 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jun 30, 2016 - 7:03 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
nuts_score
(Member)
|
I've been absent from our beloved community for a small number of years. I'll chime in from time to time but largely my enthusiasm for the hobby of collecting classic and modern film soundtracks has largely died away as I get older. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of really cutting-edge and progressive scoring technique found in the modern movie landscape; perhaps it is a realization of costs building up, with only shelves full of plastic to show for my admittedly niche hobby. Luckily my friends and loved ones all appreciate my knowledge and fascination with scoring and what music can bring to a good, or bad, film. But I "gave it all up" so to speak, and traded off my collection of nearly 1000 compact discs for folding money to build up savings, pay off debt, etc.
But the spark has been re-ignited. It may be an irony to many, but vinyl collection is now a favored hobby of many in my age range. I am on the cusp of 30 (only months remain!) and though I might be considered a "millennial" I identify more with Gen X as my older brother and sisters are of that generation and my parents were born in the 1940s, post WWII. So now it seems that once was old is new again and not only are we re-purposing old vinyls for listening but new record companies have started to re-print old classics and cult oddities, and even the big guys seem to be re-releasing the greats like Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, David Bowie, etc. Much to my frustration, none by Tangerine Dream. (All I want for Christmas are fresh pressings of Ricochet and Exit!)
My girlfriend and I began amassing a currently small -- but exciting -- record collection and I am proud to once again search the bins for known and obscure soundtrack albums from my favorites films and composers. In the past year, I have been able to find true gems!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
The Hateful Eight by Ennio Morricone
Thief by Tangerine Dream
The Last Waltz by the Band
Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads
Star Trek: TPM by Jerry Goldsmith
Spellbound by Miklos Rosza
Prince of Darkness by John Carpenter
John Carpenter's Lost Themes and Lost Themes II
Mishima by Philip Glass
The Lord of the Rings by Leonard Rosenman
Blade Runner by Vangelis
Something Wild (various artists)
Goldfinger, Thunderball, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service by John Barry
This is just a start for me, and I fear a habit that could possibly overcome my wallet again. I wanted to reach out to our community and not only ask who else has found new pleasure in vinyl purchase and collecting, but how I could curb the return of an addiction. Whenever I browse and lurk here, it alway seems so many of you are at the ready to spend money on just any old soundtrack and I honestly have been there but when it comes to these vinyls (and possibly the memory of the past), I am particularly choosy. I'd love to hear from any of you, about your thoughts and your advice.
 Adios for now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've been absent from our beloved community for a small number of years. I'll chime in from time to time but largely my enthusiasm for the hobby of collecting classic and modern film soundtracks has largely died away as I get older. Perhaps it has to do with the lack of really cutting-edge and progressive scoring technique found in the modern movie landscape; perhaps it is a realization of costs building up, with only shelves full of plastic to show for my admittedly niche hobby. Luckily my friends and loved ones all appreciate my knowledge and fascination with scoring and what music can bring to a good, or bad, film. But I "gave it all up" so to speak, and traded off my collection of nearly 1000 compact discs for folding money to build up savings, pay off debt, etc.
But the spark has been re-ignited. It may be an irony to many, but vinyl collection is now a favored hobby of many in my age range. I am on the cusp of 30 (only months remain!) and though I might be considered a "millennial" I identify more with Gen X as my older brother and sisters are of that generation and my parents were born in the 1940s, post WWII. So now it seems that once was old is new again and not only are we re-purposing old vinyls for listening but new record companies have started to re-print old classics and cult oddities, and even the big guys seem to be re-releasing the greats like Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, David Bowie, etc. Much to my frustration, none by Tangerine Dream. (All I want for Christmas are fresh pressings of Ricochet and Exit!)
