Kunkel's take on vinyl

Original article from Electronic Musician Mag by Nathaniel Kunkel is here

  Quote

And vinyl is now right in the middle of Best Buy. It could be because is it large and has large artwork. It could be because it is cooler to hold onto and feels like a more tangible purchase. Maybe it makes music playback feel more special because, unlike an MP3, it will wear out and sound worse every time you play it. You better dig it when it’s playing because it will never be better than it is right now. Or maybe it is because it has more resolution than most of what people can get their hands on.

 

You know one thing you can’t do with vinyl? Take it with you. You need to sit down and decide to enjoy it. You don’t skip songs; that damages your new record. You listen to a side front to back. The art of sequencing matters. There is a direct correlation between how long the side is and how good it sounds. Vinyl is reverence. Reverence for the music as well as your time. When you decide to put on a record and listen to it, you have made a commitment. You have just given up the only thing you can’t get back: your time. Music is no longer your audio wallpaper. It is the focus of your moment. Maybe people hear more out of vinyl because it’s the only time they are really listening that closely.

 

I don’t know about you, but making a decision to sit in a room and enjoy a piece of art for 40 minutes sounds a lot more like going to a movie than jogging with an iPod does. Perhaps the best thing you could do if you were a successful artist would be to release your album only in a high-resolution format, digital or analog. People will buy and listen to it anyway; you’re already a star. All that you would be ensuring is that they will sit down and actually focus on what you have produced. They have to—they need to stop their day to set it up.

Good point.

I met that guy once. He's kind of a dick, but very smart.

I rip all of my vinyl to FLAC on first listen so I'm gooooooood :D And with technology these days, with low mass tonearms and cartridges, vinyl wear is a fraction of what it used to be, at least if the user set everything up correctly.

Whatevs, to each his own. I own plenty of records and appreciate them for reasons most people do, but I like having an entire music collection at my fingertips, and being able to take my music with me in the car, on the train, to the cafe, etc.

And goddamn it, I'll decide how intently I'll listen to my music!

I feel justified in downloading mp3s of my vinyl purchases

but then again, the vast majority of my vinyl purchases have been albums I've already heard (mp3 or CD)

hahaha this guy is a massive dbag

ionno he kind of sums up my opinion. asides from them being a wonderful collectors item, if you decide to listen to them you really do bring a little ritual into play. sit down, load it up, drop the needle, tune out.

  On 3/4/2010 at 5:59 AM, ieafs said:

i'd be more interested in what people's takes on vinyl aren't at this point...

same

Well it definitely isn't for everyone, moreover someone who has convenience in mind. Most of my friends think I'm crazy but the process of listening/preparing/ripping vinyl is soothing to me. Even cleaning a record has some sort of earthy trance on me.