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Here's What I Miss About CDs


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I've been culling my CD collection lately, I want to leave my kid only the best after I'm gone :) So I listen to a different CD every day on my daily walk.

 

Today was one called "World 2002." It was effing great, it's a keeper. And I realized why: it was curated by a guy based on what HE liked, not what he thought I would like, and not what some effing algorithm thought I would like (based on the Google algorithm, I'm a black female with cats, who's fascinated with architecture, and listens to Led Zeppelin...although to be fair, I do listen to Led Zeppelin sometimes.) It had music from Africa, Brazil, South America, you name it.

 

Is there a way to get that experience, and level of variety with consistent taste, with streaming services? Not that I've found. Anyone?

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I don't subscribe to any streaming services, but I listen to public, school, and community radio stations over the Internet and there are certain DJs who play the kind of music that I like, or at least don't mind hearing. Some play music from Africa, Brazil, South American, and you name it. I can turn on WWOZ almost any time and don't feel like immediately turning it off. I don't like all the programming on all of the stations that I have in my bookmark list but with notes as to time and genre I can hear something decent.
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...

Is there a way to get that experience, and level of variety with consistent taste, with streaming services? Not that I've found. Anyone?

 

Yes. I have finally discovered the way. First you need a large CD collection that you know very well. Then sign up for a streaming service. I use Apple. Go through your CD collection and for every CD you like, add it to your favorites on the streaming service. Download your favorites to your phone. The streaming service should analyze your collection and be able to recommend new music based on your collection.

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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...

Is there a way to get that experience, and level of variety with consistent taste, with streaming services? Not that I've found. Anyone?

 

Yes. I have finally discovered the way. First you need a large CD collection that you know very well. Then sign up for a streaming service. I use Apple. Go through your CD collection and for every CD you like, add it to your favorites on the streaming service. Download your favorites to your phone. The streaming service should analyze your collection and be able to recommend new music based on your collection.

 

That's pretty effing smart! Outsmart the algorithm :)

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I have 600 CDs, at least that many LPs and I like to own the media, play what I want when I'm in the mood for it, and in the order I'd like to hear the music. The LPs that I play the most have been ripped to CD so I can have the convenience of putting what I want in the order I want to hear them in the CD changer.

 

Then it's bliss.

 

I find new music to buy on UTube and if I buy a download, it gets ripped on CD because l want to own it forever.

 

Notes â«

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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If you're looking to avoid the algorithm, there are still plenty of ways. Streaming playlists are generally categorized one of three ways: algorithmic, curated, or user-generated. There certainly can be crossover within these categories, whether that's when paid curators might put together playlists based on data related to songs' algorithmic performance, or individual users trying to "go legit" and pass themselves off as curators (occasionally even charging artists for placements). But nonetheless, if you're looking for collections of songs that aren't strictly based on stylistic adjacence, I suggest you seek out user-generated playlists. These are essentially the same mixtape/CD concept, but with the usual lack of limitations the internet brings. So, any level of specificity or variety can be found, and if you're still not satisfied, you can just make your own. :)

 

*Sometimes, searching for user-generated playlists can be easier through your regular Internet browser than within the streaming service itself. YMMV.

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I have 600+ CDs, and all the songs I like are ripped to mp3s that I play on my car radio. Not a fan of streaming or mp3 sharing sites. I'm open to new music, but there has been little that has appealed to me thus my CD acquisition has gotten much less frequent.

 

That's not to say I have narrow tastes in music - quite the opposite.

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I have 600+ CDs, and all the songs I like are ripped to mp3s that I play on my car radio. Not a fan of streaming or mp3 sharing sites. I'm open to new music, but there has been little that has appealed to me thus my CD acquisition has gotten much less frequent.

 

That's not to say I have narrow tastes in music - quite the opposite.

I, too, rip mp3s for my car. I have a digital Walkman with over 10,000 songs on it ripped from my CD/LP/Download collection at home. The 10k songs don't include any of the symphonies from my classical discs, nor any of the really long jazz jams, because I'd be sitting in the driveway too long waiting for the song to end. I put the Walkman on shuffle mode, and we call it "Radio Bob".

 

I don't subscribe to a streaming service, I had Sirius/XM for a while, but really didn't like it for various reasons.

