end. In these last days of vinyl... its digital replacment only reveals the intrinsic value of these analogue recordings.
writer: Vergel Evans - publication Assembler Techno Fanzine: link | |
Comments
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
jdg
vinyl is making a mild comeback with indy rock and young hipsters.
watch out.
i know more then a few mastering engineers getting analog tape and going straight to vinyl for small time artists/releases.
its a fetish that wont die soon.
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
vveerrgg
I never said it would die..... infact if anything I think it's more valuable now then ever!
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
p
one of my favorite things about nashville. link
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
race4prize
i was told by a man i don't know whether to trust, that vinyl will be no more in ten years. something to do with the chemical process of making it, and global warming. this is probably complete shit. theres still plastic....
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
mlbot
The vinylligator is becoming endangered, thanks to our insatiable consumption of records and our encroachment upon its natural habitat.
(and without careful management, it could go the way of the 8trackabou).
This in turn has led to an explosion in the population of millipods.
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
jdg
i almost bought an 8 track player the other day... only if i knew a source of 8track tapes
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
airliner
race4prize: well, vinyl is a petroleum product, so it'll certainly become more expensive to produce at some point in the relatively near future (see: peak oil).
the great thing about vinyl: you can play it back without electricity, if you really really need to. try doing that with a CD.
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
5l4
jdg said: "vinyl is making a mild comeback with indy rock and young hipsters.
watch out.
i know more then a few mastering engineers getting analog tape and going straight to vinyl for small time artists/releases.
its a fetish that wont die soon."
directly in that vein (being somewhat of a young hipster myself) you can actually buy low's 'trust' on vinyl with a little sticker, proclaiming the fact that not a single peice of digital technology was used during the entire process.
personally i think theres some validity to that, but very little. vinyl is nice on sunday mornings, but i don't have a record player in my car nor do i have one in my pocket. i agree that vinyl add's a tangible element to audio, and in an increasingly digital world-- there has been a large backlash in almost all the arts. moving towards a more 'tangible/possesible' medium.
seems like just a reaction though. art is destined to transcend medium.
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
Artsigreg
i want my music turned into vinyl!!!!
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
jdg
me too!
i've cut dub plates before... thats awesome.
but never had my own release on the vinyl
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
flies
my friend recently started a vynil only label: link
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
jdg
i've liked the labels that give u mp3s for free if u buy the vinyl.
edited: Nov 14 2006
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
lem
jdg said: "i've liked the labels that give u mp3s for free if u buy the vinyl."
oh yeah? this is the first time i've heard of this. what labels are you referring too?
i think that's a sweet idea because the only reason i choose cds over records is that they're easy to rip.
if you have a bunch of time on your hands, here's an interesting lecture by steve albini. he talks about why analog record is superior to digital and it has nothing to do with sound quality. of course he's talking about recording, but i guess that extends to final product as well.
link
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
flies
i'll mention that to him. not a bad idea, though i wonder if the artists would object, since they are kinda, um, well, if parmegiani writes most of his music for 24 speakers then i wonder how he'd feel about distributing his work as mp3...
11/14/06
+
PM |
QUOTE |
PERMALINK |
REPORT
jdg
lem said: " jdg said: "i've liked the labels that give u mp3s for free if u buy the vinyl."
oh yeah? this is the first time i've heard of this. what labels are you referring too?
"
top of head... Merge Records and Saddle Creek Records
i swear there are more.
Register / login
|
^
EM411 is Copyright 2001-2008 EM411.com
All rights reserved. | Contact | RSS
|
