Got a question that needs answering! So I can spend ages looking at various underground music sites and listen to so many obscure techno/house tracks that I’d love to play out. Only problem is they’re on vinyl only! I have some shitty Numark TT1610’s which are really shitty belt driven turntables so I don’t bother mixing with them or buying that many vinyls however I did wonder… Would it be worth me buying vinyl’s and then ripping them to WAV? Or would it lose a lot of sound quality? I want to rip some big tunes so I can play them out on decent speakers and I don’t really want shitty quality tracks! I have a mate who has proper 1210’s so I could use his turntables to rip tunes as I know mine wouldn’t be of much use? Plus I get to experience all the fun of going record shopping!
Anyone on here do this? I would love to talk to someone about it. I think doing this with vinyl would separate myself from djs who just buy tracks online? Plus my collection would build up and one day I could just bring my vinyl along to a club and play out straight away!
Up to you mate but personally i wouldn’t invest in vinyls unless i planned on playing them. I would contact the label and ask nicely if they could release a digital version, but where’s the exclusivity in that eh?
I do plan on playing the vinyls that I buy, but I want to know about sound quality and ripping them? if I was willing to just buy vinyl I’d get decent turntables however I am getting cdjs which would be more suitable? Also Labels must get loads of people wanting the digital copy and they’d never release them lol
Pedantic point - the plural of vinyl is vinyl
Ahhhh that’s better
Yes - doo it doo it doo it
Rips are usually a bit wibbly wobbly tho and thus a pita to beatgrid and mix on a controller unless you tap the beat in when you need it, beat match and adjust by ear or warp them into shape with ableton.
I’d love to have some of that Art Department and Seth Troxler shit that they release vinyl only, but I prefer to leave it alone as is, it’s what they intended it to be.
I buy and rip a lot of vinyl. A loss of sound quality? Perhaps a little. Aside from the mastering, there are going to be cracks and pops. I like that, though. To be honest, I haven’t had a lot of trouble with wobbly rips. The vast - and I mean 99.9% - are as easy to beatgrid as digital tunes, and every bit as precise.
A lot of the current lo-fi house is a wee bit different. I assume that this is less to do with the quality of the vinyl press and more to do with the production techniques. I’ve a bunch of old Acid House from the mid and late 80’s that is wonky to the point of being un-gridable, and is very similar in terms of how it was made to this newer stuff: Wonky old analogue gear, recorded to knackered old master tapes, that sort of thing. I got the new Greg Beato one on LIES last week and two of the tracks are all over the place. I’m going to have to sit down and do some work to find out whether it’s me, the pressing or the production. Considering the third track is pretty much perfect I’m guessing it’s the production.
In comparison, I have digital tracks that are every bit as bad. Most of it is about how that music was made. Not a lot you can do about it. I guess you could stick it in Ableton and try and warp it but that brings it’s own problems. Anyway, yeah, if your just mixing by ear lt’s not really a hardship to just manually adjust.
If a tune isn’t available digitally and only got release on vinyl, it might for a reason. They might want it to be a vinyl only release. I won’t play those tunes out of respect for the artist and label.
I rip vinyl all the time and never have a problem beat-gridding it. I’m a vinyl junkie at heart and prefer something physical to digital. Buying digital leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
If a track is amazing and gets a vinyl only release, and you want to play it? Buy the vinyl, rip the vinyl to whatever format you desire, and play it.
Same goes for Mp3 files you buy: Unless it’s to a select group of close friends, I really don’t agree with sharing music of any sort digitally. My song and dance has changed on that since I started DJing, when I was just a musical consumer I was up with the worst of them downloading things illegally. Just don’t do it if you are playing out, and don’t help people who do.
This should be the same with anything you buy on vinyl and rip to Mp3.
Hell if I could afford a record press, I’d do the exact opposite. I’d take the Mp3 files I find, bootlegs and everything, and make them INTO vinyl. But I can’t. So I don’t.
In most cases it’s worth contacting the label like people have said, you’d be surprised. One of my favourite labels Untzz only does vinyl releases, but they also give away every tune for free as a 320k MP3 on their Soundcloud page…
Four Tet tends to do the same in regards to his vinyl only releases.
OP: If it’s older vinyl, then as long as you have a cleanish setup, in terms of quality turntable, cart/stylus, and minimum audio runs, it’s worth doing, but it does take ages. I’ve only managed a handful of tunes and rip as and when I might need the track digitally (and not available) and if there’s no turntables to play it on.
Quite a lot of releases ive bought in the last 2/3 years have had digital download links to iTunes/web hosts in the sleeve, If it dosent come with one, ask the label, im sure theyll be willing to give it out for you to play it!
Yeah it’s worth it, but do it properly first time around if you have loads of records to do. Use as good a cartridge, pre-amp and audio interface as you can get hold of, because you don’t want to end it doing it twice (or three times; - a lesson learnt the hard way). It’s definitely worth buying a decent hifi needle specifically for recording rather than using a DJ needle to get good quality rips.
The opposite of this is playing an MP3 with DVS. Your using vinyl to play a track that was only released as MP3.
I think vinyl only releases are fine but I’m not gonna let the artist or the label make my mind up on how I play it.
I’d rather play a track and a crowd hear it than have it unplayed if I cannot use decks at a gig. You owe it to your crowd to play it, you don’t owe the artist anything. It’s their decision to release it on their chosen format and your decision to play it on your chosen format.
Yeah but if he or Sean Johnston plays any of those tunes they often play the wavs of them. I know Sean does because he uses an S4 and Traktor and I know this cus he has called me for advice on his setup and emails me about it.
Yeah but if everyone lived with that mentality the world would be shit. It’s like saying ‘Well I really fancy that girl but her parents don’t approve of me so I’m not going to go there’ … Get my drift, If I get the chance to play some joy orbison or boddika in my sets because I’ve spent the money and time to rip it then I’m going to play them?
