Does anyone still use or like vinyl?

[hmvman]

Interesting thread! I still play my LPs and still buy them when I see good ones and, occasionally, from eBay. When I first got a CD player I didn't go out and replace all my LPs with CD equivalents and even now much of the music I listen to I only have on LP. I don't do downloading but I probably will if it becomes the only method by which to acquire new recordings.

I also have shellac discs of various speeds (not just 78rpm) and some cylinders. Edison stopped making cylinder recordings in 1912. After that Edison cylinders were dubbed from Diamond Disc masters. Cylinders from Edison and other companies continued to be available up to the mid-'20s but I think the advent of electrical recording finally killed them off.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The idea that one technology "replaces" another isn't always the case
they usually run alongside quite happily for many years

even though it's hard to buy them in the shops these days many people still are quite happy with cassettes
and I know at least one electroacoustic composer who listens to 78's on a wind up gramophone
whilst spending the day in a studio with full on Pro tools and ATC's

Unfortunately, it's the Big Boys who try to force the changes. Downloads are just one example, with advocates talking of "going digital", even though CDs have been fully digital since 1983.

Sales staff in shops can often be heard plugging the manufacturers' propaganda. I recall listening to a pawn at a local Dixon's store, telling a customer of the importance of buying a Minidisc player, as it would replace cassettes. Now the same thing is happening re 3D televisions.

[Dave2002]

Sales staff in shops can often be heard plugging the manufacturers' propaganda. I recall listening to a pawn at a local Dixon's store, telling a customer of the importance of buying a Minidisc player, as it would replace cassettes. Now the same thing is happening re 3D televisions.

Minidiscs - you 're the first to mention them. Curious really, as they should have been better for most people than casettes, and indeed for many they probably were. They appear to have had a lifespan of 10-15 years, depending where you measure from. Some did adopt these, though almost exclusively for "home taping" purposes. The sound quality was better than a cheap cassette player, though perhaps less good than one of the relatively few high quality cassette decks. Were they a success or a failure? I don't know.

Other uses were by bands for backing tracks, and by theatre companies for sound effects. They were perhaps easier to use than tape for the same purposes, though i don't know how well they worked for theatre work. My only experience of that was with reel to reel tape many moons ago. Do the MDs cue fast enough? Many bands and theatre groups have now gone on to computer based sound - even using iPod apps.

For comparison I'd estimate the lifetime of cassettes based on people's usage as about 25 years, though they're not completely dead yet.

[Stunsworth]

For comparison I'd estimate the lifetime of cassettes based on people's usage as about 25 years, though they're not completely dead yet.

I recorded the original 1970s series of Hitchhiker's Guide onto cassette. I had a listen a few years ago, and there was nothing there.

[cloughie]

Minidiscs - you 're the first to mention them. Curious really, as they should have been better for most people than casettes, and indeed for many they probably were. They appear to have had a lifespan of 10-15 years, depending where you measure from. Some did adopt these, though almost exclusively for "home taping" purposes. The sound quality was better than a cheap cassette player, though perhaps less good than one of the relatively few high quality cassette decks. Were they a success or a failure? I don't know.

Other uses were by bands for backing tracks, and by theatre companies for sound effects. They were perhaps easier to use than tape for the same purposes, though i don't know how well they worked for theatre work. My only experience of that was with reel to reel tape many moons ago. Do the MDs cue fast enough? Many bands and theatre groups have now gone on to computer based sound - even using iPod apps.

For comparison I'd estimate the lifetime of cassettes based on people's usage as about 25 years, though they're not completely dead yet.

User-friendly, editable, v good quality for 160 minutes on LP2 setting, less good on LP4! Should have been cherished rather than ditched by the manufacturers. Great for recording from radio, LP and MC. On the question of vinyl - a damp Bank holiday monday - the ideal day to dig out the old LPs or even singles and give the turntable a whizz - assuming you still have the facility. I have a few charity shop purchases to have a listen to including a Morton Gould LP of Sibelius.

[MrGongGong]

Indeed
The abandoning of MD was a great loss

[Gordon]

I recorded the original 1970s series of Hitchhiker's Guide onto cassette. I had a listen a few years ago, and there was nothing there.

