Today I purchased some music the old fashioned way.
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nirreskeya [OP]
RR_2023
That looks like Cheap-o in Austin. Closed over 10 years ago. Used to walk to it from where I worked and find some DVDs
nirreskeya [OP]
Cheapo yes, but in Blaine, Minnesota. :-) For some reason I always thought they were local to this area. I spent many nights flipping through the new arrivals at the store on Snelling in St. Paul.
JakkSplatt
Read this after I posted 🎈 l haven't been for a couple of years but I brought my oldest to Cheapo Records on Snelling before he left for the Marines.
LimpFrenchfry
I spent hours and hours at the Fridley location. Good times.
Lightningstruckagain
Cheap-O was the best. I used to live really close to it and spent way to much money there. That building was the original Whole Foods and I spent WAY to much money there for the basics.
RR_2023
They had a problem with flooding when it rained.
Lightningstruckagain
Yep, had a high water mark painted on the outside of the building that was way over door level.
ibis_mummy
I had a bunch of friends who worked at that Whole Foods in the early 90"s. Man, did they pull some shenanigans.
Vandergraff1900
There's actually a chain called Cheap-O's? Amazing!
MyriVerse2
I usually only shop for local artists. New Orleans has a few really good record stores.
nirreskeya [OP]
In this case I was just walking by and feeling nostalgic after a rough day/week/month. They had three copies of a CD that is like $30 on Amazon for some reason, and I got one for $5. :-)
Hefty_Run4107
CD's...? "old fashioned way..."?
For me "old fashioned way" is LP's and Cassettes. CD's was "yesterday"
michele-x
I had parsed as instead of order them on the smartphone and get the postman deliver them a after a couple of days. When you have to find the CD in all the aisles instead of simply insert a few terms.
Besides you can see in the area near the windows that there are 33 rpm too, under the big posters.
Frankensteinscholar
Off point, but does anyone think our huge CD collections will be sought after in 50 years? Young people saying "cds are the only real way to listen".
Hefty_Run4107
Don't really think so. If you say that about Vinyl, i might agree...
There is no difference between a CD and a digital lossless file of that CD, because a CD is just a disk with THAT digital file in it, it's as "physical media" as an SD card with that lossless file in it, the difference is that it doesn't come with a box and physical printed album art and liner notes with it.
Trouble these days is people always tend to acknowledge two types of formats, physical media like CD's/LP's/Tapes, or Streaming.
There is such a thing called DIGITAL LOCAL FILES..., you know... Mp3's, Flac's, Wav's, and all the other formats... Way more convenient then physical, and have way more advantages (and quality most of the times) than the "rent-a-song" streaming services crap
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Hefty_Run4107
There's a little known fact that almost all vinyls recorded after 1980, had the master tape recorded digitally, either 44100/16 or 48000/16
I'm perfectly aware of that. Been a musician since 89, so i know my stuff in that regard.
The first advantage of the CD over the digital representation is that has printed album art and notes with it in most cases.
You can get a digital version of that with scanned album art and booklets, that are available on line, so personally, i don't really see any "advantage" there
The second advantage is that the CD it's a standard and it's very popular
So are SD cards with Mp3 or Flacs in smartphones and DAP's, so subjective advantage...
Another difference is that you can buy and sell CDs and that is totally legal. Buying and selling mp3 files in most cases it's not.
Personally couldn't give a fuck about that, not only am i not selling/buying used CD's, but surely i'm not selling or buying "used mp3".... Who the hell sells "used" mp3 anyway? They put it online for people to download, at best.
I still fail to see the relevance for the point i was traying to make...
baalroo
I agree. A CD is not a "physical copy" of an album any more than any other downloaded digital file is. A CD is just a small hard drive storing digital files.
Hefty_Run4107
Exactly!!
Analog mediums are the true "physical media", played on analog gear. All sound slightly different.
Grab a CD, rip it to wav, then listen to the two versions, the actual CD and the digital ripped Wav file... ZERO difference, because they are THE SAME.
No two LP's or cassettes, or recorders or turntables are the same
RedditModsKMKB
I remember wearing the headphones🎧 while listening to the sample CD. Talking loudly over them. The guy came over to say"sir you are talking loudly ".
Mingey_FringeBiscuit
I went to Amoeba in LA on Saturday to pick up the new Chemical Brothers LP.
There are maybe a half dozen record stores in Orange County, but none of them had it, so I did the two and a half hour round trip to Hollywood to get it for my wife.
dfjdejulio
You mean hitting "record" on the cassette recorder that you're holding next to the AM radio?
Sl0w-Plant
Hooray
Feelinscrewd
That reminds me of Cheapo in St Paul, MN. My now husband and I had our first date there in 1998.
ETA: I see you said Blaine! I've been to that one as well.
ScrauveyGulch
You can buy just about any format on bandcamp from independent artists.
[deleted]
the feel of the new packaging, the crinkle of removing the outer plastic and the sight of a brand new piece of vinyl holding so much sound and potential while you slip it over the post which holds the record and the needle hits with just that right amount of popping, verifying it’s a vinyl record….it’s wonderful
stlmatt
Honestly, this is where I’m okay with technology. I don’t have to keep track of, handle, or maintain a physical collection. I prefer just hitting a couple buttons and boom, exact music I want to listen to.
It taking anything away from those that prefer physical media, I understand. Just tossing out my personal preferences.
nirreskeya [OP]
I don't disagree. I was early to digital music with MOD/MTM/S3M and then MP3/OGG/FLAC. I had my whole collection digitized and on various home music servers by the early aughts, and as of last year have my whole collection on my phone, and that's all really nice. I do tend to still buy the CDs because so few online sellers support lossless. I've purchased a few things through Bandcamp though because they do.
stlmatt
Yeah, you may be an audiophile. Once I see “lossless” I know I’m talking to someone that is REALLY into the quality digital and stream just can’t compete with.
