Thinking of ditching the turntables and going all digital. Thoughts?

[thedreampolice]

I constantly have this feeling that my life is full of clutter, I have moved (obviously) from CD's to MP3's. Now I am trying to get rid of my like 300+ books and going to all ebooks IE Kindle.

Last time I did a major purge I got rid of a ton of my outboard gear and got rid of my MPC, Sound modules, ETC and went to 100% Reason 4. It honestly was one of the most productive things I have ever done. I made loads more music.

So now I am looking at my record collection and thinking, why? I do lots of digital digging anyway. I don't scratch anymore, and if I ever want to I will get one of these http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TraktorKontS4/

Almost all the interesting music is online, I mean you can get an emusic account for $20 a month and get 50 downloads AND you can audition the songs first.

I am really trying to just have more of a zen type life, with not much clutter. And not hanging on to "stuff" you know. It really helps clear the mind. And now I read about how Dr Dre got rid of his vinyl....

IDK Thoughts?

 

[UNORTHODOX]

1 Fake scratching doesnt match the real thing. (or so I hear)

2. I wouldnt get rid of all books, reading screens is nothing like reading printed text. I it expect to be a national regret/disaster as this generation's eye sight deteriorates. +, You can't get digital txt signed by the orig author.

 

[thedreampolice]

Have you used electronic ink, like the kindle and nook have?

You cant tell its not printed text. Its actually easier on the eye as #1 i looks the same and there is no back light #2 you can always increase the font size.

As far as fake scratching goes check this out



and



all 100% Reason

 

[Pug]

I've given thought to getting rid of clutter, my records, my piles of video games, but decided I'm better off keepin em. I like the clutter, it's good for conversation, everything has a story behind it, I love reading the line notes and check out LP covers. Playing an mp3 file just isn't the same as playing a 45 or a 12", straight up and down. Still, for minimal living, I get your point. Especially if space is an issue, and/or you travel/move around a lot. It all comes down to personal choice really. Technology really does make things a lot simpler, but also takes away some of that charm from the past (in my opinion). So I'd do whatever you're gut tells you!

 

[Fade]

I just bought Traktor a few weeks ago and it's great so far. I have some vinyl that I'll probably get rid of but there's some that I'm keeping for sure because I have to have a nice balance between the two. It's nice scratching MP3's but you still can't beat vinyl. So you could get Traktor and use it with your turntables, see how it goes then if you like it get it the hardware to go with it.

 

[DJ Excellence]

I saved lots of $$$$ after acquiring Virtual DJ, haven't bought vinyl in years. Can't beat the real thing tho ... I say keep both if you can. Also check out that article I wrote on ILLskratch:

http://www.illskratch.com/digital-scratching/

 

[ess vinyl]

if u are djing then go digital

if you are using the records for sampling i say stick with vinyl

 

[dacalion]

I wouldn't say get rid of the CD's yet, but true DJ's know the difference between real and fake scratching. The video's that you posted only use the first second or two of a vocal sample...what if you wanted an entire 4 bar phrase with scratching in between? It can be done but the time and process wouldn't be very practical at all. I know you are a workflow fanatic and that would be totally against that. Traktor is ok but the wheels don't even come close to feeling like a real turntable, they are too small which would really limit what you could do. My suggestion is http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...nal-MP3CDUSB-Player-and-Controller?sku=583103

What makes this gear very special is that you get the best of all worlds. You can scratch mp3's off a thumb drive, you can scratch CD's, you can hook your hard drive up to it and scratch off of it. You have a bigger platter which feels more like real turn tables...the list just goes on and on. Personally, I'm waiting for them to come up with a deck that doesn't use CD's at all with an internal hard drive eliminating the need for even thumb drives or external hard drives. That would be dope!

NOTHING will replace the sound of vinyl! I haven't heard any digital gear that can truely reproduce it yet, I've heard some that are close but not really practical. Final Scratch, Serato, Traktor and all the rest are good but require too much to get the same results.

 

[thedreampolice]

Thats cool Dac, but honestly I don't scratch that often at all. It is only for sampling. If I need 4 bars of scratching I am just calling you ha ha

 

[dacalion]

Yeah the conversation turned heavily towards scratching so I kinda just went with it...lol. If you're not gonna do any scratching then by all means get rid of the CD's but keep the ones that you use in your cars (unless you've got one of those decks with the mp3 player hook ups...) even still, what if you wanted a friend to hear something in his deck? Most people wait until they are ready for the change...right now it's unclear whats next so I'd say get rid of what you know you're not gonna use and keep what you think you may for whatever reason.

 

[mono]

keep the books man

 

[thedreampolice]

Dude I have not had CD's for like 8 years, I am talking about getting rid of my turntables and vinyl.

and the books are already on there way out.

 

[dacalion]

LMAO! damn, we were on 2 different pages...OK, now that I'm clear on everything...lol. I'd say NO! Definitely not the vinyl. For the same reasons I posted above, IMO...you can't reproduce true vinyl sound, even when you put in the crackle and pops, even with that software eq that tries to give your music that "warm" tube sound (I forget whats it's called...). If anything, keep one just for sampling only. I mean vinyl is rare enough, keep it for histories sake!

 

[thedreampolice]

I feel ya, but lets test that out. Was this sampled from Vinyl or MP3?

http://drunkpedestrians.bandcamp.com/track/with-precision-feat-b-mac-and-kre8-da-redbeerd

Also check out another Izotope product that can totally pull off that vinyl sound and its free

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/

 

[Sucio]

Def don't get rid of the vinyl. Vinyl is sooooo much nicer sounding, has that full sound. Digital isn't that good when you're sampling, but for SCRATCHING? I've seen serato and torq in action, both are very very good. I remember back in the day scratching off of a Numark CDX, has a piece of vinyl on the platter to emulate a real turntable, but with a CD insert...flippin awesome.

 

[thedreampolice]

But so much of those MP3's are sampled from vinyl anyway.

 

[dacalion]

Yes you're right and thats why I'm having the problems that I'm having with digital digging. You start off at the mercy of "how someone else sampled something". This is why I've been in test mode lately, trying to fix broken ish shouldn't be a part of production. I know some get a kick out of that but it's a waste of time to me. Youtube has TONS of rare ish but there isn't enough noise reduction/eq'ing made to clean up some of that stuff up. Just my 2 cents though.

 

[thedreampolice]

yea I feel ya, man cleaning stuff off youtube wow thats crazy!

 

[thedreampolice]

The other thing that really got me thinking about this was this video

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8S4A-sWrsw"]YouTube - DJ Damu The Fudgemunk on the Technics recording scratches for Supply For Demand[/ame]


I mean this is Damu, the KING of vinyl and he is like "No need to buy records"

I'm like wow!

 

[dacalion]

Man are you kidding me? he spends 10 secs saying "no need to buy records anymore" but spends the other 4 minutes and 15 secs cutting and playing on wax...you couldn't have takened him seriously right? He was being sarcastic dp!