Calgary business rides vinyl wave: Vinyl has regained its musical crown and Dean Reid can’t see it giving up the throne any time soon. Which is why the Calgary musician and entrepreneur is investing in three new record pressing machines to boost production at his northeast manufacturing plant…Reid’s company — Canada Boy Vinyl — now relies on Swedish-made pressers dating back to the 1970s, which he retrieved from England before plunging into the vinyl world last September.
Intersection: East West Records: In the age of the digital download, a smartphone can hold thousands of songs. But for some music lovers, nothing beats sound or the feel of a vinyl record. Hanna and Roman Skrobko opened East West Records in Orlando in 1971. Now they’re selling records to a whole new generation of audiophiles. Hanna Skrobko said they started the store “because nobody told us we couldn’t do it.”
From Here To Tim Book Two, It’s Not So Far Away: Tim Book Two is about record shops, vinyl and the joy of sharing your favourite albums with your favourite people – kind of like what happens every day but I wanted to ask some people that everyone might know. I texted Johnny Marr, pushed a note under the dressing room door of Iggy Pop, bumped into Neil Tennant in the street and sent smoke signals to David Lynch – the message was the same. I just wanted them to recommend one album – if they wanted to they could say why, and I’d then go and attempt to find it on vinyl.
How you can have your ashes pressed into a vinyl record: It’s no secret that vinyl records are experiencing a renaissance. But while records are rising from the ashes, you can now bed your own ashes down into what could be the ultimate original recording. UK service And Vinyly boasts that its customers “live on from beyond the groove!” by pressing their ashes onto a vinyl recording of their choosing. Immortality starts at £3000, which converts to about $A5160, for the basic package.
Why I Like Vinyl Records: Now most vinyl/digital articles dwell on the sonic differences and generalities about these audible differences. Stevie ain’t gonna do that. My take on that whole discussion is that trying to generalize about the innate sonic superiority of either format based on a limited sampling is doomed to failure. It’s like trying to generalize about all redheads’ basic intelligence based on the utterings of Donald Trump. No, I’ll leave the battles over which format is sonically superior to folks with nothing better to do with their time. Instead I want to look at archival longevity.
The Soothing Process of Manufacturing Vinyl Records Never Gets Old: While the renewed appreciation of vinyl records have led to the highest sales numbers in nearly 30 years, equally fascinating is how vinyl manufacturing equipment –– most of which is just as old –– have been put back into commission to give listeners that “warm and fuzzy sound”. Starting with the manufacturing of the compression molding metal stampers –– metal plates that contain reverse images of the disc –– a perfect copy of the original mother copy is created with articulate precision before going through an arduous testing process.
