Format Wars - yr choice, please...
 

People were bitching about CDs on that Bardo Pond thread and it got me wondering...

How do people buy their music here? Favourite/preferred format? Do you even BUY music?

Generally speaking, I guess, I'm asking your format of choice here. Let's dance...

EDIT: Poll attached for your pleasure.

i always used to get the vinyl, well i still do but so many bands or musicians i am into now only release stuff on cd so i generally get them these days.

I download now and then to check stuff out prior to buying it, but...

Unless it's OOP/never reissed, I always gun for CDs. I'm liking the new SACD stuff some of the majors are experimenting with nowadays. Sounds immense.

That said, I've got a small vinyl stack (why don't they reissue Fond by the fucking Fire Engines?!).

I voted CDs simply because they are what I have the most of and what I mostly go for. I don't know why though, because vinyl is much more aesthetically pleasing, and a nicer format in general, but I just don't seem to buy that much of it... most of my vinyl purchases happen when I find something really good in the second hand shop.

If an album isn't available on wax cylinder, I go for LPs.

oh also should say download as well.

I think I'd rather buy movies than any sort of music thing. Even though I've listened to my favorite CDs way more often than I've watched my favorite movies. It's probably because I like watching movies with my family. And that's how I justify DVD purchases, because I feel like I'm not just making the purchase for myself. I don't listen to music with them or anything like that. I haven't bought music in a while. I don't have the money for it. I do download, but I don't have a filesharing program of any kind. I turn to mp3 blogs and that sort of thing. It's just not as important to me to own everything as it was at one point. Even if I did have the money, I think I'd rather spend it on art supplies or something like that.

I have bought my music in whatever format was the cheapest at the time. I bought vinyl from 82 until around 86, then i started buying cassettes because I got a fly boombox for christmas. I bougth cassettes, especially when the CD came in and people were selling off their old cassettes. I could find ALL the fucking bad ass music on used cassette at sound exchange in Houston.
The cassettes were bulky though.
When I got a proper CD player I began buying the CD's, even though they were NOT cheap, and still are not cheap. I fucking HATE CD's. they break, the jewel box breaks easily as all fuck, they scratch easier than vinyl. respecially the old CD players that actually made contact with the CD to use the laser, those wold scratch while playing! when CD's came out they fed us so much hyperbole bullshit about them, how they woudl never scratch, how they would last forever. fuck that shit.

sometime around 1994-95 I got a turntable, and started buying used vinyl.
In the last 4 years I have bought mainly vinyl. I purchase CD's but only if I cannot fuind them on vinyl, or if they are used CD's.

I used Napster when it first came out and downloaded a ton of shit and it all sounded so crappy.

I am way too into the packaging and the presentation of an album to love downloading.

Vinyl for me.

i dont mind downloading but i liek to have the album case and read the liner notes cuz im a dork like that

Same... I like the feel. I kind of want it both ways, though. I'm hoping that if CDs don't die, SACDs will make it big and they'll start being more creative with the packaging... I bought the Rac-oo-oon album last year and the packaging was really swish cardboard. I like the whole mini-gatefold stuff a lot of the independents have started doing. The best packaging ev0r CD-wise was this Savage Republic album. The band had all signed and it was gold letter-pressed and shit... I didn't pay anything extra, either.

I dislike downloads. CDs are okay but completely inferior to vinyl in my eyes. An extensive record collection is something to be treasured. I love the way they look, the way they sound. CDs are more tolerable if they are in one of those cardboard style case things but the sound quality is still too sterile. Also, CDs are too damned loud. I love the way you can crank vinyl louder without it becoming a nausea inducing digital squall. Have also recently started a collection of subterranean noise cassettes which is working out quite well for me.

I know, I know... that harsh digital compression dogshit. Apparently Mobile Fidelity CDs sound way better; they're careful with the compression and stuff. I've never heard one on high-end equipment, though.

Goo was out on that label for a while if I recall correctly...

Yeah, but their LPs sound like god.
Unfortunately, the LPs they choose to give the "Mobile Fidelity treatment" to are usually godawful and I don't know why they "rate."
When I was working for the record store I sold the MFSL box edition of Cat Stevens' "Tea For The Tillerman" for $149.00.
Why, God, why?

*Yusuf Islam, now please. Lol... I suppose I'm thinking about the long haul here with the CD preference. At the end of a lifetime I'd wager the LP collection would be in more of a fubar state than the dude keeping his CDs. That's really all it's down to. Plus CDs for me are cheaper, sound *almost* as good and are more convenient (no problem throwing them on to the PC/jukebox/iPod).

EDIT: And I get you Keg. I only have a few "collectible" CDs... like this Plimsouls album that went out of print as soon as it was pressed and sells for $40 or so now.

So you are a CD consumer and a vinyl collector.

What?
Digital data begins to break down after 50 years or so; well cared-for vinyl lasts pretty much indefinitely.

If I'd played the Blast First DDN 12" as much as I've played the CD I think it'd be (total) trashed by now.

i don't think i've purchased a CD since i was in middle school. i just dumped all of my CDs in the back of the record store where i work about a month ago and i feel free.

Depends on your equipment and how you handle the media.
I have a lot of LPs that I have played an awful lot of times that still sound perfectly clean.

