Speaker 1: All Zone Media. Hello, and welcome to your weekly Better
Speaker 1: Offline Monologue. I of course amed Xytron, and this week
Speaker 1: I'm going to be talking about something completely analog vinyl. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not completely analog. There's some electricity anyway. Now, some
Speaker 1: of you might have paid attention. Now. I've been talking
Speaker 1: the last few months about my mental health journey and
Speaker 1: all that shit, and a big part of feeling better
Speaker 1: about myself has been finding ways to relax. I'm not
Speaker 1: like a lot of people, so I've had to I
Speaker 1: have to teach myself things. I really have to sit
Speaker 1: down and say, like, look, Heed, you're gonna try and
Speaker 1: work out what relaxing feels like. And I've literally had
Speaker 1: to teach myself and I'm getting close. And a lot
Speaker 1: of this has been about returning to older music and
Speaker 1: letting things just kind of play instead of pecking around.
Speaker 1: So the older music in questions like Joe Cocker, Charles Mingus,
Speaker 1: Lee Morgan, Derond do Van Morrison. And as part of this,
Speaker 1: I decided to get into vinyl because I was walking
Speaker 1: around with my dear friend Tory Elliott wired and she
Speaker 1: said we're gonna go on a field trip and I said,
Speaker 1: I don't like change. Where are we going? She took
Speaker 1: me to Music City in in New York City and
Speaker 1: it was just full of Vinyl, and I thought, you
Speaker 1: know what this looks like fun. I want to get
Speaker 1: one of these every week I'm in New York. So
Speaker 1: I have been doing so and it's been great. Genuinely,
Speaker 1: it's been wonderful for me. And I want to kind
Speaker 1: of walk you through why and how vinyl works, because
Speaker 1: surprisingly enough, there's not been a ton about it. There's
Speaker 1: been a lot of audio pervert stuff and there's been
Speaker 1: people saying, oh, Vinyl's having a resurgent fuck all that.
Speaker 1: I just want to talk about listening to him. So
Speaker 1: if you don't know how it works, it is delightfully analog.
Speaker 1: And I did not know how it worked before, so
Speaker 1: I had to look it up. So a record player
Speaker 1: is made up of a few pieces. The platter where
Speaker 1: you put the record, the belt that spins the platter,
Speaker 1: the spindle, which is the thing that you put the
Speaker 1: record on like the hole in the record goes on that,
Speaker 1: the motor which turns the platter to spin set record,
Speaker 1: under tone arm which holds the needle, or the stylus
Speaker 1: which sticks on to the record and goes along the
Speaker 1: grooves of the record, sends the signals to the cartridge,
Speaker 1: which is the little box on the top of the
Speaker 1: stylust that takes the vibrations and turns them into electric
Speaker 1: call signical signals that play music signicholls. We're not editing it.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let that one fly. Now. If I
Speaker 1: miss the piece there, do not bother correcting me. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to edit it. I'm not going to fix it.
Speaker 1: But in simpler terms, it's quite literally a record player
Speaker 1: go BurrH Now, I basically only spend my money on
Speaker 1: diet coke and going to baseball, so I allowed myself
Speaker 1: a little bit of an extravagance. So I got myself
Speaker 1: the Orbit basic turntable from Uturn Audio, which is the
Speaker 1: wirecutter's budget pick, along with their Ethos speakers, which sent
Speaker 1: me back about a ground. You can go cheaper on
Speaker 1: record players than speakers, but I think this is absolutely
Speaker 1: a place where you get what you pay for. Based
Speaker 1: on a little googling, it seems getting a cheaper record
Speaker 1: player can literally destroy the records, because if the needle
Speaker 1: and the cartridge aren't good, it scrapes them. I didn't
Speaker 1: really understand why, but it sufficiently scared me. I'd also
Speaker 1: already bought the other things, so it didn't really scare
Speaker 1: me that much. I should know. I've got the all
Speaker 1: Big Basic because it has a preamp built into it,
Speaker 1: meaning that you can just plug it directly into some
Speaker 1: speakers rather than having to get a separate amplifier. If
Speaker 1: you're not super technical, just know that this means I
Speaker 1: plug go red and yellow cables, red and white maybe
Speaker 1: into a speaker, rather than a giant box that has
Speaker 1: a bunch of other stuff. I also got something called
Speaker 1: a Q lever, which is a little arm that delicately
Speaker 1: raises or lowers the arm and the stylus onto the record.
