So, remember how I said I was just going to let my audio difficulties slide and embrace the minor flaws of vinyl?
Yeah, that was a lie.
Out of curiosity I took a couple problem records to a friends house to see if they would sound any better on her system, which is a piece of shit belt-driven turntable she bought at Target for 30 bucks. Guess what? They totally did. So then I dug out an old turntable of mine and hooked it up to my system. It sounds like shit in its own way, but the problem I was having was absent. Which only means one thing, my turntable is totally fucked up.
It’s a maddening problem. Not all records sound bad, just some. But the ones that do really sound bad. The worst case is a track called “Beautiful Lies” from a drum and bass artist named B-Complex. Here’s a zip file with a clip from versions of the track. The one labeled “shit” is taken from my turntable, while the one labeled “good” is from a CD. Listen and compare. Any idea as to what the hell is going on here? I’ve played the record on other turntables and it sounds fine! I’ve also replaced every cable in my setup, and even replaced/cleaned/adjusted my needle and tone arm to no avail. I’m at wit’s end. I’m taking the turntable into Jerry’s to hopefully get fixed tomorow, and I will be borrowing my old USB turntable that I gave to a friend until this issue is resolved. It doesn’t sound great, but it is more than serviceable.
Okay, so this is where I’m kind of insane. Since now I know some of my recordings sound fucked up because of my turntable, I no longer can stand any of them. so pretty much everything I recorded in  the past two months is now a complete waste that won’t be on this blog until I can try to re-record them on a decent system. This is a problem. I have a few things saved up, but not much. So if I can’t get this fixed soon, expect the blog to go into “Greatest Hits” mode for a while, putting up stuff from old posts. Oh well, another excuse for me to talk about Big Country’s “Wonderland.”
Ian McCulloch
Faith & Healing (The Carpenter’s Son Mix)
Toad
Fear Of the Known
These tracks sound good enough. I’m noticing some slight distortion on the first one, but nothing worth scrapping the whole post for. Sigh. I’m so pissed off right now…
Anyways, these are good tracks recorded by the lead singer of Echo & The Bunneymen during that brief period where they existed as a band but without Ian on vocals. I like “Toad” especially.
Now if you excuse me I’m going to go drown my A/V sorrows in alcohol-infused whipped cream.
I didn’t listen to “Faith & Healing” by Mr Mc Culloch since ages ! Good memories, thanks. I’m not sure but i think that Peter Hook played bass on this track.
– Jp –
You do an amazing job and it’s heartening to see someone who cares so much about the quality of his posts.
You know what?? You’re TOTALLY right to be pissed at poor sound quality, and I hope you fix your issues. Sound quality nowadays isn’t what it was anyway…
Isn’t it strange that SACD and DVD Audio were touted as the next big things – amazing sound quality, way better than CDs. Then the iPod/.mp3 player arrived and suddenly everyone wanted portability, so .mp3/compressed audio became REALLY popular – fast, easily downloadable, but ultimately worse quality. Who knew, eh??
it’s refreshing to see someone who is completely dedicated about the quality of the stuff they post. i mean, i know you’ve always cared about quality but this just shows how deeply committed you are. some people just don’t care enough and put out something completely haphazard. hopefully you’ll get your troubles sorted so you don’t have to lose your mind over this anymore.
I love your blog and am a great fan. You’ve worked incredibly hard, and the service you’ve provided has given me much pleasure. I’m in good company feeling this way; of that I’m positive.
You’ll get your recording issues squared, as I’m sure you’re getting good advice/and or finding it.
Very much appreciate your posts. You’ve introduced me to sooo much music over the last couple years I’ve followed your blogspot site, now website. And I’ve went on to buy a great deal of music by those artists you’ve shared, so the music industry definitely benefits as well from passionate aficionados like yourself. Thanks for caring, too, about the quality of your recordings and posts. I’m sure loyal readers and new ones who serendipitously stumble upon your site (like I did in ’08) will both appreciate revisits of past posts, “greatest hits” style. You might even freshen them up with added commentary if you dug up anything else you wanna share. Or don’t: Hey, you’re busy, we’re all busy, and I for one appreciate you. Best.
listening to “shit.mp3” makes me think your CELL is dead (due to electric discharge) or some resistor in the TT is blown, as the sound is totally saturated. If you are really sure the CELL (and not diamond needle) is OK, check if there is some pot meter inside the TT you can turn to lower the output.