[DVV]

Here I am, proudly listening to a CD i picked up in a nice shop in Thessaloniki, Greece, two weeks ago, while on vacation nearby. Anyone here remember a guy called Scott McKenzie? The one who shot to fame with a song called "San  Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)", written by John Philips, of Mamas and Papas fame.

Yeah, I KNOW I'm a throwback, but I wonder if I'm alone in my extinction?

Then he goes on to sing pieces like "Reason To Believe" (Rod Stewart's great hit later on), "Like An Old Time Movie", etc.

And I picked it up for a princely sum of 2.60 euros, or about $3.10. Label "memory Pop Shop", EPC 462459 2, Sony Music.

Now, being a collector of music from that period, I wonder why is nobody swapping CDs? Or maybe they are, but I don't know where?

If not, why not? We can't all buy everything, so why not exchange what we do have? With a little effort, very good copies can be made.

Cheers,
DVV

[Tyson]

For people with decent internet, a better idea would be to rip to mp3's and share them.  I know the stigma against mp3's is poor sound quality (I felt that way myself), but I've using a combo of EAC to rip, and LAME to encode, I end up with about a 7:1 compression ratio (ie, pretty small files), and shockingly good sound quality.  Not perfect, but darn good.  If regular 256 kbps mp3's are 70% of CD quality, the EAC/LAME encoding is closer to 90%, and the files are smaller to boot.  And LAME and EAC are free ware.

So, what's the downside?  Well, it takes a LOT longer to rip and encode a cd compared to just using Windows Media player or Real Audio or most other common ripping/compression programs.

Below is a link to a page a guy put together that covers exactly how to do this:

http://www.bestmp3guide.com/

[MaxCast]

This is a good question.  I would love to get a group of guys to each burn a comp disc and then swap them amoung each other.  A few tracks from a number of artists that are not too main stream.  Or tracks of great blues songs for someone wanting to get into that genre.
However, I can't burn so I have not pushed the idea.

[Tonto Yoder]

This is a good question.  I would love to get a group of guys to each burn a comp disc and then swap them amoung each other.  A few tracks from a number of artists that are not too main stream.  Or tracks of great blues songs for someone wanting to get into that genre.
However, I can't burn so I have not pushed the idea.

That seems like a good idea. I don't necessarily believe in copying CD's since
I've regarded it as stealing the artists' work, but exposing someone to an artist they wouldn't know about is a good thing. Recently, I've swapped concert bootlegs of Gillian Welch, Patty Griffin & Kathleen Edwards and that makes me only MORE interested in buying their future commercially available work.
One good instance of a "swappable" CD is Patty Griffin's third CD "Silver Bell" which was never released (but is available free on the internet).  Many people wouldn't have heard of her, but might enjoy her work. Hearing "Silver Bell" might well encourage  members to check out other CD's.

BTW, we wouldn't HAVE to let Nathan swap his Death Metal Thrash CD with normal people would we???

[SWG255]

I too like the idea of swapping "samplers" it would be a great way to learn about a new artist or music genre. I am still not really a metal-lover, but Nathan's sampler was very cool, and I do play parts of it once in awhile.

CD swapping would also be useful when we're discussing aspects of a system or component's sound, it would be nice to have common musical references. Sure most of us have discs like Diana Krall, but something unusual or obscure would be great  too.

BTW, I'm a real Patty Griffin fan, how does one get "Silver Bells"?

As for swapping bootleg recordings, this can get to be a real passion for some folks. I have a few on DAT, most don't sound very good, but the music is usually good. I have some Grateful Dead, Bruce Hornsby and some sets from the Farm Aid and Bridge benefit concerts of 1999. The "Bridge" benefit is a concert Neil Young sponsors every year for a school for the deaf in California.

That seems like a good idea. I don't necessarily believe in copying CD's since
I've regarded it as stealing the artists' work, but exposing someone to an artist they wouldn't know about is a good thing. Recently, I've swapped concert bootlegs of Gillian Welch, Patty Griffin & Kathleen Edwards and that makes me only MORE interested in buying their future commercially available work.
One good instance of a "swappable" CD is Patty Griffin's third CD "Silver Bell" which was never released (but is available fr ...

[JoshK]

I have this CD (or actually Daniel still has it) of a local artist here in NYC, named John Lardieri.  This CD was one of his first studio recordings and only like 100 were made.  They aren't available anymore and are extrememly hard to find.  It is really cool stuff and his newer works are quite a bit different.  Now he moved onto another band, called Twin A.  

