Vinyl Junkies …

Another thing about Record Store Day is the pressing quality seems to go down across the board. Like the factories are rushing to deliver product. Not sure if that's even possible this year. After the Apollo fire and most factories on a go slow. Hopefully the Japanese guy who's now the only one in the world making lacquers has a chance to step up production during this period.

I have a load of my Dad’s old vinyl 45s to get rid of for him. Have a browse:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R9kUjK4lFdeEc5nrNIYY0Hr-9LzfTFJ8fghmFaQeEYU/edit

If anyone wants to make me an offer on the lot let me know.

I inherited a load of LPs from my dad when he died - I took them to the two branches of Reckless Records, one in Angel and one in Shoreditch. Obviously now is not the time, but it might be worth emailing them the list for when they open again?

I think I got about £600 for the saleable ones. I still have Gloria Estefan and Cliff Richard, weirdly. Rolling Stones and Beatles went pretty sharpish.

Nice cheers.

I had this happen with Vinyl Pimp when I was trying to sell 2500 12" dance records.

Are you on discogs?

Yes, mr_a_jones

I think my collection is hidden at the moment, it gets a bit boring fielding offers for records you're not selling and requests for digital copies for free ffs.

I've got around 100 for sale at the moment, that's a really low number considering the amount I would let go to make space :)

No worries, was just curious when you said you had some garage for sale.

I'll take Substitute by The Who if it's on Reaction, it's in good nick and it's got Circles on the flip... And you're willing to split... And post to Oz... Phew...

Pre amp in my AT-LP5 has gone kaput, any suggestions of something good to use as an external pre amp?

Schiit mani was the best entry level phono stage when I bought it 2 years ago.

Why are the majority of records still sold without digital downloads still?

Are we actually expected to pay twice?

Looking at recording my small collection to wav using my mixer, but what a huge ballache.

Do it while your collection is small. It's a massive undertaking once it grows. I've been recording 30+ per month for the last few years and even the amount of storage required becomes an issue. Also try to decide what quality and a naming/sorting convention early doors otherwise it's tricky keeping track.

At the start of lockdown I owned one LP. I've bought almost one a day since then. This is becoming a very costly pastime.

I'll see how it goes, but I'm never going to get nearly as good a recording as the digital master, so I'm unlikely to persist too long.

What software did you use? I was just going to start with Audacity.

Audacity will do the job. I use Logic Pro because I already had it and know how to use it easily. I also catalogue everything using Discogs because I sell on there and I can use the Discogs release code to create tags for the digital files using Yate.

I wanted the sound of vinyl as a digital recording ?!? It does depend on what you are buying as to whether analog masters would even exist. It seems like the 'loudness war' has abated a bit in some areas of music but generally pop is mastered with quite a bit of compression because psychoacoustically louder is better, it also stands out in the playlists or transmissions by being louder. It's harder to do that when mastering for vinyl although it's still possible to produce a highly compressed pressing on vinyl.

I also enjoy the physical nature of searching through a vinyl collection although it is a pain in the ass to have to handle so many records all the time.

If you're not addicted to vinyl yet then save yourself before it's too late!

Are you enjoying it though? :)

Well, I've had another 9 LPs delivered today, so guess I must be. But do find it odd how much great stuff is out of print.

I think the big labels like to press crappy versions of the really great albums leaving the audiophile labels begging for the scraps.

One of the labels I've had consistent good results with is Speakers Corner. It's always worth a punt with them if you have any interest in the releases. I've been selling quite a few of the releases I personally enjoyed.

Analogue Productions is another good label for reissues. Mofi less so, not sure why but they dominate that high end reissue space and a lot of their output leaves me a bit unmoved.

I will never buy Abbey Road half-speed reissues, burnt once to often.

Cheers, will have a look at some of those.

Good point, although most of my collection are new releases/reissues which I'd expect to have well mastered digital release.

I thought generally there's more risk of a record being cut from a CD master rather than a poor digital master accompanying an analogue master on record.

It might be best to concentrate on buying releases that have some ambition to be good on vinyl.

e.g. Surprise Chef - All News Is Good News on Mr Bongo

Analog recording of a band playing live with a label that doesn't charge the earth but believes in vinyl.

There are no hard and fast rules and personal preference is going to dictate the pool of releases that you can choose from but it's a lot of kissing frogs and some times a prince comes along.

Anyone familiar with Vinyl Me Please in the US? Temped to pay £8 delivery for one of their records, but know nothing about them

They've a version of Sonny Sharrock's Ask the Ages on pre-order for £28 + £8 delivery
https://www.vinylmeplease.com/products/sonny-sharrock-ask-the-ages?variant=31391176360026

There's a UK pressing still around much cheaper by Hivemind, but annoyingly it's 45RPM on 4 sides, and a few places say it's not a great pressing https://www.hivemindrecords.co.uk/sonny-sharrock

Just got this EP, awesome

Picked up a repressing of this released last week too. Dub remix by Bill Laswell of a CD by Ethiopian singer, Gigi (his wife), recorded with Herbie Hancock and others in 2001. Beautiful.

Thanks for posting that illuminated audio LP, so good, purchased.
Colleague of mine was mad about vinyl me please and remember him being well excited whenever they got delivered, I never did pay much attention to him tho and this was about 8 years ago.

Vinyl Me Please are working with QRP in Salinas which is the pressing plant that was set up by Chad Kassem of Analogue Productions, the label I was talking about up thread.

Now I like AP for the sound quality and the brilliant sleeve reproductions but QRP is not without it's manufacturing issues. When you have no fill on one side of a 2x45rpm release that costs £50 at dealer prices it's deflating to say the least. It's almost worse that the rest of the package is so good. I just had that happen with Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins on Analogue Productions.

If you are buying from the states it's not worth considering replacement of individual disks as you need to post the damaged ones back and then they'll usually only post replacements with another order. Essentially, if you are buying special presses from the states you stand to lose pretty much the entire expense + postage and taxes if that pressing has an issue. I'm probably seeing issues in 1 in 10 pressings from this price bracket.

Also bear in mind that US labels get a halo effect because US buyers are paying much less relatively and there are lots of them. They are not so keen on labels like Speakers Corner because they have to add import duties etc. and they end up costing enough that a buyer will have higher expectations.

It's a shame that there aren't too many places pressing records in the UK. We used to be quite good at it.

In terms of you paying £36 for an import. It's enough that you'll be annoyed if it arrives warped, or worse still badly pressed. In the big picture it's the price of hunting for the good pressings, you will lose some money on bad pressings along the way.