 

I'm not opposed to new music, as long as it appeals to me. Same for old music, I've never liked everything from any genre or era. But with rap and auto-tune abuse I find less to like in current music.

 

To me music needs melody, harmony and rhythm. It's also better if the themes evolve and develop. Rap is devoid of melody so after a bit it just bores me. Auto-tune abuse robs the melodic line of a lot of expression and to me just sounds 'off'. I like singers who bend notes and play with intonation for expression. Take Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long". When he hits the word "Out" in the lyrics "You walked out" he hits it slightly flat, holds it that way and eventually resolves it. That makes the "out" very painful in expression, which is what he sang about. Auto-tune would have wiped that out.

 

But we all have our varied tastes. There are only two kinds of music, songs I like and songs I dislike. The songs I dislike are made for someone else's ears.

 

Notes â«

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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Wouldn't a curated playlist be similar to this?

 

I guess, but the thing is, some of the CDs I like the most were done by recognizable people with a certain taste in music, so if I saw something they did, I'd get it. But clearly, I need to look into the curated playlist thing more, and see what I find. So far, I've found curated playlists with similar music, but the ratio of stuff I like to meh isn't as high as the CDs I bought back in the stone age.

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Youtube's recommendation algorithm turned me on to Plastic Love, so it worked well for me in that case. I don't rely on it though as my only means of music exposure.

 

Some sources that I've lately relied on to hear music that is new to me:

 

Strength Through Failure with Fabio (radio show)

https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/FR

 

Friends on FB posting interesting YT videos

 

Some of the music posted on MusicPlayer and other forums

 

One source that I used to rely on and miss dearly:

 

The monthly We Fought The Big One DJ night at Marx Cafe in DC. More often than not, I was in the perfect mood for a night like those - after a week of work, head to Marx Cafe, enjoy listening to cool tracks played by the regular DJ and guest DJs while hanging w/ friends and drinking. That's where I discovered artists like ESG, Neu!, Miharu Koshi, etc.

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...

Is there a way to get that experience, and level of variety with consistent taste, with streaming services? Not that I've found. Anyone?

 

Yes. I have finally discovered the way. First you need a large CD collection that you know very well. Then sign up for a streaming service. I use Apple. Go through your CD collection and for every CD you like, add it to your favorites on the streaming service. Download your favorites to your phone. The streaming service should analyze your collection and be able to recommend new music based on your collection.

 

That's pretty effing smart! Outsmart the algorithm :)

What do you mean "outsmart"?

 

That's literally how the algorithm is supposed to work!

 

It suggests stuff to you based upon what it knows you like and what you've been listening to. That, of course, is exactly the trap: the exposure to something WILDLY different from what you're used to is extremely unlikely. I love being surprised by unexpected greatness.

 

As to your curated CD, there are thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of human-curated playlists that do exactly what that CD does. The trick is to find those that you like.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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I've come to realize over the years that hard copies are not permanent. I have suffered several losses over the years. I still remember coming home from work and finding that my mom had a yard sale. She put my beloved 78's in the sale. None of them sold, but all of them got hot in the sun and warped. I was devastated. She didn't understand at all. Maybe 10 years later I lost 600 albums in a flood. Of course, with 8-tracks and cassettes there is nothing to say, those are not made to last. I had maybe 300 VLD's. Remember video laser disks? I must have been in a real mood one day because I put them all in a dumpster. Right now I am sitting on maybe 1000 CD's. As streaming services continue to increase the size of their catalog and upgrade the streaming bit rate, the less I worry about my CD collection.

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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I've had a couple of CDs get those nasty pits in them. Fortunately after the first one, which I replaced (thankfully it was still in print) I've made copies of the older ones that are near and dear to me. I rotate playing the original and the copy. The chances of both going belly-up at the same time are slim.

 

I've lost vinyl to heat when I was younger, and later to accidents or wear.

 

Nothing is permanent.

 

I wonder how streaming would figure me out, I listen to (in no particular order) Classical (from Romantic on, mostly symphonies, mostly Eastern Europeans and Russians), Rock (from 1955 up to the present), Blues, R&B (roots, not what they call R&B now), Jazz (Swing, cool school, a little bop, fusion, Latin Jazz), Latin American (salsa, cha-cha, merengue etc.), Afro Caribbean (Soca, Reggae, Calypso, etc.), Klezmer, Disco, Country, Brazilian, Argentine, Cape Verde, Afro-Portuguese, Afro-pop, a lot of those Putumayo (around the world) discs, Roma (from India to Spain), and a lot of types that I have just perhaps one or two discs like Tuvan, Bedouin, and so on.

