The Demise of disc formats

[Audiowannabee]

I can't believe we don't hear more about this. Surely this must be affecting a lot of people buying vinyl but I haven't heard about it until now.
I still have a stack of vinyl from back in the day but no way of playing them (and that's fine with me, anything I would listen to I replaced on cd).

No shit id b like WTF???
imagine me screaming like a lunatic at record store after going home to find my brand new $30-40 record will Not fit on my turntable!

Crazy days

 

[Sal1950]

I still have a stack of vinyl from back in the day but no way of playing them (and that's fine with me, anything I would listen to I replaced on cd).

So what the hell are you sitting on them for ???
The time will never be better to milk the squashed hockey puck lovers for big bucks. This fad won't last forever, do your homework for their current values and put em on ebay. Or look in craigs list for a dealer that will buy the lot and save you all the sale & shipping aggravation. That's what I did with both my vinyl and 2ch CDs before my move from Chicago to FL. The timing wasn't as great then for the vinyl, but OTOH my CD's were at their peak, specially the MoFi and other gold specialty discs, really cleaned up on them.

 

[atrocity]

I cannot believe that newer albums/ lps have too small spindle holes n ur having to ream them yourself.

I'm annoyed by how often I've had to do that with old records just to be able to overcome the infuriatingly audible off-centerednessitude when digitizing them. I feel like a vandal, but unless I want to spend a billion dollars for Capstan...

 

[Bill B]

So what the hell are you sitting on them for ???
The time will never be better to milk the squashed hockey puck lovers for big bucks. This fad won't last forever, do your homework for their current values and put em on ebay. Or look in craigs list for a dealer that will buy the lot and save you all the sale & shipping aggravation. That's what I did with both my vinyl and 2ch CDs before my move from Chicago to FL. The timing wasn't as great then for the vinyl, but OTOH my CD's were at their peak, specially the MoFi and other gold specialty discs, really cleaned up on them.

Either to remind me of a better time, or laziness.

It's not like I couldn't pick up a cheap turntable if I ever wanted to, but probably never will. You definitely have a good point given the current market. Even though I still have a pile I probably gave away 80% of them 30 years ago.

 

[jimfisheye]

I'm annoyed by how often I've had to do that with old records just to be able to overcome the infuriatingly audible off-centerednessitude when digitizing them. I feel like a vandal, but unless I want to spend a billion dollars for Capstan...

iZotopeRX v8 has a wow and flutter repair that can correct the off center source style 'wow'. I've used this a few times now with some very troubled tape sources and it really delivers usable results! Not in any way with a single button push, of course. You have to work it and edit your results.

Capstan was a crude bad attempt at this. The results are so poor and mutilated that it's useless. That was a last generation attempt at this that didn't really work.

It really does go without saying that you want to ream out the hole and center the album for an important transfer! On the other hand or if we're talking about some collector's item that can't be damaged... The veri-speed (linked) correction is genuinely lossless between iZotopeRX utilities and the Elastique Pro built into Reaper. You can stretch and render 100 times. Then stretch back to the same as your 1st source and they null 100%. (Obviously only with classic linked veri-speed mode - which is what this job revolves around. Heh heh.) This is a digital manipulation you can get away with with genuine unmolested matter of fact results now.

Still best to avoid processing and get the source in order first whenever possible!
And spend money on maybe some analog source hardware device upgrades instead of some software too.

 

[MidiMagic]

iZotopeRX v8 has a wow and flutter repair that can correct the off center source style 'wow'. I've used this a few times now with some very troubled tape sources and it really delivers usable results! Not in any way with a single button push, of course. You have to work it and edit your results.

Capstan was a crude bad attempt at this. The results are so poor and mutilated that it's useless. That was a last generation attempt at this that didn't really work.

It really does go without saying that you want to ream out the hole and center the album for an important transfer! On the other hand or if we're talking about some collector's item that can't be damaged... The veri-speed (linked) correction is genuinely lossless between iZotopeRX utilities and the Elastique Pro built into Reaper. You can stretch and render 100 times. Then stretch back to the same as your 1st source and they null 100%. (Obviously only with classic linked veri-speed mode - which is what this job revolves around. Heh heh.) This is a digital manipulation you can get away with with genuine unmolested matter of fact results now.

Still best to avoid processing and get the source in order first whenever possible!
And spend money on maybe some analog source hardware device upgrades instead of some software too.

My brother had one record that was VERY off-center - on one side. I was able to play it on his turntable by removing the spindle and centering the grooves.

 

[Sal1950]

^^^
All the above reminds me of the antique car collectors who claime they enjoyed them do to the immersive experience of starting them with a hand crank.
Go Digital my friends.

 

[jimfisheye]

My brother had one record that was VERY off-center - on one side. I was able to play it on his turntable by removing the spindle and centering the grooves.

