Hi friend, I feel truly blessed to have been bitten by the music bug so young! My father has collected albums, Vinyl albums, his whole life. By the time I was 6 or 7 he had amassed a huge collection of Classical and Jazz records which he would play constantly, thus giving me a huge appreciation for melody, harmony and incredible musicianship! For Christmas 1975, he bought me my first Rock Album, an album he considered to be of equal standing to his vast collection of Classical and Jazz music, he wasn’t wrong, the album was Queen’s ‘A Night At The Opera’. This masterful work changed my life, even though I was so young, it immediately struck a chord so deep within me, that to this day ‘A Night At The Opera’ is still my favourite album!
So what is the allure of Vinyl? For me it’s two fold, firstly, there is this huge nostalgia that takes me back to those times when discovering a new artist or song was a hugely exciting experience! In the days before the internet (remember those days? haha) I would hear a song on the radio or I would read about a band in a magazine that intrigued me so much that I would rush out and buy their album, get it home and listen to the first side for a week before eventually turning it over to the second side! Then the next part of the Vinyl experience for me is physically holding the album, looking at the photos, the artwork, reading the credits, wondering where these far off places like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Memphis were and reading the lyrics. This is an infinitely more satisfying, tactile experience than downloading or streaming a song and not being able to easily get any of this information that adds to the overall understanding of the artist’s vision of the music! For instance, Storm Thorgerson’s Artwork is a huge contributing factor to that whole voyage of discovery we all have when listening to Pink Floyd’s masterpiece ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’.
But let’s be clear, digital sounds great. Can it sound bad? Of course done badly it can, but so can analog! For instance, I’m listening to ‘Selling England By The Pound’ at the moment and I’m hearing details in the master that I never heard before!
This week we released two videos, the first one was with Pete Lyman. Pete is both a world class mastering engineer and a co-owner of Infrasonic Sound and not only does he do amazing work he also owns a lathe and cuts records! Pete showed me the lathe and told us about the process of cutting Vinyl. Then we released a Video we filmed at Rainbo Records. Rainbo is a Vinyl Manufacturing plant that opened it’s doors in 1939 and has been in business ever since. They have ridden the wave of popularity of Vinyl and managed to keep their doors open where many others have shut down. Steve Sheldon who runs the Plant very kindly showed us around, it was a really unique experience and one I will treasure forever!
People will argue the merits of any medium music is presented on, whether it’s a CD, mp3, streaming, cassette or Vinyl, they all have their place somewhere. All I can say is I love that Vinyl still has it’s place, because in my heart it will always be a huge part of why I work in the music industry.
Please check out the latest two videos with Pete Lyman’s studio and Steve Sheldon showing us around Rainbo Records. Please like, comment and share, I would really appreciate it!
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHhflCFa-M[/fve]
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4nltdIWNK4[/fve]
Many thanks
Warren
Kudo’s to you and your guests Warren! You have by far exceeded every possible expectation of sharing your knowledge, wisdom and now history of a major part of the music world, as those of us who were around during the days of vinyl have an opportunity to go back in time and re-live it. A great time to be alive when the merging of technology goes back to part of it’s roots and proves that it’s still viable in the 21st Century. As a retired NASA Engineer, I have seen this world not only transcend from music and analog to digital but in human space flight where digital is definitely the trend but analog is still used in today’s most modern launch technology. Yes…tube gear was still aboard the Shuttles for tracking and flight guidance till the very end.
Thanks for all you do! Great job and you have taught me a lot, thank you!
Cheers, Tom
Hi @disqus_eW7hIaXyEb:disqus Thank you ever so much! Wow you a retired NASA Engineer that’s amazing! Tube gear was used in the Shuttle for tracking and flight guidance? That’s amazing!! Thanks for sharing this information! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
Thank you for your service while at NASA Tom. I think the reduction of our space program is criminal and that our country was never better than during the “space race”. Rock on brother.
Thanks James! A sad situation indeed. It’s tough to have to rely on other countries to get us back and forth from space for manned flight, but hopes are that a new administration will accelerate the new space transportation systems available and make them work. Privatization and commercial ventures are not a smart venture in my opinion, too many fingers in the pie and hard to keep track of it all. Cheers!
Agreed. I suppose all we can do is vote. At least we can find solace in music!
Hello Warren,
Thanks again for posting the most entertaining and informative videos around. I must say the interview of Steve Sheldon at Rainbo Records is my favorite to date even though I follow your site for the recording, mixing, etc tips and knowledge you graciously provide. As a product of the sixties myself, vinyl records hold a special place in my heart. I remember sitting in the room of my older sisters in the seventies playing their rock albums while reading the liner notes and staring at the artwork on the covers. I must admit that I no longer own a turntable and my entire collection is now on CDs but I do reminisce about the art. CDs still have great cover art if you squint lol. I prefer the clean (some may argue sterile) sound of CDs but I play them through my home built tube hifi into JBLs from the early nineties. Everyone has their qwerks I guess. Thanks for the walk down memory lane and as always thanks for a great video. You ROCK. – James.
Hi @disqus_VrQ9NlouCN:disqus Thanks very much!! Agreed, Steve was very gracious to show us around Rainbo and I found extremely informative!! I understand we love what we love and that’s perfectly fine! There is no right way or wrong way! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
sure did a memory lane for me thanks Warren
Hi @micheljosephptulli:disqus Yes me too! Really enjoyed making these two videos!! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
i went thru all phases of recording methods but my most fond of memory is when we cut to the neuman cutting lathe using the Sony PCM1 a/d/a we had on trial from our 16 track scully to vhs tape storage and back out to the cutting lathe [that being said i do not miss the maintenance of the analog gear a bit]