I guess, but they're more fragile, y'know? CDs seem more robust - take 'em to your friend's place, no problem. With vinyl you're worrying about the sleeve getting ruined, making sure you don't bend it, scuff the corners... I mean it's more of an effort.

Definitely more of an effort, but it's effort I don't mind putting in.

i'm not. i don't baby my records, just clean them off with a mixture of rubbing alcohol, distilled water, and a drop or so of soap once and awhile and they're fine. i pick fuzz off my stylus with pointy tweezers. i'm not a collector, per se...i'm just a bit fanatical about listening to music.

i love vinyl above all else in spite of its limitations.

sacd looks interesting and has great potential though-- could be better sound than vinyl but i have not heard yet.

as far as "legal" downloads go, i think they are shit for 2 reasons:
1) they cost as much as buying a vinyl or cd and offer lesser quality
2) the fucking DRM that lets you play or move your files only in certain players/machines/number of times/wtf-- get the fuck out of my computer!!

you can burn itunes stuff onto a cd and then rip it back onto the computer and itunes is too dumb to recognize that it was a locked M4A.

sure it's doable, without burning to CD even, you jack your player into the soundcard; but the transcoding further re-fucks the audio if you put back in compressed format. if you want to keep the original (low) quality you end up with oversized wav files of less-than-cd quality; at best you can compress to shn.

however-- do you realize the fucking pain of the operation? i have a full time job and i already waste to much time here. paid downloads are shit.

How long do you think you'll get away with that though? I mean they'll never be able to defeat recording the signal in real time through your soundcard, but then your end product is only going to sound as good as your soundcard. I've never understood paid downloading - a higher price for an inferior product on every level, basically.

As for the musical fanaticism stuff, I'd like to think I'm the same with my CD collection looking pretty massive nowadays (for a 20 year-old), but if I realistically thought it practical to buy vinyl I would. Just personally I know in the long run I'd ruin half my collection and, hopefully, with new disc formats coming out they'll be able to match vinyl pretty closely sound-wise in future.

EDIT: Beaten to it.

i don't mind if my records have a little surface noise so long as they don't sound like complete shit, in which case i'll go out and buy a replacement copy (which is partially why the number of records i own has grown to such a large number)

Yeah but sometimes it's not so easy. I know where you're coming from, but if I lost my Zensor copy of the debut SY album/EP for example, buying it again wouldn't be so simple. Whereas my SST copy on CD isn't going to break so it's not an issue.

again, even w./ batch processing, it recacks the sound.

If you have DDN on CD and LP, surely you must have noticed how crappy the CD sounds in comparison.
And you won't break or ruin your records if you treat them nicely, which doesn't even take all that much doing.

their really early records are pretty hard to come by. i think i paid like $30 or $40 for an original copy of confusion.

the CD does sound like shit.

you crackers? cds break, scratch, deteriorate, die. whereas vinyl can last 100 years easy, early CDs are subject to oxidization and can turn to shit. you better back up that sst copy before it's too late.

i think the library of congress turns their LPs 1/4 turn every couple years to prevent warping, which i don't think is anything to worry about if you store them face-up instead of on their side, seeing how they're flat and all and the whole gravity thing.

I don't know which CD you've got, but the Blast First has an amazing sound - the perfect balance. I've heard shit about the DGC release, but I wouldn't know. Plus my CD player is very expensive whereas my turntable's a hunk of shit I bought off my dad, so that factors in I guess. Amp's brilliant mind.


What about that sleeve? Probably not going to come through the 100 years so well. The vinyl can warp in lower temperatures than CDs too. You're right about the oxidisation on early releases though; I've got the SST Sonic Death release too, but I rarely play them - a lot of my main collection is back at home now while I'm at university.

EDIT: The warping, again it's another concern I'd rather be without - making sure they're all flatly stored, cared for *just so*... it's more hassle for relatively minimum gain other than the collectible status of the medium itself.

Hah, let's not turn this into a who's-got-the-biggest-dick-slash-coolest-vinyl debate. Honestly, it's probably down to the blatant imbalance in my hi-fi set-up, but vinyl has never been like "whoah shit" in terms of fidelity for me. Fair enough, the SST 1st EP reissue doesn't sound quite as good as the Zensor release on LP, but then we all know SST CDs sounded like shit anyway with being so tinny and early.

For me it's just never been a big deal, vinyl, in spite of me having a much bigger album collection than a lot of people I personally know who swear by vinyl. It's just... *shrug*.

What I love mainly about Vinyls is the cover art. For me the album is about the whole experience. I love the hugeness of the cover art and the feeling of opening it up and taking the vinyl out. With CDs and cassettes it feels a little too disposable and not as precious.

7" vinyl is my favourite format
tapes is alright enough too
CDs are practical
mp3s etc are ridiculous, although extremely convenient, i know a couple of people who pay to download shit too, people with more money than sense basically.

CDs. Better portability, can hold more songs on a single disc

i dig vinyl also the only thing is with vinyl the fucking needles are so expensive it cost me more to buy a new needle than the record player i have

Yeah and needles are important in terms of preserving your records so they're kind of crucial. I blew all my money on my CD/amp set-up so I wouldn't be able to afford pursuing vinyl now anyway.