My girlfriend and I began amassing a currently small -- but exciting -- record collection and I am proud to once again search the bins for known and obscure soundtrack albums from my favorites films and composers. In the past year, I have been able to find true gems!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
The Hateful Eight by Ennio Morricone
Thief by Tangerine Dream
The Last Waltz by the Band
Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads
Star Trek: TPM by Jerry Goldsmith
Spellbound by Miklos Rosza
Prince of Darkness by John Carpenter
John Carpenter's Lost Themes and Lost Themes II
Mishima by Philip Glass
The Lord of the Rings by Leonard Rosenman
Blade Runner by Vangelis
Something Wild (various artists)
Goldfinger, Thunderball, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service by John Barry
This is just a start for me, and I fear a habit that could possibly overcome my wallet again. I wanted to reach out to our community and not only ask who else has found new pleasure in vinyl purchase and collecting, but how I could curb the return of an addiction. Whenever I browse and lurk here, it alway seems so many of you are at the ready to spend money on just any old soundtrack and I honestly have been there but when it comes to these vinyls (and possibly the memory of the past), I am particularly choosy. I'd love to hear from any of you, about your thoughts and your advice.
Adios for now.
The same thing happened to me about four years back. I rarely buy CDs now, but you have to pry me away if I end up walking by a record store. In general, I did eventually find that while rock, jazz, and soul albums sound special on vinyl, a lot of soundtracks actually sound pretty terrible. So many of them were so careless produced in the '60s and '70s that any benefits you get from the medium get lost in the process. Still, I'll say that all of the Herrmann Phase 4 albums still sound great (that includes the suite collections and Obsession), and Jerry Goldsmith scores like Patton, Papillon, and Capricorn One also really shine on wax. The first two Star Wars albums are also vinyl must-haves, especially Empire - one of the few instances where even people who hate vinyl generally agree that the master for the record was much better than what ended up on CD. Some of the crossover soul soundtracks like Superfly and Three Tough Guys also sound great, but your mileage may vary. I'm sure there are others (I ended up picking a lot of soundtrack lps on the cheap before I finally started to realize most of them didn't sound very good), but i guess I'd mostly just recommend listening on those turntable stations before you buy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LPs can sound great -- but you need a pricey turntable, cartridge (and overall system) to get the full benefits.
I still have all my old LPs, and still buy vinyl from time-to-time -- though these days mainly for the cover art. However a couple of months ago I actually found a sealed LP of The Lion in Winter. My turntable is sitting unused in the basement and I don't even have a stylus -- but I couldn't resist purchasing such a find!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vinyl sucks from every aspect, hard to believe this antiquated crap has come back for a selected few, how depressing!!!!
So how much time did you spend looking at the thread title and the existing posts before you thought to yourself, "Hey, I have something to contribute to this thread! Stand aside internet, for lo, my eviscerating take-down of vinyl needs must be heard!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nuts_Score, I wish you had posted a couple of weeks ago. I took a car trip to Pittsburgh last weekend with what ended up being 539 of my last soundtrack LPs, most in really good condition, and sold them at a comic book/soundtrack/video store downtown. I'm very happy with the price I got but would have sent my list to you first.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jul 2, 2016 - 10:33 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
AlexCope
(Member)
|
I'm somewhat mixed on vinyl, though I like it overall. I love that we're getting so many new releases of soundtracks on LP, but I wince at how expensive they often are. I also regret that the trend is often more about the artwork than the music. For instance, Mondo's descriptions of their LPs rarely even have a tracklist! But if even a 1/3 of the people snapping these records up for the art get more of an appreciation of film music out of it, then that's fine by me.
The appeal when I got my first turntable in 2008 was just to pick up some soundtrack albums that weren't on CD yet or an obscure gem like Gil Melle's Tome VI, but now I'm treating them more as a luxury item. I usually don't take chances on a record. I buy an LP because it's an album I already know I love. The Sicilian Clan. Beetlejuice. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Escape From New York. Thief. Legend (Goldsmith). Varese's Star Wars Trilogy. Transformers (DiCola). The live Abbey Road recording of Hateful Eight. But there are some non-soundtrack albums I've spun many times too: The Night Terrors - Pavor Nocturnus, Bryan Ferry - The Jazz Age, and of course those John Carpenter Sacred Bones records (I saw his show here in Austin - most fun I've had in ages).
