Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Sammy Hagar 'VOA'


I must remind readers old and new that the title of my blog represents my listening pleasure of the day. If you have any questions about my odd procedures, please leave them in the comments so that I may address them and clear up any concerns about my mental health. Thank you.

-I got myself a laptop computer near the end of June. It’s my first one and I’m totally digging it. I don’t know why I didn’t get one sooner. The only problem I had was transferring all of my Zune MP3 krunk to the new laptop. I guess having over 7,200 songs on that joker just created some kind overload during the transfer. So I purged my Zune of all content and I have started over.

I was getting close to rotating the stock on it by taking off the oldest titles when I load it up with new ones. Sure, I can leave the titles on the on the computer and just swap stuff around on the handheld device… But I just didn’t want to eat up too much virtual memory on the computer by saving everything I rip.

That’s reducing a bit of my carbon footprint, right?

Plus, I’m a little too OCD when it comes to having my music in order. So at this very moment, I only have 270 songs on my Zune that I’ve named Gretchen II. I rip my next week’s listening habits into the system on Thursday or Friday which adds about 70 songs per week on average. I’m hearing the same stuff over and over. I thought I’d hate it, but I’m learning about stuff that I have overlooked before. It’s a good thing!

The biggest reason for me to get a laptop, believe it or not, was because of my Ion USB turntable that my parents gave me for Christmas over a year ago. You hook the turntable up to your computer and you can transfer your LP’s into MP3 files.

If I used a desktop computer, I’d have to break out the turntable and hook it all up. Then when I’d be done, I’d have to break it all down and put it up. That process just didn’t appeal to me since I can be lazier than a stoner on Judgment Day.

A laptop computer would work beautifully!

The turntable stays put where it’s all hooked up and when I want to turn grooved vinyl into bits an bites to play through my Zune, I just stick that USB cable right into my laptop. It’s much simpler that way.

I recently spent a recent Saturday afternoon tinkering around with my Ion USB turntable. Since I’m apparently over the border and into OCD territory, I started with my usual alphabetical order tactic and used the last two digits of the catalog number to move onto the next LP. So if an album ends with “37”, I count off that number to get to my next selection. For some reason, I like the randomness of doing that because there’s no telling what will be chosen. And if my personal feelings get in the way, there’s a good chance that I’ll never get to be more acquainted with something that seemingly just sits there slowly decomposing. In a sense, it helps me realize why things are taking up space in my vast collection. I can be a little forgetful.

An album by The Accelerators (late 80’s/early 90’s band from Raleigh, NC that was truly awesome) started it all followed by the B-52’s (“Love Shack” 12-inch), Beat Farmer’s (‘Powderfinger’ 12-inch), Chicago XI, and another 12-inch from Dogs D’Amour.

I wasn’t impressed with the sound quality, but I figured the tinny sound (even with my headphones on) quality was a result of sound reproduction through my laptop.

I was right. When I heard those tunes on my Zune, it was a different story. They were shiny and bright with very little surface noise other than the usual pops and crackles that vinyl provides.

Man, how I’ve missed those sounds! Other than the usual sound imperfections associated with vinyl wear, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

I highly recommend the Ion USB turntable if you have rare vinyl or if you’re too cheap to replace them with compact discs. Personally, I reside in both camps.

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