Another case of the Infinite Improbablility Tape Drive then? Some one in the universe is puzzling over some blank tape they bought that has a set of strange people talking gibberish on it and a depressed robot with a pain in its side.

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is working on a new download system that selects the music you want to hear before you know you do and then downloads it just in time for you to listen.

I never got into MD or R-DAT or S-DAT/DCC either although technically they were all better than CC. All of these died the death probably because of poor response in the consumer market but the DAT format did of course live on in professional circles until hard disc recording superseded it and Sony did introduce a high defintion version of MD.

Now amateur recordists can use small machines like Tascam that record several formats onto hard discs or solid state memory like SD cards. No moving parts.

[Richard Tarleton]

Another case of the Infinite Improbablility Tape Drive then? Some one in the universe is puzzling over some blank tape they bought that has a set of strange people talking gibberish on it and a depressed robot with a pain in its side.

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is working on a new download system that selects the music you want to hear before you know you do and then downloads it just in time for you to listen.

[handsomefortune]

my mini disc is within arms reach right now ....

yes mr gong gong all the formats can easily co-exist.

but it usually comes down to cash ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Minidiscs - you 're the first to mention them. Curious really, as they should have been better for most people than casettes, and indeed for many they probably were. They appear to have had a lifespan of 10-15 years, depending where you measure from. Some did adopt these, though almost exclusively for "home taping" purposes. The sound quality was better than a cheap cassette player, though perhaps less good than one of the relatively few high quality cassette decks. Were they a success or a failure? I don't know.

Minidiscs probably suffered because people did not know which way turn, the format being launched at the same time as the DCC (digital compact cassette). Immediately, I recalled the VHS/Betamax battle and held back, as did many others. In the end, it was recordable CDs that superceded both.

[MrGongGong]

Minidiscs probably suffered because people did not know which way turn, the format being launched at the same time as the DCC (digital compact cassette). Immediately, I recalled the VHS/Betamax battle and held back, as did many others. In the end, it was recordable CDs that superceded both.

Sadly IMV

TO many of those who know about these things
Betamax is a far superior format than VHS being a version of a "pro" format
sadly we often get things becoming "standardised" which are technically inferior but more marketable

the iRiver IHP 120 recorder being a case in point
it cost the same as an iPod, had the same space BUT could play many formats and record uncompressed .wavs
so what did they do when they "improved" it ?
they got rid of the uncompressed recording and gave it a colour screen rendering it rather hopeless for folks like me

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

TO many of those who know about these things
Betamax is a far superior format than VHS being a version of a "pro" format
sadly we often get things becoming "standardised" which are technically inferior but more marketable

the iRiver IHP 120 recorder being a case in point

...and Windows.

[Dave2002]

Minidiscs probably suffered because people did not know which way turn, the format being launched at the same time as the DCC (digital compact cassette). Immediately, I recalled the VHS/Betamax battle and held back, as did many others. In the end, it was recordable CDs that superceded both.

Actually hardly anyone, AFAIK, bothered with the audio recordable CDs. I wanted to buy a recorder, but never got round to it. By the time I was thinking about that most good audio recorders had gone west, and everyone was recording onto CD-Rs and DVD-Rs rather than the audio variety. I do have a Hi-MD recorder and picked up several regular Minidisc recorders from eBay, plus loads of discs. One batch had a lot of Radio 3 and Radio 4 and classical recordings, though usually you get rock and pop music of various types.

[MrGongGong]

...and Windows.

They seem fine on my house
it would be a bit dark without them

[Gordon]

Does anybody have one of those Sony boxes that used to attach to a video cassette recorder to do digital stereo? A real advance at the time but quite a faff to use. I think it was 14 bit sampling.

Because it used a digital audio format that had to fit in with the video machine the sample rate ended up being locked to video and so, because Sony did the coding part, is was retained for CD. That 44.1 number is now a bit of a pain by not being simply related to 32, 48, 96 etc.. These are audio sample rates chosen in the professional broadcasting field for digital audio long before CD. They are themselves derived from digital telephony in the early 60s that chose 8kHz for speech. Still in place today.

When Decca and EMI began using digital machines to record they used different systems. Decca used a professional rotary head video recorder [like R-DAT] but EMI used a fixed head multichannel data recorder [like S-DAT] made by one of its subsidiaries. Does anyone know the sampling rates and bit depths they used back then?