 

Life is too short to only listen to one kind of music.

 

Notes â«

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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What do you mean "outsmart"?

 

That's literally how the algorithm is supposed to work!

 

Good point :) What I meant was instead of letting the algorithm decide what to feed you based on what you choose from their service, you tell it what you want to be fed.

 

At one point Google was convinced I was a black female who had lots of cats....all because I was checking out Ghana as a place to visit, and while I was poking around, saw some ads for women's clothes I thought my significant other would like. And then my neighbor got sick and needed to get cat food. Well, I don't have cats, so I went online to check out local pet food places so I could pick up some cat food for her.

 

It took about a month for the algorithm to figure out it would have more success serving me ads about music gear and office supplies :)

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At one point Google was convinced I was a black female who had lots of cats....

 

Google is snooping on Zoom video conferences.

 

During our annual Christmas Party over Zoom, part of the conversation was about utility !ights under k!tchen cab!nets for my house.

 

Not long after that, I started seeing Google ads for k!tchen cab!net !ights. On multiple occasions.

 

The punchline is I had never searched anywhere on the internet for that product. The only way Google had to had known about my interest is by snooping on the Zoom conference.

 

Do NOT discuss private or sensitive information such as medical or financial records over Zoom unless you are on a secure conference. Big Brother is listening.

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One thing I do when I'm frustrated, trying to find new music that's interesting and exciting, is to go deep rather than wide.

 

By which I mean, restrict my sources artificially, and then practice close listening.

 

An example would be to, say, pick two or three bands and stick with just them for a few days, or longer if it's profitable.

 

So I'll pick someone or some band that's obvious - say Tom Waits or The Clash or The Cocteau Twins. Then maybe Chick Corea because he's on my mind a lot. Then something really different, like Mahler symphonies or something.

 

I'll make a huge playlist on the streaming service from these chosen sources. And a hand-written list on a steno pad of stuff to listen for specifically. Like all the bass parts on the rock stuff, or the orchestration in the classical, or the drums for the jazz stuff. Then I'll listen in all sorts of ways (while working, cooking, exercising, etc.) but most importantly, I'll sit myself down on the sofa, block out time, and listen close and hard and make notes on my steno pad.

 

Besides being fun, this type of listening never fails to break up any creative logjam I'm experiencing in my own productions. Really takes me out of myself, then sends me back to myself, loaded up like Santa with a big bag of goodies.

 

nat

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I just spoke to my sister and nephews. Now the nephews are listening to this song on repeat - so much that everyone else in the house tells them to stop playing it after a while. One nephew is about 6, the other 4.

 

My sister can't explain why they love this song, what with the cheerful lyrics and imagery (watch the video). :rolleyes:

 

No driving beats or anything, just piano and vocals

 

[video:youtube]

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My google story is the one that prompted me to switch to StartPage for searches.

 

I bought an active ear plug pair from Etymotic. It attenuates the sounds when we're playing, but when the music stops, it is transparent, doesn't attenuate or boost. That helps me hear someone in the audience between songs if they are far away or don't speak clearly. The downside is that when active, the bass frequencies are rolled off a bit more than I'd like. But it's a small price to pay to be able to hear that guy 4 tables back ask a question and be able to respond.

 

The device uses hearing aid batteries, so I did some searches to find out where to get them for less than the local drug store charges. Eventually I found them for about 20 cents per battery.

 

I immediately started getting geriatric product ads everywhere. From hearing aids to adult diapers. I don't want to be reminded of that as a possible future. So I googled reeds, strings, guitars, saxophones, but I guess music retailers don't buy ads from Google. I tried bikinis for my wife, but that didn't work either, all I got were ads for shoes. Zappos loved me for a while and sent ads for strappy high heels, open toe sandals and whatever.

 

What is it with women and shoes? I think it is the female gender equivalent of men and guitars. SAS (Shoe acquisition syndrome). How many pairs of shoes does a woman need? Just one more.

 

(Just kidding around girls, please don't take offense)

 

The geriatric supplies eventually faded away.

