VINYL not just your dad ’ s old records
Records — aka LPs , EPs , 12 ”, 7 ”, singles , albums , and vinyl — are back in style . And for good reason . Why ? 1 . They sound good even with the crackles and pops . 2 . They have better album art , or at least bigger . 3 . The retro factor . 4 . There ’ s no such thing as an iRecord . 5 . They encourage you to listen to alb ums with car e : one side at a time . ( No 32Gb shuffle option available .) 6 . If you ’ re a DJ , you can scratch and mix with records . They do have drawbacks , too , like the dr eaded skip . They ’ re also heavy and cumbersome , and easily damaged .
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paralyzed with fear about going to this sho w . Obviously we weren ’ t cool enough to be there . “ I am about to see a musical genius ,” I thought . “ What if the bouncer doesn ’ t let me in ?”
At the club , the ceiling w as low and covered in an orange shag-like carpet material . Inside , it was hard to breathe and jam-packed with f ashionistas . People were smoking and there was a haze of “ herbal essence ” wafting around . There were two or three turntables set up in a corner and a machine that looked like an oversized calculator , but with with extra knobs and b uttons . Brad later told us : “ That ’ s an Akai MPC . It ’ s kind of like a drum machine / MIDI sequencer . It allows him to sample , store , manipulate , and interface with sounds .” Rob and I nodded with way too much enthusiasm , pretending we understood the complexity and mechanics of being a DJ . When DJ Shadow appeared , the crowd gathered around . His first song began with an ethereal piano r iff , and then words were woven into it , samples of voices from TV shows , drums superimposed over the r iff . It w as dreamlike and hea vily atmospheric with c hoir parts fading in and out . The music was completely unique yet somehow intimately familiar . There was a lot of action on the tur ntables and on tha t oversized calculator . DJ Shadow made it look easy .
No one really danced . This kind of m usic lent itself to a diffe rent type of m usic appreciation : subtle head bobbing , looking disinterested , or simply closing your eyes .
One song began with some deep , funk-style drumming , joined by a g roovy bass line tha t suddenly switched into a guitar solo befor e fading , leaving only ambient noise . The effect was unusual and it went on for several minutes , along with a string section that seemed to exist in slow motion , making the song a jewel of mood music , with all parts of it at very different tempos . I remember looking around to see both Rob and Brad ’ s heads bobbing away . All of our eyes met and we smiled at each other with an unspok en understanding and appreciation . We had stumb led upon an or iginal artist who created an atmosphere of musical perfection that would stick with us long after we left Montreal .
– C . M . Añonuevo
VINYL not just your dad ’ s old records
by Dave McTavish
9
Records — aka LPs , EPs , 12 ”, 7 ”, singles , albums , and vinyl — are back in style . And for good reason . Why ? 1 . They sound good even with the crackles and pops . 2 . They have better album art , or at least bigger . 3 . The retro factor . 4 . There ’ s no such thing as an iRecord . 5 . They encourage you to listen to alb ums with car e : one side at a time . ( No 32Gb shuffle option available .) 6 . If you ’ re a DJ , you can scratch and mix with records . They do have drawbacks , too , like the dr eaded skip . They ’ re also heavy and cumbersome , and easily damaged .
But why do r ecords sound better ? Put simply , they are analog . What is analog ? Analog means that the sound signal doesn ’ t get converted into a digital signal for processing , by slicing the signal into a b unch of 1s and 0s , processing it with a computer chip , then converting it back to a voltage to drive your speakers . Analog cuts out the middleman : smooth wave from needle to speaker .
Don ’ t get me wr ong , CDs sound good too , especially compared to poor quality r ecords ( K-tel ), played on a poorly set up record player . But modern vinyl is not what it used to be . Nowadays , when you pick up a quality record , you may get three records out of one album . Why ? Well , when they make a record , a cutting tool actually cuts a groove in a “ plate ”, physically moving left and right . The more space it has to move from left to right , the more dynamic the sound . This is why my new Stand High Patrol record sounds way better than an old Xmas record with 12 songs on one side .
Another good thing about new vinyl is when you buy the record it usually comes with a download card or CD in the sleeve . You can still put the album on your iPod and rock out on the mo ve . Let ’ s face it , portable record