Speaker 1: You need one of these. You must have one. It
Speaker 1: might ape like hands would probably just shove the needle
Speaker 1: repeatedly into the record, destroying a beautiful relic of the sixties. Anyway,
Speaker 1: all this took about ten minutes to set up, and
Speaker 1: it was mostly because it was learning how record players
Speaker 1: work as like when, and also I was on two
Speaker 1: hours of sleep. I'm thirty nine years old. I shouldn't
Speaker 1: be taking a red eye. You have to loop the
Speaker 1: belt around the platter which the round bit and then
Speaker 1: click some stuff into place, then connect the speakers with
Speaker 1: the cables that come with it, and there you go.
Speaker 1: You just kind of start playing records. Now, as far
Speaker 1: as actually getting records, I'm a nasty freak, So I
Speaker 1: decided to go to a website called discogs dot com,
Speaker 1: which is both a great place to organize what records
Speaker 1: you have and by the ones you've done. I decided
Speaker 1: to get a selection of classics from the sixties and seventies,
Speaker 1: originals Joe Coccus with little help for my friends, Charles
Speaker 1: Mangus Is Black Saint and The Sin Lady, Lee Morgan's Cornbread,
Speaker 1: Van Morrison's Moondance, in part because I wanted to hear
Speaker 1: them as they were played on release, and in part
Speaker 1: because these are records that came out with my mum
Speaker 1: was in her twenties, which is when I moved to
Speaker 1: New York. So I was kind of like, mather fuck it,
Speaker 1: play records like my mum. I also got a few
Speaker 1: newer records and remasters of things like Queens of the Stone
Speaker 1: Age's Songs for the Deaf and working with the Miles
Speaker 1: Davis Quartet, as well as this insanely high end limited
Speaker 1: edition pressing of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue because I
Speaker 1: was curious and I had some Amazon credit. Now, the
Speaker 1: reason I got such a selection was I was curious
Speaker 1: whether things sounded different based on how old they were,
Speaker 1: and whether the whole vinyl sounds better thing was a myth.
Speaker 1: And the answer is yes, they do sound different, and no,
Speaker 1: it's not really a myth at all. The original fam Mingus,
Speaker 1: Morgan and Morrison all sound different old, but not in
Speaker 1: a way that's crackly or bad. The percussion feels a
Speaker 1: bit more present, and the bastones are a bit more forceful.
Speaker 1: It feels I don't even know how to say it,
Speaker 1: because I'm not a music journalist, but it feels round her.
Speaker 1: It feels more alive, and I realized this might be psychosomatic,
Speaker 1: a thing I'll say later, but and I'm going to
Speaker 1: be honest, like Cocker's help. With help from my friends,
Speaker 1: I've listened to this album a great deal digitally. It's
Speaker 1: down pitch and it has a softer field to it,
Speaker 1: and it just sounds different in a nice way. Describing
Speaker 1: sound with words is difficult, which is why I'm not
Speaker 1: a music journalist. But the way these record plays was
Speaker 1: and is incredibly special. And what was heartening was even
Speaker 1: the cheaper by which I mean thirty bucks records I got,
Speaker 1: like Herbie Hancock's Imperior and Ile or Aren't Blackie's Caravan,
Speaker 1: they still played marvelously. And I must say Caravan is
Speaker 1: a fucking incredible record. Just the drums at the beginning
Speaker 1: is insane. I stood up and I did the Leonardo
Speaker 1: DiCaprio pointing thing at my record player. And all of
Speaker 1: this is possible because we kind of live in the
Speaker 1: golden age of vinyl. We've got these dedicated audio engineers
Speaker 1: who dig out master tapes and perfectly press them onto
Speaker 1: these gorgeous records and they sound amazing. And my favorite
Speaker 1: example of that is this UHQR pressing of Miles Davis's
Speaker 1: Kind of Blue or mentioned earlier, and it came from
Speaker 1: this company called Analog Sounds, and it just sounds insane,
Speaker 1: like the instruments are in the room and Miles Davis
Speaker 1: is watching. We write a post saying what if Anthony
Speaker 1: boor Daines saw JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I don't think Miles
Speaker 1: Davis would love that. I think I think Charles Mingus
Speaker 1: might have liked jojo, but I don't think Miles Davis
Speaker 1: would have. This is based on my very thin knowledge
Speaker 1: of jazz history. Email me if you have any thoughts
Speaker 1: about this, what famous musicians would or would not like jojo?
Speaker 1: But nevertheless, the UHQR stuff is insane. I'm going to
Speaker 1: put a link to them in the notes I'm going
Speaker 1: to there's a story from the Times I believe about them.
