Lost (in/from/within) digital

[ReggieB]

I read an interesting review of Florence Beatrice Price's Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, and I thought I fancy that. So I headed over to Presto Music (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9254732--florence-beatrice-price-symphony-no-3-in-c-minor) to have a listen. Sure enough, it sounded really interesting so I decided to purchase .... and a funny thing happened ....

In the past this sequence would always have ended with me buying the download, and adding it to my digital library, yet I found my mouse pointer heading away from the digital section toward buying the CD. And in deed, that's just what I did. I bought the physical media product. So why?

Well, I now have more the 1200 albums in my digital library, and I knew that if I bought this reasonably obscure piece, I'd play it a couple of times and then it would just be lost within that library and never be played again.

As my digital library has grown, I've found it harder and harder to browse. It's great if you know the name of an artist or album you want to play. You can find it easily and play it. It's also not too difficult to browse for albums that have distinctive cover art. But I know there is a lot of music that I don't play because it's just got lost in amongst the other albums.

I don't have the same problem with my physical media. I quite enjoy browsing through the draws I keep my CDs in. I find it much easier to find obscure stuff. I recognise straight away when there is part of a draw I haven't looked in for a while, and that prompts me to look there. The same with my shelves of LPs.

With digital everything looks the same. It's harder to recognise a part of the library that I've not delved into for a while. In my opinion, it easier for an album just to get lost in the library and never played again.

Am I alone in this feeling.

[Jimbo]

You are not alone Rob. I concluded sometime back that swiping through endless digital files on a phone/tablet or laptop with small pictures or artist names gave me a frustrated experience and streaming was even worse.

Give me a row of vinyl anytime or maybe CDs and I find the experience searching for music much more pleasurable and easier to find. In fact I was speaking to a friend only the other day about huge digital collections of music and we agreed that most of our listening could be found amongst 30-50 albums. Plus the ability to have music at your fingertips on a phone and tablet means you scroll and jab at stuff constantly or at least I do and the listening experience becomes a never ending jump from one piece of music to another.

I much prefer to pop an album on sit down and enjoy the experience.

[Puffin]

and the listening experience becomes a never ending jump from one piece of music to another.

I much prefer to pop an album on sit down and enjoy the experience.

When I stream Spotify I find myself doing this! A kid in sweet shop or ADHD?:eek:

[Lawrence001]

I often think about what mood I'm in then select a genre that matches it, that tends to limit the number of albums I have to scroll through. I really ought to tidy up the metadata though as there are some ridiculous genres in my list.

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[majex45]

I have some music on digital which I play through an Archos 500 :eek:. I use this mostly with earpieces (earbuds?) with ear defenders when I'm mowing the lawn and then I usually play well known albums. (The Rock Horror Picture Show is a favourite - god knows what the neighbours think as I sing along).
I have a smallish collection of vinyl. Here is where CDs win - it is much easier to read the edge titles on CD than vinyl (with my ould eyes, anyway).

[Pharos]

We have evolved in a multisensorial world using all our senses to perceive our experience, but increasingly our world takes us into very abstract paradigms which can feel 'dry' and alien because they are so removed form our habituated feelings and the way our memory links events.

This is an aspect of a shift into symbolism; the use of icons to represent much larger things, and this in extreme could mean that not even titles are evident, just a coding index number. This would give no other prompts for recall, and an entire dependence on a numerical memory, an abstract and bizarre take on the human experience, but which seems to be increasing.

[Lawrence001]

I've no idea what you're talking about, but it reminds me of when I was younger and I listened to music in the dark. I could find any of the several hundred CDs I had by placing my hand on the rough area it was located on the shelf and feeling the relative location of nearby singles, albums, double albums etc., counting up or down from them (they were all in genre order for rock/pop and chronological in classical, generally by death date since most composers were more prolific or just wrote better work when they were older).

So that kind of makes me think about "cataloguing" in my brain by the feel of the cases rather than the album names. Though of course I knew the name of any given album I was looking for.

I wouldn't be able to do that now of course, but then I'd just turn the light on, how much more simple is that [emoji23]

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[ReggieB]

I'm glad I'm not alone.

Peter's comment about reading CD edge texts made me think about this a little more: I think some of it is a User interface thing.

When I'm working, I'll sometimes put some music on and when I do that I use an app with a really basic interface, which is just a standard computer folder listing. I think this is more easy to browse through. I guess it's the digital equivalent of CD edge texts.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/320x240q90/924/C56hNt.png

Perhaps what wrong is that media software is trying to be too clever. If there was a text only view option, it would make browsing through a large library a lot easier.

[AJSki2fly]

Yes, I have the same issue with digital, scanning though images online of sleeves and artists I find is somewhat bland to say the least. Going through a shelf of CD's or LP's does it for me.

[Barry]

I suppose it is a simple matter of numbers. No one used to be troubled by having to choose and select a track to play on a jukebox: one track out of a possible 140. But with the advent of Spotify etc., where one can potentially create a personal catalogue of a thousand or more titles, the thought of wading through them all is quite off-putting. Maybe that is why I have never embraced computer audio, or have digitised my record collection or put my CD collection onto a file.