That sounds like the best idea! My turntable doesn't allow for easy spindle removement.

I've seen both the single side being off but the other side OK and then both sides being off the same amount.

Amazing how much that translation alters the playback of the music isn't it! And it wasn't until just a few years ago that digital audio tinkering caught up to the ability to work with that with no damage to the audio. Before that, once something like this got baked into a recording there was no way to undo it without mutilating the audio along with it. (If you recorded that album playing off center and then only kept the tape.)

 

[Wagonmaster_91]

Nowadays I buy a few LPs (usually special edition, Record Store Day releases, colored vinyl of classic albums, etc,) and play them on my Audio-Technica 1240 table. I have never had any problem with spindle holes being too small. I still play and enjoy the 8 - 10,000 albums currently in my collection.

 

[jimfisheye]

I've seen a few tight fit examples but not grossly undersized. I haven't been buying much vinyl since most audio sources became digital. Give me the most lossless source, please and thank you! And now with the "resurgence" for the facsimile vinyl experience and vinyl being cut from the 44.1k CD master most often...
It's probably just carelessness, right? The hole drill is worn and no one cared for a few runs or something. Figured the kids would just be hanging the vinyl on the wall and listen to their mp3 copy.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Nowadays I buy a few LPs (usually special edition, Record Store Day releases, colored vinyl of classic albums, etc,) and play them on my Audio-Technica 1240 table. I have never had any problem with spindle holes being too small. I still play and enjoy the 8 - 10,000 albums currently in my collection.

In general I would never buy an analog LP in preference to a quality digital source. Still it is fun to impulse buy vinyl on National Record Store Day. Which by the way comes 2x this year first drop as they call it, this Saturday June 12th. Pandemic wiped out last years event & I just spaced out the year before so I'm really revved for this weekend! Naturally I am just as interested in those SACD/DVD-A gems just waiting for me.

Even with newish pressings of Daft Punk, Prince, Dandy Warhols, I've never had a spindle hole the wrong size or off center.

 

[jimfisheye]

Back towards the end of vinyl days (ie. the last days of vinyl being treated seriously as a format before the nostalgia resurgence) I remember seeing a couple 'money no object' turntables that used vacuum to hold the vinyl flat to the table and then had an XY adjustable table to perfectly center the album. (Laser guided? Can't remember...) I think the real motivation was to simply spend way too much on a turntable. Must have been just enough annoyance around to prompt this all the same.

 

[temporaryhuman]

I only Buy Blu Rays, DVD Audios and SACDs nowadays. I had a vinyl collection 12 years ago when I really got into buying music. I was still a stereo lover then and went vinyl after being introduced to the loudness wars. I heard a fews SACDS on a cheap 5.1 and never went back. I have only bought 1 CD in the last decade and that was to get a referance sound.

 

[atrocity]

My brother had one record that was VERY off-center - on one side. I was able to play it on his turntable by removing the spindle and centering the grooves.

The ability to do that is the ONE thing I truly miss about those old changers with swappable spindles.

 

[atrocity]

I think the real motivation was to simply spend way too much on a turntable. Must have been just enough annoyance around to prompt this all the same.

Off-center pressings, at least in my collection, are depressingly common, though usually not so bad as to be too audibly obvious.

 

[atrocity]

iZotopeRX v8 has a wow and flutter repair that can correct the off center source style 'wow'. I've used this a few times now with some very troubled tape sources and it really delivers usable results! Not in any way with a single button push, of course. You have to work it and edit your results.

Made me look...$400 and I need a functioning brain? Ouch!

 

[MagnumX]

LPs are acoustic magic! Stereophile told me so!

But come on man, LPs made with digital masters??? Even John Atkinson would likely say WTF!?!?

 

[Soundfield]

It's probably just carelessness, right? The hole drill is worn and no one cared for a few runs or something.

Nobody 'drills' holes in records. The hole is formed in the pressing process.

 

[MidiMagic]

That sounds like the best idea! My turntable doesn't allow for easy spindle removement.

I've seen both the single side being off but the other side OK and then both sides being off the same amount.

Amazing how much that translation alters the playback of the music isn't it! And it wasn't until just a few years ago that digital audio tinkering caught up to the ability to work with that with no damage to the audio. Before that, once something like this got baked into a recording there was no way to undo it without mutilating the audio along with it. (If you recorded that album playing off center and then only kept the tape.)

My favorite turntable does not have a removable spindle.

The hole was just small enough that the record would not drop.

Maybe they made the holes smaller to make friction between the hole and a rotating spindle.

 

[weekendtoy]

I live in a community of 150,000 people. The last remaining independent store, selling new and used records and CD's, just closed its doors. It did not survive COVID and a prolonged road construction project.

It's really really sad.