Anywho, I think this CD is worth checking out and I am sure John would approve.  It is fairly acoustic guitar oriented vocal pop, much in the same vein as Jeff Buckley (John freely admits that is where most of his inspiration for his first album came from).  John has a very powerful voice and a commanding presense on stage.  When he comes back to the city to perform, be it solo or with Twin A, I highly recommend, any New Yorkers check him out.

[Tonto Yoder]

BTW, I'm a real Patty Griffin f ...

Patty's site is the normal way to get "Silver Bell"---one finds an accomodating member, sends him/her CD-R blanks with a return, stamped envelope.  There are also many concerts & rare songs available; also a DVD compilation is now making the rounds..
PM me with your address and I'll burn a copy of my copy (though it has a few glitches from passing through several hands/burners).

[DVV]

Ultimately, we all have a chance of getting that rare recording we have been seeking for 30 years or so, in my case. Two recordings come to mind.

One is by a Brit (I think?) group called Triton. They released their version of Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction (I can't get no)", and Man, is it a killer, or what! Half electric band a la original, half symphonic orchestra instruments, such as, for example, English horn. Sounds out of this world, and try as hard as I might, I never ever managed to get it.

The other is by a definitely Brit group called The English Congregation. I don't even know the name of the song, and I'd rather skip writing down the lyrics. But if anybody has anything by them I'm game.

What I have is an LP by the Animals. Big deal, you say, aha, BUT this one is legal (by MGM), but try finding it in ANY catalog you care for. I've been trying for 29 years, ever since I bought it by sheer chance in Boots, a chemist (drug) store chain in London, totally by accident. It has tracks I have never seen elsewhere by the Animals, and from the time Eric Burdon was with them. For example, "Sky Pilot", "River Deep, Mountain High", "Ring of Fire", etc. An LP to kill for, and I'm all set to digitalize it, I'm just waiting for a friend to deliver his all-tube phono RIAA eq/amp he says is wild (I'll be comparing it to my own design, and the better one gets the job).

Or, a mono LP from 1960 or 1961, where Harry Belafonte sings really great negro spiritual songs accompanied by a 64 sould choire, in a chrch someplace. Music to die for, easily Harry's best ever (RCA, I think).

Plus a collection of Decca Phase 4 stereo recordings - I have yet to hear better recordings, Deutsche Gramofon notwithstanding. Blumlein technology at its sparkling best.

So, is my idea of trading worth its salt?

And for the record, Nate ain't heavy, he's our brother. So he likes way out heavy metal - so what, he's not weird, he's just eccentric, all artists are. As the anonymous Russian said - modesty is the greatest fault of the noble.

Cheers,
DVV

[Gordy]

Hi Tonto Yoder,  have legal versions of the Patty Griffin 'Love From My Lips' Vol I + II samplers been re-released yet?

I've a copy of Patty's Silver Bell, The Scottish Rite Cathedral concert and LFML Vol. III which are all legal for trading should anyone be interested.
My copy of Silver Bell has a couple of glitches as well, fairly universal I think...

As far as a Blues sampler goes I've only about 100 cd's, but my brother is a active collector/trader with an easy 600 or so Blues lp's and cd's.  I'll see if we can't put together a sampler this weekend!  

Gordy

[Tonto Yoder]

Hi Tonto Yoder,  have legal versions of the Patty Griffin 'Love From My Lips' Vol I + II samplers been re-released yet?

John Higgins DID re-do LFML
but the sound isn't any better. Still. I'm glad I have the songs.

As far as a Blues sampler goes I've only about 100 cd's, but my brother is a active collector/trader with an easy 600 or so Blues lp's and cd's.  I'll see if we can't put together a sampler this weekend!  
Gordy

I was thinking along these same lines---maybe some lesser known artists like Kelly Joe Phelps, Alvin Youngblood Hart,  John Campbell & Beth Hart.

[nathanm]

In the Good 'Ol Days™ you'd swap a text list of the stuff in your collection and pick and choose what you wanted from the other fella and vice versa.  Then you'd make CASSETTE COPIES (the horror, the horror) of your CDs\vinyl\tapes and hand-write a tracklist on the 'ol J-card.  At least that's how I did it.  Pretty cool way of sharing, and the cassette was only "good enough" that if you dug the music you'd know what CDs you wanted to buy.  With digital formats being nearly bit-to-bit copies the innate drive of humans to get something for nothing is let loose, hence you might be more likely to keep the dub as your working copy and the RIAA bureaucrats will have to fill their Jaguars with regular unleaded. So hey, maybe just use 64K MP3 encoding!

