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[KrewL RaiN]

Comp is making funny noises >< I think its the power supply fan.

Hopfully this old hunk of junk will last till I have the money to start shoping for a new system(next month I hope). Then I wont be in the Mhz club anymore dodododo

Just dunno which way to go. All the systems I looked at in stores has the video card intergrated on the mobo and I dont like that. Friends say to order from newegg but I have never built a comp before and that makes me a tad nervous lol. If I do have to build it gotta borrow my dads compy tools I dont wanna wreck anything after all this saving ><

[Trance]

Whoa, thier turntables look really creepy and modern. Though I don't use vinyl anymore anyway unless I'm archiving it. It's all about CD-R's these days! (God I wish they'd create a Blu-ray version so I would have to just lug around 20 Blu-ray discs instead of like 500 CD-R's)

BTW... is just me or is mail.yahoo.com broken?

I think you get a much better sound from vinyl.  It's like playing a CD with infinity bit encoding .  Absolutely no subtlety is lost.   You're right, some of the Regas there do look hyper-modern....  I have an old Rega Planar 2 from the early 80s that works really well for me.   Technics are definitely cool too, and are more suited to your kind of work.

Vinyl is higher quality, it's usually mastered at 24bit/96k while CD is mastered at 16bit/44.1k but the problem with it is that its become uneconomical. It's heavy, expensive ($10+ a pop) and also you get external noise. Not to mention the clicks/pops and of course scratches. CD/WAV can be backed up, its cheap (usually about $2 a pop for a WAV file), and easy to carry.

I'd use dual layer Blu-ray discs but there is no such player available yet for DJ's. Another one of my frustrations is that Pioneer, the good folks who make the CD and DVD decks which are industry standard fail to support DVD-A which is 24bit/96k, and do not support data DVD's with WAV files on them but support mp3's on data DVD's!

[Rule]

Whoa, thier turntables look really creepy and modern. Though I don't use vinyl anymore anyway unless I'm archiving it. It's all about CD-R's these days! (God I wish they'd create a Blu-ray version so I would have to just lug around 20 Blu-ray discs instead of like 500 CD-R's)

BTW... is just me or is mail.yahoo.com broken?

I think you get a much better sound from vinyl.  It's like playing a CD with infinity bit encoding .  Absolutely no subtlety is lost.   You're right, some of the Regas there do look hyper-modern....  I have an old Rega Planar 2 from the early 80s that works really well for me.   Technics are definitely cool too, and are more suited to your kind of work.

Vinyl is higher quality, it's usually mastered at 24bit/96k while CD is mastered at 16bit/44.1k but the problem with it is that its become uneconomical. It's heavy, expensive ($10+ a pop) and also you get external noise. Not to mention the clicks/pops and of course scratches. CD/WAV can be backed up, its cheap (usually about $2 a pop for a WAV file), and easy to carry.

If I could I'd use dual layer Blu-ray discs but there is no such player available yet for DJ's. Another one of my frustrations is that Pioneer, the good folks who make the CD and DVD decks which are industry standard fail to support DVD-A which is 24bit/96k, and do not support data DVD's with WAV files on them but support mp3's on data DVD's!

You're talking about digitally mastered records.  I mean analogue records made from analogue recording tapes.  No information is lost on those records (made in the mid 70s) because the sound doesn't need to be chopped up and discretized into bits. Therefore the quality is as though it had been recorded 10000bit+.  The advantage to digital is that you get a slightly "cleaner" sound (because a lot of background noise in the recording (e.g. produced by feedback, etc) is actually weeded out), and recording engineers can modify and control digital recordings a lot more easily.  But when I put on say, a 1970 record of Glenn Gould playing Beethoven's 3rd Concerto with Bernstein, it feels as though I'm actually sitting somewhere inside the symphony when I listen to it.  The sound is very full.  With a CD, I definitely feel like a far-removed listener -- like information has been lost.

This is why even most modern recordings are first done on analogue backup tapes, so that they can be remastered digitally as digital recording technology improves.

[Trance]

Oh yeah CD's are crap for classical music, no doubt about that! I wish i had some classical music on vinyl.. I don't really know where to get any. Though I did inherit some strange records from my mother... random j-pop from yester-year and my personal favorite, Grease en espanol!

I totally agree with analogue quality, it's as good as it gets. I'm hoping though that Blu-ray audio will catch on and replace audio CD's and thus giving us a much higher quality digital audio experiance that might have the chance of capturing the warmth of the analogue sound.

Do you have to replace stylus' on the Rega's?

[Rule]

Oh yeah CD's are crap for classical music, no doubt about that! I wish i had some classical music on vinyl.. I don't really know where to get any. Though I did inherit some strange records from my mother... random j-pop from yester-year and my personal favorite, Grease en espanol!

I totally agree with analogue quality, it's as good as it gets. I'm hoping though that Blu-ray audio will catch on and replace audio CD's and thus giving us a much higher quality digital audio experiance that might have the chance of capturing the warmth of the analogue sound.

Do you have to replace stylus' on the Rega's?

Yeah, and a lot of classical music will sound like crap on good records too.  It really depends on who is playing it (as well as who is composing it).  I'd say the interpreter is actually more important than the composer to making the end product sound good.  That's why it's hard for most people to get into classical music now -- they're not hearing near the best of it.   Also, classical music tends to really get lumped together, when there is so much variety in that one "genre" that spreads across about 600 years worth of music.  I personally like Baroque and Romantic music the best, and that is only a very small portion of what people call "classical."  (there is actually a "classical" period as well, to make things a little more confusing ).