For me, there's just a different context for vinyl, just as there is when I pop in a CD when I go for a drive, listen to iTunes while on the computer or use Spotify while doing some chores. I have my record player in the living room front and center under my TV and use it here and there in certain situations, whether it's putting on Bill Evan's Sunday at the Village Vanguard while making breakfast on the weekend or listening to The Sicilian Clan while having some bourbon on a Friday evening (until my wife tires of the constant 'sproings' and puts on The Moody Blues instead). It's not how I listen to most of my music, but I enjoy it when I do.
I have a decent record player - a Denon dp-300f with an Ortofon Red needle - which I mainly got so that I wasn't tearing up more cherished records like the live Hateful Eight recording, but I can't claim I've noticed a big difference in sound. To me, either something just sounds good or bad, and I imagine that usually comes down to the mastering. The only thing I've noticed that sounds absolutely fantastic is the main title in Morricone's Ad Ogni Costo (of all things!). The trumpets in the main title just floor me. It's like they're right there in the room.
A lot of the appeal is the presentation, having an album you love represented with something that's like a piece of art. Whenever I have a little get-together with friends, they always go straight to the LPs, picking out records through the night. In that way, some of the records are almost like coffee table books with their artwork, starting conversations, but there's also just something fun about the format, having some records to go through, being more physically hands on with the music, but this is because it's not my main way of listening to music, so the things that annoy others about the format (flipping the records, some pops here and there) still retain some of their charm.
But the presentation isn't enough in itself. That huge box set of Batman The Animated Series that Mondo did sure looked beautiful, but there's no way I was going to listen to those records more than once. It's just not a good format for it. One episode per side? Yeah, the artwork is killer, but you'd be flipping the record every eight minutes or so. That's no fun. And that Twisted Nerve release by Stylotone? Man, that thing looked amazing. And it was Bernard Herrmann! Then I got it, listened to it and realized I just didn't care for the music beyond the highlights Kritzerland had already released. It's great that the complete score is out there, don't get me wrong, but it just wasn't something that I wanted out of a record that I'd spin in my living room. So I really have to justify a purchase to myself, and that goes with any format.
Anyway I've found that I enjoy music and collecting more when practicing some moderation and keeping a sort of balance. Listening to music only via record would turn me off that format pretty fast, just as buying up a bunch of LPs for the sake of collecting would. For me it's all about being more thoughtful about the music I purchase as well as how I listen to it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you can locate a copy of the Sony/Columbia Japanese Release of STAR TREK-TMP, that particular vinyl pressing is, for all intents and purposes an audiophile pressing. I was lucky enough to find a Mint copy for less than $20. Flawless production and manufacture in all respects. Something I will now, never part with! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yes, I still love vinyl!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's the scenario:
CDs go the way of the dodo bird because the vinyl craze is what's happening now, for reasons one either finds fine or specious.
Five years or ten years from the time CDs are no longer a viable thing for labels to produce, these same exact people, these same EXACT people, will begin a thread just like this - I'd given up collecting, but now I'm excited again because CDs are so cool - too bad we killed 'em off. I never stopped collecting CDs. When I pass a store selling CDs I have to be pried away. Yes, everyone will suddenly have great and grand nostalgia for CDs, all the ones they sold off, just as they'd sold off their vinyl collections when CD came in. Mark my words.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh, and I've got some incredibly rare vinyl here - let's hear the offers. Seriously. Basically if there was a vinyl counterpart to a Kritzerland CD I've got it and that includes the rarest of the rare STEREO version of Scent of Mystery. These things are so valued and wanted, I await offers. Forty bucks for the original Star Wars LP? No telling what my treasures must be worth now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
