Classic Hifi Care

It had been over three years since I used the music processing program. The only problem I had was that the setting in Windows Media Player had gotten changed, so I couldn't burn complete CD's. (Yeah, I know they are obsolete). I got that fixed, then I processed a Bobby Bare record, "The Real Thing" on RCA Victor LSP-4422, circa 1970. When Bobby Bare was white hot on the country charts. When I was a lot younger, we had guests one evening who had a fairly new baby, who was a tad colicky. The child was screaming bloody murder. I had this Bobby Bare album on the turntable. When the last song on Side 2 came on "Come On Home And Sing The Blues To Daddy" written by Ray Corbin, the child got quiet. When the song was over, he started screaming again. I played the song again, he got quiet. Song ended, he started screaming. I made the couple a 30-minute cassette tape of nothing but ".....Blues to Daddy". They played it when the child got colicky, never failed to quiet him. I have no idea why.... When the child got talking age, and they came over he'd say "Blues to daddy, blues to daddy!" I'd put on the record, and he'd sit absolutely still while it was on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dIuxeUlDO8

I reckon it must have been the Harry Bellafonte-type beat. I have no idea who was playing steel, but they were having a good day.....

electra225 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 12:02 am The only problem I had was that the setting in Windows Media Player had gotten changed, so I couldn't burn complete CD's. (Yeah, I know they are obsolete).

Well, I'm kinda obsolete too, but I like my physical media and keep buying/burning CDs. Remember when LPs were obsolete? And now even cassettes are having a renaissance. I don't want to be at the mercy of some streaming service. Hard copies, yay. I just bought a baby book for my nephew and his wife, who just had their first kid. I have the baby book my Mom made when I was born and updated for several years. It's full of history. It's a bit of a family joke, because the next brother's book was less complete, and the next one's even less so, and all my sister got as the last kid was an envelope of materials my mother had intended to put into a book, some day. They're all a bit jealous of my complete version.

Chris Campbell

We have four multi-disc (300, 300, 400, 200) CD changers that we connect to console stereos and enjoy the music. If you add that up, I need 1200 CD's to fill all the changers. We use them in the rig when we travel as well. The Mini uses a little plug-in cockroach of some kind, but I leave it in the car lest I forget where I put it last. That little thing has my entire digital collection on it, over 30,000 songs. The program I use, "Spin It Again" is so incredibly simple, yet effective, even I can use it. My next adventure with the software is to speed-correct 78's. I can play them at 45 rpm and the software will speed correct it. I have done it one time. I buy a new needle for my Stanton cartridge, then play the 78's using the old needle.

Does a microgroove needle give you good sound? As I understand it, when professionals are trying for the best sound out of old 78, they have multiple stylus choices and try to use one that fits in an unused, unworn portion of the groove. That's usually above or below where the standard needle would have ridden.

Chris Campbell

I can buy a 78 needle for my Stanton cartridge. But I'm cheap. I use a worn LP needle and, so far, it's done fine. I've only done one record, an Arthur Godfrey record.

But if it's riding in the bottom of the groove, it may be picking up more noise than necessary. If it sounds OK, must be doing the job.

Chris Campbell

TC Chris wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 2:46 am

electra225 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 12:02 am The only problem I had was that the setting in Windows Media Player had gotten changed, so I couldn't burn complete CD's. (Yeah, I know they are obsolete).

Well, I'm kinda obsolete too, but I like my physical media and keep buying/burning CDs. Remember when LPs were obsolete? And now even cassettes are having a renaissance. I don't want to be at the mercy of some streaming service. Hard copies, yay.
Chris Campbell

I am with you brother... the kids today think a mp3 player and a 3" amplified speaker are the bees knees ...with all the compression and zero bass .... no thanks , if my ears aren't bleeding then it ain't loud enough

Some of the "music" they listen to is simply bizarre. Listening to it on a cell phone with 1/4" speakers doesn't help it any. Stereo is a thing of the past.

electra225 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2023 8:42 pm Stereo is a thing of the past.

No, it is a thing of the experienced and more sophisticated listener. Good sound has always been a bit of a fringe matter. In the early days, hi-fi nuts were mostly hobbyists who sought out and paid for components. That tended to raise the bar so mass-market companies upped their quality too. By the late '60s, those clever Japanese companies were selling us components that were both inexpensive and of good quality.

Today almost everybody is exposed to fairly high quality audio on their vehicles, whose radios/digital players are light years ahead of anything we had in the 1950s or 1960s in cars or than the average consumer-quality "record player" of that era. And when kids add headphones to their phones, they can actually hear decent sound.

I like good audio, but right now I'm listening to a program on Leonard Bernstein, his Kaddish symphony and the Chichester Psalms, on the Superadio II in the kitchen and a tiny Zenith table radio next to the computer. My brain fills in the missing frequencies.

It's good to resist lamentation for change, because it's gonna happen whether we like it or not. Not all of it is good bu we tend to accept the good and only notice the bad. Tonight's NPR news had a piece on Taylor Swift, her tour and film. I think that she must be a classic celebrity, famous mostly for being famous, as I hear no musical value in the few excerpts I've heard from her product. It's just noise. But mostly I keep my mouth shut about it because she'll be forgotten in a couple years. Performers who have inherent value will be remembered. The NYT had one of their "5 minutes that will make you love..." pieces on Thelonious Monk the other day. I have no idea why, but I do like Thelonious Monk, and so do lots of other people long after he's gone. Here's the article with its YouTube links:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/arts ... music.html

Chris Campbell