Informal poll: Do you still listen to vinyl records?
Im getting an album ready to go to print for my studio partner and we are thinking of doing a run of vinyl lp records in addition to the CDs and digital downloads. Just trying to get a rough idea of how many we should print vs CDs
Thanks! 
Edit to add: each record will come with a digital download card so the album can also be downloaded in digital format also 
= new reply since forum marked as read
I love a good audiophile system,thanks for the response
Thanks for the response
What are your favorite genres?
We just happen to have Tulsa legend Chuck Blackwell playing drums on this record. He played on Taj's Natch'l Blues album in '68. He also played on Freddie King's Texas Cannonball album, played percussion on Joe Coker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Leon Russell's Shelter People and Carney albums.... gawd only knows how many records he's on. He's 71 now and still pops a fat backbeat as well as he ever did
Great big video discs
I've vowed to haul a bunch of stuff off but haven't done it yet 
mostly because I'm lazy and have a pretty good community radio station, but also due to my invisible budget
I think I'm going to be bankrupt by the time we get this record to market
Each lp will come with a digital download card so the album can also be downloaded at no additional cost
There is a good range of new turntables that are being produced with usb outputs on them so you can take vinyl straight into your computer. The playback quality is dubious on some of the cheapest ones but some of the ones a step or two up from the bottom don't sound too terrible.
Is there any way you can stamp sequence each album cover?...kinda cool.
As we post, I am listening to my vinyl:
Joe South.."INTROSPECT"
circa '68
Tikki
I love Joe South
I'm thinking you're probably about right on the number to have pressed. I'm not expecting to make any money on the LPs, I'd just like to cover the cost of them if we can. We have some legendary studio musicians playing on it so we thought it would be nice to have some LPs , they seem to be more collectible than CDs
But your idea of including the digital download card is cool. If I were huge fan of a band that offered something like that, I'd bite. Besides, the vinyl pressings will become collectors' items when you guys become bigger than Jesus.
Been at this music thing as a performer and recording engineer for about 30 years, still waiting for that big one to hit
But indeed it does make sense, people want the portable and convienent formats in this day and age too, and if they can get something collectible at the same time I think that's a good thing. What I miss most about LPs is the cover art, a square foot of real estate to put it on
The size of CD's reduces cover art to a joke. Here's an article I found interesting about the fate of vinyl in the digital age; you might find it interesting: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/12/13/what_a_collector_loses_and_gains_in_the_age_of_music_downloading/?page=1
The author's into classical, and I'm into rock, but I like what he says about the "physical charisma" of a vinyl album. Great expression. Captures what's missing with CD's.
On the other hand, what I love about CD's is their near indestructibility. I find CD's in thrift stores (see a pattern here?) that are so scratched-up, they look like someone used them for street-hockey pucks; yet, they still play just fine.
Good luck with your latest effort!
They've been around for 30 years as a commercial audio medium and there are reasons for that, one of which you mentioned above. Manufactured CDs can take a lot of abuse and keep playing pretty reliably. CDRs not as much but that's a different animal.
A well recorded, mixed and mastered CD delivers pretty good audio quality IMO. I think a lot of the bad rap CDs get from some quarters is not as much a weakness in the media itself, but what's been done to it for the sake of making the music on it "louder". The "loudness war" as some call it has produces some CDs that sound really harsh, grating and just generally bad because they've been hit so hard with compression and limiting to drive up the volume that there's nothing left but shredded bits. each record label wants their kids to be the loudest on the block so they pound the mastering engineers until they get what they want . Metallica's "Death Magnetic" is often touted to be the loudest cd produced to date and as a result, it sounds like shit
These practices have driven modern CDs so far above proper gain staging it's just ridiculous. That's not the case with vinyl records. A record can only be driven so loud before the needle will jump out of the groove ajnd go skipping across the record. That being the case, LPs aren't mastered for just sheer loudness like many CDs and of late have been a welcome relief to my ears
I've got 3 turntables... the direct drive is running fine but the other two have broken belts I haven't gotten around to replacing yet.
thanks for the response
Hearing it on the records after not hearing one for a long time is pretty cool I think
from time to time. I love those old consoles, awesome furniture, I wish I had room for one. I think a lot of them finally wore out and wound up in the city dumps rather than being refurbished...it's really a shame
quite often. I've been keeping an eye out for one of these.
It sounded pretty good and was fairly portable. Ours didn't have a tuner, though. The platter and arm are still in my mom's basement; that's all that's left. My younger brothers were rather brutal to nice things. Seeing it makes me think of what once was.
Last purchase was The Beastie Boys 'Hot Sauce Committee Part 2' and a WXPN album (because it also came with a code for digital download of the album too).
I think it's great that people are still buying vinyl even if it is only a small fraction of the market, it's like keeping a tradition alive.
We got kinda revved up about doing vinyl since the guy playing bass for us on this record as well as producing it for us is the bass player for Shooter Jennings and the .357s. Shooter released most of his stuff on vinyl too, and a lot of the other cool kids like the Drive By Truckers and North Mississippi Allstars are all still making vinyl records so we want to join the party
and i have the stereo with the turntable, but i haven't listened to it in years. when we moved to NC i put it in storage and didn't get it back for two years, it's in my place now and still in the bubble wrap.
good to hear the young people are rediscovering vinyl
The cover art is a big part of what makes the lp so collectible IMO. And having the digital download card is a great option for a collector who wants to keep the record in unplayed condition but still wants to listen to the music. It's win-win in my book
passing it down to the next generation 
I've been wanting to ask your opinion of the vinyl versions of a couple albums, if you've heard them that is. One is Primus, Pork Soda and the other Alanis Morrisette's Jagged little pill.
and slightly preferred the vinyl to the CD. Not one of those "Holy crap, so this is what it really sounds like" experiences on hearing the LP after hearing the CD.
