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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. That's probably like driving stick shift vs. automatic. Automatic may better but stick shift "feels" better. I have noticed that with writing software. I sometimes think it would be really nice to have something tangible you can touch as a result of my work.
Is automatic better nowdays? I thought the physics sided on manual. Granted, I also thought it was ultimately a wash.
People don't want to just listen to music, they want to interact with it, own physical objects, and curate their own collection of music. The dominance of digital and streaming has left a gaping void in this, and this is a reason why vinyl has taken off – you can hold it, you have to interact with it to listen to it, it arguably sounds better, you have your own little art collection, and you have to put in much more…
Some people want this. There is clearly a large market that doesn't care and just wants to listen to some music. There is probably as large of a market that just wants background noise. Even in this... you are probably talking about a ridiculously small market. And the audio person in me cringes. At least records were high quality. Tapes are just terrible.
People don't want to just listen to music, they want to interact with it, own physical objects, and curate their own collection of music. The dominance of digital and streaming has left a gaping void in this, and this is a reason why vinyl has taken off – you can hold it, you have to interact with it to listen to it, it arguably sounds better, you have your own little art collection, and you have to put in much more…
I used to collect books. It was a big part of my life.
Now I pretty much only buy books on Kindle. I almost sort-of miss buying books. But only in theory. In practice I much prefer having my current library in my pocket at all times.
Same with music. I have my entire library on my hard drive, and I can copy large portions of it onto my phone and/or the USB flash drive I keep in my pocket. I don't touch the physical CDs unless I think a rip didn't work right, and then only long enough to re-rip the music. When I buy new music I don't even get physical CDs any more.
Mix tapes? I could potentially just stick that same USB drive into a friend's computer and copy all the music he thinks I might want to try out. Many hours of music, in a few seconds of transfer. Try that on tapes.
Not that I'd do that, of course, since it would be illegal, and I certainly wouldn't post about doing illegal things on HN. :P
Playlists also do exist, and I use them. I do miss the ability to transfer a playlist to someone else -- they don't transfer very well, given their dependency on paths to the music -- but not enough to wish for tapes back into my life. Besides, when I make a playlist today, my "mix" often has many hours of music in it; I've had playlists with over 40 hours of music, and I enjoy hitting "shuffle" and listening to all the songs in a different order.
But the point is, while I believe you that "people" want do interact with physical objects, I think it is a minority of people who want that. A very small minority. Because the digital experience is just strictly better. And most people, especially people who've been stuck using tapes because they were the only option at the time, realize that tapes in fact suck.
Is this a submarine? None of the music aficionados I know talk about cassette tapes. They're all about FLACs and vinyl.
This word gets thrown around a lot but, hipsters! As others have attested there is nothing good about tapes. There are very good reasons why vinyl has survived (You can manipulate it with your hand when djing, and see the music on it, also its technically possible to get better sound quality than digital via high quality, high speed, vinyl and an all analog recording to stamping process) But tapes, no, they are shit.…
People don't want to just listen to music, they want to interact with it, own physical objects, and curate their own collection of music. The dominance of digital and streaming has left a gaping void in this, and this is a reason why vinyl has taken off – you can hold it, you have to interact with it to listen to it, it arguably sounds better, you have your own little art collection, and you have to put in much more…
Yeah, see its all nice if its little. I had 1000's of cds, carting them around every time one moves apartment is a massive pain in the ass. Also making sure that the cds are in the right boxes, that someone hasnt borrowed one or misplaced it. Also finding the album your looking for. I still have the cds in storage. I also still curate my music collection, its a big folder now. I have a copy of it on my phone on a 256Gb micro sd card, and a couple of backups.
I've transitioned through tapes, cds, minidiscs and digital. Digital is better in so many ways. Being able to have all my music with me to choose from all the time is amazing, up until not too long ago I used to always have a bag of about 30 minidiscs with me. Another great thing is how universal digital is, I can take audio from any source and convert it to fit into my digial collection, this is factastic if youre djing, you can mix in old stuff from the radio, and old weird vinyl recording, samples from tv shows whatever!
I can understand people who grew up with digital wanting to mess around with something different and weird, but if they're serious about music and start amassing a collection then the massive benefits of digital become obvious.
additional: I do have a bit of vinyl too, that I sometimes use. But I dont bother djing with it anymore. It is nice to put on a record when u have guests or something.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. That's probably like driving stick shift vs. automatic. Automatic may better but stick shift "feels" better. I have noticed that with writing software. I sometimes think it would be really nice to have something tangible you can touch as a result of my work.
Is automatic better nowdays? I thought the physics sided on manual. Granted, I also thought it was ultimately a wash.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is automatic better nowdays? I thought the physics sided on manual. Granted, I also thought it was ultimately a wash.
I wouldn't call it better (unless you have a Ferrari or Porsche double clutch gearbox) but in traffic like LA it's certainly a relief. But there is no fun in it.
Though, I don't find it that bad unless there are hills involved.
Edit:. And no, I didn't have anything to back up the claim. Just echoing what I used to hear a lot.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The only reason to use them is some form of conspicuous consumption, signaling how cool and wacky u are Disagree. 1. Sometimes the sonic characteristics of tapes DO complement the music. Typically for genres other than popular music or symphonic/classical/orchestral music (where absolute fidelity is king). 2. Physical media as opposed to digital media is, for some/many, inherently gratifying. It is a more multiface…
If the sonic characteristics complement the music then write it to tape during production before transferring it to a medium with accurate sound reproduction. You don't need every listener to have their own tape hardware (which might not suit the music as well as your own).