So the 20Gb MP3 player - the ATMT Storm - I bought off Amazon is almost full already. At least half of it is my old vinyl collection, a substantial part of which I ripped directly from the vinyl onto my old pc. There's still a fair bit of vinyl with which this hasn't been done, but the essential stuff has been digitised.
Tastes change, mind you, so I'm more frequently listening to newer stuff, mostly recommendations and cd's loaned to me. My tastes tend towards screamingly loud rock, but not exclusively so.
On the one hand, we have Opeth, recently borrowed from Glasgow writer Michael Cobley: thundering black metal guitar? Check. Little quiet acoustic-y passages designed to lull you into sleep? Check. A vocalist inclined to a vocal technique reminiscent of a twenty-year old CIA wiretap of a man in a tiled bathroom attempting to give birth to an elephant while gargling? Check.
On the other hand, we have Mylo, much-respected Scottish musician and producer, firmly within the 'dance music' genre. I was surprised how much I enjoyed Mylo's 'Destroy Rock n'Roll'. Although, it has to be said, sliding everything I've heard described as 'dance' under the same label makes about as much sense as regarding, say, Anne Rice and William Gibson as sharing something in common simply by virtue of the fact there are probably quite a few people with both on their bookshelves.
On the other hand, Royksopp don't do it for me, but the Goldfrapp does, kind of. The Kaiser Chiefs is better than expected, the Hard-Fi less so. And I experience a strange schizophrenic chill when I realise I can't make up my mind whether to listen to Elbow or Black Sabbath. So it goes.
4 comments:
Ha. I raved about Opeth to Mike C at the Worldcon. I also saw them live in November last year. They were awesome. If you want to hear some real death metal, try Nile (see http://www.nile-catacombs.net/nile_news.php).
- ian
Forgive the caveman question, but how exactly do you get vinyl onto your PC? I've got lots of old records, a turntable, amplifer and also a PC but me no see how they can all be connected. Presumably you need some software as well,
Bazza
Sales, you slag. So you're responsible for him yelling WHAT? WHAT? every time I speak to him. Usually with the aid of a brass trumpet fixed to one ear.
Baz - way I remember it, I had an output on the rear of my hi fi to connect to a second pair of speakers. I had a y-shaped connector lead that took the two stereo channels and funneled them into a single connector; cost something like one fifty out of an electricals shop. Then I used software, yes, designed for ripping for vinyl. Set the levels on the screen, drop the needle on the record, step back, repeat after twenty minutes or so for the flip side.
For what it's worth, I did see a record deck on the telly for this specific purpose, a small portable-type with integrated circuitry for automatically separating tracks and even downloading track data from the internet (via CDDB.com) for saving information for each track (title, album, and so forth). Can't remember what the machine is called or how much it goes for - a hundred quid wouldn't surprise me - but it should be on the net somewhere. But it would save you hassle in terms of getting your pc and stereo together and mucking around with wires.
"So you're responsible for him yelling WHAT? WHAT? every time I speak to him. Usually with the aid of a brass trumpet fixed to one ear."
Nah. He's always been like that :-)
- ian
Post a Comment