JK, thanks for the response
Funny you mention EWF, I just found a very good condition LP of "That's The Way of The World" at the flea mkt last weekend for the grand sum of $1.
And it sounds really good, mainly because it's a stellar recording engineered by George Massenburg. I had it for years on reel to reel tape. When I was a youngster we had this awful music pirating scheme where when one of us would get a new record the others would download it from them via analog tape recorder. It was like Napster 0.1 
My friend brought it by and I slapped it on my Sansui SR-929 turntable and rolled it off to my Teac 2340 onto Ampex 456 at 3 3/4 ips. Good times
The 929 finally gave up the ghost several years ago and I've been trying to find another one that I don't have to hock my house to buy. But I did find a 2340 at a pawn shop a couple years ago... $60 cash 
well cared for vinyl on a quality turntable with a good stylus delivers every time. Thanks for the response
I'm listening on a set of EV Sentry 100a Studio Monitors driven by a Crown D-75a power amp so the needle drop was right up there
thanks for posting this
Keep on rockin'!!! 
I have to laugh because I do have some "skips"! 
What type of music do you perform & do you have any samples online?
Some call it alt.country some call it Americana.... Shooter Jennings is working on creating a sub-genre for it called "xxx" (after the old xxx symbol on the little brown whisky jugs etc.). Basically it's country-southern-rockish stuff that doesn't fit the Nashville mainstream music machine.
Here's a song we cut during the sessions we did back in May that wound up on a various artist download compilation called "Southern Independent Vol. III" that Shooter is promoting on his record label to try and help us indy artists and labels out. The writer ,singer, bass player on this is Ted Russell Kamp, who in addition to being a great solo artist is also the bass player for Shooter Jennings and the .357s. 
He's a good friend of ours
This is called "Another Love Song"
Ted calls his particular flavor "California Country Rock"
http://soundcloud.com/gtrman4931/05-another-love-song
.... thanks and I want to tell you that tune hit the spot!
As most of you know, vinyl records are more than just a bygone media. They are the living, breathing history of an America that I'm afraid is gone forever. It is an art form deserving of respect and perhaps even a certain reverence.
There were a few great records made in the UK too
I never get into the "which format is best" argument because ultimately that comes down to the choice made by the end user. The format that is "best" is the one that does what the user wants it to do. I've got a cd player in my car, an ipod on my phone and several fornmats including lp in the house. They all have their uses. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. As a recording engineer I've had to embrace digital recording technology as it developed or get tossed aside onto the ashbin of history
But then... in the evening with a drink and relaxing in my chair....nothing like putting on a nice vintage piece of vinyl and relaxing to the grooves
They were outstanding! I'm very impressed! I'm saving the page to listen to the others. Can't wait to hear "Sultans of Swing".
I wish you the best!
The "You Don't Know Me At All" cut is of my cover band that I play local clubs with, it's going to be on a demo CD I'm working for us. The Sultans of Swing cut is not a very good recording, I recorded that one inside a club where we were playing with a couple room mics and an old reel to reel 4 track deck.
we're just a lil ol bar band but we try do our best. 
I leave the tonearm moving, needle drop, runout groove noise and everything on them
I record the records in at 24 bit uncompressed then take them down to 16 bit for CD, but I save a 24 bit version of each and put them on data DVDs. That way I can load them up into Logic on one of my macs and listen to them in a really high quality digital format. You can close your eyes and you'd almost swear it's on the turntable....almost 
To be honest, the minimalist/de-clutterer in me loves digital downloads. No messy CDs or records or cassette tapes or 8-tracks to store! Yeah, I'm not a purist.
thanks for responding, that's the kind of info I'm looking for
all of my lp's are in a milk crate in the garage. i know they are scratched, and they're probably all warped by now. haven't listened to them for at least 25 years, but can't bring myself to toss them.you might be surprised , they may be in better condition than you think
That little piece of slow moving 1/8' tape sure had a good long run, it was our generation's portable music format
My favorite of the 3 I own right now is a Fisher Studio Standard MT-6224 direct drive with strobe speed lock on it...still sounds awesome
Above described '58 stereo was VOM. Made in Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA. For years other manufacturers used VOM turntables in their stereos under their name, such as Magnavox, Zenith, etc.. I lost this rare '58set in an eviction late 2000 something, but got to enjoy it. I presently own a 1966 Zenith portable turntable so cherry it still has the instruction paper on the turntable, and the brass protector over the needle - never been played! The first vinyl played on it will be Stones "Paint It Black". And yes, it is a VOA turntable in a Zenith product.
I had an old console, a Magnavox if I remember correctly that had one of those turntables in it. Worked like a charm.
My dream would be to own another one of these....Sansui SR929. I had one and played the hell out of it for a long time and it finally crapped out one day. I took it to a "friend" who was supposed to fix it. He had it for months then he moved away without saying a word...don't kmow where it wound up
I know there are turntables on the market that cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars but the 929 will always be the king of the turntables to me
45 rpm records are a time honored tradition .
Or you could really mess with people and cut the "45 rpm" song at 33 
We are still in the process of crunching the numbers on how many to produce. I can tell you this much, it's not cheap to do. The one thing you don't want to do is skimp on the mastering job, it'll sound like shit if you do.
I'm thinking we will wind up with around a 10:1 ratio of CDs vs lps. I could be way off though lol