So conceivably in this high tech arena folks could post a list of their CDs and other folks could PM them with their "want list" and then figure out who gets what.  It's a lot of work of course, but can be fun.  Perhaps the list could be consolidated so there wouldn't be 1400 entries for the same albums.

[zeke]

For some reason many people refrain(legalities ? ) from trading burned copies. I have suggested to some members trading burned copies one for one, and that's the last i hear from them ---  ?? .

I assumed the copy law was more concerned with someone copying hundreds/thousands of cd's and selling them for profit. ---- not so concerned about a few "old farts" trading copies 1/1 ........

comments .... ???

[Tonto Yoder]

I assumed the copy law was more concerned with someone copying hundreds/thousands of cd's and selling them for profit. ---- not so concerned about a few "old farts" trading copies 1/1 ........

comments .... ???

I would think they're MORE concerned with any mass copying, but not totally unconcerned with 1/1 trading. But what realistically would they do about it??
Bust down your door, looking for that dubbed Abba CD???

There MIGHT be a problem with a site (i.e. AC) if it openly encourages trading of copied commercial CD's???? The Patty Griffin site I mentioned above clearly disallows any trading of her commercial work and  doesn't let people exchange $$$  for copied bootlegs/postage etc.

[nathanm]

That must be why I never heard of Patty Griffin - cause she threatened to sue the people giving her free advertising.

On my metal sampler I had to cut many of the tunes in half or more just so I could fit more stuff on there.  If you are really getting into a song and then all of a sudden it cuts out you might say, "Aww man, I really have to buy that CD!"  So dubbing partial tracks would be an idea, and since we're dealing with folks who are really into sound and comparisons and such and are always going "better like this or better like this?" then maybe you wouldn't mind missing the last 14 minutes of that brushed snare solo and that you'd be  jumping from track to track before any one song is over anyway.

[Gordy]

Nathan's idea of posting catalogues sounds pretty much ideal to me, mine is exportable already, just too dim-witted to know how .  The lists would be for educational purposes only, of course.

Swapping OP cd's such as DVV mentioned would be totally on the up and up anyway, wouldn't it??

Thank you, TY, for the update.  I'll contact someone pronto...

[Tonto Yoder]

That must be why I never heard of Patty Griffin - cause she threatened to sue the people giving her free advertising.

"Threatened to sue"??  I must have missed that part of my post.

[bubba966]

Guys, I might point out the guidelines of this circle

The Software & Music Swap Meet Circle is for members to sell or trade unwanted CDs, LPs, DVDs, Games and other software. This should make it easy to try out some new stuff painlessly. Feel free to post anything here you want to sell or trade, or post any Wanted to Buy lists you have.

There are two main rules in this Circle:

1) This is for noncommercial posts only. We ask any vendors here to respect this policy and post in the Commercial Circle. If a vendor wants to sell a privately owned disc or tape, that's fine. Just identify yourself as such.

2) All software items traded or sold here must be legally purchased, legit copies. No CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. We do not condone piracy and cannot allow this site to be used for illicit activities.

[randog]

As a tribute to Nick of Nick's Picks, I tried to extend the same offer he did to everyone for a free sampler that I put together from my personal collection... hoping that we could start a nice little musical discovery effort. I was planning to use my own Mitsui disks as well as packaging and postage... all on my dime.

I got a grand total of ONE response.  

[Rob Babcock]

Guys, I might point out the guidelines of this circle

Hmmm...that's a valid point.  My original intent was to make sure that JohnR didn't get into any trouble; it seems the RIAA now goes after those that they feel facilitate file sharing/piracy, not just those doing it.  I'm no lawyer, and while I think it's a pretty slippery slope, I'd advocate erring on the side of caution.  This is something that maybe I should run by JohnR and MikeG.

IMO, trading compilations doesn't bother me at all, morally.  Trading whole ablums...perhaps it's only a matter of degree, but the former seems a bit more defensible than the latter.  A sampler really wouldn't derive an artist of any sales, and in fact would probably generate them.  Copying a whole album, that may not.  Sure, most of the guys here are likely collectors, too, and like to have the art, etc.  But probably not everyone.

[nathanm]

"Threatened to sue"??  I must have missed that part of my post.

I know; just a little hyperbole... How about "whined about legalities to her fans" instead?