When it comes to physical media, the process of selection is much more enriching. Presuming your collection is arranged in some sort of order: alphabetical or thematic, you simply go to the appropriate area. Then having pulled out the desired recording you are then open to a whole gamut of sensory experiences and memories: some of which can often be eidetic.

This is especially true with vinyl records. You may well be reminded of when and where you acquired the recording: the music shop; at a boot sale; a birthday or Christmas present. Then you may admire the cover artwork and the work of the graphic artist employed: Reid Miles (for Blue Note), Storm Thogerson, Roger Dean, Neon Park, etc.; at the same time wondering why the sleeves for American pressings are always much better made and stouter than the European equivalent.

Now you remove the record from its outer and inner sleeve and are treated to the unique smell of the vinyl, and if your copy was pressed before the Middle Easter oil crisis of 1973, delight in the sheer weight of the vinyl – before record pressing plants churned out Rolf Harris ‘wobble boards’, when often the sleeve was thicker than the record it contained.

Onto the turntable and the routine of fitting a clamp or weight before removing any static and dust with a record brush. Or you may use an antistatic ‘zap gun’ and whilst using it let your mind wander to consider the nature of triboelectric charge generation, and in doing so make the mistake of squeezing the trigger whilst pointing the gun at the record, but not pointing it away from the record when releasing the trigger – thereby recharging it!

Now it’s time clean the stylus, perhaps thinking about the precious diamond tip and the myth that diamonds are ‘rare’ and thus expensive. You might use an event counter to record the number of LP sides that have been played to monitor the wear and tear of the diamond, again marvelling at the thought that the relatively soft vinyl can wear down one of the hardest materials known to mankind!

Finally you lower the stylus onto the record and bask in the glorious sound coming from your speakers, again marvelling at how dragging a small piece of rock a billion or more years old through a wriggly groove pressed into a piece of plastic, by an electromagnetic transducer which has an unbelievably low efficiency can work as well as it does.

Perhaps it might be better after all just to choose something from a computer audio catalogue, without all the intellectual musings?

[dave2010]

Interesting thread this. I found this Youtube video from a somewhat gushing recorder player https://youtu.be/VY5gX4yv-Lg

There's a list of unusual or rare CDs on that site.Currently I'm trying a Tidal subscription. I didn't expect to find all the CDs on that list - and my expectations have been confirmed. However I'm surprised that I have found several of the CDs on that list, but it takes more effort. Sometimes typing in the name of the artist works, sometimes another part of the description does it, and sometimes it does not work at all.

I could not find anything by:

Adriana Breukink

or Wijnand van Hof

or the following

'Contemporary Music' by Nordisk Blokfløjtesduo

'Op Eigen Houtje' by the Nederlandse Pijpersgilde

'English Ensemble Music' by Frans Brüggen - though it's easy enough to find recordings by Frans Brüggen

However I was surprised to find:

Lucente Stelle by Pierre Hamon and others

Libre Vermeill de Montserrat by Theatrum Instrumentorum - which I recommend very highly - brilliant if you like that kind of thing - which I do sometimes.

Currently it might be difficult to find - and quite expensive to import - see https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/7242960?ev=rb

So many recording companies are now not releasing CDs any more that some older recordings are either only available via streaming or downloads - if you're lucky - or by doing eBay searches and hoping to strike lucky.

I'm guessing that if one does find an album or tracks on a streaming site that it makes sense to save them as favourites or take down the details, as sometimes it takes a lot of searching to find - and it wouldn't necessarily be easier to do it a second time.

I am trying Tidal as a possibly cheaper way of accessing recorded music. Until now I have largely preferred CDs, and if I like something I'll generally buy the CD - often as cheaply as possible - either in a box set or used/very good condition. The theory is that rather than buying CDs and then not listening to them anyway I can find the tracks in Tidal and listen there instead. That's the theory - but so far I've hardly used the streaming service at all.

If you like listening to music as a sort of background most of the time, then I'm guessing that making up playlists and just letting the streaming service do its thing is one way to go.

Streaming services can also be good for finding unusual or rare music - but note that the hit rate may be less than 50% for unusual or deleted items - as mentioned above. Some services also delete tracks periodically, so just when you think you've got everything sussed, and made playlists of things you want to listen to, those become unavailable. OTOH if I buy CDs mostly they stay with me - though occasionally some get lost - maybe for a while - maybe for longer.

Do many people use shared playlists on streaming services? That can be a way to find new and interesting recordings.

Incidentally I could not find the symphony by Florence Beatrice Price mentioned at the top of this thread on Tidal - but I did find a Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVYS46ylzFA

The quality of the CD from Presto is going to be significantly better than the Youtube video - see https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9254732--florence-beatrice-price-symphony-no-3-in-c-minor?country=GB&currency=GBP&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0p2QBhDvARIsAACSOON5M0Yambm6Hk9CDkZC wkn_d8UFZ4yopy1dzz83wRLhGD3Ok1QVAsgaAoksEALw_wcB