 

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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Like some others have said, I have several hundred CD's. Most recently I bought the Layla album (double CD) by Clapton and the Dominoes. And I recently became aware of Storyville records in London, who carries a lot of nook and cranny Duke Ellington things circa 1945-1952. And there's are evidently dozens of hours of radio recordings sponsored by U.S. Savings Bonds - the Treasury series they're called. So I now have 3 or 4 of those.

 

Everything I'm buying, I now am ripping to both my MacBook and my Windows PC. I'm currently android but if I change over to iPhone, I wanna have my library ready. I think of my phone mp3 library as a sort of corral. And my CD's are the source documents. The backups. I don't have even half of my CD's ripped, but hopefully drip by drip eventually. I love YouTube as a sort of jukebox that I use to pull up specific recordings. I was able to sample the Ellington recordings I mentioned earlier, that way.

 

BTW, I have wondered if making it impossible for me to transfer my library from the computer to my phone might someday become a thing. Could they possibly try that ? Sounds like an Apple move.

 

I don' have or use a continual streaming service. And don't really care to. What I always have enjoyed though, is a NARRATED curated radio show. A little bit of explanation can perk up my interest. I remember (at least I hope I accurately recall) a DJ once saying when he played "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small - that it was Rod Stewart playing harmonica on it. I love historical details.

 

What I hated reading, was a piece, probably by a millennial...something about CD's being so worthless that they were used for target practice someplace. Or something like that. No concern for the contents. Based on history, I think CD's will eventually be valued again. Sometime down the road. Of course wasn't it Solyent Green where they were selling old plastic pieces in the market place ?

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Who would have thought cassettes would have made a bit of a comeback? CDs are definitely better than those. Wait until CDs are worth $$ in the nostalgia market, and people like you and me will make a killing. :D

 

Insights, incites and some lame humor by Notes â«

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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...something about CD's being so worthless that they were used for target practice someplace.

 

He was probably talking about AOL CDs. Twenty years ago AOL launched an aggressive marketing campaign and flooded everybody's mailbox with them. Even at company mail. Multiple times. They even had AOL CDs at US Posts Offices.

 

People at work had installed AOL on company computers. AOL had developed their own drivers and libraries that replaced stock Windows resources when it was installed. That was a big no-no, and IT services were busy fixing them. After that, AOL was banned from the workplace. No I never installed AOL...

 

AOL CDs had many uses - target practice, drink coasters, bookmarks, spreading cake frosting, scooping up dog poop from the yard...

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AOL CDs had many uses - target practice, drink coasters, bookmarks, spreading cake frosting, scooping up dog poop from the yard...

At one point the cases were the same as DVD cases, and those were useful if you burned your own DVDs or needed spares. Then they changed them again, I think to those flat cans.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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I've been blithely digitizing many of my old cassettes, often enhancing them with a little rejuvenating EQ, compression and excitation. The final quality is not always stellar, but I'm a complacent type who just wants to retain the goods. I'm extra-pleased to have preserved all of the ECM titles I bought. The precious! The precious!

 

The weird thing: the final file often sounds a lot like the warm LP from which its sourced. From LP to cassette to storage in a big box in a closet to A/D convertors to a WAV recording tool to a flash drive and THAT'S the result? The same great low-order distortion I loved the first time I dropped the needle on a British or Japanese import?

 

Wow, I heart Science! :o:2thu:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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The weird thing: the final file often sounds a lot like the warm LP from which its sourced. From LP to cassette to storage in a big box in a closet to A/D convertors to a WAV recording tool to a flash drive and THAT'S the result? The same great low-order distortion I loved the first time I dropped the needle on a British or Japanese import?

 

There may be a good reason for that. Early CD players were often 12 bit, so if you A-Bed them with vinyl, the vinyl sounded better. I think that's where a lot of the "CDs sound worse than vinyl" started. Fortunately, the bits encased in the CD were still there, waiting patiently for D/A converters to improve...and so they have :)

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I still have a couple of AOL CDs in tin boxes, somewhere. I think I was hoping they would become collectables, or else I was just too lazy to throw them out.

 

AOL was my first online experience. They offered the service with an "Internet Gateway" in my area and were the first to do so. Then a company called CyberGate moved in, I moved over, and I never looked back.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

Style and Fake disks for Band-in-a-Box

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<

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