Here is an example of a good classical (romantic) performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhnRIuGZ_dc&search=horowitz%20ballade

Do you have to replace stylus' on the Rega's?

I used to just be able to replace the needles, but they're getting hard to come by as a separate purchase.  When the needle gets dull, I usually replace the whole cartridge now.  It costs about $100 (for the best cartridges), but I only need to do it once every 6 months or so, and I play a lot of records.


Edit: There are some really good quality classical records that show up on ebay from time to time.  Maybe try looking for Glenn Gould's Mozart No. 24 concerto (in C minor) if you're interested. 
Also, the sound is amazing in Glenn Gould's Bach partita records.

[Trance]

Yeah I've wanted to get more into classical music but the problem has always been if I hear something on the radio I can't find more music like it or that song anyway so I don't know who or what to look for.

The sample you provided has the same sort of mood/flow that I like and have been trying to find. So thanks for providing it! Could you suggest more pieces? Is there a place that describes the different .. i guess.. sub-genre's? I want to get a better understand of what I'm trying to find.

Ah, I use the Orotofon Nightclub E stylus and I had to replace them about every 6 months too but now that I'm not using vinyl very much I hope it won't have to be as often. I don't have to replace the entire cartridge, but it's still around $50 for one stylus.

I will look for the records you suggested, thanks for the recommendations!

Do you have a very nice speaker system? It sounds as if you do.

[Rule]

Yeah I've wanted to get more into classical music but the problem has always been if I hear something on the radio I can't find more music like it or that song anyway so I don't know who or what to look for.

The sample you provided has the same sort of mood/flow that I like and have been trying to find. So thanks for providing it! Could you suggest more pieces? Is there a place that describes the different .. i guess.. sub-genre's? I want to get a better understand of what I'm trying to find.

Well, a lot if it has to do with the interpreter too, not just the composition.  For example, Bach is by far my favourite composer, but I can't stand most of his music when Angela Hewitt is playing it.

Anyways, here are my favourite composers (in order), with their musical periods in ellipses.

1. J.S. Bach  (Baroque)       (Best interpreter:  Glenn Gould)
(I love Bach's music partly because I really enjoy polyphonic counterpoint.  There are usually about 4 voices playing simultaneously in his music, and Gould manages to bring all of them out with a great clarity and nervous energy).  Aside from that, just intellectually, he is the most capable of any of the composers.  Thinking "empirically" he would be like Euler to mathematics, or Einstein/Newton to physics.  He revolutionized music. 

Particularly amazing compositions:  Art of the Fugue, Goldberg Variations, 6th Partita.   (I would really recommend trying to find Gould's partita recordings on record.)  Also, just listening through all of the Goldberg Variations in Gould's 1981 recording (in one sitting) is fairly enthralling.

2. Late Beethoven  (Late classical)   
(Best interpreter:   Hard to say...  Gould has some amazing recordings of the Beethoven Concertos.  But overall, I would say Schnabel is the best Beethoven interpreter).

Nice pieces:  Moonlight sonata, and most late Beethoven Sonatas. 
I like all of the Concertos, but particularly 1, 3, and 4.

3.  Chopin (romantic)
(Best interpreter:  Rubenstein, Horowitz and Cziffra are all good in different ways.)
The chopin nocturnes are really nice.  I would recommend listening to a recording of Rubenstein playing them. I've learned No. 13 in C minor.  Chopin's music is the most pianistic of any composer's.

Ballades No. 1 and 4 are also nice.  I am learning Ballade 1 for an upcoming concert (Horowitz is playing it in the link I pasted).

4. Schubert (Romantic)  (Look for the Wanderer's Fantasy)
4. Mozart  (Classical)
4. Rachmaninoff (late-Romantic)  (Look for the No. 2 piano concerto played by Ashkenazy in 1960).  There are also recordings of Rachmaninoff playing himself!
5. Brahms (Romantic).  Look for his No.1 and 2 concertos.  Ashkenazy has good recordings of both.  Gould also has a good recording in New York of the No.1 concerto, and a rare and exciting recording in Baltimore (also No.1)
6. Debussy  (Late romantic/french)  (Look for Jardin sous la pluie).  Moiseiwitsch has a good recording of that.
7.  Liszt    (Very improvised sounding show-pieces.  Cziffra is good for him.  Romantic).  Look for Liszt's sonata.  Horowitz and Bolet both play it well.
7. Ravel (romantic/french)


You might also like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (classical jazz).  There is a solo-piano version, and one with Orchestra.   There are recordings of piano roles of Gershwin playing the solo-piano version himself.

[Trance]

Awesome! I'll see if my friend has some of these.. she's majoring in vocal performance, teaches paino etc... so I'm sure she'll know whats up. Many thanks for your help!

[VictoryInJesus]

I enjoy Beethoven & Bach from classical music

[shout]

My stepmother got extremely pissed at me for eating a can of soup.

[Explicit]

My stepmother got extremely pissed at me for eating a can of soup.

That reminds me of when my friend was sick and we (his friends) decided to bring him a can of soup. What happened was that his mom became really mad or irritated for some reason, and just kind of told us off.

Last time I checked, giving soup to a sick friend was a friendly gesture.

[VictoryInJesus]

mmmm......chicken noodle *drools*

[KrewL RaiN]

yar chicken noodle is teh hax

slowwwww weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek making KR coo coo and imageready hates me can never get a relly good crisp quality

[warz]

wtf stfu

[Hero]

I have an eyelid on my scrotum.