Speaker 1: It's just there are people dedicated to vinyl right now,
Speaker 1: more dedicated than any tech ceo, and they love it
Speaker 1: and perhaps it will destroy them like a cursed ambula,
Speaker 1: but they have found this incredible way of recreating music.
Speaker 1: I guess if you could even call it that, and
Speaker 1: it sounds just bonkers. I've already ordered a few others
Speaker 1: because I really wanted to hear Steely Dan's dirty work
Speaker 1: on an extremely expensive vinyl. And I'm not even being sarcastic.
Speaker 1: That song is a complete banger. And if you disagree
Speaker 1: with me, you're simply wrong. I love listening to vinyl
Speaker 1: and it's changed how I listen to music for the better.
Speaker 1: The convenience of digital audio means that I have this
Speaker 1: kind of bad habit. I imagine some of you do
Speaker 1: as well. I skip around, I repeat songs. I find
Speaker 1: myself stuck in these musical ruts. I'm just listening to
Speaker 1: one or two songs again and again and again because
Speaker 1: of my emotion, or stay because I want to feel
Speaker 1: a certain way up, because I want to sustain or
Speaker 1: mood or banish a mood. And while that can be useful,
Speaker 1: kind of takes the fun out of music at times.
Speaker 1: Vinyl obviously naturally forces you to sit with at least
Speaker 1: one side of it, and I found myself keeping going regardless,
Speaker 1: like I'll flip it o now. Redditors and engineers will
Speaker 1: argue that vinyl does not sound better, but I am
Speaker 1: moron fully disagree. I've listened to LPs I'll Sleep when
Speaker 1: You're Dead maybe one hundred times in MP three that song.
Speaker 1: That album even got me through college. Without it, I
Speaker 1: would have probably got on the train out of Aperistwyth
Speaker 1: and simply never returned. I wouldn't have gone back to
Speaker 1: London either, But that album helped me. And I will
Speaker 1: tell you the vinyl based version is different. The sensor
Speaker 1: more insistent. It feels dystopian and brutal. It's overwhelmingly dire,
Speaker 1: and it's because vinyl sounds warmer and more present. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is all in my head.
Speaker 1: I really do not, but I am someone that is
Speaker 1: naturally a bit cynical, and I'm just having more fun
Speaker 1: listening to music than I ever have in my life.
Speaker 1: Instead of those loops, instead of finding myself kind of
Speaker 1: just using music as a tool, as just a thing
Speaker 1: that exists in my life, it's become this deliberate, not
Speaker 1: even moodsetter, because sometimes you know, you might feel like
Speaker 1: an album, you don't feel like a song, and you'll
Speaker 1: find yourself really enjoying something you didn't really think of.
Speaker 1: Marjorie with a little help of my friends. For example,
Speaker 1: a song that I on my MP three's would skit
Speaker 1: every time has this warm Hammond organ shit to it.
Speaker 1: This just sounds marvelous. And you can also talk about
Speaker 1: music in this incredibly insufferable way like I am right now.
Speaker 1: But I don't know insufferable or not. I'm having the
Speaker 1: time of my fucking life with this, and I really
Speaker 1: recommend you do too. The ritual of putting on a
Speaker 1: record feels good, the sounds amazing, and we're in this
Speaker 1: digital age defined by convenience of a joy, and it's
Speaker 1: a deliberacy and a way of focusing more. Even if
Speaker 1: it's on in the background, it feels more significant. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm talking in the wanky way that i'd
Speaker 1: usually make fun of AI people for. But this is music.
Speaker 1: You can be emotional, you can be esoteric with the
Speaker 1: things you love. You're not hurting anyone. Telling people that
Speaker 1: vinyl is super period or makes you feel better because
Speaker 1: it is a very personal experience and you can quite
Speaker 1: literally travel back in time. You can pick up things
Speaker 1: from the sixties or the seventies and hear it as
Speaker 1: they were then. And yeah, there are some crappy vinyl pressings.
Speaker 1: I'm hearing that No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom just doesn't have
Speaker 1: a good vinyl release, which sucks because that's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite albums. But it's helping me return to albums
Speaker 1: I love and listen to them deliberately and with just
Speaker 1: a whole new different sound stage. I guess you'd call it.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether or not this is exact or our,
Speaker 1: whether it's anything more than just the ritual and the
Speaker 1: environment that's making me feel this way. I feel fucking
Speaker 1: good doing it, and I can't. I just cannot recommend
Speaker 1: it enough. Give it a go if you've been considering it.
Speaker 1: I found peace and happiness now peace, and I think
Speaker 1: you will too,