Topic: The Music Thread

@Voltan Now that we've discussed Emerson, Lake & Palmer, how do you feel about Emerson, Lake & Powell? Are they similar? I would expect them to be. Would you recommend them?

@Thrillho Buying digitally seems to be the way forward. What do you do when you run out of space? Store the music on USB sticks?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Emerson Lake & Powell was kind of an answer to Asia, which Carl Palmer went on to form with Steve Howe (Yes), John Wetton (King Crimson) and Geoff Downes.
The music is much simpler, radio friendly, but still very good!

I have the album on vinyl and I like it a lot. I sometimes joke that it's my favorite Asia album

@TheBrandedSwordsman I can’t say it’s been a problem so far!

At the moment, I rotate five albums on my phone every week with ones I haven’t listened to in at least 12 months. If I don’t particularly like it anymore then I delete it off my laptop. Most of these older albums I probably have on CD anyway if I really wanted to listen again but it’s one way of not storing an endless amount of music.

@Voltan In that case, which is really your favourite Asia album? Sounds like an all-star lineup!

@TheBrandedSwordsman That's a tough question actually, I have no idea. All the ones from the 80s are good ("Asia", "Alpha" and "Astra"), but the one's they recorded after the classic line-up's reunion ("Phoenix", "Omega" and "XXX") are really good too.

@Voltan I'll have to listen to all of them then. What's your opinion of John McLaughlin's post-Mahavishnu work?

@Kidfried Yes, they are mastered digitally but the medium's limitations force some differences in the process. Fortunately loudness wars have been less prevalent lately than they used to be - but it was never a thing of vinyl because using a limiter that aggressively could cause tracking problems. Also recordings are often made and mixed at higher sample rates than what makes it to a CD (44.1 KHz, meaning you can't have any harmonics higher than 22.05 KHz). You can have a wider range of frequencies on vinyl. Now I'm not going to pretend I can hear the difference in that regard myself, but it is a fact Mastering for streaming, while more similar to what's done for CD, is also often different - because it can account for compression algorithms and streaming platform's volume normalisation.
Secondly - there are more elements in the vinyl signal chain that affect the sound than in a digital one. A different stylus, cartridge (which is like an electric guitar's pickup), the phono stage pre-amplifier, even a different setting of the tracking force - they all affect how music on vinyl sounds, even if they are very subtle changes. So I'm not saying it's always a big difference or that it's always better on vinyl but no, a difference doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the signal chain.
And finally - the difference between CDs recorded in the 80s and their analog counterparts is in fact HUGE In the early 90s though, when vinyl was already in decline (soon to be dropped almost entirely for years), it's actually often the CDs that sound better (I could get into some possible reasons too ).

@TheBrandedSwordsman I'm not very familiar with his other work. I'll have to do my homework.

@Kidfried Eh, connecting my CD player to the same speakers as Spotify, I can’t hear much of a difference. Granted, I have a fairly old CD player and I use Spotify’s Extreme sound quality. Connecting my turntable and putting on a record from the pre-digital age though, there’s a clear difference. But then, I like the imperfections you get from vintage media. I have cassettes from the 70s and 80s that are slightly degraded but for certain genres that can be almost welcome. Especially some of my underground hip-hop and punk tapes. There are absolutely different sound profiles you get from different set-ups and mediums, but only if that album is properly mastered. If you’re only buying new vinyl which is mastered from CD-quality compressed files then of course it won’t sound any different. However, if you’re buying vinyl which uses uncompressed audio designed for vinyl then it’ll sound different.

@nessisonett
> new vinyl which is mastered from CD-quality compressed file

I’m not gonna say that never happened ever but I promise you that’s not how new vinyl releases are mastered 😉

@Voltan I probably should have emphasised ‘new’ as in meaning a particular brand of ‘new’. At least in certain shops in the UK, there’s a new trend of records going for £25-£30 of artists like Harry Styles or Billie Eilish with utterly rubbish mixing. I struggle to find a word to describe that trend. Suggestions are welcome.

@Voltan I have this one on vinyl.

There you go! I kept expecting Carlos Santana to say "Or else fuh-ged-about-it" or "Pleyyyyed by Carlos Santana" into the mic at any moment haha.

@Voltan What do you make of the McLaughlin/Santana collaboration?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Checking it out rn. Opinions in 1 hour

edit: I'm getting interrupted by a million work related phone calls so it'll have to wait

@Voltan That's fine, take your time.

@LordSteev I was thinking of getting a few Sabbath records on vinyl; the first one, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Vol. 4 and Masters Of Reality, I thought that I'd heard Paranoid a few too many times to get that one. Any disagreement with my choices?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Paranoid’s just so good though. Definitely my favourite of theirs. That reminds me that I really should pick it up on vinyl!

@TheBrandedSwordsman

No, I love early Sabbath, can't go wrong. Masters of Reality is probably my favorite of those you mention, after many listenings to all of them. Of those you listed, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is probably my least favorite, but it's still good. Also, my favorite singer of all time is Ronnie James Dio, so I love Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. Heaven and Hell is not only my favorite Sabbath album, but one of my top 5 all-time by anyone.

@LordSteev Thanks for the advice, I might replace Sabbath Bloody Sabbath with a Dio-led album then, even though I love the album cover of SBS!.

@nessisonett I can’t listen to the original version of Paranoid after the cover by The Dickies; the original sounds far too slow!

I actually have this on 7” clear vinyl along with their covers of Banana Splits (yellow) and Nights in White Satin/The Sound of Silence (white)