I’m not an audiophile, a record, tape, CD, digital…it all sounds the same to me. I kind of (and kind of not lol) envy you guys.
nirreskeya [OP]
Well at this point it's probably all bad habit, and if I did some A/B testing I couldn't hear any difference through the tinnitus. Unless it's a bad MP3 encoding, which grates on my ears like nails on a chalkboard.
olemanbyers
anything less than 128k and you get that flat buzz.
honestly, any good master encoded at 320 or even 192 is beyond fine. it's really the mix that's the problem with a lot of digital music. it's mixed to sound good on ear buds and not actual speakers. a lot of remasters have this problem. anything put out by a major label since the mid 70s probably doesn't need remastering anyway.
ever get a small town fm station that sounds like it's on a 96k ISDN line? yuck...
CyanideRemark
I'm disappointed with a number of latter day "remastered" re-releases I've bought on physical medium as well. Rips even at 128kbps from first gen vinyl or CD sound better than the new physical LPs and CDs to my untrained ear.
The loudness wars are real.
Hefty_Run4107
The trick is "don't get/buy remasters". Get/buy/download the original versions. Very few remasters actually sound better, or as good, as the original masters
Hefty_Run4107
anything less than 128k and you get that flat buzz.
Honestly, anything below 320k for mp3 is garbage. I have around 300GB in my music collection and not a single file is below 320k.
The problem with remasters is not audio fidelity, it's the "loudness wars" and over-compression. Most of them sound like crap, no matter the device you listen it on, speakers, headphones or earbuds.
I don't know what part of "of you want it louder, turn up the fucking volume knob" producers DON'T understand....
That's why i loathe most remasters
961402
I am perfectly okay with tech in this instance too.
I will buy a CD and rip it if that is my only choice but am so glad that pretty much everything is digital now. That said I do think subscription streaming services like Spotify or YT Music are bullshit and I want to "own" those music files on my NAS where they will be there forever unless I have a hardware failure and even then I have backups.
I went from something that filled the better part of a room to having almost all of it on a thing roughly the size of the lunchbox I had in grade school and I think that's great. I do still have some CDs but they are in a closet in my apartment.
Commercial_Falcon_51
I have never downloaded a song..ever.
I bought CDs in the late 90's to listen to in my car but I haven't stopped buying vinyl since I bought Dirty Deeds by ACDC when I was 8 years old (1980).
Hefty_Run4107
I have never downloaded a song..ever.
Ok, good for you then.
I have over 1TB worth of them... 😉
Commercial_Falcon_51
Wonderful, I hope you enjoy them.
I had to put the majority of my collection in a storage facility as the weight of it was causing the floor of my living room to separate from the wall. Also the floor was sagging.
I know you don't have that problem, but I will be able to leave a very valuable collection to my kids when I leave this mortal coil.
Hefty_Run4107
Well since i could never afford even 1/10th of a physical collection like that, and my main interest is really to "listen" to the music, i'm happy with my digital collection.
As for my kids i doubt my daughter would care much if i leave a physical music collection or a digital one. I have all my dad's vinyl's, and never really listen to them. She already has already has a ton of guitars, bases, keyboards and music gear to play around with when i'm gone... 😋
Commercial_Falcon_51
That's cool, it's all about the music at the end of the day...I don't just buy records I actually "listen" to them too.
My kids don't give 2 shits about my record collection, but my collection is worth 6 figures. They can sell them.
I have a bunch of instruments too and played professionally for some time, my kids have no interest in that either although they do like to watch me play drums at my place and watch the videos from the "old days"
Hefty_Run4107
Cool.
Mine is still 4, but i hope she will pick up interest in leaning to play any of them
two-wheeled-dynamo
That’s lovely.
MyFiteSong
I don't even own a CD player.
JakkSplatt
Looks like the old Cheapo off Snelling in St Paul.
nirreskeya [OP]
It's the one in Blaine, near Northtown Mall.
[deleted]
Rock on !
Gbonk
The old fashioned way ? Did you eaaarrrrrn it ?
wi_voter
This feels like home
[deleted]
I'm jealous!!!!
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nirreskeya [OP]
I did a little bit of that but I must admit that I lost patience.
Your username brings a smile to my face. Gray Duck Forever.
r4d4r_3n5
There's a great store on Corrine Drive here in Orlando, and a nice small shop in St Augustine.
RedditIsAGranfaloon
is that a Waxie Maxie's?
[deleted]
Weird
I still remember when and where I purchased that Hooverphonic CD in the foreground, Blue Wonder Power Milk, along with A New Sterephonic Sound Spectacular. I was driving back to Chicago on the release day of Orbital's new effort, The Middle of Nowhere and stopped at Best Buy in Rockford. They had a number of other Orbital releases that I already owned, but not the new one. I was flummoxed. As a consolation I got the Hooverphonic discs that my friends had just been playing for me that weekend. It was only when I got back to my dorm that I researched further and figured out that it was the release day for the Orbital album in Great Britain (1999-04-05), and that it wouldn't be available stateside until June.
KJM100001 2 points · Sep 2023
You just named 3 of my favorite records! ANSSS came across as a Portishead rip off at first, but I was mistaken. Love them! Saw them open for BT like 20 years ago at La Zona Rosa. The Middle of Nowhere might have been one of the most influential records in my life. I've seen Orbital live 3 times.