Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 21, 2024 9:19:32 GMT -8
More of the same. But it does have a better description of the steps from lacquer master to the stamper. It's an advertisement for RCA, of course. But near the very end (if only because of the sheer volume they dealt with) you see the beginnings of the modern Amazon mega-distribution center.
That conductor looks a little hung over. But, hey, what are ya gonna do? Art is art.
|
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 21, 2024 14:39:21 GMT -8
I liked that video very much. It was smart to have the album playing in the background. It reminded the listener what it was all about. And the music was perfect.
I recognized a couple of album covers which were on display toward the end of the video. The one with Mario Lanza especially stood out. My mother loved his voice and had several of his records.
I think I would have been happy being a record tester. Sitting listening to music eight hours a day and pointing out any faults in the discs. What could be better? 
Notice how all the people in this video look clean cut. They dressed well and were not pigs. Must have been before Americans had some sort of change in our genes which made us fat. At least that's what many try to sell us today. It's the genes, not the mouths.
|
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 21, 2024 15:07:20 GMT -8
The first thought that came to mind was, "Who has an electron microscope in his shop?" Anyway....
I found the piece interesting, as far as I could understand it. But the thing that jumped out at me was the "Switched on Bach" LP. As you will recall, I started out thinking of becoming a musician and my freshman year in college, I was taking courses required for a music major. In the end, I was too dumb or lazy (maybe both) at music theory and changed my major. I admit that my interests had also changed as well as my attitude to the types populating much of the arts.
In any case, that Switched-On Bach was very popular amongst music majors at my college. The Moog Synthesizer was something pretty new at the time. |
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 21, 2024 19:12:17 GMT -8
This doesn't seem to be the official "Switch-on Bach" but it's somebody doing something with an old synthesizer. I can't seem to find a track from the album.
Probably not dumb. Just didn't want to jump through those hoops before having some fun. What I've seen of music theory makes my eyes glaze over. It's as bad as advanced mathematics.
Maybe that's why there is so much horrible music today and very very little of quality. It's easier to just vomit out pop garbage. But to walk in the footsteps of Bach . . . that is potentially quite intimidating.
Bach is considered the near-god of classical music. But I admit that much of his works seem a bit mathematically robotic to me. It's what I call "Trying to saw the violin in half" music. It seems to be written to be as difficult as possible, not necessarily as beautiful as possible. And often just fast for fast's sake.
Obviously that's a minority opinion. But I do have trouble warming to JS Bach.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 21, 2024 19:48:55 GMT -8
I wonder how many people remember record changers. They tended to be associated with cheap stuff made for teenagers and kids. But I know that it was standard in my parents' quite expensive 1960's era Curtis Mathis hi-fi unit. We had this exact model where the phonograph resided in a pull-out drawer to the right of the TV.  |
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 22, 2024 10:57:38 GMT -8
My first stereo system, a Panasonic, had a record changer as one can see from the photo. I rarely used it as I am an audiophile and, like the guy says in the video, audiophiles do not like record changers. Scratch, scratch, scratch those records. In fact, I would fiddle with the specially built spindle, to get an LP over it without using the arm on top. I never allowed LPs to pile up on top of each other on a turntable. |
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 22, 2024 11:19:14 GMT -8
Somehow the rhythm of that piece doesn't sound right to me.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 22, 2024 16:24:13 GMT -8
They were probably a great idea for 7" 45 rpm singles. They were lighter and I doubt much damage would occur to those. And because that was generally the avenue of pop music, I don't think anyone was treasuring them as heirlooms.
But, good god, it does not seem at first or even second glance to be a good idea to launch 12" 33 rpm records at each other from a height of 4 inches or more.
Summary from reading around the web:
+ Using a changer, the records gather more dust because they tend to be out of their sleeves longer. Playing records with lots of dust on them will tend to cause extra wear
+ The changer mechanisms can cause wear on the spindle hole of the vinyl
+ The changer mechanism may leave marks and scuffs on the label.
+ Changer mechanisms may malfunction and the entire stack of records could come down at once.
+ Record changer phonographs tend to use lower-quality cartridges and thus you probably shouldn't be playing heirloom albums on them whether you drop them from 4" or not.
One forum member writes:
Here's a video of a Technics SL 1650 that doesn't seem to be doing a bad job. Note that it doesn't have that stabilizer arm usually seen with changers. I don't know how it's doing it. But it looks fairly tame.
Was there really much damage from the record-to-record contact though? One forum member writes:
Common sense tells us that dropping easily-scratched vinyl discs onto each other isn't a good idea. Still, it would be interesting if that guy with the scanning electron microscope would do some objective tests.
|
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 22, 2024 17:58:19 GMT -8
Some special spindle, but exactly which I have no idea. By the way, the albums were absolutely rubbish. At least the first three were. Sounded like the music they played at raves. Nothing but pulsations. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
I think you are correct. As children, we had small record players built for 45s. You could put a pile of records on the spindle, place the arm over the last record and listen to music while doing something else. It was very convenient not having to change the record every time one finished.
