We’ve probably all been there in one way or another. Finding music that is either not available in FLAC or Hi-Res (purchase) or was never published in CD. So what’s a music aficionado to do?
There’s a whole gray area of music out there that has not or will never be converted to high quality digital simply because there is no market demand for it. Couple of examples are albums by Alec Costandinos, Romeo and Juliet which was a disco era masterpiece in the same realm as Cerrone’s Supernature. Love and Kisses, I found Love Now That I have Found You. More famous for their Thank God It’s Friday success.
My hope here is that we can publicly put songs we’re searching for and see if anyone has it in high quality format. A lot of these would have come from folks that have lovingly ripped an album or 12" extended mix. Sometimes someone close to the industry gets their hands on a master and digitizes that.
There’s a couple dozen songs I’m searching for but as a thread starter I’m looking for:
Prince, Loring Park Sessions ’77. This wasn’t even an album they were just jamming tracks Prince recorded in a studio he had access to when he was 19. https://auralcrave.com/en/2018/02/22/loring-park-sessions-77-lalbum-instrumental-made-by-prince-to-19-years/
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Go on discogs to find releases containing the song I want, then buying a NOS or “barely used” version on cassette, vinyl, CD, Music-DVD, etc.
In case of cassette or vinyl, carry my audio interface and secondary computer downstairs and use my dads hifi system to record (Thanks engineer at Marantz who insisted on having a recording-out!) to the digital domain.
Follow up by editing and cutting in Audacity.
TADA!
That above there is actually the sole and whole reason of me debating if a Dante-interface is overspending on toys or worthwhile investment in my sanity.
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Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. I’m not about to buy and build a whole analogue interface. Albums and turntables take more space than anything digital and now you’re buying NOS stuff on Discogs which will come with a HEAVY premium. That’s a way but it’s certainly not a better way. Certainly recording from tape that’s 20~30 years old even if NOS, would have degraded. For that I’d simply rip from YouTube and call it a day.
IMO. There’s probably material enough, technology enough and interest enough to create some type of community around a “club” like that. I don’t thing a venture of that sort would ever actually scale to profitability but there’s something to be said for simply digitally preserving analogue stuff.
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It is plastic. Not all plastics last for ages, tapes do though.
Another note: Dolby Noise Reduction used on tape is not longer licensed, there is only 1 remaining cassette mechanism in production (shit tier). So anything not digitized right now may be lost.
Subjective (and lazy) question: Do you think the sellers on Discogs are any more or less reliable than a comparably rated seller elsewhere? I have a handful of out of print titles I’d like to get in my collection. One of them has had multiple listings at palatable prices whenever I’ve looked on Discogs but I just have no clue whether I’m any better or worse off there than a comparably rated seller on eBay. I guess there’s Amazon used as well, but we all know how suspect third party seller ratings can be over there. Any other places to keep an eye on?
In the end, my point it I don’t necessarily want the analog media, when all I’m looking for are quality rips of analogue recordings. Clearly some people are out there doing just that then selling the digital media for a good sum of money. Artists are no longer around and the labels don’t shiv a git because the market for it is so small they’d never recoup any investment made to remaster the stuff. It’s more a labor of love. Casablanca records, is an example.
I’ve purchased a lot from Discogs and everything has met or exceed expectations based on the sellers description. But I guess digital is a breeze to shop for compared to LPs.
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