The overall quality of the material or audio was generally not as good as LPs. When I got serious about classical music, I started looking into Deutsche Grammophon and Angel Records.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 23, 2024 13:15:22 GMT -8
New to the Record Collection is this Pro-Ject stylus brush. All I had was a pretty cheap one that I got from somewhere. This came in today and it's much easier to use and (I assume) is doing a better job.  Having read that it is important to clean the stylus after every play of a record, I needed to get something. And as I had mentioned before, I can readily see just how dirty the needle gets on my Edison Diamond Disc player after only a single play...and this is with me keeping these thick records as clean as I can get them. Also added these anti-static record sleeves. Many of the used albums I've been receiving have come without a sleeve, or with the sleeve highly mangled. And even with those with an intact sleeve, often it is very difficult getting them into and out of the album cover. These smoother ones slip right in fairly easily. But the question is: Do you orient the opening of the record sleeve to the opening of the album cover? I've never done that because albums will then tend to fall out on their own this way when you handle them. But it's certainly easier to get them out this way. What do you do, Mr. Kung? |
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 23, 2024 13:19:44 GMT -8
I always orient the dust sleeve to the top side of the album cover. But I am a very persnickety type. I never touch the LP on the grooves. I will slide a record out until the paper label is apparent and then place my thumb on the outer edge and middle finger close to the hole in the middle. Then I slide the LP out and place it on the turntable.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 23, 2024 13:20:35 GMT -8
If it's not Sinatra, you can assume I think the same about anything found at random on the web.
Certainly the children's records -- often pressed on colorful, thick plastic -- did not have a high audio quality. But I do think the later singles you got for more adult (or even teenager) music might have been as good as an LP. But because such records tend to be played a lot, are played on cheaper machines, often not put back in their sleeves, and tend to be handled more roughly, anything you find on 45 today might not be in the best of shape.
But I do have a collection of XTC singles that were collected in my yute. I'll have to play a couple and see how they sound.
|
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 23, 2024 13:31:37 GMT -8
Very possible. I probably stopped listening to 45s in my early/mid teens. I certainly started buying LPs by the time I was in 10th grade, i.e. was 15. I also listened to a lot of radio and eight-track tapes when in the car.
I had an uncle who, as one of his unsuccessful business ventures, owned a record shop in California. He would sometimes give us a rectangular box full of 45s. A 45 in its sleeve would fit tightly into the box and one could stack records flat to the top of the box, which was probably eight or nine inches tall. There were a lot of records in such a box. We played these on a cheap 45 player. As you might imagine, the quality of music varied greatly. Listening to these records is where I discovered the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 23, 2024 13:50:27 GMT -8
It might have been quintessentially American, or Western, to have a stack of 45s sitting somewhere. Maybe several. I bought only a very few 45s in my time but my older brother certainly had a stack or two. And my younger brother now has possession of those stacks, at least the surviving members. We used to play them, off and on, here at the office on a very cheap record player he had picked up at Goodwill. It seems the appropriate way to play them. Not this one, but something like this one:  |
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 23, 2024 15:00:32 GMT -8
We would play those 45s our uncle sent us on a record player something like this one. Ours was cheaper, as I recall.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 23, 2024 16:42:31 GMT -8
That contraption above is wonderfully ugly. It looks like it used to be a toaster before it "transitioned."  |
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2024 18:49:05 GMT -8
Today I received that boxed five-album set by RCA, The Spectacular World of Dynagroove.  The above is a sample from the web. What I have is similar in condition. The outer cover is by no means mint, but it is in pretty good condition for something from 1963. The vinyl itself is very good. I see no scratches and I get few pops, if any. There are just some obvious fingerprints here and there which will wipe off easily enough. I've been listening to the entire set today on a rainy day in the hometown. I'm listening right now to The Themes From Cleopatra disc as done by The Rome Sound Stage Orchestra conducted by Riz Ortolani. Riz won a Grammy for More, the theme from the movie, Mondo Cane). We were just talking about record changers, so it's interesting that this box set is numbered in such a way that the discs were clearly meant to be played one at a time. There's: Disc 1: Side 1/Side 2 Disc 2: Side 3/Side 4 Disc 3: Side 5/Side 6 Disc 4: Side 7/Side 8 Disc 5: Side 9/Side 10 As that one video mentioned, sometimes albums (true "albums" that came as a set of records in a box or paged album sleeves) had their sides numbered to accommodate listening to them as a stack. When the stack had played through, you'd just flip the entire stack over. For that you would have had them ordered thusly (as they would sit on the spindle, top to bottom): Disc 5: Side 5/6 Disc 4: Side 4/7 Disc 3: Side 3/8 Disc 2: Side 2/9 Disc 1: Side 1/10 I think I have that right. The music itself is pretty good. I'm enjoying it. It's a good mix but nothing to "out there." The Cleopatra soundtrack (which I'm listening to now) is pretty good as well. Yes, I'm picturing Liz Taylor's boobs. It can't be helped. |
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 24, 2024 19:02:11 GMT -8
And I might add, the only reason I splurged and paid $30.00 for this is because the vinyl was listed (and pictured) as near mint. They didn't lie. That also included shipping so it seemed a fair deal.
|
|
|
|
Post by kungfuzu on Aug 25, 2024 14:15:10 GMT -8
Here is an interesting video explaining audio illusions.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 25, 2024 19:20:12 GMT -8
That's a heck of a pipe organ. Interesting video. I've seen this guy before. Interesting bit about the shape of the ear effecting where we place a sound.
|
|
